Pubdate: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC) Copyright: 2007 Times Colonist Contact: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481 Author: Donell McDonell NEEDLE EXCHANGE CRITICS BEING CRUEL I find it hard to understand how persons who live in comfortable, safe homes, leading comfortably safe lives, can find it so easy to condemn the needle exchange. Our lives, in our custom renovated homes and luxury vehicles, have not been reduced to such awful choices, such terrible conditions, in which the difference between a miserable death from a preventable disease may simply be the gift of a clean needle. We're talking about life and death for these people. People who need us as much as we seem to not need them. I've never been there, but God forgive the man who would kick his brother down one more notch into despair, when there is nowhere else to go, because he doesn't like how it looks against the backdrop of "civilized" Victoria's gardens and homes. Rockland, where I live, seems an awfully comfortable place to pass judgment from, compared to the scrap of dirt behind the Janion Building. Donell McDonell, Victoria. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom