After school every day there�s a traffic jam for at least a half hour or so. There�s a mad rush of teenagers sitting in the parking lot burning gas and shrieking out the windows at their friends. Passengers run from one car to another or, when the weather�s nice, play Frisbee while the drivers satisfy themselves with watching or listening to the radio. Horns blare when someone (usually a parent) breaks the unwritten rule about the order in which cars leave. Often it takes longer to get out of the lot itself than to make the entire trip home, so on a day when I got stuck at a light near school my exasperation was probably universal. The intersection was busy and the light was longer than most. Ahead of me were two or three cars. Nice ones, but probably students. Parents in Iowa City tend to buy their kids recent Camrys or Escorts, so they don�t have to worry about the car being unsafe. The two drivers (no passengers, of course) were obviously friends. As I idly watched they signaled each other, shouting and waving wildly. They must�ve tired of that because, before I knew it, the car immediately in front of me began ramming the one ahead of it. Both drivers seemed more amused than anything else, and when the light changed they pealed off, accelerating to about fifty and played leapfrog; they repeatedly passed each other all down the Coralville Strip.

In health class this was described as �risk-taking behavior�: an unavoidable symptom of the teenage years. I�ve never studied psychology and most of what I�ve read was related to violent juvenile offenders (a debate topic my sophomore year), but it seems absurd to think that someone honestly can�t control themselves enough to not repeatedly ram their car into the back bumper of a friend�s. After all, the light was probably no more than a few minutes.

Everywhere we hear people ranting about how the youth of America are going down the drain. This is just another example of how young people have no respect for others or for property. Some adults want to blame it on TV � they claim that constantly being subjected to violence or the other behavior that sells programming numbs children to the consequences of their actions. More recently people have accused such behavior of being �liberalism gone bad�. Actually, that phrase was used to describe the American who joined forces with Osama bin Laden � his parents have been blamed for encouraging him to explore various religions and think for himself. Such ideas could easily be expanded to include merely irresponsible behavior.

The real problem, though, is that kids are brats. Don�t get me wrong, there are varying levels of bratiness. I know a lot of fundamentally good people who just consistently make a few mistakes. I, for example, make a point of being polite to new acquaintances, but only occasionally remember to hold the door for a person behind me and never say thank you or hello to people I don�t intend to continue a conversation with. They�re little things, but they�re what have us all branded as rude. Justly so. We are rude.

Let�s not lay all the blame on teens, though. After all, it�s the doctors and the professors (ok, so that�s an unfair assumption) in their shiny new BMWs who can be depended on to cut you off. And multiple times I�ve been left to struggle with a heavy door while carrying a stack of books, even at places like the law library where most people are adults. There are just some things you come to expect � and courtesy is not one of them.