Hope for the Future

Two things you will see if you watch television: a lot of older men in suits as guests and a lot of stories about the problems with young people today. Varney & Co. is no different. We often have "seasoned" guests. And we often bring you stories about misguided young people mindlessly joining protests or being unfit for work.

But we also try to bring you the other side. There are many ambitious, young people doing great things. And over the past few months we've had a few as guests.

I know you remember Josh Lafazan. He's 18 years old and he ran for the school board because he was outraged at the superintendent's $500,000 pay package. He won and is now a member of the Syosset, NY school board.

Kyle Miller is a 20-year-old who has worked on his family farm since he was 5 and wants to raise his kids on one too. Thankfully the government rules that would have prevented that were repealed.

The youngest of our precocious kids was Michael Weymouth. At 14 years old he started his own tech support business.

And then there's Peter Kazazes who may change the future of political polling with his app, Twelect. It "mines" the sentiment in tweets, not just the volume of tweets, and turns it into a poll. And he's getting the same numbers as the big pollsters, only in real-time.

And I've experienced this in my own community. My 4-year-old son attends a child-care program at the local high school. Kids are paired up with senior "buddies" and they play games, sing songs, and go on field trips. These kids are motivated, intelligent and kind. Last month when they were all taking pictures at the local park on prom night, they still took the time to speak to my son after recognizing him from the program. I also see these same teenagers around town, lifeguarding at the pool, or working at the pizza place or the bagel store. Seeing all of this reminds me not to give up on the youth of our country.

I know I sound like an old fogey when I write like this, but it does make you feel good when you see young people who have their act together, working hard and succeeding at something.

Varney and Co. is committed to continuing to find more guests like Josh, Kyle, Michael and Peter. We'll give the highest priority to these inspiring young people.It gives you hope that our country's future is in good hands... if we don't screw it up first.