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I was at Walmart today, just as I was getting out of the car a guy in his late 20's comes up to me and starts in with a story about how he lost his job and needs some cash to put gas in his car. As I'm semi listening to him I see the sign at Walmart saying "now hiring all positions, full time, part time"

 

I point him toward the sign and he says "I'm not working at Walmart"

 

I denied his request for aid.

What an amazing community of people we’ve got on this forum.

Every morning I can’t wait to login and check the posts. You guys and gals crack me up every day, you make me think beyond my horizons and despite our differences we all come together on a daily basis to voice them.

How cool is that?

My response to police not being allowed at Pride.

So, with the ongoing debate about police officers at Pride throughout North America, I have decided it’s time for me to come out of the closet. The closet of being a victim of trauma. Which traumas doesn't matter, this is not a competition.

Yes, I said traumas. So yes, there is more than one, and some were even self inflicted traumas to attempt to “recover” from previous traumas.

Now, I am sure you are going to say “gee, white boy with privilege trauma, someone must be devastated about not getting into Harvard”. I am going to tell you, no I know what “real" trauma is and leave it at that.

A note about the white privilege that I may be accused of having before we go on. While I do not deny advantages may exist, I will never agree that my trauma is lesser than anyone else. Nor, does that mean that I am saying it was more.

Why? I am a 47 year old man that grew up in the mid-western bible belt of the US. I gave been called a faggot, a queer and every other homophobic word in the book. I used to sit and listen to family and friends talk about those faggot-queers “deserving what they got" when bashing stories were on the news or whatever talk show. I had to face all the torment a young child may face today for being gay. But, without the chance of a sympathetic teacher or ally. Back then, we had to hide, even from each other. Especially if you were a child with other trauma.

So I had to live in fear of making some movement or gesture that might give me away. I had to spend hours in the bathroom practicing my voice in the mirror so their was no indication of my sexuality. Basically, I had to spend my life pretending I was something I wasn't.

And these are not even my traumas.

So, when I listen and read about individuals that are upset by the trauma they suffered at the hands of the police, and they should not be allowed to march in a Pride Parade because they are/ could be a trigger, I say take some responsibility for yourself. Have some understanding that you are the one responsible for interacting with the world. It is not everyone else’s responsibility to make the world safe for you. There are too many different traumas, and you or your group are not unique. However, if you are the victim of a trauma that can be “categorized” into a a common group trauma (i.e. a perceived or actual injustice by the police), feel some solace in that fact that you can share recovery from that trauma with others today. There was a time, no matter what you were you couldn't. In the past, some of us had no chance to share our trauma even if we were white males. Thus we suffered till late in life.

I suffer from PTSD, clinical depression and high functioning anxiety because of the traumas I have been through. Many, many things are triggers, life is a process that is controlled by highly structured regulatory. One that requires me to regulate myself, so that I can go out, and take part in life. So, it’s not easy. Many thing are a trigger, and I use tools and techniques to function on a day to day basis.

The thing I don't do is ask the world to stop because of my triggers. I don't think, expect or mandate that safe spaces be made for me so I can go out in the world. I make my safe spaces for myself, so that I can exist. I don't ask or expect other to change to fit my issues. That would not be fair.

Surviving trauma means you are a survivor. Easier said then done. But it is possible, and it can stop being everyone else’s fault.
There are many things that I could try to demand not be a part of my Pride because of the fact they could be a trigger. I would never do that. That is not my place, or my right. My right is to heal myself.

So my point. Stop asking for everything from everyone else. Take some responsibility for yourself. Yes what has happened to you, and me is horrible. But it is unique to you, and everyone’s experience is the same. So stop trying to force your experience on everyone else. Make yourself whole. In doing so, don’t make someone else incomplete.

Release
Stephen Andrew declares run for Victoria Council

VICTORIA, August 30, 2018 – Stephen Andrew, the former television journalist and talk show host is running for a seat on Victoria Council.
“For the past several years we moved away from good governance. Well, it’s time for a change, we need new voices at the council table that are respectful, reasoned and provide superior leadership,” says Andrew.
The Executive Director of a national patient organization that supports, educates and advocates for cancer patients and their families says the deciding factor for joining the race is the lack of process in the removal of the Sir John A. Macdonald statue outside Victoria City Hall.
“The Mayor and majority of council were so disrespectful to all citizens of Victoria,” explains Andrew. “The council believes the wave of anger they experience is just the issue of the statue. From what I’m hearing it’s the breaking point for a number of poorly handled issues.”
Andrew says his work, his volunteer contribution and participation on community boards has prepared him for a seat at the council table.
“I have the knowledge, the experience and the passion to work with others to provide good governance for a better Victoria.

