Busking Without the Busk

Abbotsford has never been a classy city. A trip to the multi-million dollar Reach Gallery exhibiting it’s “rich” history this past week has proven that to me. It’s a lavish facility housing little more that the refuse of a past generation: logging implements, arrowheads and traditional Sikh garb. Basically, whatever people had in their basement crawlspaces they could give away and housed under glass as if of unspeakable importance. Archaeology is a dubious pursuit at best, and these are hardly treasures to be displayed thusly. These effects are little more than the plastic sporks we use at KFC. The art itself reflected local landscapes and not much else. To me, art that acts only as a snapshot doesn’t do much as art. In summation: it’s a $32 million facility with about $160 of exhibits.
Every town has people standing on street corners and meridians with signs stating how hungry and poor they are, but I’ve been noticing a surge in number of people doing this in the past few weeks. I believe I counted five the other day. Two of them are out by the Home Depot and Wal-Mart. I know this because I have to drive by them four times a day. This is a pair who camps out behind the Home Depot doing drugs. I know this because I’ve stumbled upon them doing this as well. Typically, in the States, illegal immigrants hang out by the Home Depot hoping to make an honest -albeit still illegal- buck performing menial labour. I believe these two offer nothing in exchange for cash, which they then spend on drugs.
The other day, while sitting in my car waiting for my girlfriend to get off work, I had the window rolled down because it was about eight-four degrees. This was apparently enough of an invitation for a crackhead to come up to me and demand money, saying they were hungry. This was at 9:40 at night. The only thing a person like that would spend money on at that time was likely drugs. A car is supposed to be something of a private sanctuary. Lately, it’s come under attack by the people waiting at traffic lights. There’s even those who wait at fast-food line-ups and beg for money as the people wait for food. They ask for money, of course, and not food, although they still use the old excuse of using that money for food of coffee. Crack is one hell of a drug.