Forum: Paying respect

Nov 12 2008 by Andrew Jackson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

THE subject of social breakdown and young people seeming to be less disciplined and respectful than generations which went before was thrown into sharp relief yesterday.

Millions of people, including Examiner staff in the office, observed the two-minutes silence at 11am to remember those who had given their lives in some of the most terrible conditions the world has ever seen.

Two stories printed in the Examiner of late have got people hot under the collar. The latest was yesterday with news that police had been given a mouthful by the parents of an eight-year-old they had taken home after he was caught trowing stones.

Otis said: “On a day when yet another elderly couple have been attacked by youths, I just wondered do schools still respect the custom of holding a two minute silence at 11am for the little cherubs in their care?

“If they do it’s a great opportunity to explain in detail how much we owe to past generations.”

The other story was how a pair of teenagers had been given community service after shooting a woman in the head with an airgun.

Idlejohn said: “That really must have them quaking in their boots! Should they not have been invited inside one of her Majesty’s prisons for a couple of years at least?”

Holly believed a different punishment should be doled out: “Their weapon should be put where the sun doesn’t shine and the trigger pulled – after a custodial sentence of course.

“That should make them quake in their boots.”

Despondent lived up to his name with this glass-half empty comment: “The public has said for years that the law is pathetic, if the custodians of the law were the victims maybe then something would be done.

“The report of dog attacks threw me when the item disclosed ‘it is not a police matter if you are attacked by a dog’, I hope I read this wrong. Just what is a police matter? They seem to be asked to do less and less, unless it is a motoring offence that is.”