Closing The Divide, 15

I imagine, then, that personal empowerment is the way forward in closing the divide. We have to become as independent as possible from the largess of the One Percent, while simultaneously claiming and getting our share of the goods. Not an easy balance to strike. I remember this from during my three and a half years on basic welfare, from 1999 till late in 2002. Not an easy time and I was emotionally exhausted from what I came to call my Thirteen Year Nightmare, which ran roughly from 1986 to 1999. I did not have the resources to work full time, being rather fragile and exhausted, but I did what I could, though mostly I just collected welfare and painted, went for long walks and spent time with what few friends still remained for me. I cannot think of a time in my life when I felt more disempowered. I survived, and somehow always managed to eat okay without having to rely on charity, though it wasn't without a cost: no phone, no bus transportation, and only what clothing I could find in free boxes or very cheap second hand. I went without certain foods in my diet, and I think being vegetarian and living in the Commercial Drive area of Vancouver, where food prices are lower, also helped. My rent was also cheap, twenty-five dollars less than the maximum shelter allowance that welfare gave at the time, and so, in their enduring generosity, the ministry deducted twenty-five dollars from my survival benefits. I somehow got by. The provincial ministry was becoming increasingly mean-spirited and cruel, with the expectation that anyone still on welfare had to be relentlessly hectored into finding employment, whether they could cope with it or not, and that others who refused to do this would be thrown off of assistance and onto the street. That was when our homelessness crisis really kicked in, with a spike of almost four hundred percent, and it's only been getting worse in the last sixteen years that have followed. When my horrible financial aid worker became quite rabid and vicious, I left her two angry and long messages on her voicemail, fired her, and demanded to speak to her supervisor, who to my surprised, turned out to be a person of incredible insight and compassion. My file was changed, I was transferred to a different worker, whom I liked, and basically I was left alone for another year or so while I figured out what my next steps would be. I still had to do something to empower myself, so I accepted available subsidized housing when my name came up, began seeing a psychiatrist to help me untangle the weird and complex weave that my life had become, entered a job-training program, then found employment. I have been consistently employed now for going on sixteen years. I still live in BC Housing, where I pay even less rent now that I am semi-retired and collecting a small bit of my pension (though I still work four days a week.) My situation is far from perfect, and not what it could be, but I have had to play the cards I was dealt, and I believe I have played them well. I am also in the habit of voting during elections, and even if my selected candidates rarely get elected, it still reminds me that I have a voice and this empowers me to use it, and to also hold accountable other elected representatives, up to and including sometimes the prime minister. This still isn't Shangri-La. Our sidewalks, here in one of the richest cities in one of the world's wealthiest countries, are still choked by homeless and beggars. Housing is still the default purview of the rich, because almost no one else can afford to live here. And our prime minister is trying to ram an oil pipeline down our throats that will likely do more to hurt the environment than fatten our economy (which is already doing rather well, please and thank you!) So, Gentle Reader, my point is? Quite simply, that in order to effect any change that we want to see in the world, we have to begin with ourselves and with where we are and with what we already have to play with, regardless of how limited our resources. This makes us stronger and wiser, maybe not a lot richer, but it helps form and educate us in our battle with the One Percent, which isn't anywhere near over, and which, in fact, has hardly just begun.