I just started working at the local needle exchange, and I am very relieved to see that my perceptions are still in tact after a week or so. I, like most people, feel uncomfortable around intervenous drug users, and I may have crossed the street to avoid more than one in the past.
My relief comes from how darned normal they seem. My imagination has played tricks with me, telling me that needle addicts had "lost their souls," or had become "subhuman." I have been in a lot of nasty places, but I have never spent much time with this group of people, and hence, my position has perhaps come from ignorance. In reality, they couldn't be any more passionate, more funny, or more insightful. The conversations have been great so far, and I would say that the violence level has been about one tenth of what you would find at a local pub. Not bad for a group of people I had written off. But that's why I took this job.
1 comment:
and now it's gone!! Why did they have to take it away?? When will those ignorant old rich politicians come to realize how much we need it here in Victoria, how many lives are going to be potentially lost as a result of the closure of it. These are the same corporately motivated and minded bullies who helped put these now unfortunate people on the streets in the first place when they were much younger. The least they can do is take responsibility for the damage they've done. All they seem to care about is the Olympics and the overprivilaged not underprivilaged. Shame on you Gordon Campbell!! Don't count on a vote from me come election time.
Post a Comment