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One part of wisdom is knowing what you don’t need anymore and letting it go.
I took every chance I could to meet with U.S. soldiers. I talked with them and read the books they gave me about the war. I decided I needed to return to my country and join with them – active duty soldiers and Vietnam Veterans in particular – to try and end the war.
It’s about time we make the well-being of our young people more important than ideology and politics. As a country, we benefit from investing in their future by investing in teen pregnancy prevention.
Children born to teens have less supportive and stimulating environments, poorer health, lower cognitive development, and worse educational outcomes. Children of teen mothers are at increased risk of being in foster care and becoming teen parents themselves, thereby repeating the cycle.
If we as a nation are to break the cycle of poverty, crime and the growing underclass of young people ill equipped to be productive citizens, we need to not only implement effective programs to prevent teen pregnancy, but we must also help those who have already given birth so that they become effective, nurturing, bonding parents.
My mother killed herself when I was 12. I won’t complete that relationship. But I can try to understand her.
I don’t think there’s anything more important than making peace before it’s too late. And it almost always falls to the child to try to move toward the parent.
While not impossible, it is especially challenging for teenage parents to develop bonds with their children. A high percent of them were themselves children of teenage parents and have never experienced appropriate parenting.
I remember saying goodbye to my father the night he left to join the Navy. He didn’t have to. He was older than other servicemen and had a family to support but he wanted to be a part of the fight against fascism, not just make movies about it. I admired this about him.
My childhood was influenced by the roles my father played in his movies. Whether Abraham Lincoln or Tom Joad in the ‘Grapes of Wrath,’ his characters communicated certain values which I try to carry with me to this day.