The Oak Bay Police Department isn't holding back.

 

The force posted a New Year's resolution message on Twitter, to which Chrissy Brett replied.

 

OBPD: Any #newyearsresolutions this year?  May we kindly suggest 'stopping completely at stop signs'? The #oakbay Police have some resolutions this year...and you set them for us! You identified our priorities for the next 5 yrs and we're looking forward to delivering.

 

Chrissy Brett: My new yrs resolution is a round 2 of municipalities we've already been too....afternwe have cycled through Central Saanich & Sidney to add to our list of PDs who work with us not mud sling.  Only part of Duncan RCMP and Westshore RCMP & oak bay pd make it personal not policing

 

OBPD: We have an invoice for you. It was initially going to be mailed to your home...but I felt we should just hold it for you for if you came back.  Its for the damaged bench $1500 & 3 Hazmat call-outs ($500 each). I'll hold it here & if you return to camp, it will be served on you.

You know, it's honestly so sad really to see the constant anti-bike sentiment here. Such a North American way of thinking to need an instant return on investment with these bike lanes. What ever happened to planting a tree under whose shade you don't expect to sit.

 

I can walk by any number of modern buildings in Victoria, something we always champion as being a positive for the City, that have empty ground floor commercial space. Does that make those buildings a failure? Sure, it wasn't public dollars spent, but it's the same principle.

 

What about Dwight D. Eisenhower. Was he a fool for creating the Interstate Highway System? Building massive road infrastructure that he would never see reach it's full potential in his lifetime? But something that no one can now argue was a failure.

 

It takes time for projects to reach their full potential. This is called pro-active planning. We bemoan the Mackenzie Interchange as being reactive planning, yet we now bemoan this pro-active planning as well? Complaining for the sake of complaining if I've ever seen it.

The vast majority of the public would support helping the homeless to become self-sufficient, I get the sense that the vast majority of the public is absolutely appalled and exhausted by the efforts to enable a homeless lifestyle with no viable path towards self-sufficiency.

I have a personal theory about how to frame these discussions of statues and memorials of flawed historical figures. Here it is:

History, particularly in the West, has been a largely (but not entirely) uninterrupted if incomplete move from the privileged few, to the privileged minority, to the privileged majority, to egalitarianism. From a king, to a king with barons, to landed white males, and so forth. Famous historical figures come overwhelmingly from the privileged groups. Pretty much the only historical figures from Western Civilization that are famous from a thousand years ago are kings, explorers, and conquerors. Most of the famous historical figures from 100 years ago are white males. This is through no flaw of the unprivileged, it is just a question of access to power. If you were a white landed male 150 years ago, you were surrounded by an unjust system. Most of the injustice was just "the way things were" and probably not even something you overtly thought about. Some of it may have been injustices that you actively worked to maintain. On rare occasions in history, some person in a privileged position actually worked actively to correct an injustice.

It is acceptable to celebrate a flawed man who worked actively to improve some aspect of an unjust system, even if he failed to address, and benefited from other elements of the unjust system into which he was born. If a white male lives in a time and place where black men are enslaved, women are treated as chattel, and homosexuals are prosecuted, and he dedicates his life to trying to end slavery, but ignores the plight of women and gays, then I think it is reasonable to celebrate his efforts to end slavery. It is also reasonable to note the less favorable aspects of his life.

So for me, the way to judge a statue of a famous but flawed historical figure, is to determine if the statue is specifically celebrating something that current moral standards find repugnant, or is it celebrating something virtuous and worthwhile (despite the other flawed positions the historical figure may have had). If city hall had a statue celebrating John MacDonald's role in residential schools, I don't think any reasonable person would support it remaining in place. If it is on the other hand celebrating his role as a founding father of Canada, then it makes sense for it to be there. Rather than remove it, I would prefer to append additional historical information, specifically addressing MacDonald's shortcomings.

This is why, IMHO, it makes perfect sense to remove Confederate leader statues in the South that were put in place for the purpose of celebrating some historical figure's act of treason while sending a (not very) subtle message of support for white privilege, but it is not appropriate to remove a statue of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson (presumably) is being celebrated for writing the Declaration of Independence, or founding the University of Virginia. He is not specifically being celebrated for being a slave owner and raping Sally Hemmings. Those shortcomings can and should be addressed, but he still is an indisputably important historical figure who helped propel civilization forward.

