A Simple Rule?

During an Equality and Diversity conference I attended, the speaker spoke about teaching youngsters about the freedom of speech - he made a great point that has stuck with me: 



"Feel free to say (do) what you want but be prepared for the consequences of your actions."


I feel very lucky to live a country where I have the freedom of speech but I think there are some people who see it differently. Do they think they can say what they want, when they want, to whom they want and get away with it? We see it on the telly all the time - in the news, in soaps, in documentaries - and also on many social media sites - all highly influential places. It seems to be common place amongst (some of) the kids I teach today, although I'm not sure when it became acceptable to behave in this manner or what caused it to be this way. 


Am I just getting older? I'm sure my friends and I never behaved towards people in this manner - whether towards an elder, an authoritative figure or a peer. Maybe the consequences aren't hard enough today - people are non-responsive to rules/ the law? I know that I get scared when a police car follows me and I've not done anything wrong. I'm certain there's a chance I'd mess myself if I got pulled over!


I'm not just talking about this in a vocal sense either. Kids watch soaps where it's fine to show grown men knocking the s**t out of each other at 6pm - no blood, no unconsciousness, no death and certainly no consequence a lot of the time. Just bruises! How many people go out, get drunk and think that starting a fight is going to end like that - that punching and kicking the living daylights out of someone or that stabbing another human being is acceptable? What kind of example is this? It's important to educate but are we doing it right?


What messages are we sending out to our kids as a country, why is this happening? Are we forgetting our responsibilities towards our youngsters? I know that I will pass this message on to my children as they grow up and hope they act like the majority of youngsters today. It is always the bad ones that tar the others. I'd love to know your thoughts on this.