There are many colors in the world, most of which are vibrant, appealing and full of life. What is the first color that comes to your mind? This says a lot about your character. Most of the world and the people in it can be described with one of these colors. Orange for energy, black for sophistication and red for passion. But what happens if you or your community can be described as grey? As a dull place where people do not care or do not know how to go about caring. I once heard a poem which states that grey is the feeling of emptiness, grey is a bottomless pit of unhappiness, it is anybody who feels their more important than the people around them. It is anyone who walks by a person screaming inside for help and not giving them a second glance.
Bell Island has been heading down a very treacherous hill and in front of us there is a road-block with a sign that says Warning Enter At Your Own Risk. Now we can continue down this road, after all it is much easier to go down a hill then up on, but would it have a better outcome? Why can't we heed the warning and turn around, try to head back up the hill that sent our reputation as a tranquil mining town in a dangerously fast downward spiral.
Communities all over the world are experiencing the same problem, their quilt is fraying. Their moral compasses have been placed in a room filled with magnets and their youth are being blamed. A report on youth crime released by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics was released in May 2008 that stated, "while overall youth crime rates have dropped, youth violent crime rates have increased dramatically, but over all youth crime has more than doubled since 1987". Ten thousand young people in Newfoundland alone have been in youth correctional services in the last year.