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Today’s Blog Post
Riots and Rioters - Where do they think the kids learn
it from?
Protesting Students… wow – 2011
and 2012 will go down in history books of Canada as one of the life changing
experiences for our communities. It is a serious situation for our authorities
to deal with.
Some of us oldies are watching
the protests of students with great interest.
Some of us wish that it would stop. Others wish that it would just go
away. Some are frightened by the reports of what has happened in the last few
days. Our communities have become
dangerous… something has stirred these young people up.
Why? How come? What is the cause behind it
all? These are just a few questions that
swirl inside of my mind.
Many past the age of 60 will
remember the riots of USA Universities when the Black and White issues were
flying in everyone’s face. Then we
remember the riots produced by the anti-Vietnam War people.
For us oldies student actions
are not new. Some of us led our own “riots” (protests) away back when. We were also involved in protests and sit ins
and making our displeasure felt. We tried in our own ways to make it plain to
anyone that would listen.
Back here in Peterborough we
have watched a long and drawn out fight between local students at the PCVS High
School and the School Board. News Media
has picked up the local fight and broadcast it far and wide.
What is not really well
publicized is the fact that behind the Peterborough (my community) protests are
a number of adults that have organized and pushed to keep this fight going. They have also funded the court challenge that
is attempting to stop the closure of the High School part of PCVS.
There is a cloak of “School
Spirit” thrown out there to try and get supporters and sympathizers to support
their efforts.
At 68 I admit that I was a “protester”,
I was vocal in my time against the indignities that I felt about a cause or
two. But I admit also that I never maliciously destroyed property or harmed
another human being by protesting. I never took anyone to court because they wouldn’t
do it my way. But I did protest.
(And I still protest in
whatever way I can. This Blog is often a kind of protest that is being read by
many – and maybe even having some small effect on one or two.)
But something new has taken
place in our society with the new manifestation of the new protesters that are
showing up in more and more places.
Quebec is our most recent
example or violent and well organized protests.
These students are defying their own Government who they say is not
listening to them.
However in Ontario, back a few
years ago now, the G20 protests that were held in Toronto were ugly and a
blight on the city. Reports have just
been released to let everyone know what was done wrong by everyone. The report should be showing us all what shouldn’t
happen.
Over all the idea of holding a
G20 in the middle of a very busy city was insane. Having it close to the very
expensive properties that could be used as targets to strike blows against the
establishment – was insane! If they held
the meetings away from that area say on the edge of the city rioters could not
have smashed windows in an open field.
But then there were riots at the
end of Hockey Games that were lost – both Montreal and Vancouver have records
that show people will explode and have very short fuses when they do not get
their own way.
Tada…
Tada… there is one of the
secrets… people that don’t get their own way get angry. In fact a whole generation
of people are now coming up through the system that have basically always got
their own way. They have been “taught” or “allowed” to simply expect the whole
world to bow to them.
Don’t tell us what we don’t want
to know! We know better than any expert
or any one that points to reality. We simply will not accept it when we cannot
have what we want – and we want it now.
Yesterday…
Yesterday a Grandmother
stopped by my table to look at my Wood Carving and Tatting. While speaking with
her we talked about the youth of today… actually she talked and I listened.
It all happened around my
Harry Potter Wand set that I have carved.
She unloaded on me her
complete sadness that came as a result of the past weekend.
She has a cottage about an
hour’s drive from Peterborough. Her son and his family come down from another
community about one hour’s drive north of the cottage. They meet to spend the
weekend at the lake and have fun together just as they have every year since
her two grandkids were born.
Her granddaughter is now 15,
has turned into a holy terror. Last year she was a lovely 14 year old that had
fun with her grandmother in so many ways.
This summer she hates her mother… swears at her and tells her that she
can “Go to hell!” and that “I hate your guts!”
The grandmother is beside
herself trying to understand the granddaughter. The granddaughter has some very
bad friends and some really nasty boy-friends. The mother and father cannot
control the kid at all!
The grandson is younger,
perhaps around 12 years old. He is a high demand youngster. He wants more and
more games for his computer and his hand held gaming devices. In conversation
with his dad about this, dad wasn’t sure that the kid needed more games and
thought he should get out more. The kid’s
response was to yell at his dad, “I know that you can afford it. I want you to
buy it now!”
It is true. The dad and mom
have all the money they will ever need. The family is well off. The kids lack
for nothing. But the kids lack discipline and respect… and this grandmother, who
is a complete stranger to me, poured out her heart at the table with me.
She is so sick of her
grandkids that she wishes they wouldn’t come back right now!
I asked her if the grandkids
ever talked that way to her as their grandmother. Her response to my question was an emphatic, “They
wouldn’t dare speak to me that way! I would never allow it!”
Mom and Dad allow it. But not
grandma – with her that would never happen and the kids know it!!!
After a long talk together
right in the middle of the Mall… she thanked my over and over again for listening.
I can’t help wondering if
every rioter today in Quebec is not a whole lot like the 15 year old granddaughter…
and the 12 year old grandson. No one
ever taught them respect and showed them how valuable discipline was for their
own lives.
But it wasn’t the grandparents
that raised these kids… it was the parents… how sad can that be.
Is it that the parents never
showed the kids how to respect something? Is it because the parents never
showed self-discipline to the children – so the kids never experienced this
rare commodity in this generation?
But then there are our own governments
that very often show little respect for their own people they govern… and also
display very little self-discipline. A
minister in our government can lie, cheat and get away with a kind of crime –
and never be disciplined.
Where do they think the kids
learn it from?
~ Murray Lincoln ~
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