Letter: What happens when children rule?

Imagine the excitement of a child who is told that due to some improbable turn of fate he can now do absolutely anything he wants. Children are not necessarily adept in practicing basic fairness or postponing gratification or predicting the results of their behaviors. The child might simply decide that he wants all the toys and all the candy and all the piggybacks. He wants all of these things and wants them now.

Is this what happens when the adults abdicate? Is this what happens when the moderation and thoughtful counsel of those who take a long-term view are silenced? Is this what happens when the pent-up frustrations of those who demand immediate gratification and have not a hint of possible future disaster are given free rein?

Robert J. Boes

Ely