{"id":346,"date":"2006-06-17T05:28:00","date_gmt":"2006-06-17T12:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/breckenridge\/?p=346"},"modified":"2008-10-26T05:47:24","modified_gmt":"2008-10-26T12:47:24","slug":"re-city-manager-gary-guthries-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=346","title":{"rendered":"Re: City Manager Gary Guthrie’s comments"},"content":{"rendered":"

To quote Mr. Guthrie: \u201cI think the real story is that this ended successfully and many of these people have been successful in finding accommodation. They are working with various agencies and hopefully we can get them back into a regular lifestyle.\u201d And later \u201c \u2026getting them into the system.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c \u2026 getting them into the system.\u201d The question I have about this is, what good does getting anyone into a system with the serious flaws the current welfare system has do them? Anyone with recent experience with the current system can tell you that the system itself is a major barrier to finding work and getting back onto your feet. Abandoning people to \u201cthe system\u201d is something you reserve for your worst enemies \u2013 and even then only if you are particularly vengeful. If the city chooses to abandon people to \u201cthe system\u201d it owes those people its best efforts to reform and\/or advocate for the needed reform\/changes to \u201cthe system\u201d. This in order that the system become about lending a helping hand to those in need, as opposed to the current practice of only paying lip service to the concept of helping. But then all levels of government seem much better at paying lip service to this problem and in applying Band-Aids, than in providing the leadership and vision to begin to address the needs and long-term commitment required to make a successful start in addressing homelessness and poverty in our society.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026many of these people have been successful in finding accommodation.\u201d Technically yes, but I do not consider that a temporary bed at the Salvation Army as being a true success in finding accommodation. \u201c\u2026 these people\u201d? I have serious reservations about just what this means about the city\u2019s attitude towards, the way in which it thinks about the homeless and the prejudicial mindset the term suggests.
\n
\nI had intended to revile Mr. Guthrie about his use of the word successful in the city\u2019s actions vis-\u00e0-vis Compassion Park. However, in looking into the definition of successful (some of us like to keep in touch with the reality of a situation) I found I could not do that. Successful: Having a favorable outcome; having obtained something desired or intended: was successful in avoiding responsibility and bad press. So I must concede that from the city\u2019s viewpoint this was undoubtedly a successful outcome. They got to use some very nice sounding sound bites such as \u201cended successfully\u201d, shift responsibility for taking any real or positive actions onto \u201cvarious agencies\u201d while avoiding accepting any responsibility to take action themselves, obscuring actual outcomes behind platitudes and fancy verbal footwork and above all avoid the need to show any initiative, vision or real leadership on this pressing social issue.<\/span>
\n
\nI can only conclude by admitting that I was a little surprised and disappointed when I looked up the definition of successful. Even the definition of success, the achievement of something, is somewhat of a disappointment. I always thought of being successful or of achieving success as having a more positive and beneficial outcome. \u201cI think that the real story is that\u201d unfortunately the City does not seem to share this positive action oriented, providing leadership and vision view of what constitutes success.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To quote Mr. Guthrie: \u201cI think the real story is that this ended successfully and many of these people have been successful in finding accommodation. They are working with various agencies and hopefully we can get them back into a regular lifestyle.\u201d And later \u201c \u2026getting them into the system.\u201d \u201c \u2026 getting them into the system.\u201d The question I have about this is, what good does getting anyone into a system with the serious flaws the current welfare system has do them? Anyone with recent experience with the current system can tell you that the system itself is a major barrier to finding work and getting back onto your feet. Abandoning people to \u201cthe system\u201d is something you reserve for your worst enemies \u2013 and even then only if you are particularly vengeful. If the city chooses to abandon people to \u201cthe system\u201d it owes those people its best efforts to reform and\/or advocate for the needed reform\/changes to \u201cthe system\u201d. This in order that the system become about lending a helping hand to those in need, as opposed to the current practice of only paying lip service to the concept of helping. But then all levels of government seem much better at paying lip service to this problem and in applying Band-Aids, than in providing the leadership and vision to begin to address the needs and long-term commitment required to make a successful start in addressing homelessness and poverty in our society. \u201c\u2026many of these people have been successful in finding accommodation.