OK this is out of character for me to write a giant Facebook post, but I have no choice. Tonight my friend Rick Rika and I went for a beer. Afterwards, we were walking back to his bike (down in Millenium Village) and there was a girl standing on the sidewalk holding two bikes. She was blocking the sidewalk, and someone came walking up behind her. It was a homeless guy, pushing a shopping cart. He said to her excuse me… excuse me…. She didnt hear him, so I walked over to her and said excuse me, youre in this guys way. She turns around and sees him. While moving out of the way, she turns to me and Rick and says theres something wrong with this, isnt there? What exactly was wrong with that? Did she feel that a homeless person had less right to walk on the sidewalk than her? Especially when she was holding a bike (which doesnt belong on a sidewalk) while this guy was walking with a shopping cart (which does belong on the sidewalk). Clearly she thought - talking to a couple of fellow well-to-dos - she could safely suggest that this guy didnt share the same right to the sidewalk that she did. I felt like I was privy to the kind of insider bigotry that I didnt think could exist in my city and in these times. It didnt just make me sad that she felt this way: I know that ignorant people exist. What broke my heart was that she felt comfortable enough in her arrogance that she just thought she could commiserate with us - that she feels shes in a safe place to say something like that. Homelessness and other forms of inequality exist in Vancouver and in many other places. I understand that. There are a lot of reasons for it: mental illness, childhood trauma, addiction, and most things that the fortunate among us cant even pretend to understand. But that kind of heartlessness is shocking. My advice when confronted with those who might be down and out - always err on the side of humanity. Anyway, in this case, we confronted her - and it didnt take much. We just asked her what do you mean by that? She didnt have much to say for herself. I hope tonight was a turning point for her. Lets all be human, shall we?
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 05:59:43 +0000
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