A conflict

Something happened today that caused me to think, pushed me over the edge really, into a place I am not really sure I want to be. Firstly I should explain; I live on the Eastside of Vancouver, not the Downtown Eastside (DTES). We in the Eastside have a lot of homeless and a growing problem with substance abuse. The shear variety of things that people will ingest to get high/dull the pain is staggering. I can't give money to the people on the street because I know they will use it to buy Listerene. And this is not for improving their breath.

My neighbourhood has a relatively stable population of homeless. So I know who they are and what their vices are. Most of them are harmless if slightly annoying. Last year at Christmas time one of them asked me for ten dollars as I was getting out of a cab, I got a ten in change from the cabbie and she asked me for it for her "shelter". I asked her if the shelter was charging her ten bucks, and she said she needed it to pay her share of the rent on a room so she could continue to get welfare. She told me this as if I was an extremely stupid child. I do not want to be one of those people who begrudges welfare recipients their money, I know that there are people out there who are honestly trying to survive and need the money to make ends meet because for legitimate reasons they cannot hold a job. But this woman was obviously not one of those people. I want to be supportive of my fellow man, because I am too close to the brink of poverty. I have a roof over my head but I am in no way financially secure. This whole baby thing is expensive.

Today some of my mommy friends and I were in Cafe Deux Soliel. And a guy came in selling those cards with American Sign Language on them. The Cafe is a hang out for hippies and progressives, so I guess the solicitors figure its a soft target. Every other time I am in there someone comes in trying to get change, once a guy was asking for left-overs. The staff are super vigilant and strict about removing these people soonest. The girl working the cash saw him and went over and asked him to leave. And he made a motion to say "one second" and then crossed the room to another patron and handed him the card. The counter girl (CG) grabbed it off the table and told him to leave again. Instead the guy goes over to another customer and repeats the same thing. CG is officially pissed by this and gets between him and the customer and is pointing at the door. Homeless guy starts demanding that CG give back the card that she swiped off the table, but she has already thrown it out. By this time two of the guys who were sitting in the back and the kitchen staff are intervening to try and get this guy out of the cafe. CG is screaming and homeless dude is yelling vaguely incoherently (since he is deaf) someone finally fished the card out of the garbage and threw it at him and he left. But not before cursing a couple more times, and saying something fairly nasty in sign to CG.

Meanwhile Chloe is completely fascinated by all the yelling, and the mammas and I are clutching our babies and trying to stay out of the way.

The whole scene made me even more cynical than the incident last year. Firstly I am not certain that I believe he is deaf. Second even if he is deaf that does not give him the right to be belligerent to anyone. And even if he is deaf that should not stop him from getting a "real job" granted that any job he would get would have to be specialized either in location or in requirements (I cant really see him working in a call centre or in construction but there are plenty of other kinds of jobs) which might require extra skills or training. I like to believe that Canada has programs and resources for people with disabilities so that they can find work.

This line of thought makes me cringe a little bit, I don't want to be the kind of person who just blindly responds "Get a job" when someone asks me for change. I want to be caring and compassionate, because I know that not everyone had it nearly as easy as I did growing up. I know that shit happens to people that pushes them farther and farther away from the mainstream, and that the longer you spend on the edges the harder it is to get back on your feet. I want to believe that we have a safety net which will guard us against the accidents and misfortunes. That the system is failing the people and not that the people are failing to properly make use of the system.

this is the first time I have lived in a real big city, and its the first time I have had to deal with these issues first hand. I hope that I can maintain my compassion and idealistic viewpoint.