This page normally refrains from personally addressing complete strangers in a post, but today I would like to address the arrogant bully who I saw while passing through Guelph Park near Kingsgate Mall in the early hours of this morning. For those of you scoring at home, this woman felt she had the right to not only berate two homeless people, but to also gather their meagre belongings and throw them in a nearby garbage bin.
First of all, Ms....for lack of a name, let's just call you Bitch, welcome to East Vancouver. I'm sure that since Starbucks has deemed Mount Pleasant gentrified enough to put down tentacles...er...roots, I guess that there will be more spoiled yuppies and their egomaniacal bratlings like coming our way in search of the last remnants of relatively affordable real estate in the city. Enjoy our 'funky' Main Street, even if it was branded as 'funky' by marketing geniuses in Kitsilano. Take time to hang out on 'The Drive' (known as Commercial Drive by people who go there to buy pet supplies or hardware, and go swimming at Brittania Community Centre) but watch out for the hippies, punks, lesbians, skaters and activists who might distract you from your shopping. However, Ms. Bitch, I am concerned that upon your arrival in our neighbourhood, you have not been informed that unlike Yaletown, there are no 'Downtown Ambassadors' in our neck of the woods to harass the indigent, the addicted, and the mentally ill. We don't use the Safe Streets Act, we use the code of the original 'Project Civil City' - LIVE AND LET LIVE.
If someone cracks open a beer on the front porch of their Halfway House, it's all good. If someone asks us for spare change, it's easier to say we don't have any rather than bitch at that person to 'get a job' - there may be a very good reason why he doesn't have a job. If someone discreetly pitches a tent in a park and keeps to himself, we allow him to do so because its safer than sleeping on the street. As you may have noticed, when you pulled your little stunt this morning, you were the only one out there - that's because your neighbours, unlike you, have some compassion and respect for those less fortunate than themselves. Why do you think we keep returning New Democrat MLAs and MPs to Victoria and Ottawa? You should just be lucky that, as the only witness, this page opted not to slip to that homeless coup the idea of pressing charges against you - theft and harassment are easier to prove than whether or not someone slept in a park all night.
One more thing - I don't know what motivated you to attack those people the way you did, but let me be clear - Rudy Giuliani is an arrogant, corrupt, vicious, deluded, philandering failure of a failed Rethuglican Presidential candidate whose only claim to fame is sitting in the Mayor's Chair in New York as the Bush Administration ignored warnings from the FBI in August of 2001 about Al-Qaida plans to hijack airliners and fly them into skyscrapers. Giuliani has nothing to say about what's best for the people of Vancouver, particularly the most in need among us.
These people do. So do these people. Try listening to them before taking cues from self-righteous demagogues like Giuliani. and Tony Clement.
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