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Letter: Where are your manners, Squamish youth?

'Some may label me a curmudgeon, and perhaps they are correct, yet I would argue that compassion and kindness never killed anyone.'
Transit in Squamish 2021
'Not once has a youth voluntarily vacated what are clearly labelled accessible seats,' says a Squamish letter-writer.

As a frequent user of transit, and a senior with a disability, the ill-mannered nature of a goodly percentage of the youth of Squamish never ceases to amaze me. Given that I must walk with a cane, it does not require a neurosurgeon to realize I have a disability. Yet not once has a youth voluntarily vacated what are clearly labelled accessible seats.

One of the most egregious examples I have witnessed was when a very elderly woman with a walker boarded; given the lack of reaction from any youth, I offered my seat, in the misguided hope that this might shame one of the future Nobel laureates aboard into giving up their seat.

Perhaps if parents spent a tad less time affirming the uniqueness and sheer genius of their progeny and a little more time instilling empathy for the rest of humanity, one might observe a decline in the nihilistic narcissism seemingly so prevalent among younger generations – one Donald Trump is more than sufficient.

Some may label me a curmudgeon, and perhaps they are correct, yet I would argue that compassion and kindness never killed anyone.

Paul Horton

Squamish