WE ALL DESERVE TO BE TREATED WITH DIGNITY

Editor, The News:

Kevin, a member of Abbotsford's homeless community, died last Tuesday night.

His release from the pain of these soulless streets will be mourned
in the homeless community and those who care to serve the needs of
these citizens.

Kevin was human and had the flaws that come with that state of being.
It was his misfortune that one of his flaws was addiction, a scourge
that devoured his life.

Kevin had serious respiratory problems that were only complicated by
his addiction. Worse misery lay in his having the wrong addiction.

If you ever doubted the driving power of addiction, consider that
Kevin knew his addiction would, together with his respiratory
illness, cause him an early painful death.

Even in the face of this death sentence, Kevin was a helpless
prisoner of his addiction.

Sadly, Kevin is not unique. I lost a cousin decades ago because he
could not stay sober (from beer) long enough for life-saving medical treatment.

While the broad majority of his fellow citizens will not notice
Kevin's passing from the city's indifferent streets, and those
malignant of spirit will demonstrate this warping with the utterance,
"Good, one less homeless bum; the rest need to die - the faster, the
better," the humane will deplore the circumstances of his passing.

It was wrenching to see the suffering inflicted on Kevin by the
system and, to a lesser degree, society.

I do not know if system and attitude changes would or could have
granted him a longer life.

I do know our current systems and attitudes condemned him to death
and made his life at the end extremely miserable and painful, denying
him any comfort.

Others with a desperate need for caring will die in pain and
loneliness, killed by the callousness of our society.

Kevin is not the first person I have seen die or dying from the
complications of a respiratory illness and an ongoing addiction. He
is the first I have seen with an illegal drug addiction.

Until now, the addiction I have associated with respiratory problems
has been nicotine, with cigarettes the method these addicts use to
get their drug fix.

While this group of addicts may not have received a great deal of
sympathy, they did receive care, consideration and un-begrudged
medical treatment. Having labelled Kevin as a homeless druggie and
bum, the system and society judged him as unworthy of solicitude and
denied him simple mercy.

When you look at the world around you and find it an unfriendly, dark
and frightening place, remember it is this way because of choices we
make and have made as a society.

We have made human life the cheapest commodity on the planet and
created a class of disposable human beings.

The society and behaviour we so deplore is merely the reaping of the
whirlwind we as a society have chosen to sow.

If we want a better world, we need to build it on a solid foundation
of love for our fellow man, especially the least among us and those
in desperate need.

James W Breckenridge

Abbotsford