LIFE'S A TAPESTRY OF LINES IN THE SAND

I've had it with this homeless problem or criminally transient problem
or drug problem or mental health or whatever we're supposed to call it
downtown.

This is supposed to be Kelowna's Centennial, by golly. Me? It's just
my fifth anniversary here which nearly qualifies me as an Old Timer.
But it's a centennial celebration nonetheless. Focus on the positive,
right?

So let's put this homeless problem to rest. Oh, I don't mean make it
go away. That'll never happen.

But for all those people who wonder just why we should take care of
them, who worry about all the money and food and free stuff to give
them and not to you-let's soothe your worries.

Here's how I reckon it: Quite simply, we all owe it to
them.

That's right. It's a debt to pay, sort of a rental fee for
freedoms.

The rest of us, we all get the benefits of Canadian life every day.
Those who understand and can abide by all the rules live in some
semblance of freedom and live without fear and threat. It's a pretty
good deal, but it does come with a cost for others.

Something was surely sacrificed in creating this cozy lifestyle. One
item missing from the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the
right of freedom from bureaucracy.

The moment we're born, we're stamped on the ass with a series of
numbers and letters. A handful of legal documents fly from the
hospital to create instant files for the health department,
immigration, social services and of course, the tax department.

We inherit from birth the system our parents left us and with no power
to change it. That's an important distinction because being born is
the will of God, implying that we all inherit a right to be here. Now
man has stepped in and will only let us stick around if we can abide
by all the rules.

And boy do we have a lot of them.

We've built fences, borders, boundaries, lines in the sand all
claiming ownership of earth's resources. How earth sold it to them I
know not. At this moment, doing absolutely nothing, I am under the
authority of a city government, a regional government, a provincial
government, a federal government and the United freakin' Nations.

Governments reinforce their authority with laws; great heaping books
and libraries governing other men.

It's gotten so a dairy farmer pours out milk he can't sell to a
marketing board. You require certification, licencing, registration
and fees just to catch a fish from the water; times two to take a deer
from the forest; times three to simply grow a cow.

Freedom is as freedom is written.

Surely it all came from necessity.

People are a vicious lot and we had to develop some ground rules so we
literally don't kill each other. History has led us to this point.

Clearly it's the only way we can get along, if indeed that is what we
do.

We set up these artificial rules, all of us knowing that they're not
perfect but they're pretty damn good. And collectively we assert the
right to strip another man of his freedoms if he butts his nose in
ours.

But I wouldn't say it's easy to follow all these rules we are presumed
to know. I suspect the stress of living in such a world is a great
place to start looking for why people turn to psychotropic
mind-blowing substances. No wonder we have kids on Ritalin and adults
on Prozac. We have to be sedated just to colour within the lines, so
to speak.

All this order we've created has definite trade-offs. And if we can
create all these rules, codes, laws, bylaws, regulations, restrictions
and government and are prepared to take what little freedoms a person
has left to enforce them, well... I don't think it's asking too much
to kick in a little for someone having trouble with it all.