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Keep Imagining: 2 miles in their shoes

Posted by Percipia on July 29, 2008

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Keep Imagining: 2 miles in their shoes

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Two Places at Once

Yesterday in our County, there was an Emergency Council meeting, comprising the mayors of all municipalities, and the County Staff. I tracked the whole meeting via livestream. It was very long. Six hours of alternating tedium and infuriation. First, I have to say that I'm impressed by the County staffers. They came prepared, and knowledgeable. They understood the issues under discussion, but maintained a professional mien. Among the Councillors, the personalities and underlying tensions were, shall we say, discernable. The issue on the table was the "Response to Unplanned Reduction in Shelter Services." What that means is that in our town, which is home to more unsheltered and housing insecure people today than this time last year, the County's one and only Shelter is not only not opening up their new (developed with Provincial money, almost ready to inspect and then occupy) building to keep people out of the snow, they are even having to reduce the number of beds t...

A Post That Starts Philosophical and Ends Up a Bit Angry

I've never visited a refugee camp. Oh wait... I think maybe I have. Mario is living his life. Doing his best. Just being Mario. Then something happens. Doesn't matter what, exactly: war, natural disaster, plague, famine, ( mental illness, family breakdown, corporate or personal greed )... And he's knocked loose. Out into the world where nobody knows Mario, or who he is, or what he does. Nobody knows his story, or his skills, or his heart. They only see one more face through the window or the fence. ( One more hand held out empty. ) One more pair of feet standing in line. ( One more person you don't want to stand downwind of, or in a small room with poor ventilation.) One more stranger sitting in a plastic chair on the other side of a desk, needing help to fill in the forms so they can ask for shelter. One more travelling and living with only what he can carry. What he was able to round up and prioritize before the door slammed behind him ( with the keys ...

A Rowboat, A Fox, A Goose, and a Bag of Corn

Wednesday 9 pm - I read a note in a WhatsApp group that said that our friends who had been sheltered by the County at one of the motels were going to be "discharged" at 10 am Thursday morning. The call was, "Who might be available to help?" A few of us said we'd be able to drop in. And before you assume anything... the "discharge" was not because of anything they'd done. There had previously been a few residents evicted because they'd broken rules. The people who remained had done nothing wrong. But they'd been told (at 3 pm Wednesday) that they were out with less than 24 hours notice. The most plausible reason that surfaced was that the motel wanted the rooms available because hockey season is starting, and teams come through town. Let the scrambling begin. Thursday 8 am - I spent an hour and a half working on my sermon for Sunday. 9:45 am - My husband and I got in my car and drove to Timmie's for our previously schedule...

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