Mulligan Field Youth Debacle Can Hold Lessons

Where has society failed? Have parents abrogated their authority? Has “the village” charged with raising children shunned its responsibility to properly train those 20 to 30 juveniles, reported last week in Jack Fichter’s front-page story, who have been occupying a portion of Villas’ Mulligan Field, reportedly smoking dope and shouting vulgarities placing fear into residents?
Lower Township Council on Sept. 15 heard the complaint of a resident who also stated the pack of young hoodlums had broken a jungle gym in four places.
It would a cop out to utter, “They’re bad kids. What do you expect?”
Frankly, I expect what most adults and many terrific teens would: Good behavior taught first at home, behavior that came from self respect first, then to respect others and their property.
Many wonderful children have passed from adolescence to adulthood living in Villas. Hometowns are no excuse for lack of respect.
It is not where one starts that counts, it is where they decide to go, and where they ultimately finish that is the true measure.
One of the first questions everyone around the newsroom asked after reading Fichter’s story was “Where were the parents?”
Either they were home, and did not know where their youngsters were, or they were absent parents. Maybe they would, when confronted, throw up their hands in the air and shout, “I can’t do anything with him (or her)!”
I cannot imagine, in my teen years, being caught by either parent in such an untenable predicament, and not get disciplined at home, before police had an opportunity to intercede.
Mulligan Field is a showplace, a gem where veterans and their families and friends have gathered for solemn occasions. It is where young people play summer games and enjoy being children.
It is a place many people worked hard to create a decent, attractive place for the community’s young people to enjoy their leisure time.
This peace has been robbed from the community at large, stolen from under its very nose.
Maybe there remains a chance for redemption of those 20 to 30 misguided youngsters. Youth is a time to make mistakes, but something must be taught and learned from those errors.
If the juvenile justice system is to have any credibility, it ought to seize this case by the horns and make every one of those children work to earn money to help buy a new jungle gym. That done, they should collectively join, and with the help of local civic groups, rebuild what they destroyed.
A step further, the court ought to engage each child and their family to make a piece of Mulligan Field their own to tend and keep immaculate for a year.
That which we have not labored to earn means little. Once we sweat and ache to make something a reality, as in restoring Mulligan Field, we are not so prone to take pleasure in destroying our handiwork.
Knowing that such action will never happen, I ask, Why not?
Each youngster should learn something from this foray into delinquency: Wrong actions come with a heavy price. The way of the transgressor is hard.
Doubtless, there will be some parents who will deny their offspring were involved in the situation. “My son (or daughter) would never do anything like that!” Police officers hear that every day after laws are broken.
What lesson in responsibility does that teach youth, the next generation? To be sure, society did not fracture that jungle gym. The village that was responsible to raise the children did not do it, nor did it acquire dope and smoke it.
Each participant, although under legal age, made a decision, a bad one at that, but it was a decision nevertheless. They should be taught from this crime that their actions hurt the community, and they are the ones who must make it whole.
Lower Township Deputy Mayor Robert Nolan used the episode as a reason why the municipality needs more police officers. Lower Township Police Chief Edward Donohue told council that officers had done 800 property checks on Mulligan Field since January.
That statement was made on Sept. 15, the 259th day of the year. That’s an average of nearly four checks a day.
What is needed are interactive parents, they are less costly than police. What will help, too, is a community that refuses to tolerate delinquency. If the community bands together, calls police when wrongs are spotted, and demands action, it will happen.
Still, the hoodlums did their dirty work, and by their actions, have made innocent families live in fear, and that is intolerable.
That brazen band has achieved what the terrorists did on Sept. 11, 2001: They planted fear into unsuspecting, innocent minds. By that actions, they have won, in their deranged minds. That was only Round One, the contest is not over.
What if the community were to band together and go to Mulligan Field to reclaim from those rowdies what was rightfully theirs? What lesson would that teach those youths who believe they are superior to police, township officials and the citizens?
Yes, we may hear the phrase, “Fear of retribution” uttered, but if that is heard, those youths will be no better than Hitler, not satisfied, and with a yearning for ever more to dominate.
Are they screaming for attention? Sure, what youngster hasn’t? The community must craft a well-constructed plan to show those 20 or 30, who some day may be Lower Township municipal officials that it is much easier and quicker to tear down than to sweat to build up anything of value.
The problems at Mulligan Field may hold lessons not only for those youths but also for the community at large.
Who IS responsible? Who?