The meeting hosted by the good people spearheading Poverty
Reduction Plan at SFU Harbour House last night was seriously inspiring.
Especially the spontaneous presentation by Dr Gary Bloch who showed glimpses of
righteous anger. It was gratifying to see a full house of people obviously from
different wealth classes. Dr Bloch’s message in a bottle is: Poverty is a
disease. It fosters ill health and the economic mathematics of creating ill
people doesn’t add up when they can become well and contributing members of
society again.
There
was, however, a sense I got that these guest speakers were preaching to the
choir. The real challenge is to successfully lobby the professionals, the high
income earners; those who enjoy influence as a consequence of their wealth. The
Poverty Reduction Plan being advanced by this organization is well thought out
and is practical to implement. Its points are as follows:
Priority Actions:
*Increase
welfare rates by 50% and index them to inflation.
*Remove
arbitrary barriers that discourage, delay and deny people in need.
Simple
enough. But our politicians through their repugnant lip service at election
time are effectively stonewalling organizations like the Poverty Reduction
Coalition, and killing people.
Obvioulsy
more lobbying is necessary and timing is critical. Doctors like Gary Bloch and
many others have only so much time to commit. Bloch himself has been at this for
10+ years. It’s time to focus: Lobby the establishment: the lawyers, judges,
politicians, pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies; the unions, the real
estate developers and agents. Start with them. Within
every grade of establishment one may find the conscientious either through
their religious affiliation of their understanding and appreciation of human
value. Every human being has value. Not just the rich. Every human being needs
to be acknowledged by all of us that that individual can make a real
contribution to his or her society like so many recovered alcoholics and drug
addicts can attest. According to the Reduction of
Poverty Coalition, 400 organizations have
already signed up representing a collective membership of over 300,000 people
throughout the province.
And a
lot more are needed. Individuals from every background and profession. If graphic
artists and web site developers were among their membership; lawyers and more
doctors, teachers and nurses and Yes, even pharmacists then imagine the pool of
professionalism this coalition could call upon to help spearhead this campaign.
Within every grade of establishment one may find the conscientious either
through their religious affiliation of their understanding of human value.
That’s where we’ll find these people. Are there not real estate agents of
social conscience who can join? And developers? Executives from Big Pharma are
welcome too. They all have a conscience in there somewhere.
And the holdouts? SHAME THEM!
The
Right Honorable Pierre Elliot Trudeau taught us about striving to realize a
‘just society.’ So let’s get on with it!
The
process is simple: Join this coalition. Help them inspire; organize;
consolidate the organizations of like-mindedness; pitch to the professionals
and the general public and then shame the establishment hold-outs. And
with or without the unions on side but with strong enough numbers, stage a
general walkout. Freeze the economy. Only in the wallet will some people get
the buzz.
To quote
the coalition’s literature: “We can afford this! BC has had the highest poverty
rate in Canada
Let your
conscience do the talking now and join this coalition by visiting:
http://bcpovertyreduction.ca/take-action/join-the-call.
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