Poverty

Greed Season officially opens with a death.

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It is the Friday following American Thanksgiving, official opening day of the Greed Season.

Before dawn Friday a ravaging horde, maddened by their greed at the promise of bargains, literally trampled a Wal-Mart employee to death. A man was being trampled to death and the crowd kept stampeding into the store and shopping, going so far as to push the police, who were there to try to save the life of the trampled employee, out of the way of shoppers run riot in their panic at the thought of missing a bargain.

The world economy is in meltdown and the root cause of this meltdown is greed.

Not just the greed of those in the financial system, although their insatiable greed and quest for multi-million dollar bonuses triggered the current economic implosion which has us teetering on the brink of disaster.

The greed was spread far and wide. The greed of shareholders who demanded faster, higher rising stock prices; the greed of executives for the multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses that came with delivering higher and higher stock prices; the greed of workers focused on wages and benefits; the greed of financiers for large fees and interest charges in financing these companies – whether they were viable or not; greed of politicians for the political contributions generated by all this greed; greed by the public that bought into the impossible political promises of lower taxes and wealth for all; greed that reprehensible acquisitiveness, that insatiable desire for wealth.

A house of paper built on the foundation of greed, an empty house collapsing in on itself as if it were of no more substance than a house built out of playing cards.

The price we will pay in correcting the economic mess that building on a foundation of greed is going to be painful, perhaps extremely painful. Unfortunately this pain will fall most heavily on the most vulnerable in our society, those least deserving or able to bear the price.

I strongly advocate that we consider the wisdom of using the virtue of charity as the foundation and as the building blocks with which we rebuild.

Not just the more restricted modern use of the word charity in its meaning of benevolent giving, but charity in the fullness of its older meaning as an unlimited loving-kindness toward all others.

As a result of our greed over the past two decades our food banks are inundated with those who depend on them for the food to sustain life. As a result of the fallout from our greed our food banks are currently being swamped by new clients in need. As a result of focusing on ourselves, donations at our food banks are falling at the very time they need to be rising.

What is needed is a generous outpouring of loving-kindness for others that results in a tidal wave of donations to our food banks (and Christmas Bureaus) assuring that anyone in need will find sustenance.

Let us turn our back on greed and embrace charity in its full meaning of unlimited loving-kindness toward all others and not focus on worrying about our own future economic situation. Rather than worrying about the future, focus on those in need now.

Instead of buying another dust-catcher for that hard to buy for someone on your Christmas gift list, make a donation to you local food bank in their name. Or perhaps rather than an exchange of gifts, you can exchange donations.

Offices often have those $10 gift exchange games. Why not everyone throw the $10 into an envelope for donation to the local food bank? I have complete faith that another game can be found to give people a chance to laugh at our own and others foibles.

We need to be creative and generous in meeting the demands placed on our local food banks by increasing hunger and need in our communities.

It is time and past time that rather than trampling others underfoot, we extent our hand to help up those in need of such help.

Municipal

Stick to Arts reporting

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Reading Kevin Mills opinion on the Abbotsford election results makes one thing clear – why he is not reporting on financial matters.

“Council also stated that any overruns would be paid for through reserves.” No council swore up and down that the $85 million was all the projects would cost and that the contracts would be written to guarantee that the cost did not go over $85 million.

It was not until council was caught playing fast and loose with costs they were aware of but concealed that talk turned to those costs and any overruns (despite council swearing there would be no such overruns) being covered out of reserves.

Mr. Mills apparently shares the councillor’s view that reserves magically appear, as opposed to the financial reality that reserves also come out of taxpayer’s pockets.

Mr. Mills is certainly entitled to be happy with the fact we got no federal funding because council did not bother to ask the federal government for funding and that we did not get any provincial funds because they did not bother to contact our local MLAs and the province in a timely matter.

However, Mr. Mills has no right to deny other taxpayers the right to be angry about the mismanagement and being stuck paying the extra $$$ tens of millions.

Mr. Mills further demonstrates his lack of logic and attention to detail with his statement “I see a trend here!” in reference to Christine Caldwell not being re-elected because of writing a letter opposing Plan A. If, as Mr. Mills implies, voters were so supportive of Plan A as to be punishing those who were not mindless supporters, how was it that Mr. Gill who voted against the budget in opposing Plan A got re-elected?

Mr. Mills crowning piece of illogic is his assertion that opposition to Plan A was a desire “… to move backwards instead of forwards…”. To anyone who takes the time to review the positions and statements made by myself and others who opposed Plan A it was not a matter of moving backwards but of how we move forwards.

Mr. Mills evidently does not grasp the concepts that taxpayers should have control of the design of capital projects; of the need for priorities that include not just entertainment projects but the nitty-gritty capital projects such as sewer and water on which a big city runs; that good fiscal management of a big city includes making the effort to exhaust all funding possibilities to reduce the tax burden imposed on citizens; or that having become a big city capital projects should be part of a long term infrastructure development plan – not a rushed and hastily thrown together massive expenditure of taxpayers funds.

In extolling all these new and wonderful buildings Mr. Mills ignores the consequences that paying for these buildings are going to have on the city and taxpayers personally, especially in light of the harsh economic reality that is emerging around the world as the bill for years of living beyond our means on borrowed money comes due.

