Homeless in Abbotsford, BC
I DO NOT, HAVE NOT, WOULD NOT ever suggest throwing money at a problem. I am a REALIST, believing in examining a problem to understand what the situation IS. I am not an Ideologue who, wearing the blinders of ideology, looks at a situation and sees what they want to see, not what really is. There is NO perfect solution. A system dealing with people demands flexibility and denies neat, easy answers. Rigidly applying Ideology guarantees failure. How I came to homelessness: click Backstory below.
Calling it ‘The News”, doesn't make it ‘The News”.
Published Sunday, May 12, 2013 by James W Breckenridge.
Anymore than calling a jackass a thoroughbred and naming
it Secretariat makes it a Triple Crown winner.
Although, the jackass is closer to a Triple Crown winner
than the Media’s coverage is to being ‘The News’.
To borrow from the CBC’s Journalistic Standards and
Practices ‘The News’ requires:
“Our mission is to inform,
to reveal, to contribute to the understanding of issues.....”
To illustrate how what
Media delivers to the public as ‘The News’, fails to qualify as ‘The News’, let
us examine an important issue from the current BC election and the questions
media has failed to ask on behalf of the public.
The NDP, in their
current “low nastiness” (as Adrian Dix labels the behaviour) anti-Liberal
advertisement, have raised the ghost of the HST.
While the failure of the
media to ask Adrian Dix and the NDP to substantiate their claims of the HST
harming the economy and of jobs lost due to the HST is aggravating, voters are
use to politicians throwing around imaginary numbers during election campaigns.
The Liberal’s ‘balanced’
budget allowing the Liberals to claim to be financially prudent; the NDP’s
budget raising an ‘extra’ $1.5 Billion allowing Mr. Dix to make campaign
promises spending that $1.5 Billion while claiming the NDP are not about wild
spending that substantially increases the deficit and the debt.
But in ignoring the
harsh reality of the hard, real numbers associated with the HST, the media has
not only failed to contribute to the public’s understanding of the matter, but
have served to misinform the public.
Since Mr. Dix and the
NDP raised the matter of the HST why has the media failed (yet again) to ask
Mr. Dix to explain to voters why he feels that it was better to return the $1.6
billion dollars Ottawa paid BC to bring in the HST, rather than use that $1.6
billion to build hospitals and meet other needs BC has?
Why, when campaigning to
convince voters to extinguish the HST were Mr. Dix and the NDP so careful to
avoid speaking about the necessity to repay Ottawa $1.6 Billion if the HST was
extinguished? Given the financial pain and problems associated with repaying Ottawa
its $1.6 Billion why did Mr. Dix and the NDP fail to ensure the public clearly
understood that extinguishing the HST meant repaying Ottawa the $1.6 Billion
and then make their case to the public as to why it was a good idea to
extinguish the HST and repay Ottawa its $1.6 Billion? Especially in light of
the federal governments statement that if BC extinguished the HST BC would HAVE
to repay Ottawa its $1.6 Billion?
Taking into
consideration that Mr. Dix and the NDP are seeking to form the next BC
government and the poor state of the BC provincial governments finances why has
the media never asked Mr. Dix:
Given: The federal
government has just finished its long negotiation with the Ontario government
to bring in the HST and has offered (take it or leave it) the governments of
Quebec and BC $1.6 Billion (each) to bring in the HST. The post winter Olympics
economy is no longer booming and BC government faces the need for hundreds of
millions of dollars to pay for needed capital expenditures. Quebec said yes to
bringing in the HST in exchange for $1.6 Billion.
Facing those
circumstances would it not have been irresponsible for Gordon Campbell (any
premier) to have said no to Ottawa’s $1.6 billion.
Is Mr. Dix saying that
under those circumstances he would have said no to Ottawa’s $1.6 Billion? Would
that not have been an irresponsible action? If Mr. Dix is saying it would not
have been irresponsible to say NO to that badly needed $1.6 Billion, what is
the reasoning behind that claim?
