City of Kingston, do better.
Yesterday downtown Kingston, I witnessed a group of teenagers harassing a homeless man before one of them threw soup at him and punched him in the head. The man retaliated, and while trying to break up the fight, I noticed something disturbing — on a crowded street, not one person stepped in to help.
After separating them, I checked on the homeless man, who was clearly hurt from the fall. When I offered to call an ambulance, he refused, saying that hospital would just throw him back out, I call it anyway. That said, his comment hit hard.
We have a serious issue in our society — one we helped create through neglect, addiction, failed systems, and lack of compassion. What shocked me even more was a telling a roommate afterward and hearing, “You shouldn’t have gotten involved.” What have we become?
If that had been an injured animal, people would’ve rushed over immediately. Are we really at the point where human life means less?
Canadians love to pride themselves on kindness and humanity. I didn’t see much of that in Kingston yesterday. We need to do better.