Two Months! I’ve been retired for two months; I can hardly believe it. It has been a busy summer but there have been a lot of slow days as well. That’s when I’m really thankful that I have a shop in which I can build things as well as a large yard that always needs attention.
Some mornings, like today, I reflect on what all is happening around me. In different conversations I have learned a lot about how people think. Having been bound to the downtown through my work at the kitchen I was not exposed as much to what people in the community were thinking. Since retirement, I have heard more opinions on the subject of helping those less fortunate than I thought possible.
Opinions range from help at all costs all the way to “throw them under a bus”, and a few in-between. So of course I wonder what shapes their thinking the way they do. Then one day we went on a bike ride, from Michener hill to Kerry Wood, then on the south side of the river to Bower Ponds. From there it was on to Heritage Ranch, around to West Park and back along the water treatment plant and home.
This city is a beautiful place to live and so as we approached the treatment plant, we stopped to take a picture. There on the bank of the river, we found two homeless camps. Having been in that work for twenty years, I checked out the camps. There were the typical discarded blankets and sleeping bags, food containers and hundreds of needle pacs. The second camp had even more blankets plus high-heeled shoes, even a child restraint seat, and again the needle debris.
What beauty we had been enjoying on our ride, suddenly was clouded by the incredible mess that was left behind. It felt like watching a person’s hand with flawless skin with one big ugly wart on one finger which totally distracts one’s view.
So I find in myself that I am changing in my attitude toward the whole situation. I still have a lot of empathy for those with issues like handi-caps that place them in harm’s way, but I find that I am slowly losing most of my sympathy towards those who just fell into a habit and now destroy anyone and everything to supply that habit.
We all face issues in life where we are faced with choices of how to respond or deal with these issues, and while I recognise that there are many extenuating factors that influence decision making, I still feel that intervention at that point could help. Meeting all their needs while using is enabling. Of course, they need to be fed and provided with a place to sleep, but to me, supplying them with everything but the actual drug is enabling. Even many of the recovered hard core addicts will tell you that.
So, while the three levels of government are raking in on the sale of weed, we the public really need to hold them accountable. Because they are only taxing the one legal drug, those funds need to be directed toward the reduction of illegal drugs and their use, not enable it.
It is like I mentioned earlier, the road we have taken is slowly turning the general population more and more against these folks; I am hearing it every day. Before we get into situations where a single incident will become the final straw, making us turn fully against any help at all, we have to stand back, take a careful and critical look at how we are approaching the situation and find more constructive ways of helping.
I still feel that every life is worth saving!
Chris Salomons is a Retired Red Deer Resident with a concern for the downtrodden