Mr. Dix and the NDP are
running around the province blaming the Liberals for the government’s failure
to invest hundreds of millions of dollars, a billion + dollars, in new hospital
facilities; when it was the actions of the NDP, in convincing the public to
extinguish the HST, that are responsible for $1.6 Billion going to Ottawa,
rather than going to fund new hospital facilities.
A reality the media apparently
feels it unnecessary to question Mr. Dix about in order to provide the public with
information necessary to understand and evaluate the issue.
Which is why a jackass
is closer to being a Triple Crown winner, than the media’s coverage is to being
‘The News.’
The
Province posed an e-street Question:
“What
has surprised you most about the current provincial election campaign?”
Nothing.
Devoid
of ideas, ideals and desperate to avoid addressing the important issues and
their painful realities, the Liberals are employing the time tested strategy
employed by politicians and parties in that position – frighten the voters.
BC’s Liberals choosing to go with the 1990’s and NDP spending as the boogeyman
with which to frighten voters.
If
you can find no reasons for voters to vote FOR you, find frightening reasons to
scare voters into voting AGAINST your opponents and for the lesser evil.
Of
course they still are voting for evil, lesser or not.
Devoid
of ideas, ideals and desperate to avoid addressing the important issues and
their painful realities, the NDP are travelling around the province making spending
promises using the imaginary extra $1.5 billion the NDP’s phantasm
budget raises.
Of
course, had the NDP put the welfare of citizens ahead of the welfare of the NDP
there would be 1.5 billion real, not imaginary, dollars to build hospitals.
Instead
political expediency and the opportunity to count coup on the Liberals had Adrian
Dix and the NDP campaigning for (and convincing) voters to return the $1.5
billion HST bribe to Ottawa rather than use it to address the need for major
hospital spending on St. Paul’s, Royal Inland, Haida Gwaii and other projects.
As
usual the media is careful to tell British Columbians only what they want to
hear; shunning the communication of any information to British Columbians they
have a need to know, but don’t want to know/hear about.
‘All the news you
want to hear and none of the news you need to know but don’t want to hear or
think about.’
Focusing
on the street theatre aspects of the election and, as carefully as the
politicians, ignoring the true issues facing BC – the painful nitty gritty
reality voters do not want to hear or think about.
Politics
as usual in BC.
Although.......
I am hoping to be surprised on Election Day by the election of two independent MLAs
to represent Abbotsford East and Abbotsford West.
I caught a flashy ad
promoting Shaw’s 5:30 PM Global National program. The ad had clips from a story
about an Ontario woman being denied medical treatment by the Ontario
government, telling viewers to tune into Global National for the full story.
The ad really didn’t
provide me any incentive to tune into Global National since anyone familiar
with today’s media knows the probable form and content of the story. More importantly,
they know what type of information the story needs to include but won’t
include.
From the ad it was clear
the subject of the story has a terminal illness; a terminal illness with a high
probably of being among those illnesses classified as a ‘rare disease’; meaning
treatment will be new (perhaps still in the experimental stage or in clinical
trials) and extremely expensive.
With evident grief
family and friends will speak of what a wonderful person she is, how terrible
her loss would be, how sad/devastating the thought of her death is to them and
how outraged they are the villains, the Ontario Government, refuses to pay for
the treatment.
If there are children,
there will be film of her great relationship with her children; of her looking
ill and limited by the disease while the children look concerned and upset.
There will be testimony of what a great and loving mother she is. She will
speak of how she wants to live so she can “see her children grow-up”. The children
will speak of how much they love their mother and how they do not want the
villainous government people to make her die.
If the family has a dog
(pet) there will be pictures of the woman and dog enjoying a wonderful
relationship and testimony as to how it will devastate the dog is she dies.
The report will provide
the name of the disease, how it slowly sucks away the life of the person with
the disease and how there is a cure (or an on occasion successful treatment)
but the government will not cover the cost – a cost the family cannot afford to
pay itself.
There will be interviews
with the villains, the Ontario Government officials who state that the Ontario
government does not cover (pay for) experimental treatments.
The tone of the piece
may evoke enough of a negative response that the Ontario Government, because it
is all about politics, is forced to pay for the treatment.
