The Midnight blasts shook the ground. In the morning all that remained of the beautiful sundial in Denver’s Crammer Park were bits and pieces. It had been no ordinary sundial. Six feet across and carved a out of red Colorado sandstone, it had been exact copy of an ancient Chinese time-telling device. Now it lay in ruins, victim of unknown bomber.
“Probably some teenager trying to show off”. Adults in the city grumbled.
Yeah, they’re nothing but trouble, “others agreed.
«Hey, we didn’t do anything,» high school students throughout the metropolis responded with growing frustration. «Every time something happens, we get blamed. Makes us mad! Let’s go out and really blow something up. They say everything’s our fault anyway, so why not?»
«Wait,» other teens advised, «that would just prove the adults right. Why don’t we do something that will show them how wrong they are to blame us for the bad stuff that happens?»
One by one, school by school, the teenagers of Denver began to go from door-to-door, business-to-business, raising money to replace the destroyed sundial. «Hey,» adults began to say, «we’d better get in on this before the teens do it all!»
When public officials unveiled the beautiful new sundial later that year, the glory belonged to the very teens the city had blamed earlier. One junior high school alone raised a large chunk of the money.
If that new sundial ever gets blown up, one group in Denver won’t be under suspicion. The teens! They’ve proved themselves above the rumors and nasty accusations and have shown once and for all that all teens aren’t bad. Most, in fact, are very, very good.