IT'S all too easy writing a column like this to sound like a world-weary Victor Meldrew moaning about everything and everybody.
You have to be careful too about generalising and tarring everyone with the same brush.
It's a trap that's oh so easy to fall into.
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Take young people for example.
You know who I'm talking about.
They hang around neighbourhood shops at night or our town centre shopping malls in large groups trying to intimidate the elderly or worse still mug them.
That's when they are not staggering around, brawling and cursing as a result of one of those regular bouts of binge drinking in pubs and nightclubs.
And how do they manage to find time to fit in the drinking and drug-taking?
You'd think daubing graffiti and vandalising public fixtures like bus shelters would leave them no time for other pursuits!
Yes it's true that teenagers who behave as above are causing increasing concern but politicians and we in the media are often guilty of stereotyping a whole generation.
What a pleasure then to see a host of East Lancashire youngsters being honoured by such pillars of society as the county's High Sheriff and Chief Constable for their positive and outstanding contributions to our community.
What did they do to merit being celebrated and acknowledged in the annual Young Citizen of the Year Awards?
Two 16-year-old girls from Colne chased and helped police to track down a man who robbed a woman at a cashpoint.
A 15-year-old Nelson boy chaired a youth group and assisted in organising a community festival.
Five Darwen Vale High School pupils worked on an anti-bullying project in their own time.
A Wilpshire teenager has spent many hours preparing a centre in the Lake District for use by the disabled.
And eight Burnley under-18s have volunteered to go into off- licences watched by police to try to prove that their proprietors are illegally selling alcohol to juveniles.
This is just a sample of a long list of splendidly useful deeds carried out by young people in our midst.
OK, some might say they are the exception rather than the rule.
But, that's an extremely pessimistic view to take.
When something upsets, hurts or frightens us it's human nature that we'll attach far more importance to it than something which causes no pain.
Thus the negative triumphs over the positive.
Truth is that the vast majority of our young people are no worse than we were at their age.
And many so-called adults must take a large share of the blame for those of today's youngsters who have gone off the rails.
I for one think the blame for all this silly behaviour lies with the govt, they decided to put a stop on belting the nasty kids and now are spending millions on other alternatives. Quite simple bring it back and it's a whole lot cheaper. A good old belting never did us any harm, in fact it did good in the long run.
I for one think the blame for all this silly behaviour lies with the govt, they decided to put a stop on belting the nasty kids and now are spending millions on other alternatives. Quite simple bring it back and it's a whole lot cheaper. A good old belting never did us any harm, in fact it did good in the long run.
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