‘abbotsford christians’:

Those who go to church every Sunday, talk the talk, but whose actions fail to even begin to walk the walk. Or in the words so well written to the local paper:

“Jesus didn’t praise them for building beautiful churches with wonderful programs, instead, he praised them for feeding the hungry, clothing the needy, sheltering strangers, and taking care of the sick and imprisoned. Jesus said that whatever you do to the least of these, that is what you are doing to him.If we want to be known as a Christian community, all of us need to join the ranks of those who are doing what Jesus actually told us to do. Let’s start meeting the needs of those in Abbotsford who have the least. While the needs of the least of these in our community are so wholly unmet, how dare we even begin to take a moral stand. It will only be regarded as gross hypocrisy.”

Editor, Abbotsford Times

I just want to clear up a misunderstanding arising from the failure of the Times to properly put in quotation marks and use small letters instead of capitals. In my original letter sent to the Times and posted on the View from the Street page of homelessinabbotsford.com it was ‘abbotsford christians’. The use of small letters and quotation marks was to make it clear I was referring specifically to Gertie Pool and her like, her fellow ‘abbotsford christians’ as opposed to the practicing Christians of our city.

Those Christians who not only talk about their Christian principles but practice them in their daily lives. It disturbed me when I spoke to Gordon and his fellow Christians as they ministered to the hungry homeless and poor, that this failure on the part of the Times to use quotation marks and small letters to distinguish between the two groups (practicing and non-practicing) would cause him to think I would paint the Christians in our city with the same brush I would apply to the ‘abbotsford christians’.

Many Christians throughout the City strive to help those of their fellow citizens in need. If any of these felt I do not appreciate them, please stand corrected – I truly admire and appreciate your willingness to practice your Faith in your daily lives. In fact, the point I had hoped to make in my letter to Gertie Pool is that this city would be far better of with more Christians like you, who live your Faith as opposed to those who only talk their ‘faith’.

Incorrect to say ‘A Homeless Problem’.

“Your Wrong!” I tell people who speak to me of ‘a homeless problem’ or of ‘a solution’. ‘Homeless is a label applied to make it easier to paint the issue with the broad strokes of slogans and ideological points of view. Drunks, druggies, hookers, dregs of society, criminals, bums who do not want to work. Much easier to avoid thing about an issue when you can just stick ugly, prejudicial and untrue statements on a very complex situation.

And it is very complex. Because what you have is not a ‘homeless’ situation but a PEOPLE problem. Does anyone want to argue that any situation involving people is not only subject to all kinds of complexities caused by the differences among people, it is also going to become more of a mess if ignored and/or addressed only by knee-jerk reactions? Factor in that we are not dealing with a few dozen people but currently hundreds and if we continue to waste resources to accomplish nothing we could pass the thousand mark. 1,000 – seems high or impossible does it not? The simple math of addition tells us that if you keep on adding to this group of people, the number will continue to rise. What is needed is to take advantage of the other simple math – subtraction. If, instead of wasting your resources in pointless pursuits such as chasing them from spot to spot around the city, you target your resources at getting people off the streets you reduce the number of people living without homes in the city. Politicians seem to have a real problem with the adding vs. subtracting concepts. Perhaps this stems from wasting taxpayers $$$$ in all the different ways they manage to find to squander money.

‘A’ people problem. It is wrong to use ‘a’ as it is singular, implying only one problem. Come spend some time with me and you will discover there is no ‘a’ here. You will find an amazingly diverse group of people, that at best could only be grouped into small groups. Even grouping them into small groups would not be easy, nor would it reduce the complexity of the situation. The complexity of the situation is why speaking of ‘a solution’ is wrong. Another math analogy? Remember algebra and equations and how difficult it could be with just 3 variables (x,y,z) to solve the problem? Think how hard or impossible it would be to solve those equations with hundreds of variables – different needs, issues, challenges, mental illness, problems, etc. For the politicians, just imagine the situation if you were to try to keep all those (conflicting) election promises. With a people problem and hundreds of people as variables finding a solution, well I would say a snowball has a better chance of surviving in hell.

So, am I saying this is so complex a people problem we should give up? No! I am saying that we need to change the way we examine and think about the situation. I am saying that if you take a close look at the homeless population you find a wide variety of people. These different people have a wide variety of challenges, handicaps, problems, needs and choices they face in ceasing to be homeless. Person A or small group A need a certain program of help to get off the street. Person B or small group B need a slightly different program of help to get off the street. And so on through the rest of the people who are living on the street and lumped together under the label homeless.

In recognizing that this about PEOPLE not about labels, in seeing the complexity hidden behind that simple label, you begin to see the separate strands tangled together into the knotty mess we currently have. At this point you can begin to take effective actions. In seeing the strands you can begin to untangle or resolve the individual strands and thus address the overall situation. Because what you find is a much simpler series of problems you can address simply by thinking out what you need to do, then taking appropriate actions. So the real question is: do we want to keep wasting resources or do we want to stop, think, then act effectively and accomplish something?

James W Breckenridge

Confidence – a Casualty of War

Confidence n.

1. firm trust, belief or expectation.
2. belief in one’s own abilities.

