KEEPING PERSPECTIVE ON 'TRANSIENT' ISSUES IN OSOYOOS NECESSARY
OSOYOOS TIMES-May 28, 2008
Summer has returned to Osoyoos and with it the expected influx of out-of-towners.
Most of the people who visit our community, whether for an afternoon, a weekend, a seasonal work term or a long vacation, bring with them largely positive contributions.
They help our businesses, they bolster our labour pool and they inject some outside culture into the town.
And as the weather improves, the more people are present on our streets and beaches.
Last week's episode involving three transients who allegedly sparked an afternoon of mayhem and assault, which ended in a reported altercation with police, reveals that not everyone who becomes a temporary part of our community is here for a beneficial symbiosis.
Summers past have proved to be a time when some visitors, whether seasonal workers or vacationers, have taken advantage of the perceived sleepiness of Osoyoos and acted out in negative ways that they may not normally adhere to in their home towns.
It's easy to paint many of those who show up here only in the summers as ne'er-do-wells as there are a select few who deserve to be regarded with a skeptical, weary and vigilant eye.
But, at the risk of putting forward a cliché, it's important not to let a few bad apples ruin the bunch.
The people who came forward to assist police, a group the RCMP described as not from Osoyoos, during the situation involving the three troublemakers revealed that even someone who doesn't live here on a long-term or permanent basis cares about the community and doesn't want a prejudiced view to fall upon those who rely on seasonal work in this area.
That act is worth keeping in mind when the stories come up this summer”and they're guaranteed to come up”about vandalism and crime at the hands of people who must be transients.
