Consider, Mental Health, Poverty, The Economy

The Saga Motors on -The Door Drops II.

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I got home on Saturday and as I was putting things [keys etc] in their proper place so I could find them Sunday [provided the Universe didn’t translocate them overnight] I found my cell phone was not in its holster. Panic time as I sped out to the car to see if I dropped the phone in the car; no cell phone and I rushed back inside, with visions of having dropped my cell phone somewhere in the Real Canadian Superstore.

I invoked the 5 minute rule [timeout if I have not found what I am looking for within 5 minutes] picked up L. E. Modesitt’s new book Antiagon Fire, read and relaxed. Going to get some water I spotted the cell phone lying in plain sight on the floor by the door. Better yet it had not been stepped on in my rush to check the car.

Aaaahhhhhhhhh.

INTERMISSION

Sundays are a day of respite, of reflection and recharging spent at home doing…..whatever I am moved to do. For some reason this Sunday I felt the need [was nagged by the need?] to take the binder with WIP [Words in Progress] and a MP3 player and go get a coffee, listen to music and get some of the words on the four items currently in progress out of my head onto paper. Plus give some thought to items for The James Commentary.

Getting dressed, rounding up my WIP binder and music I head out to the car to search out coffee, listen to music and write. The 5 year old across the street tells me my car door has been open all night. In the panic of looking for my cell phone I failed to take my time and make sure the door was shut. Sigh, I leave the car unlocked all night and in the morning………it is still there to haunt me.

Getting into the car I employ the Breckenridge Emergency Ingress/Egress Method to close the driver’s door, make sure to fasten the seatbelt [having to use the rope to close the door has changed my rhythm and I have started to drive off without the seatbelt on several times], insert and turn the key and get a rude click-click-click. With the clicking the first thought is the need to replace the starter – AARRGGHH!!.

I lean back to take a deep breath and see the dome light is looking a little pale and decide that if I am lucky the door was open enough to have the dome light on all night and all I need is a boost.

As I get out of the car I decide to go with a positive attitude and tell myself it was lucky I decided to go out or I would have found myself scrambling on Monday to get the car running in time to make it to work.

The Universe’s reply to this positive attitude was for an insect I didn’t see, to bite/sting me; a bite/sting that burned with a distracting level of pain for over an hour.

Among the ‘protection when the Universe is toying with me’ or ‘out of sync with the flow’ crisis intervention accouterments in the car is jumper cables. Which was handy as the friend I called for a boost didn’t have jumper cables. The cables were hooked up, the jump she was given and – voila – car starts with no hesitation.

Being short on gas I decided to drive by my friend Tom’s place to borrow his battery charger, since it does a much better job of Battery recovery, and to [wisely] borrow his floor jack as well since I need to change out the small spare tire, a tire that is clearly marked “Temporary Use Only”.

Returning home I gather and lay out the items I will need – the two extra Thunderbird tires sitting on my porch, tire iron, pliers, screwdriver and Tom’s floor jack.

As I am about to start the 5 year old from across the street comes out to ‘help’ me. Fortunately his family was going to see a movie. Unfortunately they didn’t leave until he had ‘helped’ with 3 of the 4 tires.

Yes, I could have chased him away or screamed at him when he once again got to close to the car when it was jacked up. But he needs to know how to change a tire and perhaps will benefit from hearing about gravity, heavy objects jacked up and the propensity heavy objects like cars have for falling. Besides, raising a child is a community responsibility.

Four tires because I needed to put the two Thunderbird tires on the back, using a back tire to replace the spare. I know, that is only three but the passenger side front tire had noticeably more wear than the rear tire I had replaced with a Thunderbird tire. With the driver side front tire delaminating as I was starting onto the Mission Bridge I am feeling cautious.

Cautious to the point of removing the front tire and replacing it with the rear tire, even though the rear tire had a slow leak. Why tempt fate over the possible need to change the front tire if the leak worsens? Especially the way things are going with me and the car.

Lifting Tom’s heavy floor jack into and out of the trunk may have been a chore, but the advantages of using a floor jack to change all four tires made the effort a wise decision.

Fortune also favoured me in having put the extension cord, when last it was used [to power the battery charger to charge the battery the last time a car problem had resulted in a dead battery] in one of the two rational places to put an extension. This fortunate turn of fate, putting the extension cord away in a rational location, at least made powering up the battery charger straight forward.

Of course as I sit here putting the finishing touches on this latest instalment in the ongoing saga of me and The Cougar I can feel in my muscles and joints that I am going to pay a price for changing those four tires tomorrow and probably for an additional day or two. Did I mention I had to reach into the back seat of the Cougar and pull out the folding stool because I needed a rest break (or two)?

Oh to be five again – but only if I get to keep lessons learned and wisdom gained.

This brings the tale of the Cougar up to Now.

Leaving me without a great deal more to say except – HELP, I need to find a replacement before something not easily repaired grounds the Cougar – and me – or before they come to take me away Ha-ha, Ho-ho, Hee-hee-haa-haa to the funny farm where life is beautiful all the time…….

behaviour, Homeless, Issues, Media, Municipal, Politics

Words do NOT an apology make.

