Editor:
Demonstrators in Vancouver protesting about the actions or inaction of the city police and the mayor with respect to the recent Stanley Cup riots is disturbing.
Finger pointing at the police or the mayor is totally misguided. The police nor the mayor did not start these riots; a totally dysfunctional sector of our community did!
Perhaps it would make more sense to ask, why do young members of our society feel so disconnected that they feel they have to act out in the way they did? What are the shortcomings in our educational system which does not leave our children with a solid sense of social responsibility, of respect for public property, of a sense of personal integrity, and respect for the rule of law?
Or is it the parents who are not impressing these values upon their children?
Pointing the finger at those serving our community is not where the problem lies.
There are shortcomings in our society which point to far greater issues with respect to the core values we hold dear in our community.
Citizens of Vancouver and surrounding communities expressed their views when they assisted with cleanup, wrote hundreds of comments on boarded-up store windows and posted stickers of support on a police car. They felt the shame and essentially have said to that “dysfunctional sector” that their behaviour is unacceptable.
So, if the finger is to be pointed, it should be toward ways to bring that wayward group into the mainstream of a respectable and caring society.
To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, perhaps the question should be posed to them: ask not what you can do to your community; but, what you can do for your community.
L.N. (Len) Giles, Surrey