"With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not-so-good-street."

That 
was Dr. Seuss
(Theodor Seuss Geisel) talking. He left us in 1991 at age 87 but his simple logic has enthralled children, kids, young adults and parents. His colorful books took us from infants to adults. Perhaps no one has inspired young people more with fun and reason than him.

The question then is where do those youngsters and young adults have their own voice to be heard when they have their own thoughts, concerns and angst in these difficult covid-stained days? Our young are brilliant, if not yet enmeshed in a pre-shaped world that proposes to know it all for them.

What are their worries, fears, opinions and ideas? How do things look from their perspective? They have a big stake in the game and should have a voice. They should have answers. They should be heard.

Once a month The New York Times publishes a very impressive 12-page Sunday section exclusively for kids that is filled with everything in context with their world. The current issue, for example, has stories on juvenile detention at the border, the Coronavirus (of course), fossil preparation, masks, several features on race coupled with youngster submitted content on bias, prejudice, micro-aggression, privilege, culture, double standard, ethnicity, history, ethnicity, new school rules, quarantine hair, epic Sandwich ideas, contests, lots of Q and A and original content. It does not talk down to today's kids and is graphic-perfect for it's audience.

And kids have a say:

• "I belong in any room I enter, even if nobody looks like me."
• "Our generation speaks up for ourselves and for each other."
• "I want to be known for being funny or nice, not because of my race."
• "Why are they hating on other people because of the color of their skin?"
• "I feel like I can always do something and that is showing up for people.

It also carries an Editor's Note: THIS SECTION SHOULD NOT BE READ BY GROWN-UPS. It is inspiringly fresh in its perspective and hits the target of what kids want to know because they are involved big time.

There are grass roots efforts of the young reaching out to their peers. My favorite is the web page Covid Youth Project by Rio Baran, a bright young lady from Maryland who I know well. She is my granddaughter.

"Covid Youth Project creates a space for high schoolers to share their experiences as we go through this pandemic. Every story adds to a collective understanding of us teens with diverse backgrounds, beliefs and perspectives," she says. "By connecting through our stories, we can epithetically, kindly and fiercely move through this hard time. As the data accumulates, we can use it to help one another and self-advocate. History is made of stories. We have to make sure the world has a place for ours.

Click on the link and give it a listen.



"Yes, of course we are pretentious--what else is youth for?" Julian Barnes, author of Flaubert's Parrot and Man Booker Prize winner for The Sense of Ending.

"I'm not young enough to know everything." J.M. Barrie who wrote Peter Pan

"Passion rebuilds the world for youth. It makes all things alive and significant." Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet

Luke Workoff, 33, Huntington, N.Y., his relentless passion was for his family and friends . Bobby Lee Barber, 84, Buckley, Wash.,Seahawks season ticket-holder , June Beverly Hill, 85, Sacramento, no one made creamed potatoes or fried sweet corn the way she did... and continuing for 4 full pages like this one...

The New York Times is one of the finest--and one of the fewest--major newspapers left in the world.

It seems poised to win its 131 Pulitzer prize, more than any other newspaper, with its coverage of this pandemic. This Sunday, May 24th edition shows why.

Its continuing coverage this past Sunday features a modified obituary of 1,000 victims of Covid-19 from all over the United States. The listing represents just 1 percent of the 100,000 pandemic deaths with more certain to follow. And this is just the front page. There are  three more full pages of victims as you read on, all personalized with name, age and note of something they were known for in life.

Chianti Jackson Harpool. 51. Baltimore, social worker and then a political fundraiser . Robert Barghaan, 88, New York City, could fix almost anything . Gerald Glenn, 66, Richmond, Wa., police officer turned pastor . Louise Bennett, 91, Albany, Ga., sang her grandchildren a song on the first day of school each year . Roman Melendez, 49, New York, famous in family circles for his birria beef stew . Linda Villanueva Sun, 63, Newport News, Va., organized food programs for children in thePhilippines . Oscar Lopez Acosta, 42, Morrow County, Ohio, died after being released from ICE detention . Alexander Leon Lloyd, 76, attended every presidential inauguration from 1965 to 2012

It is sadly typical that when dealing with large numbers, that the person each number represents is not seen as a real person of individual value... something not easily grasped if it is not your own or some other notable. Death number 77 or number 2,254 or 96,538 or whatever is just a number as the volume of deaths seems to decrease the understanding of an individual, a real person like us.