Should the government be
forced to pay for the non-covered experimental treatment, the tone of the
report will be self congratulatory.
The information the
report won’t include is who died or
went without treatment because Global National caused the life of the woman in
the story to be deemed more important than the lives of other Ontario citizens.
Healthcare is a zero sum
game. When money is spent on something/someone not in the budget (the woman’s
treatment) the money to pay for the unbudgeted spending is taken from
somewhere/something/someone that money was budgeted for. The reallocation of
the money to pay for the unbudgeted healthcare expense means someone does not
receive the services that were originally (before reallocation) going to be
received.
The same political
reasons/pressures that result in money being ‘reallocated’, make the powerless,
the unpopular, those unable to speak for themselves those most like to lose
services.
Reallocation of resources
has left the psych ward at Abbotsford Hospital overwhelmed. I knew someone who
was on the waiting list to get into treatment for his substance abuse. As a
result of this ongoing struggle his head was in a black and dangerous space.
Recognizing how dark and dangerous his head space was we spoke of his need to
go to the hospital if it worsened.
It did, he went to the
overtaxed, overwhelmed hospital and was turned away. Upon leaving the hospital he
killed himself.
Cutting healthcare does
not require (or mean) cutting the dollars spent on healthcare. Healthcare costs
continue to rise and unless the percentage increase in the budget matches the
percentage increase in the cost to buy the same healthcare services as last
year – you cannot buy the same health services as last year. Meaning health
services have been cut.
As a consequence any
‘NEW’ services come at the expense of existing services – cutbacks or
eliminations of those existing services providing the $$$$ to pay for the ‘NEW’
services.
I am not sure whether it
is a result of ‘burying your head in the sand’ or ‘wilful denial’ or ‘refusing
to think’ but people act as though they can have unlimited healthcare – without
paying for it. Using “The government can find the money – if they want to”
mantra. Ignoring that common sense and basic mathematics require the government have an orchard of money trees
behind the legislature or Rumpelstiltskin
in the basement of the legislature (parliament) spinning straw into gold to pay
for all the healthcare people want but refuse to pay for.
Politicians – the
government – are not villains for imposing limits on health care that have
negative consequences, up to and including death, for citizens. Their villainy
lies in protecting their jobs (re-election) and gold-plated retirement benefits
at the expense of citizen’s healthcare and standard of living by refusing to
tell voters something voters do not want to hear.
Refusing to address the
issues voters don’t want to hear about does not mean the issues won’t be
addressed at some point. It merely postpones the very painful consequences until
government and citizens are forced, in the same manner as was Greece, to deal
with the issues arising from economic and financial realities.
Telling ourselves that
‘Canada is not Greece’ will not stop the consequences of our spend, spend,
spend, pay only a portion, borrow, borrow, sell the future of Canadian children
- from coming home to roost or change how painful the correction of personal,
corporate and government financial mismanagement will be
In running around
broadcasting reports about the need for new hospitals, more healthcare, more
education, more of this more, more of that......... without asking how we pay
for those items; fostering the impression that the financial and economic
issues looming over the future of citizens are the fault of government and have
nothing to do with unreasonable demands from the public for services they refuse
to pay for; not asking either Mr. Vander Zalm or Mr. Dix why they thought sending
$1.5 billion back to Ottawa was a better idea than spending at least a billion
dollars of that amount on hospital infrastructure; completely ignoring the
financial and economic challenges facing governments.........
......media has become
villains in this drama, a significant part of the problem, a major impediment
to addressing the issues and a threat to Canadians standard of living.
The motto of the media
has changed from “all the news you need to know” to today’s “only the news you
want to hear, and nothing you don’t want to hear.”
Media is all about
selling the sizzle and ignoring the fact the meat is full of salmonella and/or
e-coli.
There is nothing we can do about the majority of British
Columbians having voted to repeal the HST and return to a PST, except suffer
the pain and pay the price.
That Bill Vander Zalm, Adrian Dix,
the NDP, the media and the majority of BC residents decided it was a good idea
to send $1.5 billion back to Ottawa, instead of using it to construct hospitals
and other needed infrastructure, is a triumph of motive over rational,
thoughtful decision making.
