This was written in reply to a letter sent to SCN at http://www.somethingcool.ca/ which the editor forwarded to me for a reply.

I have to agree with you George, the homeless problem is getting really tiring. I too am sick and tired of the behaviours that allow this problem, not only to continue, but to grow. You know what else I am really tired of?

I am tired of 80 year old retirees ending up homeless and at the emergency shelter because their pensions no longer can cover the skyrocketing cost of housing in the lower mainland. While on the topic of affordable housing I am not only tired of, but outraged by the fact that an increasing number of the homeless work 40+ hours a week but at salaries so low they cannot afford to live in the communities they work in.

Not to mention how tired I am of a society that allows a mother and her children to have to chose to live in their car because she cannot earn enough to both pay rent and maintain her automobile – which she needs to get to work.

I am tired of seeing the mentally challenged and those with special needs fall through the cracks onto the streets and into the emergency shelter. I am sickened by the difference in quality of life between those with challenges and special needs who are fortunate enough to get access to the limited funds and programs society condescends to provide and those who find themselves alone and at the mercy of an indifferent system.

I am tired and appalled by the numbers of mentally ill people wandering the streets, many ending up in addiction as they self medicate. I am tired of the holier than thou attitudes taken by many people towards those who suffer the scourge of addiction and people who usurp the Deity’s role/sole right to judge a person. I worry when I find myself thinking along the lines of “s/he is nice and deserves help; s/he is such an a*s that they do not deserve consideration and to be treated with humanity”.

I am tired of watching the indignities and hardships inflicted by the behaviour of the MEIA office in Abbotsford as contrasted with the behaviours with offices in other parts of the province. I am tired of a system that is focused on denying help to those we feel don’t deserve help, to the point where it denies badly needed services to those truly in need of aid.

I am tired of politicians and a public that would rather, happily, spend $150,000 a year to throw someone in jail, than to invest $15,000 a year in getting that person sober, mentally well and an opportunity to live a life of their own design. I am tired of a system of recovery and rehabilitation that is demonstrably not accomplishing the positive outcomes it should, but to which politicians, bureaucrats and much of the public cling. I m tired of local politicians who say the right things but do nothing worthy of note and whose actions reveal their words to be nothing but political bafflegab.

I am tired of a society that whines about the decline of morality and spiritual values as it steps over the homeless sleeping in the street, turns it back on seniors, children, families, mentally ill, mentally challenged, the working poor, growing economic unfairness, wages inadequate to sustain life, ….

I am tired of all that and more. Which is why I write to Fred about homeless happenings in Abbotsford. Because the homeless issues in Abbotsford are issues across our country; important societal issues that we must address and that say a great deal about just what type of society we really are.

It is why I advocate for those who so desperately need an advocate and a voice. Why I created http://www.homelessinabbotsford.com/; I write to our local, provincial and national press; I get in the face of the Georges of the world, so they at least have to work at hiding their heads in the sand; it is why I have to move by the end of this month; it may very well be why I had to suffer mental illness, an old life lost, homelessness, recovery and a new, very different than expected life.

I am tired of it, so I work to be an agent of change.

You are tired of all this homelessness stuff – what are you doing to redress homelessness and other social ills?

You can stop bitching and work towards solutions and positive outcomes ( ‘cause if you have time to bitch about a problem, you have time to do something about the problem); or you can bury your head in the sand in order to ignore the problem and stop bitching; in either case (do something, do nothing) stop bitching.

Oh, and if you want pabulum masquerading as real news and issues, I suggest you try the mainstream press.