At the risk of offending some of our more sensitive readers, besmirching my good reputation and making my mom rather ashamed - I'll admit I've committed acts of vandalism.
Many of us have, I think, in our youth.
On Halloween, you egg or toilet paper someone's house (note that only on that supernatural holiday are "egg" and "toilet paper" allowed to be verbs), or perhaps you carved your initials into a school desk.
My worst was a little angrier.
My friend and I were in high school and feeling rebellious against whatever needed rebelling against that particular week.
For some reason, we got it in our heads to spray paint something witty and cutting on a particular wall of the school's exterior.
Again, I was young, not especially intelligent, and was hoping to possibly make people think I was a badass because I could handle an aerosol can and spell at the same time.
So, my friend and I (because I don't want anyone thinking I was this dumb alone) decided we were going to proclaim in black semi-gloss that the school's principal was a "bastard."
Once at the school, however, we found the can of paint I had taken from my dad's workshop had just enough left in it to write, "The Principal is a Bast."
The "T" was comprised of the last few desperate squirts from the empty can, and looked more like a smudged "S."
"Did we just call the principal a fish?" was what I remember my friend flatly asking.
The paint was washed away in two days' time and it was a sad, pathetic and anti-climactic end to my career as a badass vandal.
But, in all that time I was being an angry young man, I never wantonly destroyed things or intentionally put others at risk.
That's why the recent arson at Pat Goode Park goes way beyond mere teenage rebellion or the typical dumb things kids tend to do.
Yes, I'm assuming that the criminals who perpetrated this act are teens or young adults, but I'm certainly willing to entertain any other reasonable suspects - say, fire-breathing dragons or something.
All kidding aside, this was a premeditated and mean-spirited act that destroyed a beloved (and always needed) children's park and endangered neighbourhood families and their houses.
My eight-year-old daughter, who has often played at that park with neighbourhood kids, pretty much summed up the community's thoughts when she turned to me with her one eyebrow arched up and asked, "What were they thinking?"
We wish we knew, don't we - so we could prevent this sort of thing in the future?
The truth is, it's not always easy to understand or predict this sort of dangerous and destructive behaviour, unfortunately.
The suspect(s) appear to have come with accelerant, so we know he/she/they certainly meant business.
I also know that serial arsonists begin with small things like trash cans, and move their way up to play structures and then to real houses. So I'm glad the RCMP, District of Squamish council and community are taking this seriously, and discussing things like more police patrols, or the possibility of things like closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV).
Vandalism is probably something we'll always have to deal with, even in peaceful paradises like Squamish. So, for your part, talk to your kids about these incidents, and the potential consequences.
It'd be awesome if, in the end, calling your principal a fish were the worst thing anyone ever did.
