Blessings in Disguise

There is a marvelous full page ad in the Globe today that I cannot reproduce here. Perhaps you can find it in your local paper.

The ad celebrates National Down Syndrome Awareness Week.

The headline goes like this.

"There is a place for children like Hannah...it's called a public school."

The copy then goes on to explain why inclusiveness is so crucial for all concerned.

I was so glad to see this today because I have been arguing exactly this position for decades.

Having children with disabilities in regular classrooms is not only wonderful for them; it is most important for all the able children.

Steve Largent, the great record-holding wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks said years ago when he was still playing football when asked about his fourth child who had spina bifida, "Our boy is a gift from God, because how would my wife and I and our other children have learned about love without him?"

OFF THE RAILS

Transclunk is - may I coin a new phrase? - "ungoverned."

It's a financial unholy mess according to the official penny-counter in Victoria.

And BC Ferries, who pay David Hahn a cool million a year, sit on their own board of governance and vote themselves gaspingly generous pay raises.

Read the piece here, and then tell me again about what a good business manager is Gordoon.

DANGER! STEP BACK, PLEASE!

Have you ever been in the hospital?

Did they give you happy juice?

Demerol?

Do you have the faintest memory of anything you said to your Aunt Tilly or the kids when they came to visit?

Could you give a royal visiting poop what went on around you when you were medically stoned out of your gourd?

Of course you couldn't.

Thus is exposed the lie that if we only give addicts drugs and drunks a little shot, then we can talk to them about treatment.

Utter pig swill.

But...

The Harm Reduction Army has a new strategy in the relentless - and powerful - PR campaign.

We will admit that our mantra and mad mission is controversial, but our experts swear it works.

Oh, brother.

Harm reduction

Contentious, but experts say it works

For some substance abusers, abstinence is unrealistic so it is best to try to reduce the harm caused by substance abuse rather than focus on stopping the substance abuse outright

That's the headline and lead from an unsigned piece in today's Globe. Is this supposed to be an editorial? A news item?

Whatever it's intentions it is irresponsible in the extreme.

A newspaper, any newspaper, but especially a national rag like the Globe, carries with it a certain gravity, a centre of belief.

This article unattributed to any writer in particular (Oddly, that is the case in the print edition, while online the piece is credited to reporter Andre Picard.) says in print that Hard Production "works." It says that "experts" say that.

What experts?

Addicts? People who have worked with addicts for years?

No.

Evan Wood is a quack pseudo-scientist at the university who claims with a straight face that "Harm Seduction results in healthier individuals and communities and, ultimately, offer the best chance of getting people with addiction problems treated."

O.K. Ev. Let's examine that.

Healthier individuals?

You give a junkie junk in the morning. In the afternoon he is back in the alley getting more junk. Now he's healthier?

"In the managed alcohol program run by Ottawa's Inner City Health Project, they give alcohol to alcoholics. Participants get one drink of fortified sherry per hour as a safer alternative to the Lysol, Purell and Listerine they guzzle in desperation on the streets."

So now that drunk is healthier?

Healthier communities?

Never in Canadian history have we had so many addicts on so many substances clogging up so many of our public highways and byways and hospital emergency wards and courts. Never have we had so much rampant breaking and entering of citizens' cars and homes.

Nice strategy. Yes, that's really working.

Getting people treated?

Do you hear anything when you're on happy juice?

No.

What treatment?

I've just returned from four days at Manitoba's Behavioural Health Foundation, where for $50,000 a year per bed, they are turning over 100 addict resident clients into clean and sober citizens. Nobody is given wine or a pipe kit. They are given love and support and school and work and a gentle kick in the butt.

Here is my personal list of the most dangerous people in our communities:

Evan Wood

The Portland Hotel Society

Larry Campbell

Sam Sullivan

When the press, who should be asking tough questions, become aiders and abettors to these destructive people, we are in serious jeopardy.