DETOX CENTRE IS NEEDED, BUT NOT DOWNTOWN

Editor, The News:

Detox treatment centre?

Yes.

In down town Abbotsford?

No!

It was great to hear so many people express their concerns for the
Abbotsford downtown area during a meeting last month.

It was most enlightening and encouraging to hear Const. Denys Scully,
chairman of the Integrated Services Team, explain the programs they've put
in place already to help rebuild the integrity of the Abbotsford downtown
core area.

Scully also gave a great eye opener regarding the present problems in the area.

I totally agree with Abbotsford Downtown Business Association executive
director Mary Reeves that the downtown core is not the right location for a
detox centre.

As she says: " . . . if we care at all about these people we'll want to
preserve them from it, not put them in the middle of it."

Putting a detox centre right in the middle of the place where addicts have
fed and fostered their bad habits would be insane and void of any common
sense. There are much more suitable locations in the area.

I believe there is no other society that does more for the needy than the
Salvation Army has done for many years.

The Salvation Army deserves the highest of praise. But the rehabilitation
of people addicted to drugs has far more strings attached to it than the
handlings of some of the other physical aspects of their problems.

The federal government is planning to spend $250,000 for the installation
of a lighting system at a baseball diamond at Mountain Institution in
Agassiz. Surely, they must be wise enough to fairly divide our hard-earned
tax dollars and help us fund a much-needed detox and treatment centre,
don't you agree?

The time to point out how bad the situation is in downtown Abbotsford is
long gone. The downtown core is deteriorating fast.

People's lives and children as young as eight are being abused and
destroyed because of our apathy for the less fortunate.

It is the duty of a caring society to enlighten and show a better way of
living to those in society whose early beginnings in life began and were
fostered in the suburbs of hell.

Perhaps it is time that the conglomerate of "Bible Belt" Christians take
stock as to the purpose of living in the hub of a drug addicted area.

The Valley is blessed with numerous "woe" callers who never lift a finger.
What we need is to get those immobile "woe" callers off the fences to begin
to exercise genuine compassion with constructive initiatives towards
helping those in need.

Showing true compassion often needs far more then a hug and talk only.

Mary Reeves's attitude towards the complex problems in the Abbotsford
downtown core is filled with genuine compassion for all concerned.

It is people the likes of Reeves, Const. Scully and Uultsje De Jong that
give people new hope where there was none before.

Please keep up the good work!

Gertie Pool, Abbotsford