NewCanaanite.com recently received the following letter to the editor. Email editor@newcanaanite.com to have a letter published here.
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As anyone who has spent several decades living in New Canaan knows, public social gatherings are met with a certain level of decorum that suits the event. Joy at the carol sing, excitement at the fireworks, reverence on Memorial Day.
Monday’s eclipse viewing in Irwin Park among the daffodils promised another shared experience with small groups of appreciative visitors, separate and distanced well from each other, all with the purpose of viewing a worldwide significant celestial event, some of us for the last time in our lives.
About halfway through the earth’s path, a crowd of loud, young soccer players arrived, shouting and screaming as they kicked a ball through the flowers and fields, disrupting the event and coming dangerously close to hitting a lovely couple who’d been there for hours quietly awaiting the event. The parents present did nothing to turn the children’s attention to what everyone else gathered to see, talked among themselves, most missing the event as it slowly unfolded.
Nothing was done to teach these children how to respect others, appreciate natural phenomenons and to understand that joining an event late and unprepared does not allow you to ruin it for those already present.
We are all diminished by the rude and ignorant behavior of others. I can only hope that those responsible read the New Canaanite and get the message, but I doubt they take the time to learn about the charm and dignity they could be part of if only they appreciated where they live.
Ellen Kiernan
