Poverty in British Columbia is becoming a persistant black mark against our province. For the past six years, all years of BC Liberal governance, British Columbia has ranked as the province with the highest child poverty rates in Canada. Furthermore, in the city of Burnaby where I so happily reside, 29.2% of all children live in poverty. This is heartbreaking on so many levels and needs to be rectified immediately.
There are so many things that can be done, at local, provincial and national levels of government, and even just by regular people reaching out and lending a hand.
Local governments can pitch in by raising awareness of the issues within the city, and re-zoning buildings to be used for social housing or emergency shelters for those who need help getting back on their feet.
Provincial Government; this is the time to start building up social housing in major cities and in every other city in your provinces. We've all been given an influx of cash from the stimulus package, use this money to construct low cost housing for the most vulnerable in society instead of things that can't help allieviate a problem that the United Nations now calls a national emergency.
The Federal Government need to start putting together a comprehensive plan to tackle the problem in a systematic, uniform method that all the provinces can work with. Canada is now the only industrialized nation without a national plan, and it shows in the statistics regarding our poverty levels.
The three levels of government have to start working together to solve this problem, because its not going to solve itself, and these are lives that are being ruined in poverty instead of contributing to society.
For individuals who want to get involved, stick with non-profit organizations, there are charity groups in every city and town just desperate for more volunteers to help feed those in need. Especially since this is now getting into winter, any kind of donation to charitable organizations is welcome, or even a donation of money if you don't have non-perishable food or warm clothes to donate.
The only societies that have poverty are those that allow poverty to exist. Together as citizens and as government organizations, we can work together and defeat poverty in our lifetimes.
Showing posts with label Public Safety. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Public Safety. Show all posts
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Bullying in schools
http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/news/record/2400.html April 9th
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517470,00.html April 22nd
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/08/florida.school.assault/index.html May 8th
Quite a little record we've set for ourselves here. In literally 30 days, we've managed to ignore bullying to the point where one child is raped and two others commit suicide. We've managed to tell ourselves that its not really that bad, that its always some other school district in some other area of the country, that nothing like this ever would happen where we teach, administrate and live. Well, you're wrong. Three times now, the youth victim and his parents demanded that something be done, and three times nothing was done because the bullying was homophobic in nature, and thus no one wanted to be involved in protecting "the fag child". But do you know what the sad part about this was? These children never identified themselves as gay, these were healthy, heterosexual young men with a life of potential waiting for them, and now two o them are dead and one will be changed for life. These people, who are legally bound to do whatever is necessary to ensure the safety of their child charges, should be sued and fired for their gross neglect. We have seen time and time again that staff and students alike would rather ignore the issue or blame the victim rather than act and potentially save a life.
Its time to take a stand. Starting today, I will be collecting letters to send to every state legislator, congressperson, member of provincial legislator and member of parliament in North America. It is my goal that by shedding light on these disgusting acts, we can rally support and make sure that this never happens to another child again. I'm asking you, the reader of this, and anyone else you know, to please help me by writing a short letter that will be sent to these important people. It can be anything, personal experiences from bullying, your own impassioned pleas, just something, anything, something we can share to show the solidarity of our beliefs that this cannot continue and that the life of a child is the MOST important thing in the world, and must be safeguarded as such.
Thank you all, God bless and when you come home at night and begin to complain about the horrors of your mundane life, think of the people above, and others like them, who no longer have that power.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,517470,00.html April 22nd
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/08/florida.school.assault/index.html May 8th
Quite a little record we've set for ourselves here. In literally 30 days, we've managed to ignore bullying to the point where one child is raped and two others commit suicide. We've managed to tell ourselves that its not really that bad, that its always some other school district in some other area of the country, that nothing like this ever would happen where we teach, administrate and live. Well, you're wrong. Three times now, the youth victim and his parents demanded that something be done, and three times nothing was done because the bullying was homophobic in nature, and thus no one wanted to be involved in protecting "the fag child". But do you know what the sad part about this was? These children never identified themselves as gay, these were healthy, heterosexual young men with a life of potential waiting for them, and now two o them are dead and one will be changed for life. These people, who are legally bound to do whatever is necessary to ensure the safety of their child charges, should be sued and fired for their gross neglect. We have seen time and time again that staff and students alike would rather ignore the issue or blame the victim rather than act and potentially save a life.
Its time to take a stand. Starting today, I will be collecting letters to send to every state legislator, congressperson, member of provincial legislator and member of parliament in North America. It is my goal that by shedding light on these disgusting acts, we can rally support and make sure that this never happens to another child again. I'm asking you, the reader of this, and anyone else you know, to please help me by writing a short letter that will be sent to these important people. It can be anything, personal experiences from bullying, your own impassioned pleas, just something, anything, something we can share to show the solidarity of our beliefs that this cannot continue and that the life of a child is the MOST important thing in the world, and must be safeguarded as such.
Thank you all, God bless and when you come home at night and begin to complain about the horrors of your mundane life, think of the people above, and others like them, who no longer have that power.
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