Hope for the dark times

We have—apparently—entered into some pretty dark times. I mean, we all generally (hopefully) have what we need and more to survive. But times are tough. For instance, we have a government without a plan to spend a lot of money. How do you develop a plan for something you are ideologically opposed to? And do it in less than two months? For once, couldn’t somebody—even if I don’t agree—just stand up for what they believe in instead of trying to save their own necks?

Well, in September (2008), which was a dark time for me because I had been laid off, I was doing some temp work downtown. Temp work also makes for a dark time. But I was reminded of a small glimmer of hope. There are people who are keeping it real.

On 7th Ave and 8th St at the Dirty Macs or Crack Macs (as it’s known in Calgary) there was a homeless man, who was filthy and stoned (or mentally ill or both), sat with a battery powered boombox on his lap rocking out to the Beastie Boys. Sometimes, when there’s nothing else in this world, you just gotta fight, for your right, to party.

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