Acts of kindness now discouraged
Dear editor: I was leaving Costco and pulled out into traffic behind a car with a bumper sticker that said “Commit random acts of kindness.” I turned around and found a parking spot nearby and walked back to the Costco exit where I had seen a hunched-over man with a sign that said “Spinal disease, can no longer work.” I gave him some money and walked back to my car and drove home.
I understand that as a result of new city bylaws, I am now at risk of receiving a $250 fine for this random act of kindness.
On the day before Christmas, I had a bag of bottles and cans to take to the Kirschner Road recycling depot, and got there very late in the day. No one was standing around on the roadways, so I took the bottles into the depot, which was closing in five minutes and would be closed on Christmas Day. Upon driving away, there was a man with a shopping cart about two blocks away from the depot. I pulled over, off the main road, and handed the man the money I had gotten for the returned bottles and wished him a Merry Christmas. I understand that as a result of your new bylaws, I am also at risk of receiving a $250 fine for this random act of kindness, whether I gave him my bottles or the money. What is wrong with Kelowna Council? Who are you to tell me I cannot give my money or my bottles to someone if I choose to do so? And to say you are solving a problem that exists around the bottle depot by imposing a 500-meter limit that only moves people a block further down the street? What utter nonsense. The people who collect cans and bottles are working for their money, and are not harassing me. If giving them bottles helps them and saves me the time of standing around inside a noisy, dirty recycle depot, that is a win/win.
I hope that come election time, when mayor and council find themselves unemployed, they think about the grief they caused others. Maybe they can apply for a busker’s license and sing the praises of the new tourism building built right on our waterfront. Verna Kazakoff Kelowna