Growing up in the Santa Cruz Mountains in California my best friend and I (1960s) would take off in the morning and hike and explore all day in the ravines, hills and forests, following ancient logging roads and deer trails. We told our parents we be back about dinner time, maybe packed a couple of cookies or candy bars, drank from mountain springs, and that was it. The only telephone was the one on the kitchen counter with a rotary dial. I absolutely think that young persons need that freedom, and the society needs to get its s--t together so that urban youngsters can too, without fear of the multiple facets of criminal and social depredation.

But then, I'm somewhere out there to the right of Ghengis the Khan...

And the misbegotten notion that The Government can create a Safe Cotton Box in which to raise children is total BS. The abandoment of responsiblity, and loss of freedom, in the hope that all will be well, is insanithy.