Re: Bullying experience a harsh reminder, (Written in Ink, June 1)
I read your piece on the bullying teenagers in our Saanich News, and it confirmed a lot of my thoughts at the moment about how our society is basically falling apart.
So now they are picking on anyone on the street, not each other? The causes? I would I guess blame inadequate parenting (the all-too common single parent has a hard time doing the parenting job and is up against a lot of challenges); lack of adult, especially young-adult examples to follow except for the celebrity types; and lack of mentoring and discipline in the schools, along with the new “hands-off” conservatism cutting the state agencies and youth centres.
The media influence on young lives is too strong. Our entire society is permeated by it and the media messages are all mostly wrong, but how do we counter that?
Teenagers are growing up who have never heard a peace-producing strain of classical music in their lives, never had a thought beyond how to relate to their age-group, never encountered an idea related to serving others.
I know it’s hard to react swiftly under the circumstances you describe, but it’s too bad you just didn’t call 911 and say you were being harassed by a group of teens on the street and were afraid of being attacked by them. If you did not have a phone with you, you perhaps should have gone up to a nearby house, and asked for help and made the call.
I hope your article will prevent others from just lowering their heads and being victimized, and stimulate discussion in the high schools, but I wonder.
Janet Doyle
Saanich