Oh look, it's the latest VV uber-right wing thread. Hold on, let me get my popcorn.

We have to stabilize people, and there are major doubts, in my opinion, when it comes to services for treatment and addictions care. You don’t have to look far to see there are not many services.

 

So here lies the problem that Victoria is facing. Is there a lack of services..... or is there too many users who come here because of the enhanced hobo lifestyle that politics has provided for them?

 

When we fail to uphold the law, anarchy appears. (slap a "goog" on that and refresh your memory on what anarchy means)

 

When anarchy appears, law abiding citizens get nervous and ask their law enforcement people to perform their duties.

 

When law enforcement suggests that the root cause of the problem is political and seek to divert our attention towards politics instead of performing their duties.....then there can be a perception of law enforcement being infected by politics.

 

A law without a penalty is only a suggestion.

 

Unless we enforce the laws that our society has placed upon us all .......standby for some more anarchy.

HOMELESS DEPOT

CLOSING FOREVER

EVERYTHING MUST GO

FINAL DAY AUG 8 2016

ALL ITEMS FINAL SALE

BIKE PARTS

TENTS

BIKE PARTS
ROTTEN CLOTHES

BIKE PARTS

HUMAN FECAL MATTER

BIKE PARTS

DRUG PARAPHENILIA

LIVE RATS

SHOPPING CARTS

WEAPONS

STOLEN PROPERTY

DO NOT MISS THIS EPIC EVENT

 

Here's what I want - a mayor and a council who do such a good job, that voting for incumbents in 2022 is a no-brainer.  I want 4 years of projects that are run on time and on budget.  I want 4 years where Victoria is a little more cohesive.  I want to look back in 2022, and think, we'll compared to 2018 we're solidly better off.  In 4 years, I'd like it if those in Saanich, Esquimalt and Oak Bay would view the prospect of joining forces with Victoria as a reasonable and feasible thing to do in the best interests of the region as a whole. 

Am I doing this right?

 

Meanwhile, at FOCUS magazine...

 

THE CROWDED SPACE FOR MAYOR - from experience

Running for Mayor of Victoria seemed like a good idea back in 2014. The result was, and this is an understatement 😉, not as I had intended. I thought vote splitting would help and it’s obvious to me now that I was somewhat blinded by the reality of running.

I didn’t think Dean Fortin, Lisa Helps or even Ida Chong should be Mayor - at least the electorate agrees with me on two of those 😀. Helps won the race in the last week of the 2014 campaign. We polled and Fortin was in first place, Helps in second.

Throughtout the campaign people would repeat a line that became ingrained in my head, “Stephen, I would vote for you but I think you need to serve at least one term on council”. I didn’t think I’d be in the running this time out, but (and this is not hyperbole) my heart ached as I watched the painful lack of reasonable thinking at the council table. It became too much. I could continue to comment and criticize or I could act. I truly hope I can make a difference.

Back to the campaign for mayor...

The All Candidate meetings in 2014 were a gong show and I really question whether they are worth the time.

Generally, I found myself sitting with a number of candidates who were truly serious about their run, they were mounting full campaigns and putting “their money where their mouths are”.

Then there were the others, one earnestly wanting to make a difference and those who appeared to be running to grandstand on one issue or to make a complete mockery of the process.

I admire Rob Duncan for his passion for raising awareness for child poverty. It’s an admirable position. But when you are facing a room full of questions dealing with every issue under the sun and you have a clown sitting beside you repeatedly making the same statement to every question it becomes “theatre of the absurd”. But, as they say, that’s democracy.

Victoria appears to be the only municipal race where we have this issue. We need higher thresholds for someone to become a candidate for mayor.

As to this race and the field so far...

If, as the candidates say, they want a change in mayor then they need to do what’s best for the City of Victoria and NOT their ego.

I do not support Lisa Helps. As this campaign runs its course I believe more and more justification will become evident. I’ll leave it there - for now.

I pray Michael Geoghegan does not enter the race. I believe he lives in Saanich (for me mayoral candidates outside the city are a non-starter).

I talked with Gary Beyer and he’s only interested in the mayor’s position. I think he’s wrong to take that position- as I know oh so well - and I tried to convince him as a councillor he could do well.

Rob Duncan running as Rob and not “Changes the Clown” is... well... Rob Duncan running without a clown costume.

I know Stephen Hammond and I support his candidacy.