Leaving us to decide “how important is it” that we start
construction to replace/renew St. Paul’s Hospital, Royal Inland Hospital, Haida
Gwaii Hospital and any other capital projects before the five years (at $300
million a year) of repayment to Ottawa are up.
If it is decided that we cannot wait the remaining 4 years
of repayments to begin construction of hospitals or other capital projects,
then taxpayers are going to have to suffer the pain of paying the hundreds of
millions of dollars of additional taxes needed to offset the $1.5 billion
returned to Ottawa.
As stated there is nothing we can do about the return of
the PST on April Fool’s Day but endure the consequences.
But with Election Day on May 14, 2013 only weeks away, it
behoves us to seek to understand why the majority of British Columbians decided
removing $1.5 billion from the BC budget and returning all those dollars to
Ottawa was a good idea.
Because with the challenges facing healthcare, education,
the economy, indeed the future of British Columbian’s standard of living – we
cannot afford such large scale misinformation or foolishness.
Voters must set aside wilful denial, face the need to set
priorities, make tough choices and recognize we cannot have unlimited
healthcare or other government services UNLESS WE ARE WILLING TO PAY FOR
UNILIMTED LEVELS OF SERVICE.
The complexity, lack of easy answers and the importance
of beginning to address the issues demanding BC voters set priorities, make it
imperative that voters are informed about and understand the actual state of BC’s
finances and the ability of those finances to purchase and deliver services
(i.e. healthcare) to citizens.
Wise decision making requires the facts, not rhetoric or
spin or false ‘knowing’.
Throughout his HST crusade Mr. Vander Zalm ducked
questions as to the $1.5 billion repayment to Ottawa or suggested it would not
have to be repaid, even though Ottawa had stated if the HST was repealed the
money paid to BC to bring in the HST would – not surprisingly – have to be
repaid.
That $1.5 billion repayment is – not surprisingly -
resulting in painful negative consequences for the citizens of BC. If Mr.
Vander Zalm’s crusade had been about the HST and concerned with the best
interests of the citizens of BC addressing the $1.5 billion repayment would
have been part of Mr. Vander Zalm’s crusade.
If Vander Zalm’s motivation was not the HST or the best
interests of the citizen’s of BC, what could his motivation for his anti-HST
(let’s repay Ottawa $1.5 billion) crusade have been?
Given that the existence of the BC Liberals offered an
alternative for voters to the Social Credit and thus allowed Bill Vander Zalm’s
actions as leader of the Social Credit to destroy the Social Credit, it is easy
to see how the Liberals and Gordon Campbell became a target of Vander Zalm’s
enmity.
In light of Mr. Vander Zalm’s behaviours as leader of the
Social Credit there is no surprise in him putting his personal interests above
the interests of the province and its citizens by ignoring the damage repaying
$1.5 billion would inflict on BC and its citizens and pursuing the opportunity
the HST presented to reduce the liberal Party’s popularity (electability),
For Adrian Dix and the NDP the lack of leadership, the
inability to forgo the opportunity to gain public popularity at the expense of
the liberals and the failure to put the interests of the citizens of BC ahead
of Adrian Dix and the NDP’s quest for power disqualifies them from forming the
government.
Any party leader and party who would put their personal
political interests ahead of the extremely negative consequences that would
result for BC and its citizens from repaying $1.5 billion to Ottawa, lacks the
ethics and trustworthiness to address the growing number of issues and
difficulties facing BC.
To this day Mr Dix and the NDP continue to try to have it
both ways, scoring public popularity while refusing/avoiding responsibility for
the negative consequences their support of the HST repeal has, and continues
to, cost British Columbians.
In taking the easy
way out in seeking to bolster their sagging approval ratings, rather than
standing firm as was best for BC, the Liberals share in culpability for the
negative consequences the repeal of the HST with its $1.5 billion dollar
repayment results in.
Motivation, actions and behaviours are far more useful in
evaluating stated policies, trustworthiness, character, leadership, ethics and
fitness to govern than any words uttered by political parties and their
leaders.
