Dear Editor:
I have to congratulate the Record's recent editorial on bringing poverty in this city to our attention. I knew it was bad, just not how bad.
What kind of society do we live in that allows such poverty to affect over 800,000 in B.C., of which 170,000 are children and many others, seniors, for example, who are homeless, hungry and out in the cold?
While many of us give generously, relying on charity, however well-meant, is not the answer. If charity and philanthropy were the answer, there wouldn't be poverty.
We have a collective moral responsibility to each other or, as the scriptures say, we are our brother's keeper. Is that not what we pay taxes for, or should, and why we elect representatives to govern, for the good of all? We climb on board and support suffering refugees, as we should, but ignore the plight of our own people. What hypocrisy!
We should all remember the unanimous vote in parliament in 1989 to end child poverty by the year 2000? What happened to that commitment? Why was it allowed to gather dust in the parliament records? Now, 26 years later, we are still anguishing over the increasing misery of the poor.
Where is the money going to come from? Properly tax the rich and their corporations. Stop bailing out the banks as we did in the 2008 crisis when we bought up their sub-prime mortgages to the tune of $119 billion, and cut back the billions spent on the armament industry, the military and war. In this rich country, there is lots of money. We just need to get our priorities straight.
It is a disgrace and an outrage and, as was pointed out, we should be ashamed to let it go on.
Bill Zander, New Westminster