\u201d Technically yes, but I do not consider that a temporary bed at the Salvation Army as being a true success in finding accommodation. \u201c\u2026 these people\u201d? I have serious reservations about just what this means about the city\u2019s attitude towards, the way in which it thinks about the homeless and the prejudicial mindset the term suggests. I had intended to revile Mr. Guthrie about his use of the word successful in the city\u2019s actions vis-\u00e0-vis Compassion Park. However, in looking into the definition of successful (some of us like to keep in touch with the reality of a situation) I found I could not do that. Successful: Having a favorable outcome; having obtained something desired or intended: was successful in avoiding responsibility and bad press. So I must concede that from the city\u2019s viewpoint this was undoubtedly a successful outcome. They got to use some very nice sounding sound bites such as \u201cended successfully\u201d, shift responsibility for taking any real or positive actions onto \u201cvarious agencies\u201d while avoiding accepting any responsibility to take action themselves, obscuring actual outcomes behind platitudes and fancy verbal footwork and above all avoid the need to show any initiative, vision or real leadership on this pressing social issue. I can only conclude by admitting that I was a little surprised and disappointed when I looked up the definition of successful. Even the definition of success, the achievement of something, is somewhat of a disappointment. I always thought of being successful or of achieving success as having a more positive and beneficial outcome. \u201cI think that the real story is that\u201d unfortunately the City does not seem to share this positive action oriented, providing leadership and vision view of what constitutes success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeless","category-municipal"],"yoast_head":"\nRe: City Manager Gary Guthrie's comments - James W. Breckenridge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=346\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Re: City Manager Gary Guthrie's comments - James W. Breckenridge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To quote Mr. Guthrie: \u201cI think the real story is that this ended successfully and many of these people have been successful in finding accommodation. They are working with various agencies and hopefully we can get them back into a regular lifestyle.\u201d And later \u201c \u2026getting them into the system.\u201d \u201c \u2026 getting them into the system.\u201d The question I have about this is, what good does getting anyone into a system with the serious flaws the current welfare system has do them? Anyone with recent experience with the current system can tell you that the system itself is a major barrier to finding work and getting back onto your feet. Abandoning people to \u201cthe system\u201d is something you reserve for your worst enemies \u2013 and even then only if you are particularly vengeful. If the city chooses to abandon people to \u201cthe system\u201d it owes those people its best efforts to reform and\/or advocate for the needed reform\/changes to \u201cthe system\u201d. This in order that the system become about lending a helping hand to those in need, as opposed to the current practice of only paying lip service to the concept of helping. But then all levels of government seem much better at paying lip service to this problem and in applying Band-Aids, than in providing the leadership and vision to begin to address the needs and long-term commitment required to make a successful start in addressing homelessness and poverty in our society. \u201c\u2026many of these people have been successful in finding accommodation.\u201d Technically yes, but I do not consider that a temporary bed at the Salvation Army as being a true success in finding accommodation. \u201c\u2026 these people\u201d? I have serious reservations about just what this means about the city\u2019s attitude towards, the way in which it thinks about the homeless and the prejudicial mindset the term suggests. I had intended to revile Mr. Guthrie about his use of the word successful in the city\u2019s actions vis-\u00e0-vis Compassion Park. However, in looking into the definition of successful (some of us like to keep in touch with the reality of a situation) I found I could not do that. Successful: Having a favorable outcome; having obtained something desired or intended: was successful in avoiding responsibility and bad press. So I must concede that from the city\u2019s viewpoint this was undoubtedly a successful outcome. They got to use some very nice sounding sound bites such as \u201cended successfully\u201d, shift responsibility for taking any real or positive actions onto \u201cvarious agencies\u201d while avoiding accepting any responsibility to take action themselves, obscuring actual outcomes behind platitudes and fancy verbal footwork and above all avoid the need to show any initiative, vision or real leadership on this pressing social issue. I can only conclude by admitting that I was a little surprised and disappointed when I looked up the definition of successful. Even the definition of success, the achievement of something, is somewhat of a disappointment. I always thought of being successful or of achieving success as having a more positive and beneficial outcome. \u201cI think that the real story is that\u201d unfortunately the City does not seem to share this positive action oriented, providing leadership and vision view of what constitutes success.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.jameswbreckenridge.ca\/?p=346\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James W. Breckenridge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2006-06-17T12:28:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2008-10-26T12:47:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James W. Breckenridge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James W. 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