As an octogenarian, I find it difficult to wrap my brain around the “new normal” that exists for our young children and young adults.

I was shaken to the core by the following quote in an editorial regarding Jan. 6 by Theunis Bates, the managing editor of “The Week” magazine:

“During the Capitol siege, young staffers for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took cover in a conference room, barricaded the door, turned off the lights and hid under a table in silence … survival tactics they had learned growing up with active-shooter drills in schools.”

My heart is breaking for our young people and the terrible things that we adults are doing to their lives, their futures and their world. It is beyond unfair, it is criminal. Shame, shame on us.

LARRY ALLEN

Astoria