While disappointing, in this day and age it is a given
that politicians and political parties are about their own interests, telling
voters what voters want to hear, not telling voters what they don’t want to
hear, avoiding issues etc. It is why one can predict that the NDP platform in
this election will be vague to the point of meaningless.
The most important lesson voters need to take away from
the HST debacle is not how venal politicians and political parties are, but that
the media (print, radio and television) have no interest in and are NOT about
informing the public.
When speaking to
Mr. Vander Zalm after the return to the PST the media continued to fail to ask
Mr. Vander Zalm why he thought returning $1.5 billion to Ottawa was a good
idea; what healthcare and other services Mr. Vander Zalm favoured cutting, what
hospital construction he favours forgoing, to repay the $1.5 billion to Ottawa.
As Mr. Dix and the NDP run around the province talking about the failure
of the Liberals and the need to build hospitals or spend money on this or that
- has the media ever asked Mr. Dix and the NDP how the government is suppose to
spend hundreds of millions of dollars when Mr. Dix and the NDP convinced voters
to send $1.5 billion back to Ottawa? Did media ever demand Mr. Dix and the NDP
explain why they thought sending $1.5 billion back to Ottawa was a good idea?
Or ask what Mr. Dix and the NDP would cut and/or forgo to pay for sending that
$1.5 billion back to Ottawa.
Of course not. Bringing up issues would have interfered
with the entertainment value, the spectacle and the rhetoric.
And of course, acknowledging their culpability in the
repeal of the HST and the return of $1.5 billion to Ottawa would put a damper
on media running around crying the sky is falling and we need to spend, spend,
spend........money the province does not have.
Has the media ever asked the teachers what healthcare
programs the teachers are calling to be cut so the money can be redirected to
the education budget? Because the only budget expenditure large enough to cover
the cost of the $$$$$ the teachers are calling on the government to spend is
healthcare.
Unless the teachers are calling on the government to
eliminate an area of spending (the courts and jails for example) to cover the
cost of the large increase in education spending the teachers are calling on.
Or perhaps the teachers are calling for the imposition of hundreds of millions
in new taxes to be poured into education?
Media does not ask the important question of where the
money will come from, it quietly takes its 30 pieces of silver for running the
teachers ads calling on voters to vote for their children by voting for any
party that will dramatically increase spending on education as though the $$$$$
to pay for spending can be found in a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
“We cannot talk
about that, people don’t want to hear it”; “Talking about that would reduce
ratings, have people turning off or (shudder) turning to the competition”; If
it bleeds it leads; the slick, entertaining programming called news is a profit
center where the bottom line – not the quality or value of information
presented (or not presented) – is the focus and the motivator.
The owners of the media have every right to focus on
making money rather than delivering informative, well rounded, balanced reports
that increase, not decrease (as it currently does), the public’s ability to
make informed decisions.
If you watch Mike Holmes, there is a viewer advisory displayed
at the start of the program and every time the program returns from a commercial
break.
To protect voters and citizens from being mislead or
influenced by the misinformation inherent in today’s broadcast media programming,
programming that passes itself off as providing viewers with news and information,
should carry a warning that the underlying operational imperatives of the
program are based on ratings and financial considerations – not about the
public’s need to know.
Media has become about selling the sizzle and ignoring the
fact the meat is badly contaminated with Salmonella, E coli, Listeria or
Campylobacter.
A lot of people in the media, and some everyday
people, really aren't in search of the truth. They're in search of something
worse than that. Money, yeah. I think the media's the kind of a thing where the
truth doesn't win, because it's no fun. The truth's no fun. Jack White
My friend Tom came by this Sunday morning to take a look at the beast
aka my car and decided the pictures I sent of the leak and the part it was
leaking out of was accurate and my water pump was shot.
We filled the radiator with all the water it would hold and I hopped in
the car and..... noticed that I had left the glove compartment open when I retrieved
something from it the previous evening.
Being an old hand at dealing with the Universe’s efforts to get me, I
keep a set of jumper cables in the trunk to discourage the Universe from trying
to get me with a dead battery. A quick jump and I was racing off to Tom’s
although it turned out not to require to much haste as the coolness of the weather
allowed me to drive to Tom's place without the engine getting more than barely
warm .
