I applaud the children who participated in the 9/16 TC meeting

I am writing in response to a letter written by Elaine Smith (printed in the Journal Inquirer on September 30, 2013) under the heading, “Little concern for elderly neighbors”.  Her letter uses the word ‘saddened’ a lot, when in actuality her letter is what is ‘saddening’. 

In the letter, Mrs. Smith negatively portrays the youth of South Windsor and their participation in the Town Council meeting of September 16. Rather than applauding the dozens of children for attending a long meeting on a school night, exhibiting no less than stellar behavior, and without making a sound, she chooses instead to focus on the fact that she didn’t care to arrive in time to get a seat.   

It should be pointed out that this was not an instance where parents dragged their kids to the meeting, but instead the children rallied on their own to get the nice turnout that they did. Since Mrs. Smith failed to focus on the childrens’ positives that evening – attendance, behavior, and the fact that they had the passion, and took the initiative, to learn valuable lessons about participation in local government when they could have just stayed home – I’d like to take the opportunity to do so: 

Kids, at this point many of you have participated in multiple Town Council meetings – either to speak, be honored for your accomplishments, or to aid in the betterment of our community - and each time your participation and behavior has received multiple compliments from parents, teachers, coaches, and town councilors – you are the future of our town and for that we are grateful. I would like you to know that at the recent meeting you represented yourselves, and your town, honorably. Please know that there will always be people who are proud of, and recognize, the good that you do.  Always focus on the positive and please ignore the shortsighted.