Pants on the ground

There's a new song sweeping the nation, thanks to General Larry Platt, a 62 year old African American and his appearance on last week's "American Idol" television show.

Some of the words to the song go like this:

Pants on the ground

The song refers to the habit of young men and older teenage boys, primarily African American, wearing their pants so low a good portion of their underwear shows, along with gold fillings in their mouth and caps that are worn with the bill facing the side instead of the front.

If a white man had recorded this song, accusations of racism would have been immediate and wide-spread but because it's a black man singing about other black men dressing in ways he obviously doesn't admire, the reaction has been totally different. There have been almost two million hits on YouTube to hear the song since it was first broadcast and it appears Mr. Platt is close to signing a contract to have a record made of it.

The song is not without controversy, of course. Even though the dominant sentiment is that this is an issue that is finally being brought to light, the other argument is that this is an attack on personal freedom and the right to dress as we wish as long as no laws are being broken.

The older generation has never understood the younger generation; all the way back to the flappers and the Charleston of the '20s and '30s, the beatniks of the '40s and '50s, the hippies of the '60s and '70s, and the rappers and hip-hoppers of the '80s and '90s. My dad wouldn't allow me to listen to rock 'n roll when we were in the car together; saying it wasn't music. He was from the Frank Sinatra and Frankie Laine generation. I guess he had forgotten that his parents didn't like his music either.

I've fought growing old tooth-and-nail for decades. Teaching at the college level has helped me do that because I interact with young people much more than older people and I thank them every semester for helping me stay young in thought and mind. A friend I played music with back in my college days that I've since reconnected with through Facebook has the following permanent closing to all of his emails:

"If you haven't grown up by the time you're 50, you don't have to."

What he means is staying young in your head; continuing to see the world in terms of possibilities rather than limitations and being open-minded about all things.

That's what I've tried to do.

There's a conundrum that exists between young and old that I've shared with my students on many different occasions.

The young have enthusiasm and excitement but lack the wisdom to produce positive results with it and the old have the wisdom but have lost the enthusiasm and excitement to see the world as it is rather than the way it used to be.

I like the pants on the ground song. It has a catchy melody and the words play to my biases because I don't like that manner of dress on young black men and their white "wannabees" anymore than the General does.

I guess I've gotten old.