I think most of us believe that we are intelligent people. We believe in ourselves and we believe that we know our communities, and that we can make a difference in our lives and in the lives of our friends, family and other people around us.
But what if, like me, some of our foundational knowledge is wrong. What if what some of what we believe is biased and distorted by our societies collective lack of critical thinking and questioning?
Let me explain by reviewing some of this past week’s news headlines.
“The war on drugs is the right approach.” Americans and the world do not seem to learn from history. Prohibition did not work and neither is the world focus on the “War on Drugs.” The rhetoric, fear-mongering, and billions of dollars wasted on fighting the war on drugs have not accomplished their goals. Scientific evidence if examined critically would reveal that a different method is needed. Think critically and ask your leaders what has been accomplished, ask populist-type leaders who “Want to get tough on crime,” to provide independent evidence that what their slogans boast is actually true. Fake news is a big problem but headlines with zero news are an even bigger issue.
“Mental Health does not affect me.” Mental Health experiences will affect one in four people this year. Chances are someone you know, or someone in your family is suffering but may be too stigmatized to admit it. If someone has a broken leg we expect that the person will get medical care; however, if someone has a mental health experience, most reactions are substantially different because of stigma and misinformation. As a community, we need to illuminate that mental health and addiction are simply regular health issues and remove the stigma and the shame people feel. Regular First Aid courses are required in many workplaces, and Mental Health First Aid Courses should also be part of Mental Health. Challenge yourself to learn more about the frequency of mental health experiences and addictions, the myths and misunderstandings, and how we can help eliminate the stigma and shame people feel when they are affected by a mental health experience.
“Addiction is a criminal offense.” Addiction is a health issue. Appreciating that people who are addicted to drugs are victims would change the “War on Drugs” completely. Having science-based conversations about Harm Reduction Policies, Safe and Prescribed Supplies, and Safe injection sites in every community would dramatically change the prognosis of addiction in our country. Abstinence is not an effective solution for victims addicted to drugs. Become educated, seek out experts like Gabor Mate and others, learn what is happening, and what should be happening, and help work to support filling those gaps in your community.
“We have an effective safety net for vulnerable people.” While there seem to be many organizations dedicated to helping people in need; however, we need to question whether is it enough. We need to ask why their hours are so limited and why most communities have so few basic services. In the community that I live in with 20,000 people, there are approximately 150 people experiencing homelessness, yet after 11 pm at night, there are no public washrooms available. There are no shelters. The closest safe injection site is a two-hour drive away. In outlying communities, food banks are open for a few hours each week or sometimes only once a month. Some provincially funded organizations are only open during business hours, and few are open on weekends. The waitlist for emergency housing is five years. These are not isolated examples. People do not know about these issues. We all need to learn more and ask our leaders for more support.
“The Opioid Crisis doesn’t affect my community.” People are dying everywhere, in cities, towns, and in our rural areas. In our community, more people have died in the past three years from overdoses than died from covid-19. Part of the reason is because there is no prescribed safe supply and because police, following the law, confiscate the low-hanging fruit, so victims of drug addiction are forced to seek out increasingly dangerous suppliers. Opioids are cut with poisons and other drugs leading to unpredictable results and more frequent overdoses. Learn who is being affected and you may be surprised who is being affected.
“Slavery in Canada doesn’t exist.” Despite having been outlawed in our country for more than 100 years more people including women, children, and men are being trafficked today in our communities than ever before. We need to make more people aware of Human Trafficking, how to identify it, and who to report it to.
“Zero Percent Tax Increases are good for society.” In our community, an average bachelor’s apartment costs $1500 per month, yet our disability pension and equivalent welfare payments are $1163 per month. Inflation is a reality, yet somehow many politicians believe voters want them to cut services to maintain or even lower taxes. Our media reports on crumbling infrastructure and the need for more programs to support our vulnerable citizens, yet our leaders often look at social services as the first places to cut or eliminate the funding to “balance the books.” They and we need to appreciate these services cost money and are necessary as part of our social responsibility in our communities.
“There is nothing wrong with how social service organizations are funded.” Funding for social organizations is incredibly precarious. Most people are surprised to discover that government and private grants and funding programs have extremely strict rules about what can be funded. Private organizations even exist as self-appointed watchdogs to ensure charities only spend a certain amount of money on “administration” expenses. Administration expenses include the salaries of people who provide the programs.
Imagine donating $1000 to provide food for vulnerable people. The strict parameters state that none of the money can be spent on having anyone purchase the food, store the food, distribute the food, prepare the food, or serve the food. This is a reality that handcuffs many of the charities trying to make a difference. In the private sector, this type of oversight simply does not exist and nobody even questions their spending priorities. We need to lobby our leaders for multi-year funding with reasonable safeguards and remove the restrictions to let community organizations do their jobs.
“The private sector can supply the houses we need, and paying a living wage is unaffordable for business.” Governments have a role to play in our social safety needs. Private sector organizations have zero incentive to build affordable housing. Private sector organizations, in general, fight increases in minimum wage levels, living wages, and/or guaranteed personal income. The issues of poverty and the lack of safe and affordable housing underlie many social issues in our communities.
Building monster houses is not going to help people experiencing poverty in our communities. Providing affordable housing that only uses 30-40% of an individual’s or family’s income is the answer. Mixed density and creative solutions are required. Food insecurity would largely disappear when people would not have to decide between rent and eating. People cannot afford to live in most of our communities and as a result, businesses cry out for staff but refuse to support better wages. Many in our communities are guilty of the middle-class bias of believing “people just need to get a job” or they should just “pull themselves up by their bootstraps.” Few of these people are familiar with the reality of multi-generational poverty or have ever had to deal with the trauma that many of our vulnerable people face daily. Collectively, we need to educate ourselves and everyone else about the real realities and the gaps that separates those who have enough from those who do not.
“There is nothing one person can do, the problems are too big.” What can you do?More than you think. Each of these ten issues has an easy call to action that can start right now. Most revolve around education and awareness, both individually and collectively. We need to ask questions of our leaders, both politically and our business leaders. When we ask questions we need to think critically about the answers and challenge any comments that are just rhetoric.
If we decide we want different leaders, we need to vote. The people that are voting now would appear to support conservative values, small government, and market-driven solutions. That is completely their right. However, those people tend to vote the same way regardless of who is running their particular party which stifles change and fresh approaches.
The challenge to initiate change is to get more people who do not vote to vote. The disenfranchised, and the apathetic; these people don’t realize they can make a huge difference in addressing real change. We can make a difference simply by voting if we haven’t voted in the past. Learn about issues, alternatives, and fresh ideas. Everyone could triple their influence by not only voting in all of the upcoming elections but convincing two friends each who haven’t voted to come with them. Challenge them to do the same thing. Vote for whomever you like, but to make real change we need more people to step up and vote.
You will have your own opinions and perspectives on these ten different news items. This post is not about making you see things the way that I see them now. My purpose is to get everyone to look past the rhetoric, and past opinions that are based on mistaken ideology, and examine these ten examples with an open, fresh, “critical thinking” mentality.
“What if your opinions on these ten issues were wrong;” by learning, thinking, and deciding to act, you can make a difference. The more of us that do this, the more difference we can make collectively, the more lives we can save, and the better communities we will have to live in.
Good luck,
Paul.