Editor, The News:
Re: ‘The hate capital of Canada’ (Letters, ).
This well written article moved me. I am both ashamed to be a passive enabler to this irrational ‘hate’ directed towards our homeless population, and at the same time proud to share citizenship with such articulate and rational minds as Jean Swanson.
Some points that keep getting lost in the fog of fear, and worth repeating: “… it’s actually cheaper for taxpayers to end homelessness than to maintain it.”
Please read that quote again.
Any statement or thought that begins with ‘All women, all minorities, all men, all homeless, all …’ is simply a generalization and not worth the calories it took to think or say it.
These sweeping pronouncements are easy, confirm our false assumptions, and nothing else. How many people actually want to be homeless, want to be cold, hungry and hated, want to be addicted to drugs?
Some of my friends and family hold the opposite view as I do, what I define as ‘hate’. They’re still my friends and family, still humans.
Would my views change if the homeless camp was in my backyard? Probably. I’m one of those flawed humans.
Matt McGreevy
Maple Ridge