I sit in policy discussions with Stephen. I listen to his positions. He listens to mine and others. He is respectful. I often hear him say “Hey, I’m but one voice on this team.” To acknowledge that means a lot to me.

He wears the “Mad as hell” moniker as a badge of honour and says “tell people that”, so I do.

Where we differ on that issue is I believe it does not say everything you need to know about him.

Stephen is a decent man with progressive ideas.

Also, critics are trying to label all NewCouncil.ca candidates as “the mad as hell right wing bunch” which is so far from the truth. I’m certainly not right wing and from my conversations with the other umbrella candidates, neither are they.

I can’t say much about the other mayoral candidates as I don’t know them.

In every election there will be someone who says “this is an important race, a turning point”. Well, that’s a given.

So, what can you and I do about the crowded race this year?

I suggest between now and September 14 when the nominations close, reach out to the mayoral candidates and if you believe they are not viable, tell them. And ask them, in the interest of a better city, to step aside or run for council.

If they don’t, despite the fact we won’t have a clown in race, it will still be a three-ring circus.

Mayor Helps and her crew are off on another junket trip to China and Japan. She continues to promote U-bicycle, the company with the recent SFU grad CEO and Victoria investment backing, as her example of Chinese investment in Victoria and justification for another trip.

 

https://www.vicnews....to-china-japan/

 

The following letter to the editor was published in the Times-Colonist newspaper on September 18, 2012:

 

I have lost my patience with the DT population who make their substance-induced psychosis everyone else's problem. Too many confrontations. Thursday evening we were waiting for a bus and my kid and I were asked for a quarter by a very animated and aggressive guy with a bike. My kid and I both said, no sorry we don't have any change and my daughter even gave him a smile. We turned back around to look at the window display we had been interrupted discussing only to have this guy come right up to our backsides and point his finger into my head like a gun, saying yeah f--- you you don't DONATE shit I know your type blah blah. My daughter freaked (she's 9) and I turned around and got between them, was super angry and asked him, "What did you just say?" He backed off and then as soon as we turned around again he came at us swinging his bike. A man passing by stepped in. I'm so done with this BS. I've started carrying two types of protection because I feel vulnerable without it. Little does this guy know we donate food, toiletries and clothing through the year to Our Place. We care about the homeless population. However, I am DONE taking this shit from the aggressive active addicts in our city core.

I'd rather have a candidate with a social conscience, who knows the boundaries of their jurisdiction and is focused on doing a really great job of managing those responsibilities, than someone who places their SJ causes ahead of what are their obligations.  Take care of the obligations first, then work on the "nice to haves" - within the confines of what can be reasonably done by a city and its taxpayers.

 

I do think there's too much opportunity to misappropriate resources towards SJW causes without an explicit mandate from the voters to do so.  

Left or Right?

To paraphrase sentiment from the recently departed John McCain, I believe sitting on council in a privilege and councillors should act in a manner that’s best for the city. Personal agendas or party politics or slate driven block voting has no place in municipal governance.

I am appalled that Ben Isitt is cooperating or co-opting a slate so he will have “control” at council. It’s offensive to the city.

Winning will not be dertermined by painting candidates into a corner through labels.

People have tried to do that to me as “right wing”. I howl every time I hear this because those hat know me cannot comprehend that thought.

I’m a pragmatist. My work and volunteerism flies in the face of being right wing.

It just goes to show, people (and I include the Helps’ cabal in that group) demonize their opposition to dehumanize and ridicule. In fact the Helps’ supporters participate in offensive, arrogant and paternalistic attacks all orchestrated while proffering for support of “good people”.

I've come across very few in my circles who are keen to vote Helps this time around - rather those I know are keen to vote for someone other than Helps and are mostly hoping a viable alternative is on the ballot.  I believe there is a viable alternative (Mr. Hammond) - in which case, you have to hope that you do not wind up with votes being split away from the alternative and that those candidates decide to run for council instead, throwing their weight behind the viable and most likely alternate candidate for mayor.  And/or that a number of Left Leaning alternates begin to throw their hats into the ring splitting the Helps vote.  Again, it highlights the silliness of having people "run for mayor" and an entirely different group "run for council", if it were run as a board with a chair, it would make far more sense.

 

Really hoping Mr. Andrew throws his hat into the ring for council.  The New Council candidates appear pragmatic, which is what is very sorely needed.

Thanks for the shout out.  I'm getting closer to deciding.  It will not be for mayor.  During the last election people kept telling me they would have voted if I went for council or at least one term on council under my belt. Good advice.