Pubdate: Fri, 30 Dec 2016
Source: Kelowna Capital News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016, West Partners Publishing Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.kelownacapnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1294
Author: Doug Mehus

THANK-YOU MELANIE

To to the editor:

I wanted to take the opportunity to thank Melanie for sharing her
personal story with Central Okanagan readers, and to the Kelowna
Capital News for publishing it (Dec. 23 edition), that was both
wonderfully written and so eloquently highlighted some of the
intolerance and bigotry with the Kelowna and West Kelowna
municipalities that, sadly, may be a bit more pervasive than many
people realize.

Her story of a visit to a local laundromat, which she did not name, in
the Lower Mission district of Kelowna as a paying customer spotlighted
a pervasive and inhumane attitude among many retail businesses by
trying to hide persons who exhibit certain characteristics from public
view. The unnamed laundromat's owner/manager seeing a shopping cart
being pushed prior to her entry into the establishment and then having
her wait outside under false pretense of "doing a favour" by doing her
laundry for her, for which she otherwise fully paid, was so blatantly
intolerant and rude.

Businesses do this all the time and, while they may have a right to
limit the number of personal belongings one brings in to their
establishment for safety and security reasons, what would be the harm
in allowing someone to sit in a comfortable chair in a warm
environment on an otherwise terribly cold day inside an otherwise
completely empty bank branch or a Wal-Mart owned and operated
McDonald's location (as just two examples)?

Separately, on an unrelated but similar note, I would like to thank
the Kelowna Capital News for having that conviction and fortitude that
I know history will look back on and concur that it was on the right
side of supporting both overdose prevention and supervised consumption
facilities that are badly needed in terms of harm reduction and
prevention initiatives as, too often, local news outlets(both print
and all-digital ones) lack such conviction to take an issue either way
for fear of, I guess,potentially alienating advertising sponsors.

I am so pleased for the Kelowna Capital News' support, both in its
allocation of significant editorial department resources to looking in
to this important issue but also in its poignant, topical "Our View"
editorials that expressly state a position.

Cheers,

Doug Mehus, West Kelowna
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MAP posted-by: Matt