Dear Editor:
(Re: Resident says teenagers damaging sunflowers) Last week, there was an article written about teenagers damaging a local woman’s sunflower garden on Coldwater Avenue. As a local teenager involved with the Smart Step Youth Association, an organization that mandates itself to promote a more positive youth stereotype in communities struggling with intergenerational relationships, I feel the need to defend my generation against the stereotypes that were apparent in last week’s paper.

Beth Goulet’s statement, “I just find this is sad that the teens of today feel the need to ruin and wreck other people’s property,” is a generalization that greatly offended me. After reading the article, it got me thinking about all the positive contributions that the teens of today have made throughout the community. Just last week, fifteen teenagers donated over $1,100 to the Journey Into Tomorrow transition house. A month ago, over 40 of Merritt’s youth joined together to clean up the streets of Merritt of all visible graffiti. Last year, a dozen teenagers donated over $1,200 to the local food bank. With these past accomplishments of our youth and knowing that they are out in the community doing positive things, one should feel guilty associating all youth in one general group as those few that terrorized your sunflower garden.

We understand that there are some troubled youth within our community that have been the origin for these stereotypes, and those youth should be held responsible for their actions, but this should not be the reason for these blanket statements over an entire generation. As mature individuals of this community, we need to be optimistic and seek out the leadership roles that youth play within our community in order to progress and leave behind the generalized negative stereotypes being thrown our way. If teenagers are constantly battered with this demoralizing image, we will only continue to decentralize and remove what little confidence we have in being positive societal contributors. With that said, all of us, regardless if we are youth, teens, adults, or the elderly, need to be supportive of each other and work towards the common goal of strengthening our community.

Suman Lali