You keep going like this… and you are going to not only live up to your stated aspirations, maybe even exceeding them, but you are going to have a very interesting, must read publication. That is how I had planed to end the last sentence in my prior letter, but then the best laid plans of mice and men. Or perhaps it was just fate this week’s edition contains an excellent start covering an important issue even though it is not “nice” and entails a certain amount of controversy.

Perspective – Whoa! An informative piece hinting at the temptations that a drug can have, the seductive promises that the drug and its effects can make: euphoria, endless energy, decreased appetite (easy weight loss), alertness. For the education of the public who tend to only see the end product of drugs – the addict – Ms Daniel paints a picture of the ordinary people that it lures into using with its siren song. The housewife, mother, sons and daughters, outstanding school athletes and scholars, fathers, business people – these are the real people that lie buried within the addicts that end up on our streets. Hopefully articles such as this can help people to see that the “addicts” are people, people suffering from listening to the seductive promises of a “mother’s little helper”. Then perhaps we can cease judging and concentrate on healing.

The promise of the Post that this is only the first of a series on this issue holds forth the promise of bringing knowledge and understanding to allow Post readers to begin to comprehend the nature of the insanity that is drug addiction. Dare I hope for a perspective that examines what effect legality (nicotine, cigarettes) vs. illegality (crystal meth) can have on addiction, the addict, “functional users” and on crime.

The issue also contained Kevin Gilles’s article on the growing and increasingly visible challenge presented by homelessness. The first thought I want to share is that it is a rather damning comment on our society that the Salvation Army and other organizations that help those in distress need a PR hack … ahem, let’s make that a PR person as, in spite of her unfortunately required occupation, Deb is a nice person – whom I know as a caring individual. How can we have any expectation of achieving progress on a multifaceted series of interrelated acutely complex and muddled people problems, when on even the simple aspects of this gargantuan chaotic mess we have to apply spin in presenting even the most elementary and simple pieces of the issues to the public. Given that the only route I see holding promise to help the homeless regain their souls and their lives lies thru community involvement, how do we eradicate the need for PR, educate and involve the community?

Perhaps the need for PR and what it says about our society should have been second on my list. First definitely has to be having a local newspaper that is part of and engaged with their communities, providing the needed forum for an examination of the reality of ours streets and an exchange of ideas – opening the gateway to addressing these pressing issues. We have to get past what people believe and most especially what they want to believe (because of their own personal world view) is the situation; to open their eyes and gain an awareness and a degree of understanding for the nitty-gritty, often dirty facts that underlie homelessness and its street kin – mental illness, drugs etc. We need an informed public on this matter so we do not need to spin what IS. To permit trying new ideas as well as adapting and using methods that have generated positive results elsewhere in the efforts to tackle these dilemmas. Adopting Edison’s attitude that he had not failed a thousand times in trying to invent the light bulb but had merely carried out the necessary thousand experiments, is crucial to making any true progress in addressing these problems. If we cannot honestly discuss: this worked, that did not work, this result wasn’t what we expected – why?, Say… how about trying this?, this kind of worked, and so on; we are going to find ourselves trapped in the quagmire that results from all the churning of the ground we are trying to work on by all the spin that these types of discussions would generate.

Wondering about the why behind the headline “Homeless numbers rise despite abundance of jobs”? Here is a sample or two of the actual reality behind that Why? to think about. What happens to all those functioning users in Ms Daniel’s Perspective as they become less and less functional, starting the fall from home, employment and social network to the harsh loneliness of the streets. Rising job numbers do nothing for them as a job is not the type help and support they need to begin to slowly and painfully turn their lives around. Consider the worker for whom losing their job was an economic disaster that left them having nothing and on the street or the recovering addict whom, in the throes of their addiction, burned all their bridges behind them and now has nothing, no one and are on the streets. Without a phone, an address, a way to be contacted, a way to keep clean and presentable, to have time and energy to look for work after taking care of the necessities of food, water and sleep, without transportation other than by foot, with basically nothing – just how are you to find work? Yes I am aware of Social Assistance. Are you aware of its inadequacies, how far short it falls of providing the basics needed to enable a person to conduct a successful job search? It is just as inadequate, perhaps more maddeningly so, in providing support to help those who find work in meeting their basic needs in a way that does not interfere with keeping their jobs and getting back onto their economic and social feet. Ponder the obstacles that being homeless puts up if you should find work, little things such as adequate sleep, personal hygiene and appearance, food to keep you alive, getting to work. Actually there are separate articles that could be written just on these barriers. To keep this letter from becoming a novel I will leave the reader with a final point to consider. Due to whatever circumstances you find yourself with nothing, absolutely nothing and without family or friends to help. Damage deposit; first months rent; the most basic of furniture, pots and pans, dishes; a phone; old debts; bad credit. Yes, we all at one point started out, but if we are honest we have to acknowledge just how much support we received from family and friends and how important, how necessary that help and support was in getting onto our feet and taking our first steps into our new lives.

I hope that this quick and rather superficial look at just some of the points that flow from considering the implications and issues raised by reading Kevin Gillies’s article serves to let the reader begin to see just how complex the labyrinth of issues and needs connected to homelessness is. You want neat, simple, easy, quick answers? They don’t exist. You want a perfect solution? You are living in a very altered state of reality. We are dealing with people here. It will be messy; mistakes will occur; it will take patience to allow for adequate time frames; it will take and try the patience of the saints in dealing with some of those in need of help; there will be some who cannot or will not be helped. There are many other disagreeable aspects we would rather not have to deal with or face, that must be dealt with or faced in order to bring positive change to these serious issues.

To have success we need the involvement, support and commitment of our entire communities. We need to achieve a public understanding of the underlying realities of the situation through education, insight, perspective and commentary. We need to put aside partisanship, politics and self delusion while dealing with the entrenched vested interests. We cannot be afraid of controversial issues, of facing and dealing with the facts – the un-spun, bare facts. We need to accomplish change, or suffer the insanity of continuing to repeat that which has not only failed to work, but has allowed things to worsen. We need a forum for public discussion, generation of ideas, a steadfastness of purpose and a commitment to action.

Wisdom or lessons can come from strange places. So, let us take to heart the words of Yoda: ”Try not. Do or Do Not. There is no try.” We need to stop hiding behind “trying” and choose. Do Not and accept the costs and consequences. Do and begin reclaiming lost or shattered lives. Do or Do Not. Choose what kind of society you want to live in. DO.