'Young people have no manners!" "Young people don't want to work!" You hear it all the time, no matter what country or what era.

But I'm not one to point a finger at youth for our modern scourges. When I was young, we were criticized for our behavior too: loose morals, punk rock, smoking pot. We were a generation of Dead Heads and Valley girls who had no future. My junior high school class was even designated the worst ever at our school. Thank you.

So I guess the disaffected youth of today inherited something from their parents. It's just that no one has come out and said exactly what that something is. (Punk rock, perhaps?) Blame aside, I see plenty of well-mannered, hardworking people both of the younger generations as well as my own, in Japan and my home country.