So easily lost – So hard to find again. One forgets how much confidence underlies the ease with which we make decisions. When you find yourself on a roll and everything is going your way it is easy to decide because you firmly expect things to work out. But what happens when things have not been working out at all? Even if the fault or cause lies not with you, but in your stars. Bad timing, bad breaks or mental illness can all take choice away from you. When you find yourself freezing in panic when the phone rings, well it certainly was not something I chose to have happen. This is not a ‘wrong’ decision but your expectations shift and you begin to believe that anything that happens is going to be bad. And once you start down that road it quickly turns into a steep hill with you rocketing down into the mire of self-doubt. You question every decision, hesitate, firmly trusting that if it can go wrong it will go wrong – for you. Procrastination, flip-flopping, hesitation and avoidance all flow from this loss of belief. And it is far harder to get it back than to lose it since inability to decide carries with it its own set of problems and costs – further undermining ones self-belief.

The only way to get your confidence back is to have things start to work out. But before they can work out you have to DECIDE. You find yourself standing on the edge of a decision, but to you it seems you are standing on a precipice, with no bottom in site. Frozen. It is a long mental journey to get your confidence back and like the journey of 10,000 miles it too begins with the first step. And different decisions can seem to be the beginnings of whole new journey’s. The mental health part of my journey began with walking into Triangle Resources to begin to take their six week course. But to me the precipice was walking down the hall and putting my name on the (blank, clean white) list for one-on-one counseling. As I made choices about how I would work on my inner self and found myself getting healthier, I became confident in my choices about my mental health and so I have a firm belief in the correctness of the choices I make. If I feel the need to go to an al-anon meeting I trust that this is what I need to do and I go. But in some areas the experience has not been so positive. That is not to say that I am making ‘bad’ choices. Rather that the choices I have made have not caused positive re-enforcement that gives one a firm expectation that any choice you make will work out. For example: I have been casting my nets far and wide in my search for employment, without notable success. Now, I do not think I am making bad decisions or choices, but without a positive feedback of some kind doubt creeps in and you find yourself hesitating over things.

I have written about how ridiculous the attitude that a phone is not a necessity in getting a job, not to mention coordinating and running your life. I have felt that I really should have a phone, that it could have a positive and beneficial effect on my job search and life in general. But … without some positive feedback I found myself standing on that precipice again. Need it, how do I pay, positive credit effect of paying bill on time, what if I cannot pay, easy to contact me, no phone tag or missed opportunities, it’s a promise to pay – can I keep my promise? And around and around. Then on Saturday events developed, or is that worked out, so that in effect I was given a clear push in getting my act together and getting a phone. These days I tend to listen to these types of hints, I may not have complete confidence in my ability to decide, but I know when I must decide. Remember:
1. best decision is the right choice;
2. the next best decision is the wrong decision;
3. The worst decision is not to decide.

So when I get a big nudge telling me to decide, I decide. Although I had butterflies in my stomach the day before and a little negative voice questioned some of the decisions I made (phone, plan etc). I am relaxed with having made the decision, it is done, made and in the past and so cannot be changed. I have let it go. The thing to do now is to take full advantage of the communications available to me now that I have a phone, carpe diem (seize the day). By taking advantage of the opportunity the phone represents, the choice (to take the hint) to get the phone becomes positive re-enforcement in trusting that having made a decision it will work out. Making it easier to make and move from the multiple choices that we need to make in order to move forward with our lives as opposed to staying caught on the precipice.

But there are little things that could be done to start building up the confidence of the homeless in order to help them start to make decisions instead of freezing on the precipice. I have witnessed just how much of a positive effect the opportunity to clean up and get into clean clothes has on the homeless. It would not take much to set up a program (a test?) such that some of the homeless have access to showers, the chance to clean up, exercise good hygiene and clean clothes daily. They would start to feel better about their appearance, then themselves and to a certain extent would be wanting to continue to feel better about themselves. Once started down that road they would have to face themselves and some of their choices without an obscuring layer of dirt. Having a clearer view to see what is needed and what choices they have to make. Feeling better about yourself helps give you confidence in things working out in your favour, making the act of deciding easier. Granting the willingness to take a leap of belief in oneself. Getting off the streets involves choices. Mainly the choices of the homeless themselves. Some of the choices the other members of society make have an effect, both minor (daily bathing facilities) or major (offer of employment).

One needs to choose to change. Whether it is a nudge from the universe telling you to CHOOSE or a series of small choices/changes/opportunities that leads to a major life style CHOICE.

The question we need to address is what nudges or help can the community present that enable the homeless to begin to choose and gain confidence in what the results of their choosing are. So that they do not freeze on the precipice but are able to face and make decisions of major CHOICE. It may be as simple as giving them access to cleanliness.

Consider the following excerpts from the Rome Statutes establishing the International Criminal Court.

The jurisdiction of the Court shall be limited to the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole. The Court has jurisdiction in accordance with this Statute with respect to the following crimes:

(a) The crime of genocide;

(b) Crimes against humanity;

Article 6: Genocide

For the purpose of this Statute, “genocide” means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

Article 7: Crimes against humanity

For the purpose of this Statute, “crime against humanity” means any of the following acts when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population;

(a) Deportation or forcible transfer of population;

(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3, or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court;

(k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.

Now consider: the actions of the City government against the group of people who constitute the homeless in light of their attempt to “cleanse” the homeless from the city. Actions taken in the name of Abbotsford and its residents.

The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them,
but to be indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.
George Bernard Shaw