All of you locals know by now that the hoodlum (I'm sorry, did I just make a judgment on the kid's character? pardon me) who threw the brick through our neighbor's window has been found out. The kid on the other side of the street (who I secretly assumed did it but secretly hoped didn't) was along for the ride but didn't actually throw the brick. A kid who lives behind the people across the street from us did. He apparently has all sorts of other criminal and just plain stupid actions in his history but I don't know at this point what will happen to him regarding the police investigation.
I did spend some time recently pondering my assumption that it was a teenage boy in the neighborhood causing the craziness that we seen. There's only one kid fitting such a description on our street so, yes, I did assume he was guilty. Heck, I've assumed he was guilty of all of the things that I've seen go wrong around here.
What this made me realize is that someday, people will make similar assumptions about Kevin. Will I be offended? Of course! Well, that's if he continues to be the sweet and mostly obedient person he is now. With the looks I give down my nose at just about every teenage boy I come across, do I have any reason to be offended? In the realm of hypocrisy, no. But in the realm of discernment, probably so. The idea of "innocent until proven guilty" doesn't seem to reside in my brain when it comes to teenagers. This incident and having a son of my own makes me question how I should change my thought process regarding teenagers, particularly those of the high testosterone gender.
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