To the Editor,
As I go off to do my minor stint at one of the local food bank outlets, I thought of the premise that maybe we should just close all the food banks and hand the government back the responsibility.
And then, I remembered that the present government has a vested interest in keeping them open.
Right-wing governments control the public by fear and misinformation paid for by our taxes.
We are reassured that if we work really hard and keep our heads down (and 58 per cent of workers don’t even use all their holidays), we will do just fine.
The powers that control us need the underclass to use as a club over our heads. Poor people are portrayed as undeserving, unmotivated and guilty of stealing our taxes. Single parent mothers and aboriginals come in for the most abuse.
As a retired school counsellor and social worker, I have seen the results first-hand of children growing up poor.
Child poverty is the leading cause of educational problems, reduced life span, medical issues, teen pregnancy and crime.
Why are we so willing to build more prisons, shoulder increased health and education costs, and tolerate this incredible waste of human potential?
So long as we feel smug in our consumer cocoon, and believe we are on the right side of the angels, nothing will change.
Little do we know how we can so easily lose it all and become the reviled losers.
The policies of the provincial and federal governments in a multitude of areas have cost us our international standing.
Along with the U.S., we are at the bottom of the barrel compared to all other Western democracies in how we take care of children, poor people, the environment, etc.
The federal Conservatives steal billions from EI premiums instead of paying decent benefits and the provincial Liberals take the majority of gambling revenues for their slush funds instead of funding the non-profits adequately.
They are both stealing our childrens’ present and future.
Dave Cutts
Nanaimo