Andrew Uitvlugt is an Idiot!

I keep telling myself that people involved in politics have at least an entry level understanding of Sociological concepts. That's not too much to expect, is it? After all, if you're going to be leading large groups of people, wouldn't it make sense to have at least an elementary understanding of how society works?

In my opinion, one thing that a politician should definitely understand is how to deal with the problem of poverty and homelessness within a population. After all, ideally, there shouldn't be any people living on the street; every person has worth, every person can have purpose.

Part of understanding poverty is to understand what some of the leading causes are that put people into poverty-stricken circumstances. That way, when you're elected mayor, you can put programs in place to keep people off the streets.

There is a particular mayoral candidate for the city of Kelowna that doesn't seem to understand anything about people, about poverty, etc. Actually, I'm willing to venture a guess that he doesn't understand anything at all.

Read this Associated Press snippet:

KELOWNA, B.C. -- A candidate in the mayoral race in Kelowna, B.C. suggests using crack to deal with the city's drug-addicted homeless people.

Andrew Uitvlugt says crack could be used as a reward or incentive to motivate people to do constructive work in the city, like picking up garbage.

Once they've done their duties, he figures the addicts will feel so good about themselves, they may not need the crack, or less of it.

You can hear his comments in a video campaign pitch on the website okbc.tv.

The candidate also wants to move the homeless to a combined shelter and retraining center at the city dump.

He says they could use the available materials to build things and get marketable skills.

Lovely, eh? Let me be the first to say:

Andrew Uitvlugt, you are a MORON!

It's absolutely ridiculous to think that giving people highly addictive drugs is going to help them get off the street. Statistics show that for many homeless people, drugs are the reason they are on the street in the first place. C'mon Andrew, are you blind?

Cocaine (in all its forms) is a very dangerous and highly addictive substance. Cocaine is the reason behind many violent offences and criminal activity. Cocaine makes people do things like fatally rob people for their next fix. Why then would someone think that Cocaine is the answer to Kelowna's homeless problem?

You'll also note that Andrew feels that he can help homeless people by giving them a job at the dump to build stuff out of garbage. I'm no psychologist, but I really don't think that putting people in the dump will help them. I've been to the dump. I didn't like the dump.

Perhaps this is all a publicity stunt, a way to get some attention. If so, he has succeeded with flying colors. Now everyone will know who Andrew Uitvlugt is; the mayoral candidate who hates homeless people so much, that he's willing to throw them into the depths of a horrific crack addiction.

In other news, Andrew was also stupid enough...errr...kind enough to post his email address on a public service website. This means that I can take that email address and post it here.

Here is his address....heh heh....hotmail....cheap:

andrew_uitvlugt@hotmail.com

Can I trust all of you to do the right thing and let Andrew know what a mistake he is making?

If he does (by some miracle) get elected, it'll only be a matter of time before we hear some wretched stories about people in Kelowna getting killed by homeless people who are looking for money to finance their next fix. Great idea, Andrew. If it were up to me, I'd put you in the dump.