For a while it looked like the Universe was going to be successful in getting
me. Everything came apart with relative ease until the pulley that was the last
barrier to removing and replacing the water pump, refused to be removed. Even
after being blasted by butane torch.
Plan B required removing the alternator to get at and remove the plate
blocking access to the last two bolts holding the water pump in place. Two of
the three bolts that needed to be removed to remove the plate were awkward, the
third was damn awkward.
The first two were removed and the third, obviously one of the
Universe’s minions, refused to budge. With the difficulty in getting at the
bolt it appeared it was going to be successful in thwarting replacement of the
water pump.
However, the bolt and the Universe had vastly underestimated Tom. With
the refusal to budge they had challenged Tom, not defeated him. So, girding his
loins for battle Tom plunged back into the fray with single minded
determination and.........emerged victorious.
The bolt was removed and the old water pump freed.
Tom commented that he had never seen a water pump in as bad shape as
this one was, with the pulley shaft flopping around through a wide range of
motion. Apparently I had been driving on borrowed time for some time, with the
cool weather serving to allow the engine to avoid overheating. When the
bearings finally shifted enough to uncover the weep hole the water escaped,
informing me I needed a new water pump.
Fate had been kind, having the weep hole open up as I was on Highway 1
nearing Clearbrook rather than in Surrey.
Tom called and spoke to someone he knew working at an auto parts store,
arranging for me to pick up a new water pump.
On my way back with the pump I made a quick stop at the library to pick
up the items waiting for me on the ‘hold’ shelf, including the DVD of the new
Bond movie. Aaahhhhhhh, relief. After 5 consecutive days of being unable to
visit the library or retrieve my holds I had feared I was slipping into
withdrawal.
It only took a few minutes but added to the time being polite and
observing good line etiquette at the store required the elapsed time had my
phone ringing while I was still a few blocks from Tom’s. After pulling up and
parking I checked my phone and it had indeed been Tom, wondering if I had been
lost as he had applied the gasket cement and was anxious to have the gasket to
put in place as soon as possible.
I didn’t check the phone until the vehicle was stopped because I
strongly support paying attention to your driving. Not only with regard to
handheld electronic devices but eating, applying makeup, doing paperwork and
all the other myriad of ways humans find to distract themselves from their
driving. If you think about it, the statistics on the use of handheld devices
are frightening in light of the implications those statistics hold about the
number of distracted drivers, their victims and accidents causing serious
injury and death.
This plague of ‘I HAVE to take this’ is another aspect of the
narcissism, the ‘it is all about me’, the ‘screw others’ that has infected
Canada and Canadians. I would support adding confiscation of the device to the
fines, since the fines don’t seem to have gotten people’s attention, although I
think the confiscation should be permanent, not temporary.
Following that word from our sponsors common sense, courtesy and
consideration for others, we return to our tale of Universe intrigue.
Opening the box containing the new water pump (the correct pump, human
expertise defeating any machinations by the Universe to deliver the wrong pump
into my hands) the gasket was removed and placed in position. The pump was
removed from its sealed bag, lined up and the last bolts removed to remove the
old pump became the first bolts put in place to begin installation of the
replacement pump.
And so it went, installing the new pump by replacing the bolts and
assorted parts (such as the alternator) in the reverse order in which they were
originally removed.
Not surprisingly the installation reassembly proceeded much smoother
than the disassembly removal had. Although reinstalling the belt was trickier
that removing the belt had been, mainly as a result of the difficulty in
getting enough slack from the belt tension mechanism to get the belt over the
alternator pulley.
Until the last bolt, that had been there moments before when the
reinstallation of the fan housing and the fan blades had begun, pulled a
disappearing act. We sought it here, we sought it there, we looked high, we
looked low But nowhere was it to be found.
The last piece of the reassembly was missing! It looked as though the
Universe was going to get its last laugh and that I would need to visit an auto
wrecker to find a replacement bolt and return to Tom’s later in the week to
complete the final item of the installation of the replacement pump.
