Like the angle of forgetfulness who touches us at birth to make us forget so that we can be born (becoming is a secret process), there is another angle, I suspect, who touches us when we become adults causing us to forget the abyss of adolescence. It is hard not to forget how difficult it was- much easier to idealize the state as a "simpler, less complicated" time, when we were" free of responsibilities."
Adults fear and hate kids because of the kid's relation to boundaries- the boundaries between childhood and adulthood, between innocence and experience, between "good" and "bad." Roving gangs of wilding youths make good news copy because this reifies our fears and justifies our enmity. Fear is one of the two main obstacles to deal with the real problems of street kids. The other is empathic overload.
Every time you pass any of these kids,look in their eyes. These are children...