It is a sad comment about the state of our society has that I was not surprised by the news report I was watching, although I was disgusted.

When you advocate for the homeless, the addicted and the mentally ill you learn just how uncaring and wilfully ignorant society can be.

But listening to the comments of motorists and the mayor of North Vancouver left me appalled.

To deal with a suicidal woman police closed the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge to traffic, causing gridlock and inconveniencing thousands of drivers. Leading to calls for “new protocols” so the motoring public will not be inconvenienced by the actions needed to save a human life from suicide.

When and how did we as a society become so narcissistic, self-centered and “it is all about me” that a human life is not worth a few hours of inconvenience for motorists, even several thousand motorists?

And just how frightening for the future of society is it that the news report treated this as just a story, never asking the question of whether a human life is not worth a little, or even a lot of, inconvenience?

Here is something a little eerie to think about.

A friend, a homeless friend, mentioned he had been to Mill Lake but it was getting to depressing to go there and see all the tombstones, especially those for children.

Haven’t seen any tombstones at Mill Lake? Or just haven’t noted them as tombstones.

They are hard to miss being spread around the lake and rather large, large enough to sit on. Yes the benches with their memorial plaques.

Is not a tombstone a memorial, usually but not always of stone, with an inscription noting the passing of someone?

A little something to ponder as you stroll around Mill Lake, past the tombstones.

It certainly caused me a discombobulating moment and a little pondering. The next time I find myself at Mill Lake watching the waterfowl I just may find myself sitting on the stone wall instead of the adjacent benches/tombstones.

I did say it was a little eerie.

bureaucrat Hope slays
knowledge news Wellness unshared
Light illumes no more

The Advisor was the regional mental health and addictions advisory committee’s 12 page newsletter published and edited by a consumer for consumer and family education and empowerment.

June’s issue touched on Father’s Day, listening, had 2 pages devoted to relapse prevention, coping strategies, suicide, things to think about, ask a pharmacist, happenings around the region and listings of the services and support available in the communities of the region.

I hand it out as part of the support discussion at Wellness Recovery Action Plan groups; others ask about it if delivery is late; it was distributed around our communities so that those who needed it could find it and all copies were long gone before the next month’s publication was out.

It was a valuable resource and tool that provided, due to the hard work and volunteer efforts of the editor, benefits far outweighing the amazingly cheap $3,000 yearly cost for production of a monthly newsletter.

It died an ignoble death at the hands of a faceless, carelessly thoughtless bureaucrat who, with the stroke of a pen and a no, snuffed out the Light that was the Advisor.

We could well lose the bureaucrat unnoticed

The Advisor is a painful loss that will be missed.