Saturday, July 16, 2011

A True Tale of Two Neighbours


Last week a young man - 25 years old or there abouts - got stoned out of his head on crack. He lives in the apartment building across the parking lot from me. He doesn't work. He is a drug addict and the government takes care of his daily needs. His entertainment includes making the lives of his good neighbours as miserable as he can. Apparently, he got it into his drugged up head that he wanted a satellite dish for his TV. I guess satellite dishes are pretty good - there are a lot of them around here. So he went out into the hall and headed for the stairs and door to the roof where the main satellite dish for that building is found. As luck would have it, the door was unlocked. He proceeded to try to hook his TV up to the dish.

The trouble with trying to do this type of mechanical work when you are stoned is that I guess your hands are not steady, or your eye focus is a bit off or perhaps you just get clumsy and he did! He exposed a wire. Then he touched it. Then it touched him back with a huge jolt of electricity which sent him head over heals off the roof. He fell five (5) stories to the ground below and went *splat* on the concrete. As it was the wee hours of the day, it took some minutes for someone to see him and see that he was hurt. Not just a little hurt. He was hurt BIG TIME! His head was smashed beyond recognition. His arms were broken in several places. His legs were broken in several places. His organs - well, who knew what a fall like that could do? The ambulance was called. The police were called. He was carefully scraped off the concrete. The landlord was called and a small group who were headed to work or school stopped to see what had happened.

Watching all this commotion is not how you want to start your day! Plays havoc with your breakfast for one thing!


The ambulance raced him to an Ottawa Hospital where doctors worked like ants to try to put him back together again. It's a week later and he is still in the hospital. He is still in a coma. The doctors and nurses are still working valiantly to save his life. The accounting department have sent in a bill, with additions to be made as needed to the provincial government and they will pay it - out of your tax money that has been earmarked for medical aid.  The City is supplying psychological help to those who witnessed it (also paid for by taxpayers!).

Meanwhile, across the parking lot lives a senior citizen who just happens to have M.S. I know her intimately. She worked for 40 years, often doing two and three jobs at a time and paying taxes on her earnings. She wasn't poor or destitute. She just loved to travel and she loved living like the  middle class so multiple jobs worked out fine for her.The she got cancer. Her money got reallocated to living until she could return to work. But her cancer left her with limited use of her right arm. So she took on jobs that she could do for periods of time that she could handle.And she paid her taxes! A second go around with cancer and then the dreaded diagnosis of MS followed.With O.D.S.P. and subsidized housing she managed quite well until her MS did one of those flare up sort of things and she never fully recovered from it. Her ability to walk has all but vanished though she is a great wall walker inside her own apartment. Then came W-5 and Dr. Zamboni and hope.

But the hope has been dashed! Her government which happily took her tax money for all those years will not allow her to get Dr. Zamboni's symptom easing treatment. Not even if she pays for it herself! Her doctor for her M.S. has called her a cultist (along with a bunch of other people in similar circumstances) and talks to her like she had an IQ of  50. It is all so depressing some days.

Today, it is just maddening. A solid citizen who has never broken the law can't get medical help while a  welfare bum who is also a drug addict, a thief and an aggravating cuss is waited on hand and foot, has bundles of  taxpayers money spent to save his sorry life and will undoubtedly continue to live off the taxpayer until he dies. Something here is not right! It is not even a bit logical!  It is totally insane!

Somebody please explain it to me so I can understand. The City's psychologists can't.