OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to our article, titled 'Council to consider allowing alcohol consumption in city parks', published Jan. 30.
Oh the many privileges the privileged expect.
Those without houses have been criminalized and harassed by the police and society for drinking in public my whole life. And now, when the budget is stretched thin and the unhoused remain cold, we invest time and dollars into studying the possibility of legally drinking in the park. Seriously? These are your priorities? Thank you for the hearty laugh so early in the morning.
Might I suggest we start by turning the other cheek when we see an unhoused person drinking in public? Let's see how that goes first. Then, when all their charges are withdrawn and their fines returned to them, we could consider extending the same courtesy to those who do have other places to drink.
In the meantime, might I suggest packing up your kids and taking your picnic to the baby pub right downtown, where you can already bring your baby, drink, and drive right home.
Can we open our houses to the unhoused instead? Have a few drinks.... maybe it will finally seem like a good idea.
Valerie Kitchen
Orillia
