By ERNIE NEUFELD
It was in the year 1903 when Weyburn (still in the Northwest Territories) received its charter as a town. Ten years later, Weyburn, now in the Province of Saskatchewan, proudly received a city charter, although it may have been necessary to copy a few hundred names from tombstones in order to reach the legal minimum of 5,000 inhabitants.
A handful of local residents still alive and of sound mind may remember "town-ship" days - even hazily - but the rest of us have always been comfortable with city status.
Nevertheless, we are quick to identity our community as small when we think of large cities such as New York, Chicago, Toronto, and countless others throughout the world with populations of millions and tens of millions, and consider urban characteristics commonly associated with them.
Particularly when hearing about crimes of every variety and hue that plague the world's large metropolises we are quick to dissociate ourselves with them. "That ain't us," we quickly protest. "We really live in a small town where things are different."
Mainly that's true, but sometimes it may be wishful thinking.
In any case, it is appropriate from time to time to be aware of big city problems, and consider how they may apply.
A guest speaker at a club I visited told about the experiences of a clergyman in Boston. Looking from the office window of his church, next door to a school, he became aware of a dope peddler drawing a steady stream of "visitors" from youngsters coming to and leaving school.
On an impulse the clergyman went out one day and asked the dope pusher how come students always came to him, but never to his church.
The dope-pusher told him with a self-confident smile, "When they come to school, or when they go home, I'm always there for them. You are not."
Impressed with the pusher's logic, the minister decided it was time to correct a lack.
He contacted clergymen from every faith in his vicinity, and with them, and with the assistance of the police, parents, and other organizations, devised a plan to take care of an obvious need, providing assistance and activities for young people too often left to their own devices when they left home.
The Boston Strategy worked so well in reducing crime and drug use, that it since has been copied by other cities. In the district represented by the speaker referred to above, assistance to the young included school supervision, homework clubs, babysitting centers, and employment of neighborhood youths.
Far be it from me to suggest such a strategy is needed in Weyburn or in smaller towns in our corner of Saskatchewan. However, I still recall two widely separated occasions when RCMP officers addressed the local Rotary Club, and displayed a wide range of drug-use paraphernalia confiscated in the district.
Both times we were told that any drug available in San Francisco or New York is available in Stoughton. That town was not cited as an exemplar of vice, but it was left to the audience to conclude that if narcotics are available and used in Stoughton, it requires no stretch of the imagination to realize Weyburn - and even smaller communities - are more vulnerable than we might imagine.
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