Letter to the Editor Thursday January 23, 2014

Female hands at the keyboard of a laptop

It's our kids

The cliche "It takes a village to raise a child" is a concept that takes on a whole new meaning when one reads headline news that a local business is being forced to close because of the financial burden of continued shoplifting, break-ins and burglaries.

In almost all the cases where the culprits have been identified, it is the community's own young people who are the guilty ones. So what has happened for things to go so terribly wrong? Are parents so forgetful of the God-given responsibility entrusted in them that enables them to raise good, well-behaved citizens?

Has the so-called enlightened social legislation enacted by successive governments over decades usurped the role of responsible parenting? Or does today's society expect an already overstretched education system to instil into children and young people the respect for others and the ethical values that have been the foundation of civilisations for centuries?

The state is not, and never has been, an ideal parent - not even a de facto one.

The example cited above is not an isolated instance of juvenile criminality. There are numerous others in our and other communities who have also been the innocent victims of the insidiously cancerous behaviour of those who have yet to learn that the world does not owe them a free ride. Apart from the immediate financial cost, the inconvenience and the trauma of unwarranted intrusion of personal privacy together generate a sensation of violation and disgust that is often long-lasting and not easily forgotten by the victims.

Somehow, some way, communities have to come together as one and combat the vicious, viral disease of petty theft, and some not so petty, that is rapidly spreading throughout our peaceful towns. It is a great priority that a solution be found as a matter of urgency before somebody thinks that the overworked justice system is not operating effectively and decides to take matters into their own hands.

Vigilante justice hasn't worked in the past, won't work now, but broken tolerance and betrayed trust just doesn't acknowledge this. Respect for person and property has to be instilled into our youth before a real tragedy occurs.

SHAUN REILLY

Kaikohe