Recreation authority is a splendid idea, but why the cloak and dagger? |

 

by David Young

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” story. It is an editorial by the editor.

News of the exploration of establishing a recreational authority in the Wayland Union School District leaves me with mixed emotions.

I think a recreational authority to reboot discarded recreation programs would be a splendid idea. Wayland years ago combined the community education and reacreation under David VanEerden and Joan Medendorp, but Gov. John Engler and the state threw it in garbage can more than 20 years ago. Engler, when asked why back then, replied with his customary mean-spirited and short-sighted attitude, “They (adult education students) should’ve gotten it right the first time.”

Giving up so quickly on young people who failed academically and at the same time closing mental health facilities was a social disaster that’s still being felt today. Furthermore, I fervently believe in the old saying that “Idleness is the Devil’s workshop.”

That is, I believe when young people don’t have much to do or places to go, they are more likely to get into trouble. The explosion of interscholastic athletics has helped occupy the time of teen-agers, but there just isn’t enough.

Recreation programs enrich communities, as do adult education programs that give people a second chance at getting an education. Perhaps the crime rate will decrease as a result.

I said I have mixed emotions.

 

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