Cenotaphs and Teens
| 5/7/2008 | Posted by Patti under General |
Yesterday, police in Peterborough, Ontario received a complaint about a 17 year old youth urinating on the Cenotaph in Centennial Park. The cenotaph like those throughout the country represents memorials to Canadians who fought and died for this country. On the same day this young person was being charged for his disgusting act, a world away, another young Canadian died serving Canada.
Now, the most common reaction to disgusting behaviour by teenagers is to lump them all into one group tarred with the brush of the perpetrator’s actions. I’ve made that mistake myself a few times. It was interesting to read a followup piece in the Peterborough Examiner of responses to the vandalism.
Most of the reactions came from his peers and were dead against his behaviour. The cenotaph is located near a local high school. The young people often spend their breaks and lunches sitting on the steps of the cenotaph. According to the President of the local Royal Canadian Legion, for the most part the kids are very respectful of what the cenotaph stands for.
The reactions ranged from disgust to this one that I really had to chuckle at:
Cleaning the Cenotaph is a punishment that fits the crime, said 15-year-old Dylan Eadie. “A couple of hundred bottles of toothpaste, a tooth brush, and you have a shiny new Cenotaph,” Eadie said.
Well put and your fellow teen will learn a valuable lesson from his peers. Kids do care, sometimes we don’t give them enough credit.
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