Long ago, as my family surrounded

the supper table, my 3-year-old son announced loudly and as a matter of

fact, "This is damn good soup!" Aghast, I demanded, "Who

talks like that? My comeuppance came in the form of a wounded glance and

a murmured, "you do."

Now years later, the advent

of television and the Internet has provided our children a much wider

stage for our foibles. The world of our little ones now transcends the

front gate, the far fence of the north 40, the school yard and the town

limits. They are listening and they are seeing, and what's more, they

are comprehending.

As an example of this, I enclose

a cartoon which was presented to us, unbidden and uncoached, by my 11-year-old

niece, Caity. Think she doesn't see the grim humor in the nitwit actions

of grown-ups both far and near? Anymore, it's not just Orwell's Big Brother

who is watching. That passed us by in 1984.

Peter H. Van Orden

Peachtree City