So we abandoned the search for the last bolt and proceeded to fill the
cooling system with coolant and start up the engine. After letting the engine
run for several minutes it was turned off and the radiator was topped off.
As he was topping off the radiator what should Tom’s eye spot but the
last bolt hiding down among the engine parts. Grabbing his telescoping magnet
tipped doohickey for retrieving bolts etc Tom plucked the bolt from its hiding
place and quickly installed it.
Mission accomplished! Water pump replacement procured and secured in
place.
But before i could leave Tom disappeared back to his collection of nuts,
bolts, screws etc; returning with what appeared to be two wood screws. “Grab
your front plate” he instructed, having noticed that I had lost the front
licence plate holder but still had the front plate which was sitting in the
front window. That’s the good thing about plastic bumpers he informed me as he
proceeded to screw the front plate into position with the wood screws.
I was ready to hit the road...........after borrowing Tom’s battery
charger to fully charge up the battery. Lest the Universe be tempted to use a
dead battery on the morrow to leave me scrambling to get to my appointment at mental
health and to the shelter to do intake.
After all, you’re not paranoid is the Universe really is out to get you.
Do you ever have ‘those’ days, like I did Tuesday, were
you find yourself wondering why the Universe is out to get you?
I arrived at the parking lot of the Best Western (ABC
restaurant) on Marshall in a cloud of billowing steam, popped the hood and
stood back listening to the hiss of water going from a liquid to a gaseous
state and watching as the water vapour climbed into the air.
All
things considered insanity may be the only reasonable alternative.
I was coming back from a Mental Health Regional Committee
meeting in Surrey and had just passed Mount Lehman when the check engine light
came on and the temperature gauge climbed to the top of the ‘normal’ range. The
temperature red warning light came on just as I was coming up on Clearbrook. I
exited Highway 1 there and quickly turned onto Marshall and the Best Western
parking lot, arriving in a cloud of steam and a “Hi Ho Silver.”
Recognizing definitive evidence that something in my
car’s cooling system was Kaput I made a quiet request to the PTBs (powers that
be) that it be only a cooling system problem and that it be something minor
like the thermostat.
If
the Universe is toying with me it is the thermostat;
If
the Universe is out to get me it will be something MAJOR.
As I stood there watching the steam escaping my mind
began catastrophising the situation. Fortunately before I managed to spiral
into out of control negative thinking and panic, my own water circulating
system sent me off (quick step) to the ABC Restaurant’s water closet.
The feeling of relief provided by my visit to the
lavatory had me walking back to the car in relative calm.
I had just arrived back at the car and asked myself “what now” when an acquaintance pulled into
the parking lot, for a meeting at the ABC Restaurant and upon recognizing me
pulled into a parking slot beside me.
First
the cooling system malfunction, then someone arrives and offers help.
Occurrences
like that make me feel like the Mouse to the Universe’s Cat.
It is still an amazing struggle for me, when asked how
things are going, to reply truthfully that (in this case) something in my car’s
cooling system had gone and my car was non-functional.
It is even harder to admit I could use some help and say
yes to an offer of help.
As painful as it was to admit to needing and to accept
help, after a few false starts and some hemming and hawing I acknowledge a need
for a hand and accepted help in starting to deal with my car problem.
He offered to have the car towed to a garage that MCC
deals with and see about arranging a payment schedule for car repairs.
The accountant in me, aware of my current financial state
and projected cash flow over the next few months, dug its heels in and insisted
we not take on a financial obligation of that nature.
So there I was with my mind faced with ‘what to do’ and
threatening to switch to squirrel brain mode (picture one of those little
exercise wheels for mice, gerbils etc with a squirrel funning nuts on
it)...........when my WRAP (wellness recovery action plan) stepped up and
handed me the rule to avoid squirrel brain - first things first.
So I said yes to a tow, but to my home rather than the
garage and an unknown repair bill and financial obligation.
With the car parked at my place and no pressing need of
the car to drive somewhere for a few days there was no need to panic, just a
need to reach out and ask for help in determining what is wrong with the cooling
system and what I need do to get it repaired.