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Despite what you may have heard or read in the media, neither Mayor Banman nor Abbotsford City Council have made their apologies to the homeless for the use of chicken s**t as a weapon in the war the mayor and council have been waging on the homeless.

Mayor Banman has, under the intense scrutiny of the media, taken the step that political correctness and PR demanded – a photo op with his mayorness saying “sorry” and shaking hands with the homeless.

Mayor Banman’s words do not constitute an apology.

Consider: I walk up to you and smacked you hard ‘upside the head’, say “Sorry” and leave. The next day I walk up to you and smacked you hard ‘upside the head’, say “Sorry” and leave. The day after that I walk up to you and smacked you hard ‘upside the head’, say “Sorry” and leave. This continues for 30 days,

Have I apologized to you 30 times? Of course not! The word “sorry”, no matter how many times it is said, is meaningless….unless and until I change the offensive behaviour, until I cease to smack you hard ‘upside the head’.. An apology occurs when the offender stops the offensive behaviour.

Mayor Banman’s “sorry” is nothing more than an acknowledgement that his, city council’s and the City of Abbotsford’s interpersonal accounts with the homeless are out of balance; that the lack of scruples and ethics in the City’s treatment of the homeless has resulted in a debt being owed the homeless.

The personal account balances of the mayor, council, the City of Abbotsford and Abbotsford’s homeless citizens cannot be brought into balance through words.

The homeless have heard Abbotsford mayors and councils say “sorry” on numerous occasions over the past ten years. “Sorry” being said to the homeless whenever the actions of mayors and councils have put the City of Abbotsford under negative public scrutiny by the media. If there is any group in Abbotsford who understand how valueless the words, particularly “sorry”, of Abbotsford’s mayors and councillors are – it is the homeless.

The mayor, council and the City of Abbotsford will have apologized to the homelss when they stop treating the homeless like an infestation to be cleansed from the city and treat them as human beings in need of a helping hand, encouragement and support to get on their feet and achieve a state of wellness.

behaviour, Consider, Homeless, Issues, Life, Municipal

Pond Scum

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Yin – Yang; Balance; The Good – The Ugly.

The Good.

The attention of the media to the City of Abbotsford’s use of chicken sh*t as a biological weapon against the homeless in Abbotsford got the chicken sh*t mostly cleaned up and it accomplished the more important task of preventing the use of chicken sh*t from becoming the city’s policy for dealing with the homeless and homeless camps.

The Ugly.

Media coverage of this issue resulted in several of the homeless appearing on television as part of the media coverage.

One such person was approached after his appearance on television by someone who stated there was an elderly gentleman who had won multi-millions of dollars on a lotto ticket several years ago. This wealthy gentleman had a policy of using his lotto wealth to awarded $500,000 to people down on their luck and needing help such as this homeless individual.

Just think what he could do with $500,000. Previous recipients have flourished after receiving their $500,000, what would he do with his $500,000?

The people who had approached him had visions of sugar plums dancing in his head along with dreams of what he was going to do with the $500,000 and the changes this would make in his life. He could own his own home.

And all that was needed for him to receive this $500,000 was a $1,000 to them so they could make sure the gentleman who awards $500,000 was aware of this homeless person so he would be awarded $500,000.

Fortunately greed meant there was a need to come up with $1,000 which led to this situation being shared and recognized as a scam. Given the speed with which this spread throughout the homeless community any others who were or scheduled to be targets will be warned.

Too many see the most vulnerable, such as the homeless, of our fellow citizens as a problem to be ignored; or as disposable trash, or as prey.

People constantly moan about the state of society carrying on as if their actions have nothing to do with the society we have.

Society is built by the behaviour and choices of each and every citizen. All the fancy, self-satisfied words and labels people employ about themselves are meaningless given the vast difference between their words and their actions.

“The True Measure of Any Society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members” – Ghandi

We have the society we have chosen to build, the society we deserve.

Addiction, behaviour, Consider, Issues, Municipal, Politics

U, ME & ASS

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“Assumption is the mother of the screw-up” Angelo Donghia

Homelessness, addiction, mental healthcare and poverty are a complex, convoluted entanglement of interrelated issues. Like an onion there are multiple layers that need to be peeled away to get to the core.

The dominant barrier to making headway against homelessness, addiction, mental healthcare and poverty is the fact that the majority of people confuse their assumptions with knowledge, fact and reality.

Alfred Adler was a physician, psychotherapist, and the founder of Individual psychology and is often considered one of the most important figures in psychology history who stated:

“The human mind shows an urge to capture into fixed forms through unreal assumptions, that is, fictions, that which is chaotic, always in flux, and incomprehensible.”    

“that which is chaotic, always in flux, and incomprehensible”  is an accurate reflection of the reality one faces in tackling the muddle that is homelessness, addiction, mental healthcare and poverty.

People assume there is a solution when there isn’t; we can address the individual issues and challenges but there is no ‘solution’.

