Editor:
A beautiful sunny, hot and tinder-dry B.C. Day.
A gorgeous park called Sapperton Landing. A welcoming picnic shelter beside the Fraser River. And, unbelievably, a young woman smoking at a picnic table. Even with the B.C. government declaring the fire danger at extreme (the highest rating there is), even with “no smoking” signs clearly posted in the park, and even in the face of a $500 fine for such a violation, her response to us politely mentioning that she shouldn't be smoking there caused her to hurl a torrent of expletives, none of which I can repeat in a public newspaper.
"I'm not going to butt out my cigarette in the grass, you know," she impudently shouted, as if her faulty reasoning would exempt her from all her violations. It was clear she believed that none of this applied to her. In her sense of entitlement, she was incensed that we would ask her to extinguish her cigarette. Such a lovely day. Such an irresponsible young woman.
Susan Walter, New Westminster
