NOT ALL HOMELESS ON DRUGS

Re: "Children would be endangered by homeless using gazebo," letter to the
editor, Friday, March 6.

Adele Garofano's comments regarding the Lions Park gazebo issue do not
reflect a desire to potentially endanger one group of our society so
we can serve another.

Allowing homeless people to have access to the gazebo would not
necessarily mean that there will be needles and broken bottles lying
around and it certainly wouldn't harm them. By saying this, you are
just stereotyping all the homeless people into one section, saying
that they are all drug addicts and alcoholics -- when, in fact, most
of them are kind people who just found themselves in bad
circumstances.

Use of the gazebo gives them somewhere dry to stay, which would be
helpful, considering all the unpredictable weather we have been
getting. Believe it or not, the homeless people are not out to get you
and your children, and letting them use the gazebo would not be
needlessly risking others. It is not "needless" to help your fellow
human. It's called caring.

Sonya Ahmed

Port Coquitlam