Editor:
I was a bit surprised by the naiveté displayed by Anne Watters (Coast Reporter letters, Feb. 5).
It's hard to get a handle on the notion that she really believes that arranging an organized cheerleading event for the poor, the mentally ill and the dispossessed somehow makes their lives better.
I spent a year working in the Downtown Eastside and, during that time, I never saw any residents exhibiting the slightest interest in "displaying pride" in anything other than their continuing survival under horrendous conditions.
As for the opportunity to "display pride in their city and their neighbourhood," you don't have to hang out at Main and Hastings to deduce that these people with shattered lives would much rather have the opportunity to have a decent place to live, to have enough food to eat, to receive desperately needed dental work, or to be free from constant police harassment because their drugs of choice happen to be different from ours.
Of course, I agree with Ms. Watters that there is nothing ludicrous about "treating people with respect and dignity." But does pretending to do so, while blowing enough money to provide adequate housing for every homeless person in B.C. on a two-week party - really meet the definition of that phrase?
George Kosinski
Gibsons
