It's called "responsibility"

My friend, Sandra Thomas of the Vancouver Courier, has nailed it again with her assessment of the study into traffic and pedestrians on the Downtown East Side.

(At the outset, I should point out that my company, TransLink, has been quoted in the media for some comments that were included in the report. What I say here has nothing to do with my position at TransLink, as you'll see.)

In her column, she sums up the study's proposal, so I'll leave it to you to read. But there's something that nags at me: the proposal is the latest, as Sandra points out, in a series of "approaches" -- for want of a better word -- to various problems on the DTES that seeks to make everyone else responsible for the actions of a particular group of people. Why would anyone want to make a particular group exempt from responsibilities that the vast majority of people take for granted?

If you try to absolve certain people of responsibility because of some pre-existing circumstance, are you not, in fact, oppressing those people? In a way, you're declaring that the DTESers are a separate caste, made distinct by the fact that its members are incapable of being responsible -- and therefore are entitled to special treatment. You've assumed a position of superiority to this "caste", writing them off as incorrigible and doing so under a cast of kindness, pretending to be one who cares and truly understands the needs of these people better than anyone else -- including themselves.

Rather than assist them to become responsible, you simply enable them to continue being irresponsible. Isn't that the way of thinking that created Indian reservations and residential schools?

It's oppressive enough to tell people that they'll never be able to pull out of the mire they're in so they might as well have a more comfortable time of it. But this also accentuates the "us-versus-them" mindset that splits the DTES from the rest of the city. "Here's another case," people from outside the DTES would say, "where these deadbeats get another break because they're so hard-done-by!" That hardens hearts even further, making it tough to stir up the compassion and love that it takes to turn lives around and really bring change to people. When hearts are hardened, it becomes tougher to see people as God sees them.

Why would someone want to oppress people like that? Why help them stay in a drugged-out, chronically ill, impoverished state? Is there an agenda? That's the $65,000 question. "Follow the money," the legendary Deep Throat told Woodward and Bernstein as they were digging into the Watergate Scandal. As we saw recently with the implosion of the Downtown Eastside Residents' Association, groups that receive large handouts under the guise of helping the poor are just as susceptible to temptation as anyone else. And when money is involved, the greatest temptation is to perpetuate the need that's been bringing in the money.

But I sense there's something more than that going on. People who start to see the light of Christ coming on in their lives, turning the darkened image in the mirror to something clearer and closer to the way God made them, realize that, with the help of Jesus, they are capable of overcoming the drugs and poverty and abuse and other things that put them on Skid Row to begin with. As they strengthen their faith and hope, they can no longer be controlled by other people, because the weapons being used against them -- guilt and shame and even the fear of death -- suddenly have no effect.

Well, of course, that's the last thing Satan wants, isn't it? He wants to prevent that light from coming on, and the best way to do that is to convince people that the way they're living is as good as it gets. He does that with rich folk in the British Properties, making them believe they've got it so good, they don't need Jesus. And he does that with the most mpoverished on the DTES, perversely, also making them believe that this is as good as it gets, and that they're so special, the rest of the world should excuse them from following the law and being responsible people. So wipe that pipe before you pass it, bro, and don't bother with Jesus.

It makes our job just that much more challenging.

The "We Are All Pedestrians" report is just the latest symptom of that mindset. Forgive them: they know not what they do.