Vandals etch graffiti into Dieppe plaque

scotto

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The Beach Strip
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(Jul 14, 2006)
The Hamilton Spectator.
Vandals have defaced a commemorative plaque at the Dieppe Veterans Memorial Park on Hamilton's beach strip.

Among the graffiti scratched into the Heritage Canada plaque's surface is the word Slipknot, likely referring to the name of a well-known heavy metal band. Some of the graffiti appeared about a year ago, said Jack McFarland, 85, a survivor of the Dieppe Raid, but more has been added in the past few days.

"It's terrible, 197 friends' names on the memorial," he said. Two flags, including a French flag, at the memorial were also vandalized during the recent soccer World Cup.

More than 600 Royal Hamilton Light Infantry soldiers crossed the English Channel for the raid on Dieppe on Aug. 19, 1942. They were part of a 6,000-strong Allied force, including 5,000 Canadians. About 197 Rileys died that day. In all, more than 900 Canadians were killed in the disastrous battle that lasted less than eight hours.

Photo- Ron Pozzer, the Hamilton Spectator
More than 600 Royal Hamilton Light Infantry soldiers took part in the Dieppe Raid on Aug. 19, 1942.

Posted with full permission from the Hamilton Spectator.
 

scotto

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The Beach Strip
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Shame works on vandals

By Robert Howard
The Hamilton Spectator(Jul 15, 2006)
What is it that prompts some of us -- often during our teenage years -- to vandalize? What prompts us ("us" in the widest sense) to wreck things, to deface or damage public or other people's property?

Is it the urge to leave a mark? To counter a fear of insignificance? Or is it just the thrill of flipping the bird to society? Whatever the reasons and causes, vandalism has been around as long as humans.

Although we say us, the fact is most young people are not vandals. Far from it. If random observation is any guide, there are more youngsters picking up litter than creating it, more of them involved with conservation than destructiveness. (Of course, some vandals are adults.)

Having said that, it is dismaying and appalling that graffiti has defaced a plaque at the Dieppe Memorial on Hamilton's beach strip.

Did the vandals (likely youth, because of a scratched-on reference to a heavy metal band) think about the 197 local boys -- most of them likely close to their own ages -- who died on the Dieppe beach in 1942?

Likely not. Their act -- their crime -- is most likely more thoughtless than malicious. That doesn't excuse it, but we shouldn't read more into it than is warranted. Any plaque would likely have sufficed.

What is encouraging is that -- even in this cynical, post-modern, anything-goes era in which celebrities are rarely role models and bad-boy behaviour is too often celebrated -- vandalism isn't cool. Not among society at large and, more importantly, among youth.

Consider Connor's story, told in The Spectator last Saturday. He was one of six teens who left a trail of destruction in Hamilton Cemetery in June. They bragged about it and expected to be admired at school.

But Connor's friends were disgusted. They threatened him, called him an idiot, told him to turn himself in to police. Shame took over, and he did.

Good on those friends who told him off. We need more of that.

At a certain age, almost all of us pay more attention to the opinions of our peers than our parents. Youth -- the ones as appalled by vandals as the rest of us -- need to be encouraged to speak out. Shame works.
 
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