Is Community Pride being taught or promoted anywhere in our community?
Take a look at the defacing of this public sign. Have you seen more incidents like this in your neighbourhood? No matter who is guilty of this graffiti, teens, twenties, young people or others, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the culprits have no pride in their community, no investment in it, no ownership of any sort. They likely live by the nihilistic philosophy of the Russian Revolution era: destroy anything and everything regardless of its value, purpose or use.
These vandals defaced this public sign without any constructive intent but purely for destructive reasons. They had no worthwhile goal, no practical aim, no useful intent in doing so. They simply wanted to deface the property so they could feel they had achieved or accomplished something.
This kind of ignorance leads to other destructive evils in our society, social ones such as RACISM, ANTI-BLACK and HATE incidents. Any examples of these kinds of incidents have no value, no worthwhile goal. Rather they are examples of social nihilism, destruction of society with no purpose.
Why?
Is anyone in government actually working on the reduction or elimination of this kind of social destruction? The Federal government touts that it has produced a guide to combat HATE and RACISM in Canada. Just try to find this guide.
The local community of Pickering touts that it has two committees, one city-based, the other central library-based, and what have these committees produced? Just try to find the results.
There are people and places where this negative activity in our society can be fought. In the homes, in the schools, in young people’s clubs and associations, in sports leagues. There are people who could and should be at the front lines teaching young people the error of such thinking and actions: parents, teachers, coaches, community leaders. There are places where the battle can be fought: at the kitchen table, in the classrooms, on the courts, on the ball diamonds and at the sports arenas.
Rather than paying lip service to equality, democracy, fellowship and community pride, teach it, act it, model it and live it, so that young people learn what it means. Teach them that what they build today, will be something of which they will be proud tomorrow.
Otherwise, just walk by the sign with a “Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!”
