| Something I Said/Attitude Dwight Hobbes Insight | | | | attitude. In a day and age when throngs of |
| News archives It's one of those things that is | | | | adolescent girls are consigned, trapped by a |
| heartwarming even while it's heartbreaking. I'm on | | | | snotty attitude, foul mouth and self-sorry outlook, |
| the bus, watching this lovely young lady and her | | | | to sustain the reality of welfare queens, she is a |
| baby. The lady, actually, is a teenager. Between | | | | bright, miraculously shining exception. On the other |
| 16 and, well, let's just say if she was much | | | | hand, Vanessa has no business bearing a child at |
| beyond 17 that would be pushing it. And the child, | | | | her age. Not if she's going to get anywhere in life. |
| maybe 3 years tops. She's clean and well-dressed, | | | | How's she going to go to college? If she even |
| so is her baby. She looks at me and I stop | | | | gets in, how will she juggle the fulltime jobs of |
| staring, fishing in my shoulder bag to go through | | | | being a mom and being a student, either of which |
| my mail. Then, she asks, "Excuse me. Aren't you | | | | is enough to tax one's wits and nerves into a |
| that guy from the paper? From Insight?" It turns | | | | state of constant, overwhelming stress? And, |
| out that, indeed, I am and we find ourselves | | | | fact is, without college – at least as an |
| getting off to a nice, polite little conversation. The | | | | associate degree – where else you gon' work |
| more we talk, the more that two-edged feeling | | | | today except, say, getting paid chump change to |
| assails me. This, clearly, is nobody's knucklehead. | | | | take orders at McBurger Thing? That is a vaguely |
| Vanessa – I think that's her name, but this | | | | viable means of starting employment, by no |
| took place months ago, lasting a few minutes on | | | | means anything anyone wants to count on as a |
| a bus ride – completely dispels the stereotype | | | | career. I step off the bus, thanking Vanessa for |
| we too often see borne out in front of our eyes. | | | | saying, "Hi" and, pushing on home, wish her all the |
| Instead of being brash, she has that | | | | best. There are, I remind myself, successful |
| ever-increasing rarity among today's youth, | | | | women who've transcended Vanessa's situation |
| manners. Instead of butchering the English | | | | and done so with room to spare. Sharon Sayles |
| language, she communicates in sensible sentences. | | | | Belton, after all, was a single mom who didn't let it |
| Instead of giving the kid Kool-Aid and barbecue | | | | keep her from mayor of Minneapolis. And, while |
| flavored Cheese Doodles for a snack, she has a | | | | we're at it, the last Minneapolis mayor nobody |
| piece of fruit handy (for, I believe the name was, | | | | could accuse of kissing up to the police |
| Countess). And, to my joy, Vanessa has a head | | | | department. And, of course, you needn't grow up |
| on her shoulders. Never mind exactly what we | | | | and be mayor to still amount to something. At |
| talked about – I'm sure she doesn't remember | | | | length, I'm reflecting on the young lady's |
| any better than I do – it was about the | | | | comportment and feeling hopeful. Because, |
| quality of the interaction: the young lady was | | | | bottom line, it really isn't so much about what kind |
| respectful, curious and, little one in tow, inhabited | | | | of load you carry in life. Not as much as it is |
| her circumstance, facing the day with a positive | | | | about how you carry yourself. |