10 ? THE SUBURBAN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2009

EDITORIALS

QUEBEC?S LARGEST ENGLISH WEEKLY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1963

Daring to care,

continued from cover elderly eking out lives on insufficient social security, to the newly poor middle classes who have lost a lifetime of savings in financial catastrophe, to the working poor who work longer for the same pay, to women and visible minorities so often the last hired and first fired, to the children who cannot fend for themselves, to the ill and infirm, to all those facing the groaning neglect of government bureaucracies that no longer work. This is ? sadly - the new Canadian mosaic. One-third of our urban households live below the federal poverty line of $34,000 for four down to $19,000 for one. One quarter of our working population is classified as working poor. Our seniors are our fastest growing part of our society, yet government pension plans cover less than one-third of minimum needs. Forty years ago they covered 50 percent. A pensioner, having working 40 years, has to make do on $700. Over 6 million Canadians get help from food banks with basic food staples every month.We have the highest number of able-bodied Canadians not being able to find work since the depression. Some twenty-one percent. Yes the UI numbers hover between 8 and 9 percent. But what those numbers don?t reflect are those whose UI benefits have run out and those who have fallen between the cracks. Seventy-six years since President Franklin Roosevelt declared freedom from want one of the essential freedoms, we are still grappling with the perplexing paradox of a society of abundance that has only a thin veneer of affluence. Sadly, the reason that we have to be grateful for our social activists is that governments occupy themselves with nanny-state laws and programs that are now sucking up some one-quarter of our budgets. They impose suffocating tax burdens to fund what no one demanded and no suffrage affirmed. And they abdicate responsi-

It is not about semantics. It is about the need to challenge interests, not merely balance them. It is about the capacity to see the world through the eyes of its victims.

bility for dealing with the tough stuff. The core responsibilities of governance. The contract with the people. So, while governments dawdle, individuals across the country are tackling some of our saddest and severest problems. For the third year we wanted to show you what is happening in our own city. We?ve devoted this issue again to some of the most important organizations, and extraordinary people, delivering front-line help to those in need. The people and groups you?ll be reading about represent not only a continuing revolution in self-reliance, they are also the vanguard of what is the emerging political plurality in Canadian public life. A plurality of compassion. A new alignment of concerned citizens who realize that this nation?s prob- lems are not managerial and technical, as many bureaucratic and economic theorists argue, but political and distributive. It is a coalition of those who dare to care. The new reality is that the vulnerable, as disenfranchised as they may feel, are becoming the pre-eminent plurality to whom much of domestic public agendas must be addressed. The response of those featured in these pages, and indeed of many others across this nation, represents a new grass-roots populism. This populism, this activism, mirrors a broad national frustration, not merely a yoke holding factions together into temporary political alliances. This new populism takes its strength from real work. Real help. Real results. It is pragmatic, knowing full well that politics is only half the story since so many promises have yet to be fulfilled and so much power rests beyond the reach of the electoral process. These new populists mistrust the technocrats who have failed so spectacularly so often. It is participatory, believing change is generated from below. Most importantly it realizes that traditional approaches have been compromised and calcified through a dependence on rhetoric instead of an involvement with, and engagement in, everyday reality. An everyday reality that prizes hard work, loyalty, and endurance, and rejects ingratitude, false piety and lack of courage. A populism that does not fear to ask, ?Why should anyone suffer?? The work you will read about in this issue underscores that what is needed is engagement with an activist populist vision, not merely the continued parroting of an anti-plutocrat vocabulary. It is not about semantics. It is about the need to challenge interests, not merely balance them. It is about the capacity to see the world through the eyes of its victims. We must learn to understand intuitively that the less educated are not less intelligent and that the less affluent are not any less human. What the people in these pages represent are a faith. A faith in people and in their ability to be generous and noble and brave. A compassionate faith, tempered only by the experience of reason and judgment, that pledges to secure the justice and opportunity that all human beings deserve.

FIRST PERSON

W.I.M. volunteer

By Kevin Woodhouse The Suburban A couple of Saturday mornings ago, I did something that journalists are not supposed to do. I inserted myself into a story but it was for the good of this edition. It was also very good for me. The West Island Mission has been dutifully making sure West Island residents who have financial trouble get to enjoy a turkey dinner with all of the trimmings, groceries, hygienic and toiletry articles as well as gifts for the tree. Friday night the many volunteers arranged the 136 separate gift baskets on the gymnasium floor of the Westview Bible Church in Pierrefonds. For those of us delivering, we were told that the recipients were truly in need and that they had previously registered with the mission. Representatives from area cadet and scouting organizations then helped deliver the baskets and a map to each car. Twenty-eight families were larger than usual, with one of the recipients a household of 10 children, so those deliveries were done by volunteers with SUVs, a practical use for them if ever there was occasion for their inclusion in today?s environment. The spirit of giving was present everywhere in an understated way. People of all walks of life, ages and ethnic backgrounds had converged in the gym on that Saturday morning to go out and bring good things to good people. No one was looking for sympathy or a headline here. As the chairman of W.I.M. went on and on, highlighting the good work of the board members who had helped get all of the gift baskets prepared as well as arrange for all of the drivers, the board members would shyly acknowledge themselves when pointed out in the crowd. Their mandate was of service to others, not being noticed for being there. Politicians could learn a lot from chronic volunteers, their deeds speak in place of blustery talk. There was a slight challenge in the parking lot when cars and SUVs tried to get to separate pick up points on the church grounds that included navigating snow filled lanes, a lot of traffic and a few badly parked cars that made St. John?s at rush hour feel coherent by default. There are two things we can do in life: something or nothing. I chose something. Directing traffic for a few minutes, I got to see some of the makeup of the humans in the cars. A lot of young families which was a great sign as the youngest of today will become tomorrow?s next generation of volunteers so it is an essential skill to learn early. My delivery was to a lovely couple in Pointe Claire who had a dog which made me like them right away. The journalist in me, while I made the few trips to deliver the six or seven packages and boxes, wanted to ask the couple a lot of questions relating to today?s economy, getting by on less and the power of the promise of a new year. But the volunteer in me knew to think twice and say nothing. See W.I.M., page 26

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