Knowing I had volunteered to setup, tear-down and cleanup for the Blue Bus, a friend brought me a copy of Regina Dalton’s July 29th Abbotsford News Letter to the Editor when he came to access the meal, foodstuffs and clothing provided by the Blue Bus two Sundays a month.
Being July 31, once cleanup was finished I headed home to pay September’s rent before heading to find a spot to write about yet another absurd decision by politicians and bureaucrats to waste money on an ineffective ‘get the homeless off the streets’ boondoggle. Another demonstration of politicians masterful ability to increase homelessness, poverty, economic disadvantage, their salaries and the levels of Irony in Canada.
Did you ever wonder how many people die a year from bureaucracy?
Of course, the last thing politicians and bureaucrats want is anything that smacks of accountability for the human cost of their actions. And since the politicians and bureaucrats make the rules, you don’t die of bureaucracy but of ‘complications of diabetes’ even though the complications result from or are worsened by bureaucracy.
Having an open mind does not mean your brain will leak out.
But an open mind does mean that new ideas and information can get in. A fate that apparently terrifies many, including it would seem Abbotsford’s mayor and council, to the point their seal their minds shut. For this group changing their minds involves a rearranging of their prejudices and the myths they operate under.
So, when the City of Abbotsford descended upon the homeless camp on Gladys Avenue, began erecting the fence and, backed by the presence of the Abbotsford police, coerced the homeless to move or lose their belongings where did letter writer C. Howard think the homeless would go – Saskatchewan?
