6 October 2003
What The Hell Are These People Thinking?
It’s a legitimate enough question given what I read in the newspaper a few days ago.
In an article published in the Edmonton Sun on 2 October 2003 it was revealed that Kamloops BC city council is considering a bylaw that will make it illegal to give money to panhandlers.
Now there isn’t a lot in this world that can make me flinch these days, but when I saw this article I damn near spit out what I was drinking.
What really pisses me off about that bylaw isn’t just the fact that the city is apparently trying to solve their homeless problem by removing what for some panhandlers is their only source of income, it’s also the sheer arrogance being displayed. A Kamloops City Councilor was quoted as saying that there wouldn’t be a problem with beggars if people would just stop giving them money.
That kind of reminded me of the line in Braveheart, when the English king turned to his advisors and stated that the problem with Scotland is that it’s full of Scots. Personally, I always thought it was the other way around and that the problem with England is that it’s full of English, but that’s another story.
Either way, that has to be the single biggest crock of shit I have heard in damn near twenty years. It’s the kind of thing that I would expect to hear from a Conservative American Businessman, the type of person who believes that the best thing you can do for a street person is give them a roll of duct tape so they can reinforce those cardboard boxes that they seem to like to live in.
And here’s another thing. We are living in the Jerry Springer Generation, an era in which random acts of kindness have become few and far between. Nobody gives a tinkers cuss anymore for anything but their little end of the world. Manners for our society as a whole have taken a nose dive right down the proverbial toilet, and it’s become socially acceptable for you to kick the living hell out of someone for as little reason as not liking the way they looked at you.
These people have to know this. They have to see these things happening every single day of their lives, and this is the solution that they come up with to help us get our culture and our society back in shape? They’re going to make one of the last truly public random acts of kindness we have left illegal? They’re going to fine people for feeling sorry for someone and trying to help them out?
Panhandling is not a crime. Being poor is not a crime. Being homeless is not a crime. But by even considering this new bylaw Kamloops City Council is pretty well saying that all these things are crimes, and should be stamped out.
It’s been a lot of years since I heard that kind of arrogance on this side of the border and I pray to God that I never hear such a thing from a prominent public figure ever again.
Maybe if Kamloops City Council would just stop and look at their situation and actually think about things they might figure out that the problem with the homeless isn’t that they’re homeless. A home is an abstract concept that means next to nothing to these people. What they really are is houseless. What they really need is low cost affordable housing.
The problem with low cost housing is that building it essentially requires government involvement, because the Public Sector wants nothing to do with it. There’s no money in it, so they don’t want to do it. And the government doesn’t want to do it for the same reason. In fact, the government gets it coming and going, because not only are they not making money off of low cost housing, it’s costing them money in subsidies to make the cost of housing affordable at all.
I still maintain that the only way this problem is going to be solved is for a privately held not for profit organization to buy up a whole whack of unused property and develop it into such money making affairs as strip malls. The proceeds from the rental of the retail space would then go towards building low cost housing, which would then be donated to the city to be doled out to those who need it most.
For an example of how I envision that would work, I encourage you to read my Musing from June entitled Some Thoughts on the Homeless Problem. If anyone else has any ideas on how such a venture would work I would love to hear from you.
In the meantime I’m going to get myself something to eat and try to put this monumental stupidity out of my mind. It’s days like this that make me wish I hadn’t stopped drinking.
From Petite via E-Mail:
You have touched upon one of the most aggravating, irritating, I-can't-reach-the-goddamn-itch pet peeves that I have.
People are homeless! Everybody knows it! Anybody can do something about it but Nobody cares! Somebody should! But then again, Nobody cares! Anybody can, but Everybody looks to Somebody else.
Yes, people are homeless but who gives a piss?
I do!
I've been working on a plan to help... in a small way...
Visit that place! I plan to attend the retreat. I'm working on a grant to get enough money to go. IF I can get enough for an ongoing apprenticeship, well... there's no stopping. I'll start on my rez, work my way out. Invade the country towns and push into the city. That's me, my plan and I. I was homeless once and don't plan ever to be so again! And would see that nobody else is either!
So... there it is! Here I am
a goal
in sight?
Perhaps...
Then again, the hill is very steep!
~smiles~
But I'm one stubborn injun!
Anyway, just wanted to let you know I really ENJOYED your comments on this!