People assume the existence of one (or a few) ‘one size fits all’ approaches when the reality is that, while there are shared needs, each individuals journey to wellness is unique and your support system has to be flexible enough to deliver support reflecting an individual’s needs.

People assume that all that is needed is to go to treatment when the evidence is overwhelming that on its own our current system of treatment fails those who go to treatment. There is an interview available online where the interviewer is shocked when Dr. Gabor Mate speaks of 5% sober at the end of their first year as being excellent results – using our current approach.

People assume the current method is the approach we should be using. Our current system of treatment gets people sober and somewhat stable. The key to an individual’s success is what occurs after they leave treatment. The vast bulk of what an individual needs to do to achieve wellness remains to be done after they leave treatment and will require years of work. We know what community based supports and programs a person requires to achieve wellness; best practices elsewhere provide examples and guides as to how to dramatically increase a person’s probability of achieving wellness.

People assume dealing with addiction, mental health, poverty or those homeless is easy. I once had a chain smoker stand there puffing through cigarette after cigarette while explaining that all an addict needed to do was quit, never seeing the absurdity of the situation. Did you know that more people are addicted to nicotine after their first use than are addicted to heroin after first use?

People assume that people can be forced or motivated to find wellness. You can lock people up and deny them access to drugs [although drug smuggling and use in prison demonstrate the futility of trying to deal with medical issues outside of the medical system] but unless you plan to lock them up permanently…….. “please daddy, please dear if you loved me…” does not provide the will needed to slog along the path to wellness. The level of motivation needed to keep moving forward; even on the days the headwinds are pushing you backwards can only come from within, deep within, the individual.

“You can’t make assumptions when you’re dealing with health issues.”

Assumptions have mired us in the insanity of doing the same behaviour over and over as though somehow the results will be different next time.

The abundance of quotes available addressing the consequences of assumptions demonstrates the truth of Christopher Meloni’s observation “Too often, people find it easier to make assumptions and stick with what they believe……. it makes their job easier. The good people constantly search for something different.”

If we want to stop letting homelessness, addiction, mental healthcare and poverty ‘drive the bus’ and to take control of the bus we need to set aside assumptions [and what we want to be true] and focus on the realities.          

“If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance”              Orville Wright

Assume: to make an ass out of U and ME.

 

*****************************************

An Assumption Example from The James Commentary:

Stardate:        91041.31

Sol III Date:    13/06/08/22.02

On the matter of assumptions I offer for your consideration:

Thrifty:        practicing economy or economical management; frugal: a thrifty shopper

Thrift Store:   a retail store that sells secondhand goods at reduced prices.

We assume that shopping at thrift stores is frugal; after all they are thrift stores, how can a Thrift Store not be a frugal place to shop”

Caveat emptor: let the buyer beware:

Sometimes Thrift Stores are not very thrifty places to shop.

“The least questioned assumptions are often the most questionable.” 

Paul Broca

Consider, Issues, Municipal, Politics

Words of Apology…

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… are for those who speak them, not for those to whom the words are spoken.

The City of Abbotsford has issued an apology, assigned blame and exonerated the mayor, council and city manager in connection with the city’s use of chicken fecal matter against the homeless.

Is the City of Abbotsford apologizing for the policy that led, inevitably to this or some other scurrilous action against the homeless? Or is the City of Abbotsford apologizing for getting caught?

What reason is there for the homeless to think this apology and any promises attached to this apology are, or will be, any more meaningful that the apologies and broken promises made by mayors and councils to the homeless in the past?

The wolf was sick, he vowed a monk to be:

But when he got well, a wolf once more was he.

Walter Brower

The question is what will the behaviour of the City of Abbotsford towards the homeless be once the media is not watching and phoning the mayor about the City’s behaviour?

It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed,

than to repent of those that we intend to commit.

Josh Billings

 The true crux of the matter of the City’s use of chicken fecal matter as a weapon against the homeless is not the deployment of chicken fecal matter but the City policies – the policies of the mayor, council and city manager vis–à–vis the homeless and homelessness – that culminated in the use of chicken fecal matter as a chemical weapon against the homeless.

Otherwise, while the City may not ever deploy chicken fecal matter against the homeless again, the policy that led to the use of chicken fecal matter now, will inevitably lead to future actions by or on behalf of mayor and council that are as or more reprehensible that the City’s current abuse of the homeless with chicken fecal matter.

Mayor and council have totally ignored the apology they owe the citizens of Abbotsford for the scurrilous actions against the homeless mayor and council have made them party too. There is also the matter of the total disregard for the health and welfare of all the citizens of Abbotsford that the city’s action in spreading this toxic material where it would be tracked throughout the City of Abbotsford.

Bad men are full of repentance. Aristotle

If you speak to the homeless themselves their concern is not with the chicken sh*t current behaviour that the mayor and council’s homeless policies have resulted in, but with the future policies of the mayor and council with regard to the homeless and the future actions by city staff towards – or against – the homeless that mayor and council’s policies bring about.

In regard to the City’s current media driven apology, the homeless will tell you that they are in agreement with Tryon Edwards:

Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past.