This presentation personalizes those lost in a way that shows each number as someone who lived and breathed, has a grieving spouse, child, relative or friend who will miss them immeasurably.

"Now, for most of those who died in the past few months," says TheNYTimes, "there were no large gatherings of consolation and recited prayers for peaceful rest. The obituaries that filled our local newspapers and Facebook pages sometimes read like an unending roll all of the coronavirus dead.

"Why has this happened in the United States of 2020? Why has the virus claimed a disproportionately large numbers of black and Latino victims? Why were nursing homes so devastated? Those questions of why and how and whom will be asked for decades to come."

100,000 and counting!

Newspapers just don't happen anymore. Their time, as a group, has passed.

But as a best case scenario, good newspapers, usually in major markets for ad and reader support, tell a story far better and more complete with higher standards than any other medium. It's just that social media has made getting some news and information easier for today's masses... and less complete... and lazier... with less accountability... and more filled with bias. "So sad." as one has noted and proven. So sad.

Edna Salkhonen Alve, 92, Spencer, N.Y., worked beside her husband to transform a rundown dairy farm into a flourishing business . Jeffery Stanley Lin, 70, Middletown, N.J., tried to make everyone around him laugh . Willie Gene Whitaker, 85, Texas, longtime educator who was also a police officer . David Ford, 59, DeWitt Township, Mich., pastor who preached with a lot of strength and voice and sweat. Thomas Cotton, 54, Philadelphia, self-taught legal wiz. Ethel Hamburger, 92, Elkins Park, Pa., educator who said: "I didn't teach a subject, I taught children." . Bruce P. Beinsback Sr., 74, Albany, N.Y., only things he was more proud of than his military service were his children.

Want more? Here's The New York Times link to its story. Thank you The New York Times, for this remarkable humanization of those who didn't survive and their values. God help us all.

All The News That's Fit to Print: Eulogy for a dying media

The NYTimes and one of its special inserts

It was Benjamin Harris of Boston who, in 1690, published Public Occurrences, the first newspaper in America. While it lasted just one issue, it was the beginning of the most informative media ever.

This is a look at that media in all its glory, the irony being that as it gets better, it still dies in the hearts and minds of today's world, replaced by the internet, that snot-nosed little kid, Social Media and its siblings.

Newspaper readership today is just half the number that read in the mid 1970s. And of those newspapers, less than half are today published daily.

Newspapers, however, still have a unique place. They are overwhelmingly honest and sincere in coverage of all the news, no matter how they are tarred by the President.  They are honest, albiet with an editorial voice that expresses a specific view point at times. There is no made-up news, quite unlike social media where users are allowed to say anything without check.

All newspapers have suffered the loss of readers and advertisers by glitzier competition that does have its place, but nothing covers more local and national news as newspapers,  Today's people just have more options to choose from and more things to do than read a newspaper. That's life.

However, to salute the power to be important, there are few that do it as well as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and others like them, most in major markets where there is the population and are advertisers that help make them go.

Where I live, my very fine local paper is published only twice a week. It covers important local news really well. But I still fork out $6.41 every Sunday for The NY Times. It remains a full-day read of 5 or 6 sections, feature stories as well as news, plus a  highly regarded book review magazine and The NYTimes magazine with a crossword that could last far longer. No comics though.

It has many special sections like the impressive one shown here, Sunday In the Park, a 16-pager pulled together by 10 photographers and reporters to feature all 117 people enjoying the Sheep Meadow section of Central Park in the heart of Manhattan on a warm summer Sunday. It is filled with special interest and people personality... and the tiny stories that wouldn't see the light of day if it weren't for newspapers. It is a treat to enjoy. Take that Facebook. Newspapers have staff to do that stuff... and be held responsible.

Here's how the pros do it

The overview of A Sunday in the Park, 4 feet wide unfolded

The other side... the people close up with comments

Another take on newspapers: Today's Riddle: What is black and white and red all over?