What happened to letting kids go outside and play and make up their own games, build tree forts in the woods, experiment with a magnifying glass burning leaves, building ramps to ride your bike over to see how high you could jump, picking up cans out of the ditch for extra spending money, playing TACKLE football with the neighborhood kids, fighting with the neighborhood kids then making up the next day, grabbing a cat by it's tail and seeing how far you can sling it, playing in the straw barn, making things with tobacco sticks only to be beaten with them later? So many things to do in Southern Maryland for kids of all ages!
The biggest reason children cannot roam and explore like this anymore is because there is no not community trust.
People do not know their neighbors. The majority of residents in a given neighborhood are transplants with no blood ties to the local community and history.
If you don't know and trust those around you, of course you aren't going to let your child roam and explore.
We need to, above all else, secure our neighborhoods, do the hard work it takes to befriend our neighbors, and ensure that those moving into our towns are only those who share a common ancestry. Culture is downstream from Race, after all.
Doing this will result in using force and shedding blood in all likelihood, but we must be strong to secure the future of our children. They deserve to be able to roam free and trust those around them. They should be able to bike a few miles down the road to a different neighborhood, gather up some peers, and go have fun without danger.
Think about the very nationalistic Japan - it's so safe there, even in the big city, that toddlers can be sent down the road to pick up milk at the local convenience store, because they all share blood and love and protect each other. Even if the child is lost or confused, they are certain to get home safely.
Long ago, in European countries, you could leave your baby in a stroller just outside a shop in town, as to not crowd the shop with a big stroller. The locals would all ensure the baby was safe and secure. No harm would be done. This was as common as drinking water. It's crazy to think about now, but that's what you get when you live in a homogenous society that emphasizes brotherhood and blood, rather than the toxic and atomizing individuality that we now push on our children.
We can get there again, but a struggle is necessary to achieve this goal.