Don't Stereotype People

In response to the letter titled, Homeless Don't Need A Place In Mega-project (Aug. 9), although I agree with some points in this letter, I do have a problem with its sweeping generalizations. When the person writes “they” and “them” when referring to the homeless, it should be noted that not ALL homeless people are living this lifestyle because it’s their “choice”.

As usual, life isn’t that simple and it’s always dangerous to stereotype people. For example, what about the mentally handicapped, the abused, and the forgotten? In other words, Kelowna’s homeless are not all drug addicted fruit pickers from Quebec or lazy bums from Vancouver. The other thing is what does it mean to “kick them out”? To where? And how? Because if the letter writer thinks Vancouver and Victoria got rid of their homeless “bums”, give your head a shake!

The idea of kicking them out of Kelowna is equivalent to someone saying City Council should also cap our population at 100,000 because we’ve got enough people already. Really? And how should we propose doing that, with a mote and draw bridge around the city? Same thing with the idea of kicking out the homeless - good luck with that. To the uninformed (such as the letter writer) life seems to be as simple as choosing between black or white. It’s not until they actually examine ALL of the issues (which they never do) that they realize how complex and systemic the issue of homelessness really is.

Therefore, when I read a letter like this one, it translates into the person basically saying, “I just want to push a button and make them all go away!” Earth to letter writer, society hasn’t invented that button yet.

J.D.