Shocking conversation with a teen and advise to parents

I just completed a full hours worth of conversation with a young man who was angry at his upbringing. He was raised in Sikh and Hindu traditions, he said he couldn't carry on a conversation with his father, raised with two (rather three) conflicting values in addition to the America values, he is angry at Sikhs and angry at Hindus. He called me off an article I wrote in Huffington post about how the unfinished social transactions keep messing people for years to come and what we need to do responsibly.

I was debating about giving so much time for him… then I remembered, before I could give time to a guy some 20 years ago, he hung himself in his house leaving behind kids who were classmates of my kids. So, I gave in and decided to hear him out.

My time is cut out to do things that I need to do… but will write a piece and ask parents to spend time with their kids, let the kids talk with you freely without fear of being shouted down. Everyone loses when there is no communications. I just saw the movie American Sniper last night – the first scene in the movies is where the father shouts down at his kids. Should we raise kids who fear us, as if we are monsters? Sometimes the kids are your reflection or go the opposite. We need to look in to the mirror and see if we are worth passing it on to the next generation.

The biggest shock to me was this 35 year old knew his stuff and has virtually read everything I have written, the range of his reading threw me off completely. He was referencing to my Articles ranging from Atheism to Zoroastrianism and every one in between, to social issues of India, Pakistan and the United States. Temptation is there to hold a heart to heart conference with the youth – I would say my expertise would be in cultural and religious conflict resolution. It is an eternal debate about spending time, when you already spend half of you time in volunteering.

Thank you
Mike Ghouse
(214) 325-1916 text/talk
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Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism at work place, politics, religion, society, gender, race, culture, ethnicity, food and foreign policy. He is a staunch defender of human rights and his book standing up for others will be out soon, and a movie "Americans together" is in the making.  He is a frequent guest commentator on Fox News and syndicated Talk Radio shows and a writer at major news papers including Dallas Morning News and Huffington Post. All about him is listed in 63 links atwww.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com and 10 other blogs. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.