Appeal December 2006: About the Youth

Tetsugoro Nakamura, Vice-President

"Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; [...] It is a temper of the will; a quality of the imagination; a vigor of the emotions; [...] Youth means a tempermental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over a life of ease." It is a paragraph of Samuel Ullman's poems "From the Summit of Years, Four Score". It continues: "Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; people grow old by deserting their ideals." It is wise remark. Japan is reaching the aging society which we have not experienced formerly. It is mainly the group of the fine aged people who, now, is supporting a public event in the area and a volunteer activity in the town. It is wonderful that the tenderness which can play an active part in the society having an ideal even if they become weakers. On the other hand, it is a problem that the youngsters have no tenderness. The suicide, the school refusal and the confinement of themselves in the youngsters are caused commonly by their loss of ideals and confidence.
We are members of the group who supports the YMCA whose main mission is the healthy upbringing of the young people. Not saying: "the recent Youth ...", let's understand a background which deprives the confidence and the hope of Youth and support them suitably.
(I present to you the "Youth" of Ullman at Christmas)