Written by a BC driver, we’re all in this together

You know those times where you think you’re smiling for a picture, and then you take it and realize it wasn’t a smile at all. Being in the bus does that to you these days. I’ll be honest: I’m scared.

They call me an essential worker. It produces a feeling of pride. At least at first. That feeling slips away with every boarded up shop window in our downtown core. Every cough and sneeze from someone on board. Every time someone boards the bus who shouldn’t be on there.

At first it was the ‘invincible’ youth who filled the vacuum of our empty streets. Since then, it has been the homeless, the drug addicted, and the mentally ill. The bus is their free ride, their shelter, their entertainment, or their transport to a drug buy or sell.

Made all the more possibly with free-fare and rear door boarding. And the vacant spaces has changed the security landscape in our core, and on our buses. And yet, I’m left with fewer tools in the tool chest to deal with it.

They say that Covid-19 is going to ravage the homeless community. They don’t really talk about the frontline staff that shoulder the burden to closed homeless shelters, shuttered businesses, and vacant urban cores. All of these pre-existing societal fractures show themselves

during a crisis. Every disaster does that: Studying emergency management has taught me that. I’ll use this as relevant knowledge for my next project if I survive this.
Many people are practicing social distancing, working from home, and maybe even checking off some items

on their personal development to do lists or connecting with family for the first time in a long time. I love that!
And some of us are still out there, still serving the community that remains. I have a lot on my list. Things I would love to do.

But after 8, 10, 12 hours of wondering if it’s this next passenger that is going to do me in, as it has with a growing number of brothers and sisters worldwide,

the physical and mental exhaustion leaves me with little energy to finally do the thing I had wanted to do, and barely enough to keep me emotionally afloat.
Stay home. Protect the front line workers. All of us. #covid #covidkindness #victoriabuzz #victoriabc #busdriver

I hope ppl see this thread. I have friends that are bus drivers in this city and share their concern. There is no malice in their concern towards the people experiencing homelessness here. But these are simple facts. And keeping our front line workers safe is paramount. #stayhome