Why do we ignore the homeless?

Sadly, the prison system has become the new asylum for the mentally ill homeless. Not only is this a mistake, but a very expensive one. Our tax dollars are being wasted. Big time. And it does more harm than good. Where's the dignity? It's not a crime to be mentally ill. Or at least it should not be.

QP

 

:sunny:

 

I did a research paper in 1981 for a class in "Social Deviance," titled "The De-institutionalization of America," in which I predicted that mental patients would end up on the streets and in the prison system. At the time Government was saying that "local funding" would provide housing and services to replace institutional care. That never happened. The reason that the Federal government supported institutions in the beginning was due to the lack of caring at the local level.

This is one of many reasons I cannot support the conservative agenda of local control, and their whole idea of "personal responsibility" falls apart when you look at such public policies as this.

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exactly. states rights can be such a double edged sword b/c people often don't choose the states they live in, but states can also serve as laboratories for new policy, like California's weed agenda.

 

I have, and I found them to be much nicer than rich whites. I've worked with the public all of my life as a technician. In the 70s I worked in Cleveland Ohio going into people's homes to repair electronic equipment. For 2 years my "territory" was the 55th and Hough area, considered the "worse" neighborhood in Cleveland. I never had a problem, even when my van broke down in front of the Black Panther's headquarters, where a group of nice young black men helped me fix it.

And, yes, that was a learning experience for a young Southern boy raised in the white south.

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I think Deranged probably got beat up when he went to a "black urban neighborhood" for being a puss.

 

To the OP

Not to sound insensitive but to be frank, fixing the homeless cost money and though that's a simple and obvious answer, you may notice that people don't have much free spending money nowadays. Also given the negative shadow over the homeless, if people are feeling charitable they aren't going to spend it on the homeless at least not the american homeless. You can thank Reagan for that:
"You can't help those who simply will not be helped. One problem that we've had, even in the best of times, is people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice."
Unfortunately some homeless don't deserve to be where they are for lack of mental health, opportunity, education etc - but how do you separate those with unfortunate circumstances from those that simply lack motivation?! Honestly, they don't care.

 

Sorry to burst your bubble, but lack of motivation is a mental illness, most often the result of "clinical depression," a condition for which millions of people are now being treated, myself included.

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thats bs unless you suck a real mean dick

 

Sorry if this is off-topic. I don't like to do drive-by's, but I've been here awhile and I think I've earned one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BJfMPxQuiU&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube - STUNNING - 'I REMEMBER, SO I'M VOTING, AND NOT REPUBLICAN.'


I wanted to share this video with some people in the politics thread, but most of the topics are dead.

If you get a chance, give this video a few minutes, and share it with some friends. We are a country of amnesiacs, and it's about to bite us in the arse.

Peace all. Vote tomorrow!

 

that's all you've got, deranged?!

 

Hey listen, that was a good one and I wanted to mention... you should stay away from sucking the mean cocks... they are usually closely attached to assholes... lol

 

right on. i'll stop holding my tongue i guess. i don't know a single non-black that hasn't moved the hell outta black urban neighborhoods because of the crime, mooches, and gang violence. i don't know a single non-black woman who hasn't come out of a black neighborhood after spending a substantial amount of time there without some sort of severe resentment for being overly objectified and sexually harassed. (cept for one. and that's 'cause she was lucky enough to find a coolass black urban boyfriend. honestly, i think he only lives out there and acts that way 'cause he's trying to make it as a hip hop artist)

if people like you would stop branding it "senseless racism" and actually ask why whites escape when their neighborhoods turn ghetto. and actually ask why people don't wanna rent houses to urban blacks, maybe then the oblivious ignorance would go away and people would start to realize "hey, maybe there is a cultural problem here." there's something wrong when you've got middle aged men idolizing fucking tupac. who did absolutely nothing for the black community except make murder and violence and gangs "cool." hell of a fucking role model.

by the way, i voted for obama

 

Whoa wait just a second, laziness is a mental illness?!

 

Is that like playing the 'get out of jail free' card?

I'm not a racist, I voted Obama!

I betcha that would sell millions as a bumper sticker...

 

I said "lack of motivation," hardly the same as laziness. Homelessness is not for the lazy. I lived in my van for 5 years and just getting a shower was a day's work sometimes. Being homeless is a 24 hour a day job, try it sometime.

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sorry, when my neighborhood turned ghetto. my friends and I took chain saws and power cutting tools to the bars and taverns while closed at night.. Disconnecting electricity, disabling alarm systems and destroying all that crack cocaine, alcohol and poker machines built.. And we'll do it again..

 

Judging by some of the homeless people I often see downtown it looks like they've taken a leave of absence.


But I understand what you're saying.

 

I totally agree with you, Queer Poet. I too was sleeping in parks and shop doorways (in winter) when I was 13-14. And my time in A.A. (I haven't had a drink or an illegal drug in 25 years*) opened my eyes even more to the plight of "decent" society's pariahs.

Fact is, the nicest people I have ever known were one time derelicts and outcasts - those despised denizens of the dirty lanes, vacant lots, and vermin infested doss houses - that the self-designated decent folk wouldn't piss on if they were on fire.

Do-gooding social workers and devil-dodgers shit me with their do-as-I-say solutions. As my much loved A.A. sponsor, The Shabby Old Cabby, once said, "Ya can't "pull yer socks up" if you haven't got any on!"

I don't even pretend I've got a communal solution for the problem, just what I did in my particular circumstances. But I do what I can on a one-to-one basis.

* but my sincere best wishes go anyone who can!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYIU09o1gsI"]YouTube - horst wessel original sound and lyrics.