The one point Mr. Mills was correct on is that, as is always the case, the future will reveal what the results and consequences of Plan A are and so enable us to judge what actions should (or should not) have been taken.

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By Kevin Mills – Abbotsford News November 17

As I sat at my computer, waiting impatiently for the City of Abbotsford to post the results of Saturday night’s municipal election, I started to wonder if all those letter writers would be right.
Anyone who reads the letters to the editor on a regular basis will remember all the protests and gnashing of teeth surrounding the Plan A projects. It’s still going on.
Letter writers, who in a previous column I dubbed the vocal minority, yelled out that voters would make city council pay for these projects and tax hikes – that apparently nobody wanted.
Of course you have to ignore the fact that we, the voting public, said yes to the projects in a referendum. We agreed to let the city borrow $85 million for the projects. Council also stated that any overruns would be paid for through reserves. If you go to the museum archives and read the stories in The News, you may discover that the city has said that repeatedly.
But I digress.
Despite a vote in favour of Plan A, the vocal minority raised their voices in anguish and declared an ultimatum. Many stated, in print, that voters would make the council pay by getting rid of them and voting in new councillors. Yes, the public would have its revenge.
Late Saturday night, when the results finally came in, voters had re-elected six of the seven incumbent councillors who ran for office.
Let me say that in a simple way so no one misunderstands. The seven people who ran for office were already on council when Plan A was approved.
Abbotsford voters re-elected six of them, giving them a vote of confidence for what they have been doing for the past three years.
I guess the vocal minority really showed them.
The only incumbent candidate who didn’t get re-elected was Christine Caldwell, who just before the final Plan A vote, before leaving on vacation, wrote a letter stating she had partially changed her mind on Plan A and was against the arena.
So voters got rid of a councillor who was against the largest part of Plan A.
I see a trend here!
Our new mayor, George Peary, has stated in The News that he believes council was correct for supporting and approving Plan A – and he won in a landslide.
It’s time for a reality check people. The city is changing and the majority of voters want an arts centre, they want a better recreation centre, they want a sports complex!
Abbotsford is a city on the grow and this election proves, that despite the naysayers, despite those who want to move backwards instead of forwards, despite the always vocal minority, we are a big city now.
Abbotsford’s future looks brighter than ever – a new hospital, a new university, an arts centre, a huge recreation centre and a soon-to-be-open sports complex. I can’t wait to see what the future brings.
Whatever it is, it will be nothing to complain about!

Hmmm

A cautionary Tale.

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It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then to loosen up. Inevitably though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone – “to relax,” I told myself. But I knew it wasn’t true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.
I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don’t mix, but I couldn’t stop myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, “What is it exactly we are doing here?”

Things weren’t going so great at home either. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother’s. I soon had a reputation as a heavy thinker. One day the boss called me in. He said, “Skippy, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don’t stop thinking on the job, you’ll have to find another job.” This gave me a lot to think about.

I came home early after my conversation with the boss. “Honey,” I confessed, “I’ve been thinking…”

“I know you’ve been thinking,” she said, “and I want a divorce!”

“But Honey, surely it’s not that serious.”

“It is serious,” she said, lower lip aquiver. “You think as much as college professors, and college professors don’t make any money, so if you keep on thinking we won’t have any money!”

“That’s a faulty syllogism,” I said impatiently, and she began to cry. I’d had enough. “I’m going to the library,” I snarled as I stomped out the door.

I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche, with NPR on the radio. I roared into the parking lot and ran up to the big glass doors… they didn’t open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.

As I sank to the ground clawing at the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. “Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?” it asked. You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinker’s Anonymous poster.

Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker. I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was “Porky’s.” Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.
I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed… easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking.

Municipal

Could insanity be the explanation?

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Crime, grow-ops, gangs, increasing violence, murder capital of Canada, homelessness, addiction, poverty, mental illness, affordable housing, hunger/lack of food, children going to bed hungry, sewage infrastructure, drinking water infrastructure, tire eating roads, paving, line painting or repainting, highest municipal tax levels in the lower mainland, $10 million for warehouse space labeled as a Cultural Centre, millions of dollar$ in cost over runs, etc. etc. etc. …

Abbotsford is deteriorating under council’s mismanagement; people are complaining about increasing tax levels, about large tax increases, crime, social problems etc; yet citizens choose to re-elect the very people responsible for the problems as if they expect them to act differently and solve problems rather than continuing to create/worsen problems.

A.A. has a saying concerning repeating the same action (electing, re-electing councilors) over and over again, expecting or hoping for a different outcome.

That is the definition of insanity.

Municipal

Lucky Opening Day was Sunny.

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I had to laugh, to avoid crying as I walked into ARC through the new addition for the first time Friday.

With an all-candidates meeting on Friday night I had to swim early, before Yale high school was out, and found myself parking beneath the new extension.

After walking up the fire escape stairs because the elevator was out-of-service due to malfunction, I turned to head down the ramp to head into the old building and the pool and found myself walking around the bucket set out to catch the water leaking into our new recreation facility through its brand new roof.

I also had to step carefully so as not to slip in the two rivulets of water that ran down the ramp.

It was very lucky for our current council that their rushed pre-election grand opening was on a dry non-rainy day. The public would probably have been considerably less impressed if it had been raining and they had to walk around or carefully to avoid the leaks in their expensive new roof.