There are not fewer children living stressed, chaotic lives in America now – there are more. There will be more still, because among the things America no longer manufactures is stability. And the culture around them will not protect them, as the culture protected me. The culture around them will make their lives harder, more frightening, more dangerous. They are going to come up with nothing to believe in, their nerves essentially shot. And they’re going to be – they are already – very angry.
So that is the story. When I speak of my concerns about the cultural air all around us it is not abstract to me. I will always feel America’s culture saved me when I was a child, preserved my optimism, allowed me to be hopeful for the future, allowed me to become myself.
– Peggy Noonan (from her book, The time of our lives) is columnist, The Wall Street Journal.
Akira Morikawa 