Dear ___________,
...
I've tried to express to you that
groups dealing with low income and poverty are fine but what support
and strength do their groups have when it comes to improving or
making changes for the better?
I'm writing from the aspect of the
Saskatoon Anti Poverty Coalition where we have about 20 organizations
as well as individuals all with the common aim of reducing poverty in
Saskatoon (and the the province). We are looking for even more people
and groups to join us to make us stronger in both numbers and our
voice against poverty.
Less poverty would make a better
society over all. It is my opinion that the best way to do this is
'en masse' – by getting together as many groups and individuals who
deal with or live with low income / poverty and who share the common
aim to fight poverty. Poverty affects everyone even if some don't want
to admit it - taxes, crime, health costs, life, etc.
By joining together or closely
networking I feel we have a stronger body and voice to fight this
ever present and growing problem.
Poverty Awareness Week is approaching and
I'd like to see a strong cross section representation from within the
city joining us to show those who need to be shown that poverty
affects all and is alive and not dead as some want us to think.
I'm sending a recently put together
hand out explaining Saskatoon Anti Poverty Coalition.
I hope you see fit to join our
coalition - we have approximately 20 organizations plus many
individuals who share / deal with or live poverty and have banded
together to fight poverty.
Another option is to closely network
with us at the coalition. The more people / groups who join together
the stronger we are - the more support - the stronger our voice in
the fight against this society and family crippling threat.
Please feel free to contact me and use
me as your contact with us.
Patrick John Lake
I can say that I have felt, and I know many, many others aware of the scale of need, and who desire a major coming together to affect the kind of social change Patrick and others covet i.e. NO MORE POVERTY!
ReplyDeleteI often focus my social skeptic
ism on the person(s) I presumed to be driving the boat with social mechanisms put in place long ago that were used for authority, control, and manipulation. But all of these systems, social and physical / industrial, etc., are all around us; afterimages of authority, control and manipulation - and in fact we adopt them, perhaps unintentionally, and replicate them in our attempt to manufacture and influence social change. The Saskatoon Anti Poverty Coalition has been culpable of this retrieval of tired old social holograms.
I wonder, in the same line of thought, if this is not why the Saskatoon Anti Poverty has been viewed as a distinct and separate entity by many friends and partners who are independently working to eliminate poverty and boost collective prosperity. I wonder as well how much of folks’ reluctance to be part of a broad coalition is a result of sense of identity or competing special interests being challenged? Where has all of this special interest vanity gotten us? This manufactured social change rabbit hole makes the Holocaust look like Club Med.
So I’d like to add to Patrick’s expression and suggest that all of our institutions and political processes are dead creations, systems that are long past their usefulness and shelf life, and are now actually undead / zombie systems. The opportunity before us is wide open now. Let's try something different. The time's ripe for it. We're finally emerging from our forty days in the desert and are ready to party! If we all want a fresh social covenant, then we can do nothing less than engage in something new.