Sagittarius
I used to attend an appointment every week at Abbott and Cordova, so I drove through the "low track' of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside weekly. I saw the addicted and the forgotten.
It is funny how these women were not thought about until it was too late and it then became the poor investigation skills of the police that became the blame for their death. The family members that blame the police for the loss of their family members could have cared less about these women until it was too late.
Where were they when the women turned to the streets in the first place...when they turned away from their family members, so that these poor women had to turn to prostitution to feed their addictions?
Addiction usually comes from somebody trying to escape the hell their lives have become. They were abused sexually, physically or mentally and their families were most often the perpetrators!
The families were glad to not hear from them as when they did it was accusations that the families chose to ignore. Families turned them away...even those that were mentally challenged were turned away by their families.
The families did not want to deal with the mess they had made of these innocent women, they were someone else's problem when they became addicted to drugs. Most of these women became addicted because of the treatment they had received at the hands of their "family".
Anyone with half a brain knows that these women did not choose the lifestyle of addiction and prostitution but because they had been turned away by their families; this is where their lives ended, because their families were too wrapped up in their own world to care about where their daughters, sisters or aunts were.
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Comments
Re: Where Were You When They Needed You?
By beenthere, January 6, 2008 at 07:41Hi Tammy. I agree with y ou totally.
Many of the families involved did little to help. Most were part of the problem. Not all but Most. Where were the mothers when these young girls were growing up abused? Where were the protectors of children when so many of the young girls (especially the aboriginal ones) were snatched from their homes, placed into abusive foster homes/residential schools?
Willie did not act alone. Besides having help on his farm, others played a role.
Re: Where Were You When They Needed You?
By tdsracer, December 19, 2007 at 17:12The people we need to speak to are gone thanks to Pickton...they were the ones that could tell the truths of their lives. I am not playing the blame game; as I feel our society is a sick one with many evil people such as Pickton and Olson to name just two. Why are the families blaming the police? Why aren't they working to make a positive change in our society. As for you "knowing" one of the woman...did you live in their home? Do you know what went on behind closed doors? It would surprise many people what goes on behind closed doors...things that families hide due to shame. We need a world where a child is not afraid to come forward and tell EVERYONE what is happening to them! Many children live in fear that if they told their secret their family would be broken up and torn apart, so they live in silence and endure the unspeakable. Yes, addiction is a very complex issue, but it is more often than not a way to live with the feelings, thoughts and memories. I know one of the families started a web page and safe house...they did not sit back and blame the police for not valuing their family member they were proactive and to them I say good for you for not putting yourself first. It is difficult for me to understand how the police can value someone when that person's own family does not value you them and they do not value themselves. We, society need to learn to value people with addictions...to treat them a humans with a disease, not as junkies, prostitutes and yes, even murderers. The people that can commit murder DO NOt value lives because they too are damaged individuals that have probably endured or terrible childhood too. Society is not blameless and that includes each and every one of us. How many times must we endure these killers before someone wakes up and realizes that there has to be a reason and someone IS to blame?
Re: Where Were You When They Needed You?
By Heather Wallace, December 19, 2007 at 14:56Hi Tammy - Thank you for your contribution. I used to take the bus through there everyday, and there are things I saw that I still can't shake.
While I understand your anger, I don't think it's right to make blanket statements about the families of the women (and men) who live(d) there. Unless you have talked to each and every family, you simply do not know. Addiction is complex and often times people are just genetically predisposed to it. We have to look at each woman and her family on an individual basis. I know there were cases of abuse and neglect, but it's not the whole story.
I am speaking about those families who honestly did their best when I say you are really hurting them by making such generalizations. I know one person whose sister came from a remarkable family, yet she succumbed to demons nonetheless. For people like that, it's bad enough they have lost a loved one to addiction, but then to blame them for it only adds insult to injury.
I just don't think blame is going to help one way or another. Martin Luther King said "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that; Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." To start to heal, we need to get beyond the blame game and put efforts into helping and prevention for the future.
Heather