If you were to believe some of the things that you read on social media, a group of marauders – four or five abreast, snapping their fingers in unison – is coming to a Manteca  intersection near you.

On bicycles.

And while homeless issues continue to plague the community, an eviction crisis is looming on the horizon, and a pandemic that has the potential to hit a yet unseen high gear during flu season is still raging, apparently a bunch of young teens on bicycles was the thing that got a bunch of people from the community up in arms.

Before I go on to specify why I find this most recent outrage ludicrous, let me start by stating outright that perhaps riding a bicycle in the middle of the street is not the wisest of ideas. I’m sure that in the groups of more than a hundred that have been spotted, at least a few – statistically – were acting foolishly which drags down the image of the rest of the group.

Let us also not forget that we are in a pandemic, and perhaps getting together with a few dozen of your friends does absolutely nothing to stop the spread of a deadly virus.

But even with all of that said, I don’t see how a bunch of young people gathering to do something as inoffensive as riding together and having a good time could be viewed in the vile context that I have seen it talked about.

One of the greatest tragedies of this pandemic is also the thing that very few people can fully comprehend at the moment – the impact that this sudden and abrupt change in our world is having on the next generation. It’s a pretty safe bet that we won’t know the full ramifications of this for years to come, but surely it can’t be good from a developmental standpoint when everything that a young person knows about the world changes so drastically in such a short amount of time.

The socialization element of school? Gone. The lessons learned about collaboration and cooperation in the world of team sports? Maybe next year. The sense of falling through the cracks and not being recognized by the powers that be? Consider it exponentially greater right now than ever before.

Mixing all of these things together in a boiling cauldron has already yielded some tragic results in communities throughout our area. I have a feeling that the longer this goes on, the more likely those stories are to start creeping up on newspaper pages and evening newscasts.

And so, kids have done what they’ve always done when faced with challenges and societal change – they adapted.

Out of fear of sounding older than I am, let’s just call this new organic movement a group bicycle ride through the streets of a given community. I know nothing about the origins of said activity, or how such an undertaking ever managed to make it onto the sleepy streets of Manteca.

However it started, I have to sit back and think that seeing more than 100 young people riding through town together in a group – obviously operating without worry, or concern, or any of the other difficult emotions that plague them throughout their current daily existence – is a good thing. This shows the resiliency of youth – that our future generation has the ability to adapt and overcome even the most grueling of circumstances.

Does there need to be a conversation about how to do this safely? Probably.

There are always going to be a few that can’t adhere to the posted rules, but I’m not going to sit back and act like every single one of the young people that are choosing to do this is out causing nothing but mayhem in the streets. While a movement like this would probably die out the moment that any official agency got involved to help police it – having a police escort defeats the purpose of an impromptu ride to blow off steam, and takes the edginess off of the table – perhaps a conversation about how to rein in the knuckleheads while preserving the fun or everybody else is something that could be achieved with minimal impact to the effectiveness of the effort.

At the end of the day we are talking about kids – kids that have seen their school life, their social life, and in many cases their home life drastically change. The autonomy they were working on building was destroyed seemingly overnight and they’re living life under a microscope. Rather than turning to alcohol or drugs to blow off steam – the way that many adults do when faced with similar feelings or drastic changes – they have taken to the streets in bicycles to reclaim a little bit of that autonomy and reshape this barely recognizable world into something more familiar and comfortable.

I don’t know about you, but in my book that deserves a commendation – not condemnation.

For any of you young people that are out and about on your bicycles tonight, please be smart – don’t do anything that is going to get you or any of your friends hurt. For the motorists that pass by the amoeba-like mob that may be cruising down a street you yourself are trying to get down – let them have their brief window and be willing to sacrifice the five or ten minutes it’ll cost you to go the long way.

With only 18 springs, summers, falls, and winters until we’re viewed as adults in the eyes of society, COVID has taken some of those away from the people who need them most.

Let the kids be kids.

As long as they’re doing it relatively safely, I don’t see how this is such a horrendous thing at all.

