AudioBanter.com - View Single Post - Overtly political. Ignore if easily offended

Lines: 85
Message-ID:
X-Complaints-To:
X-Abuse-Info: Please forward a copy of all headers for proper handling
X-Trace: ogjnolidcdijhjikdbdpiflmbcekedmfhojhikkbagflhcboga ddncgljbmaaljpecjobkgamippnjnhelldiojhjbjnjiagppne obeolemhmahimacbnelcjgmpnhgcgjfnocicmlpfallpmliile nkkflkggbe
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2004 20:52:18 EDT
Organization: BellSouth Internet Group
Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2004 00:52:18 GMT
Xref: number1.nntp.dca.giganews.com rec.audio.pro:1076280

On 2004-06-02 said:
Hold on a minute....can you elaborate a little. A women gets laid
off....she is
instantly homeless..then assaulted. I agree this sounds like a
tragedy but to think this is commonplace is a little hysterical.
And what exactly is to be done? What was the rest of the story?
For the record ..I believe that every poiltician is dishonest at
best.
Well, it's commonplace enough. The rest of the story... she's
probably an alcoholic on the fringe of society. So does that
entitle her to a life on the street? Life can be very hard for
those people with marginal social skills and self-control. Before
Reagan emptied the institutions in California, this kind of thing
was much less common. There are inadequate safety nets provided
and the rest of us just have to deal with the fallout.
ACcording to the right wingers that's what they're entitled to. Screw
'em they aren't anybody!!!

I worked for awhile at a mission for homeless men in ORegon. IT was
in Salem ORegon to be exact. Amazingly enough we were a dumping
ground for the state mental hospital. THey'd kick 'em out still
needing somebody to look after 'em and dump them on us where we
couldn't make sure they got their meds or were closely enough watched
somebody wouldn't take advantage of them or they do harm to others.
THe reason was simple. THe mission offered homeless men 7 free nights
a month and a bed and shower for $2 a night. Warehouse 'em and ignore
'em. Btw this was a union mission operated by a majority of the
churches in the area.

HEy folks this is the America you voted for since 1980. sHrink the
middle class and once they're poor and economically disenfranchised
kick 'em out on the street to be victimized, especially if they're not
equipped to deal for themselves.

I'd rather see the private sector dealing, but there are just too many
needing some kind of help if not looked after so they don't come to
harm or harm others. The private sector organizations such as
churches etc. who try to help are just overloaded. wHat does a
shelter for the homeless do when half its beds are filled with folks
who should be under the care of professionals? YOu can bet this lady
groundskeeper wasn't making much over minimum wage. FIgure she's
living from paycheck to paycheck anywayand without those paychecks
unemployment's a little less than the paycheck and comes with no
benefits if she had any at all for working. Once it runs out ... you
can guess the rest.

WE need to find a way of dealing with these folks with compassion
which also gets them at least a roof over their heads and can start
them back on the road to being productive contributing members of the
community. I'm quite familiar with the problems you refer to here and
don't see the religious organizations and others able to even stem the
flow. We're trying to catch gallons in a thimble.

TO my mind it starts with the whole structure to educate young people
which hasn't been doing the job for decades. OUtsourcing of
manufacturing jobs hasn't helped either. tHis lady can't do word
processing I'm sure, or man the counter at a convenience store; etc.
etc. etc. Even if she could if she's got medical problems she's not
going to hold one of those jobs for very long. THese jobs do not come
with a living wage and such things as medical benefits. sInce most of
these folks are "medically indigent" the medical care they get is only
that which is necessary as an emergency usually. By then a problem
that might have been corrected and allow one to remain productive keeps
one off work, and bye bye flunky level job.

Lots of these folks aren't part of a church community for the same
reason they don't have economic security. NO social skills and no or
few marketable skills. i know some mission programs operated by the
chuches that try to do some job training and similar but it's bigger
than they can handle often.

HEy it's the "kinder gentler America" folks. Hrrumph

Richard Webb
Electric Spider Productions
REplace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real email

--