Charlotte Helston is the Vernon reporter for InfoNews.
(ADAM PROSKIW / iNFOnews.ca)
June 10, 2016 - 12:00 PM
OPINION
LANGUAGE WARNING
Some not-so flattering things have been happening in the sunny Okanagan of late and it’s not only getting people down, it’s led to a vortex of negativity on social media.
I know, I know, it’s hard to be upbeat when cyclists are getting hit by cars, people are going missing, and the RCMP gang squad is called in to Vernon to deal with several drug-related shootings. Then a man is found with multiple lacerations and everyone’s immediate reaction is: ‘what the hell is going on in Vernon?’
Meanwhile, Kelowna’s got all the perverts and weirdos (people having sex in hot tubs and young girls running away from creepy men) and no where to fuel up their darn cars.
And we were all disgraced when a bunch of parents in the South Okanagan lost their cool and got into an all-out brawl at a kid’s hockey tournament.
It’s got people questioning ‘what’s happened to the Okanagan?’ as if there’s never been a murder or a drug war here before. Like anywhere, shit happens — sometimes all over the road, just ask Kelowna.
And yes, we have to pay attention to these things and learn from them, but we can’t let them consume us. Some pretty crappy stuff has happened here lately, but that doesn’t define our communities. We’re more than that, better than that, and stronger than that.
We live in communities where little old ladies devote their mornings to picking up garbage. Communities where construction workers go out of their way to make a kid’s day. Communities where locals are looking to the future and making things better for those who live here, like building a trail from the South Okanagan to the Shuswap. Stuff’s happening here and ain’t all bad.
The negativity is perhaps what led a Vernon resident to create a new Facebook page called Hell Yeah Vernon. She’s asking people to tell the world something good about this place we call home.
“All of life is about attitude and appreciating every day,” she writes. “Are we proud of the great people that live in the City of Vernon? Hell yeah!”
— Charlotte Helston is the Vernon reporter for iNFOnews.ca.
News from © iNFOnews, 2016