Letter to Editor Election 2009

Dear Sir,

I read with interest the letter from Andrew Turner (Mother and Father Not The Answer, Courier Islander Campbell River – April 24, 2009) regarding the underlying social current in our Province and his concerns about “the NDP mothers” and “union fathers” taking control of our lives for our own good, crippling the life of a mature province and creating a culture of irresponsible demanding victims.

I think Mr. Turner needs to worry more about Big Brother yelling to the masses from his ivory tower ‘Do you Believe” or “This is the best place on earth”. Just because you chant it repeatedly doesn’t mean it is so. In the last 8 years, the Liberals have crippled the life of marginalized people, and have created a culture of poor bashing and neglect of unforgiveable proportions.

Mr. Turner insults NDP supporters as nothing more than a group of hairy backwards thinking lazy high school drop outs and overprotective mothers who do everything including feeding sandwiches to angry 40 year old sons living in the basement. Let’s go with that analogy.

In many cases, the basements in this province are the best places on earth for thousands of marginalized British Columbians who have fallen victim to the Big Brother locking them down there. The unlucky ones comprise our street homeless populations that we all know are at the highest rate in BC history.

But let’s get back to the parents’ basements.

We have the 40 year old seriously developmentally disabled son who is rotting on waiting lists to get the support he needs while his elderly parents struggle in isolation or spiral into crisis and breakdown.

We have the 40 year old recently unemployed millworker and his family forced to move into that basement because they are now unemployed thanks to mill closures under the Liberal watch.

We have the 40 year old woman and her child fleeing to that basement from an abusive and violent marriage who is on a three week waiting list for an emergency needs assessment at welfare and cannot qualify for legal aid, which has just taken more significant cuts as it did in 2002 under the Liberal watch.

We have a 40 year old man who grew up poor and who could not afford tuition to qualify for anything other than minimum wage jobs and now cannot afford the spiralling costs of rent in this province and no hopes of finding any social housing available. His children are some of the 21.9% of kids in B.C. who live in poverty, the highest rate in Canada. They live in his parents basement now, they were in a camper before that.

We have a 40 year old man who has terminal cancer and cannot qualify for disability assistance because his condition is not expected to last for two years. His $610.00 a month does not cover his medical, housing or nutrition needs. He really appreciates the sandwich.

We have a 40 year old man who is serving a year of house arrest for street racing and killing a family in the process.

We have some younger people in the basement too. A lot of 19 year olds who have aged out of the foster care system, many of whom have terrible emotional and mental handicaps who have been set free to the streets to figure it out. Some are lucky enough to be taken in by good Samaritans or family members who may have a room in their basement and who are charitable enough to make that sandwich for them, but the soup kitchens try to take up the slack.

We have children hiding in the basement so the parent can go to work to make a living but cannot afford child care so they are told to stay there and not answer the door.

Mr. Turner is probably not aware of a new term called middle aged boomerangers, an alarming trend, thanks to the economy that Big Brother thinks is so great, of formerly solvent 30 and 40 something’s who are moving back in with parents because they can no longer afford to pay for their own housing. Many are professionals with university educations. They are not just the irresponsible NDP potheads who aspire for that cushy union job. While they are in the basement, they can occupy their brains with the reading of the recent 121 page Ombudsman’s Report on Improving Fairness and Accountability in B.C.’s welfare system, or the many reports from the Representative for Children and Youth demanding better services to children in care in this province and more accountability for those who have died in care.

At least the NDP is willing to go into the basements of British Columbians and talk about what they see. The Liberals stay in their ivory towers and don’t look down unless they hear a noise. It is the NDP who is making that noise. The Liberals just want us to pay for more soundproofing.