Parting is such a sweet sorrow

Dear Editor:

When I arrived here in 2010, specifically to reside in Okanagan Falls before moving into Penticton where I had found a job, I imagined it might be a short stay, long enough to get on my feet then return to the Lower Mainland and the church I had left behind when Lower Mainland life got too expensive and I was backed into a corner.

I never imagined being here 14 years later, however shortly after my arrival I fell in love with the Okanagan’s beauty as well as unique businesses.

More recently, I realized I might never return to the Lower Mainland due to Greyhound shutting down and the loss of my truck which was broken into by thieves or intruders that infest the city of Penticton.

However, I have reasons and means to return to the Lower Mainland and will do so with a sad, yet joyful heart. How? Sad to leave, joyful to head back to the coast, sad for the state of this fair city that I have come to love.

I wish to thank Colin Cross, Penticton Chamber Theatre, Okanagan Falls United Church and other churches, The Grooveyard, the long gone CD Plus, So Sweet, The Dream Cafe and the local newspapers for their welcoming me in the ways that they did, especially the newspapers for letting me write and express myself as well as the two employers who I have worked for.

I would be remiss to not mention that I am disappointed in my fellow Penticton residents for their failure to protect this city from pollution as well as double dealing politicians and business people as well as absentee landlords who often reside in other cities.

I am saddened that some businesses were not welcoming to me and that some employers in Penticton are not fair to their staff.

I am saddened by the many NIMBYs who seem to be against visitors to Penticton as well as by those letter writers stuck in the ideologies of long-bankrupt political parties.

I want Penticton to be a unique and flourishing city without it becoming a smaller version of Kelowna or Kamloops. I wish that local and visiting drivers would obey the safety laws of this city and that we would see far better service from the Penticton branch of the discredited, colonialist Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

I wish that homelessness would be honourably overcome by all citizens working together, that the criminal element would receive fair and just punishment and change their ways, and that this city would return to being safe in reality not just in the perception of the police, politicians and civil servants.

Patrick Longworth

Penticton