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.

If you were to believe some of the things that you read on social media, a group of marauders – four or five abreast, snapping their fingers in unison – is coming to a Manteca  intersection near you.

On bicycles.

And while homeless issues continue to plague the community, an eviction crisis is looming on the horizon, and a pandemic that has the potential to hit a yet unseen high gear during flu season is still raging, apparently a bunch of young teens on bicycles was the thing that got a bunch of people from the community up in arms.

Before I go on to specify why I find this most recent outrage ludicrous, let me start by stating outright that perhaps riding a bicycle in the middle of the street is not the wisest of ideas. I’m sure that in the groups of more than a hundred that have been spotted, at least a few – statistically – were acting foolishly which drags down the image of the rest of the group.

Let us also not forget that we are in a pandemic, and perhaps getting together with a few dozen of your friends does absolutely nothing to stop the spread of a deadly virus.

But even with all of that said, I don’t see how a bunch of young people gathering to do something as inoffensive as riding together and having a good time could be viewed in the vile context that I have seen it talked about.

One of the greatest tragedies of this pandemic is also the thing that very few people can fully comprehend at the moment – the impact that this sudden and abrupt change in our world is having on the next generation. It’s a pretty safe bet that we won’t know the full ramifications of this for years to come, but surely it can’t be good from a developmental standpoint when everything that a young person knows about the world changes so drastically in such a short amount of time.

The socialization element of school? Gone. The lessons learned about collaboration and cooperation in the world of team sports? Maybe next year. The sense of falling through the cracks and not being recognized by the powers that be? Consider it exponentially greater right now than ever before.

Mixing all of these things together in a boiling cauldron has already yielded some tragic results in communities throughout our area. I have a feeling that the longer this goes on, the more likely those stories are to start creeping up on newspaper pages and evening newscasts.

And so, kids have done what they’ve always done when faced with challenges and societal change – they adapted.

Out of fear of sounding older than I am, let’s just call this new organic movement a group bicycle ride through the streets of a given community. I know nothing about the origins of said activity, or how such an undertaking ever managed to make it onto the sleepy streets of Manteca.

However it started, I have to sit back and think that seeing more than 100 young people riding through town together in a group – obviously operating without worry, or concern, or any of the other difficult emotions that plague them throughout their current daily existence – is a good thing. This shows the resiliency of youth – that our future generation has the ability to adapt and overcome even the most grueling of circumstances.

Does there need to be a conversation about how to do this safely? Probably.

There are always going to be a few that can’t adhere to the posted rules, but I’m not going to sit back and act like every single one of the young people that are choosing to do this is out causing nothing but mayhem in the streets. While a movement like this would probably die out the moment that any official agency got involved to help police it – having a police escort defeats the purpose of an impromptu ride to blow off steam, and takes the edginess off of the table – perhaps a conversation about how to rein in the knuckleheads while preserving the fun or everybody else is something that could be achieved with minimal impact to the effectiveness of the effort.

At the end of the day we are talking about kids – kids that have seen their school life, their social life, and in many cases their home life drastically change. The autonomy they were working on building was destroyed seemingly overnight and they’re living life under a microscope. Rather than turning to alcohol or drugs to blow off steam – the way that many adults do when faced with similar feelings or drastic changes – they have taken to the streets in bicycles to reclaim a little bit of that autonomy and reshape this barely recognizable world into something more familiar and comfortable.

I don’t know about you, but in my book that deserves a commendation – not condemnation.

For any of you young people that are out and about on your bicycles tonight, please be smart – don’t do anything that is going to get you or any of your friends hurt. For the motorists that pass by the amoeba-like mob that may be cruising down a street you yourself are trying to get down – let them have their brief window and be willing to sacrifice the five or ten minutes it’ll cost you to go the long way.

With only 18 springs, summers, falls, and winters until we’re viewed as adults in the eyes of society, COVID has taken some of those away from the people who need them most.

Let the kids be kids.

As long as they’re doing it relatively safely, I don’t see how this is such a horrendous thing at all.