Remember trials of past, snowflakes

From: Mike O’Callaghan, Mavis Lane, Leeds.

I FEEL that I have to take issue with the column by Laura Drysdale (The Yorkshire Post, January 9) on the so-called ‘snowflake generation’.

In the past, people didn’t talk about their emotions. Life was really tough and – let’s be honest with the backcloth of two world wars and a Great Depression – what was the good of complaining?

Roll up your sleeves, make do and mend and don’t complain was the order of the day. Who has heard of thrift these days?

Here’s a question for you Laura – why is it that when we (as I have just demonstrated) have so much more and life offers so much more that people of today feel they have to make so much noise?

And, finally, differences in the past were settled with discussion, debate and, may I say, sometimes argument.

Not today. Instead we have to so careful where we tread in case we upset someone over some minor thing. Everyone seems so delicate.

You see I have one great advantage over you Laura – I have lived far longer in the past, and also within the present, and I am therefore able to make a more informed comparison.

Today is much easier than the past, we have so much more and life really does offer far greater opportunities. Education to your mid-20s, gap years, career breaks, full maternity leave, discussions relating to mental health, luxury holidays abroad in the sun, time to work out, flash motorcars, central heating, refrigerators, ready cook meals, wall to wall in-house entertainment, designer clothes, early retirement to name but a few.

Please always consider the plight of those who have gone before us and the sacrifices they had to make so that we, the lucky ones, can have the lives we lead. EMOTIONAL: Sir Andy Murray has announced his retirement.

Scarborough is at risk and we need to do everything possible to guard against it. This includes maintaining sea defences in the short term, but also planning for managed retreat.

But this is nothing compared to the massive suffering, starvation, migration and war which will result if climate change gets out of hand.

The world has the knowledge to act, but we must all do so without delay, both individually and as groups and nations. Will you be part of making a more hopeful future?