The Diminishing Effects of Inflammatory Rhetoric

While out & about today I heard a discussion about this complaint from the Pivot Legal Society. When I got home I wrote this letter to CKNW's Sean Leslie, who read it on-air:

Sean, I listened to your discussion with "Mike" with great interest. While of course I have great empathy for those who are living in less than optimum conditions, I take great exception to the use of the phrase, "Human Rights Violation". Do people like Mike and those others on the Pivot Legal Society deliberately avoid keeping themselves apprised of what's going on outside the pampered borders of North America?

Thoughout Africa there is actual genocide occurring. In Tibet, people are being truly oppressed. In North Korea the citizens are literally starving.

Yet in Vancouver we have groups going to the UN, claiming Human Rights Violations over housing issues?!?!? Give me a break! One day perhaps these people will learn that if you're going to use stronger and stronger rhetoric, you better be able to back it up with facts that substantiate it. When you can't, you'll quickly learn the effects of the "Boy Who Cried Wolf" parable.