Orleans Weekly Journal
Published: Friday, April 4, 2008 Community strength will reclaim vandalized park Paintball guns suck! First we had 21-year old Ashley Roos almost lose all sight in her left eye in a drive-by paintball shooting last May. Now we learn that some young punks, stupid teenage clowns, drunken idiots, local gang thugs or cowardly adults recently used the Orléans Kiwanis playground at Millennium Park (Trim and Innes) for paintball target practice. Not even two years old and this community treasure is a mess. The castle, back of the boat and slide all look more like a spit collage than a playground thanks to a few immature imbeciles. The park is littered with hundreds of yellow, blue and red splotches of paint, courtesy of useless – except for destroying property or injuring people – paintball guns. By happenstance I was in to see Harley Bloom to get my notebook PC fixed last week and he was understandably upset with what had happened. Harley is a great guy, gives first-rate tech sales and support service and believes in a service club that actually performs community service. When the snow melts in the next few weeks he and his fellow Kiwanians – who championed, fundraised for and built this playground – plan to fix up the damage at Millennium Park. And out of this paintball debacle, which sadly shows that there is a minority of folks in our community who believe public property is their own personal pissing pot, the Orléans Kiwanis Club is inviting the community to join with them in this playground cleanup. It’s a stellar idea: the community bonding together to fix this sanctuary for children. It’s also a powerful act of community strength in proud and stark contrast to the cowardly and faceless scumbags who vandalized the playground. I know that the Ottawa Police Service has its hands full with more pressing issues in our community, but hopefully they will put someone on this file and shake the bushes a bit to see if any leads come up. It would be great to catch the vandals who did this and make them clean it up during the spring thaw (in the cold, damp mud and with their own money, or that of their parents if they are young punks). Maybe we could even line them up against a wall for some taste-your-own-medicine target practice, but I digress…. Realistically though, it is doubtful whether the perpetrators of this asinine act will ever be caught and revenge only serves to sucker us into their sewer of life. Don’t worry, they will get theirs in due course; life has its own unique and disproportionate way of meting out justice. So enough of my venting; positive action is the best response to this act of paintball pillage. Let’s all join the Orléans Kiwanis Club this spring to clean up and reclaim the Millennium structure. I’ll be there with a few 60-cup urns of Timmy’s coffee and my elbow grease… hope to see you there. Keep checking www.Orleanskiwanis.com for the exact cleanup date. = = = = = Comments can be sent to Walter Robinson at orleansouttakes@transcontinental.ca. |