I am an Alien

Wednesday, June 13th, 2007
I attended two events last week that left me feeling like a stranger in my own community. At both events, my view of the world (current and future) was in complete opposition to the others in attendance.

The first event at Fort Calgary was facilitated by the City of Calgary and was a series of conversations in small groups on issues facing our city and challenges for specific populations. I won’t recap the conversations but a report will follow soon. The general topic areas were; voluntary sector, diversity, employment, poverty,and children and youth. I didn’t have aproblem with the topics or the tone of the conversations but the general impression was that these issues were as a result of someone else not doing what they should (usually government). You have heard be expound on why I believe the expansion of the state is the greatest contributing factor to the collapse of community and here I am sitting with people that want to expand the role of the state (and therby absoving themselves of responsibility). I can’t imagine a time where this has been or ever will be successful.

On Saturday we attended the screening of “The Downtown Dawgs” the story of Calgary’s involvement in the Canadian team that attended last years Homeless World Cup of Soccer. While the story was compelling and the production values were excellent, I left saying ” So what, Now what?” When it was revealed that 3/4 homeless men from Calgary that were involved are still living in shelters or on the street without and real change in their lives, I need to ask ” What have we learned?”. When Dermott Baldwin from the Calgary Drop-in and Rehab Centre talks about how their services have grown from 110 people to more than 1000 everyday, I need to say that “every bed added is a failure”.

I guess it is my lot in life to be on the outside looking in but it sure can be tiring being the naysayer all the time.