Just Being Young

I watched a news report last night about students returning to university. It talked about the noise and violence that occurred at this institution last year. A local politician stated that steps were being taken by local government to make sure it didn’t happen again this year.

At the end of the interview a student was interviewed. She said that, in spite of efforts by others, it was frosh week. This meant that students would be carrying on with this type of activity because it was a tradition and just part of being a young university student.

Excuse me? Perhaps this was the reporter’s attempt of providing balanced coverage. Journalists often do this to give another viewpoint even when it may express what a small minority feels. The result can be making something big out of nothing – creating a problem that doesn’t really exist in order to appear fair to all sides.

I am getting tired of hearing viewpoints that make it sound like it is fine to disobey the law.

If we, as a society, are to be successful, we have to have a set of rules that we abide by. We have that. For every law, there is a good reason for it. While there may be mitigating circumstances to break a law for the common good, just being young is not one of them.

Our society has many problems because parents and others do not say no to our young people enough. I don’t mean saying no just for the sake of saying it, but I do mean saying no to things that are not good for society.

I don’t agree with every law that is written. That doesn’t mean I don’t respect them. If I choose not to obey one, then I am willing to suffer the consequences. What I can’t accept, I try to change in non-violent ways.

For example, I would have had trouble living in the parts of Ottawa a few years ago. Clotheslines were against the law. I find this hard to accept. Fortunately the province has made it illegal to ban clotheslines.

I often hear parents telling me that their kids are just being teenagers when they are doing something wrong. It’s as if they are unwilling to confront them in their errors and help them make wise decisions.

Growing up in today’s world is not easy. We are not making it any easier by ignoring the laws we have put into place for everyone for the sake of a few who want to disobey them.