Well, there was one matter the lack of the car had me needing
to deal with, but an offer of coffee from a friend not only got me out of the
house, but thoughtfully choosing the location and route to coffee allowed me to
return the library DVD on time so that the person with the hold on the DVD
could get it in a timely fashion.
Coffee not only relieved worry about returning the
library material on time but took my focus off the car and put a smile on my
face. We went to McDonalds and I noticed John was interested in the hockey game
so I chose to sit where he could easily watch the game on the TV’s.
Watching John struggle to hold a conversation as his
attention was drawn to the TV screen put a smile on my face – and a shamrock
(yum!) shake over my taste buds.
Getting home I began to commit my tale to paper so as to share
the tale and take a first step in finding someone with automotive knowledge and
skill to look at the car and tell me what is wrong and what needs to be done to
get the car running ASAP in the most cost efficient way (least cost to me).
The tale also serves as an opportunity to comment on how
precarious life is for those who struggle to make ends meet in a most minimal
manner.
With 16 dollars and some odd cents to my name right now,
even the best scenario of it only being a thermostat will require the borrowing
and repayment of money; provided I can find someone to lend the money required.
I need the car to get to work to pay the rent and
remained housed. It is frighteningly easy in the lower mainland to slip into
homelessness. Fortunately I do have people who would trust me to repay them.
And I am can write and share this tale in order to find
someone who can supply the expertise needed to diagnose and tell me what is
needed to repair my car.
But.........what about all those others; the others whose
numbers the economy and government policies are adding to, who also are facing
a crisis of poverty and lack a means to find the aid they need so as not to
become homeless?
They are why it is more important than every that we are
willing to make some sacrifices in order to help those who truly need help.
Remember that helping does not necessarily require your money, it can be your
time, knowledge and expertise to look at a cars cooling system and say “the
problem is ........... and to fix it requires ........... Or providing a ride
to and from the grocery store for a someone (or a family) without a vehicle,
saving them the struggle they face in getting groceries.
Let us all commit to trying to do a random act of
kindness a day; whether large, small or tiny is not important, it is trying to
do that is important...........although on the matter of try Yoda would say “Do
or Do Not, there is no Try.”
An
old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life...
"A fight Between two wolves is going on inside me," he said to the boy.
"One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.
"The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
"This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old chief simply replied, "The one you choose to feed.
"A fight Between two wolves is going on inside me," he said to the boy.
"One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.
"The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.
"This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old chief simply replied, "The one you choose to feed.
Done with the HST? BC should be so lucky.
Published Friday, February 08, 2013 by James W Breckenridge.
“No matter
what, on April 1st, the HST finally moves on, and we can get on with our lives.
Sure, she’ll be mentioned from time to time and we’ll no doubt stumble across
her once in a while on Facebook or Twitter, but we’re finally breaking up, and
we are never, ever, ever getting back together.” Jordan Bateman Abbotsford Today
The problem with focusing all your attention on one
thing, say taxes and the level of those taxes, is that you inevitably miss the
boomerang that drops you when it crashes into the back of your head because you
were not paying attention to Reality.
Finished with the HST?
When for the next 4 years the first thing whoever governs
BC has to do is cut the $300 million HST repayment due Ottawa out the Budget?
When those who do not enjoy the largess of the Canadian
Taxpayers Federation on which to live, find simply surviving challenged by the
precipitous drop back to GST rebate cheque levels?
Then there are the unknown effects that
voters refusing to pay 1 cent more towards the increasing costs of the services
they demand from government, will have on limiting the ability of the
government of BC to borrow or what levels of premiums (extra interest costs) the
decision will impose.
Finally there is the increased rationing,
the cuts to and elimination of services that have occurred in the current
fiscal year as a result of repealing the HST and the rationing, the cuts to and
elimination of services that will continue to occur year after year after year
as a result of repealing the HST.
Whether you think repealing the HST was
justified or the most financially irresponsible action ever taken by a
financially irresponsible electorate......
...............the
consequences of repealing the HST will be with BC for years, decades. Meaning
BC is not ‘done’ with the HST, nor is the HST done with BC
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- Done with the HST? BC should be so lucky.
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