how many have you taken in?

how many have you taken in?

This started with a petition posted in a Kitsilano neighbourhood Facebook group asking people to stop filming vulnerable people on the street.

I commented.

I said I had actually filmed briefly myself about two years ago because I was trying to draw attention to what was happening.

But I don't feel the same way about it now.

Something has become twisted.

When vulnerable people are constantly filmed, photographed and turned into social-media content, there is a danger that we stop seeing the human being and start seeing the spectacle.

But my comment wasn't really about cameras.

I went on a little rant about the bigger problem:

There isn't enough housing. There isn't enough treatment. There aren't enough places for people to go. And we're still acting surprised that people are living on the streets.

The very first response?

“How many have you taken in?”

Seriously?

I can't prove it was a bot. But it certainly had the feel of one. 😬

And that's the problem with so many of these conversations.

Instead of discussing housing, treatment, addiction, trauma, poverty or what actually happens to people when they fall through every available gap, the conversation gets reduced to:

“Well, what are YOU doing about it?”

Then came another comment:

“No one is forcing them to do drugs.”

Maybe not.

But nobody grows up dreaming of becoming addicted to fentanyl, overdosing, surviving with brain damage, losing their ability to function, ending up on the street and being unable to find housing.

Nobody says:

“That's the life I want.”

So let's talk about choice.

Be grateful your parents didn't force you to take Ritalin as a child simply so you would sit still.

Be grateful you weren't molested as a child and left carrying that trauma for the rest of your life.

Be grateful you have parents — and that they're healthy and don't drink excessively or use hard drugs.

Be grateful you haven't lost the love of your life, your child or your parent to drugs, suicide, a car crash or a medical mistake.

Be grateful you haven't experienced something so devastating that escaping reality became easier than facing it.

We don't choose our childhood.

We don't choose everything that happens to us.

We don't choose who hurts us.

We don't choose every loss.

We don't choose every illness, accident or tragedy.

And sometimes one terrible thing leads to another until a person ends up somewhere they never imagined they would be.

That doesn't mean people have no responsibility for their choices.

It means choice is not the whole story.

And neither is filming.

Two years ago, I thought filming might help people see what was happening.

Now I'm much more uncomfortable with it.

Because there is a difference between documenting a social problem and turning someone's worst moments into entertainment.

Maybe the question isn't only:

“Why are they doing drugs?”

Maybe it's also:

“Why is there no housing?”

“Where are the treatment beds?”

“What happens when someone is ready for help but there is nowhere to go?”

“What happened to this person before we ever saw them on the street?”

And maybe, before we ask a stranger on Facebook,

“How many have you taken in?”

we should ask ourselves what kind of society requires ordinary people to personally house strangers before we're allowed to expect our public systems to function.

The strangest part?

This was posted in a Kitsilano neighbourhood group.

Almost nobody was engaging.

Me...

and probably two bots. 🤔😬😒

Maybe that's the real problem.

We're surrounded by people.

We're surrounded by cameras.

We're surrounded by opinions.

And somehow we're still not talking to each other.