Home › Forums › Open Discussion › Homeless People Wandering Arbor Heights……
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April 23, 2010 at 4:19 pm #692945
JoBParticipantsmitty…
no.. it’s our fault.
We are the ones who don’t want to pay for social services…
we are the ones who supported closing our mental institutions without providing housing and adequate medical supervision for the mentally ill.
We are the ones who choose to pay the price and more in public safety and incarceration instead.
oh wait.. we don’t even want to pay that.
April 23, 2010 at 7:03 pm #692946
JiggersMemberIt’s Bush’s fault? What a crock. I didn’t like the guy as our leader, but homelessness was going on way before he was president. Blame the banking business/lenders greediness first for the economy’s tanking and current job losses and homelessness. The war already was in progress before the housing crisis hit. It just became a double whammy! Apparently the current service system that King County provides homelessness doesn’t help.
April 23, 2010 at 7:10 pm #692947
FullTiltParticipantJiggers, please see http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sarcasm
April 23, 2010 at 7:23 pm #692948
JiggersMemberLOL..FullTilt. It just makes me wonder when people say things like that if they’re that ignorant because you hear that a lot, and a lot people believe it’s all his fault. If I made over 6 figures, I’d probably be a republican myself because I’d like to keep every friggin’ nickle I earn in my own pocket and not give any of it away. I’m Agnostic in politics too. I really vote for the best person who represents me. I’m a pretty objective person overall though. I’ve become better at being that. There are really a lot of dumb people closer to you than you think. I’m not the smartest around, but at least I have common sense.
April 23, 2010 at 8:24 pm #692949
KenParticipantActually…
Reagan did it.
Ronald Reagan and the Commitment of the Mentally Ill:
Capital, Interest Groups, and the Eclipse of Social Policy
http://www.sociology.org/content/vol003.004/thomas.html
Seeing the cause of specific social ills currently in our face does not mean this problems did not exist, it means that part of the problem, the defunding of mental hospitals, the end of spousal commitment conventions and the undermining of unions and the middle class, all came together at a time when the role of the political parties was being swapped as the southern Dems fled the aftermath of civil rights concessions.
April 23, 2010 at 11:41 pm #692950
SmittyParticipantThanks, Ken!
But I’m sure the Democrats fixed it while they were in control and THEN Bush screwed it up again!
Bush’s fault!
April 23, 2010 at 11:56 pm #692951
EscondidoMemberKen- you are absolutely right. If the general population only knew the degree to which Reagan has hurt this country over the long term with his policies… and I voted for the guy!~
Before Reagan emptied the hospitals, there were 500,000 beds available for the mentally ill. Today, there are only 50,000 available beds nationally- and our population is much higher now. 50,000 is just a fraction of what we need. Closing the hospitals and reducing services for the mentally ill has cost this nation billions and billions of dollars because scores of other social services have been trying to pick of the pieces, all the while these dear folks are not being helped, but pretty much just warehoused, i.e. jails and prisons, multiple short visits to county hospitals, etc. In order to address the needs of a mentally ill person during their first episode, they need to be hospitalized for at least 6-12 months. IF insurance is available, the stay is probably just one week. Our system is broken.
April 24, 2010 at 12:27 am #692952
anonymeParticipantKen, thanks for pinpointing the origin of this problem. Escondido, thanks for elaborating. I grew up in a large, working class city and the issue of homelessness was unknown until the Reagan era. Unfortunately, neither political party is willing or able to fix it, and the prison industry now serves as our national all-purpose institution. Millions of people are incarcerated. The resultant financial, social, and human costs are devastating, and that is the real crime.
April 24, 2010 at 12:35 am #692953
JoBParticipantSmitty…
this can only be a joke to you if you have someplace warm and safe to sleep tonight
and are absolutely certain that you will for the rest of your life…
but you’re not certain are you? an earthquake tomorrow could change that in a heartbeat…
so maybe this can only be a joke if you don’t care…
but you will care if the impossible happens to you…
so.. maybe this isn’t a joking matter.
April 24, 2010 at 1:22 am #692954
SmittyParticipantFortunately, Clinton fixed it temporarily in the 90’s. There appears to be a 8-year window where homelessness disappeared – from the front page of the newspaper.
April 24, 2010 at 1:52 am #692955
anonymeParticipantSeriously. Nobody here has suggested that Clinton fixed anything, and homelessness actually became a front page issue during that administration – when it wasn’t competing with Monica Lewinsky. So cut the crap. Reagan shut down all the mental hospitals, and that is a FACT. If everyone would just take off their red or blue-tinted glasses and look at these issues through a clear lens, we’d all be a lot better off.
April 24, 2010 at 2:05 am #692956
JiggersMemberIt’s not just the mentally ill that are homeless in today’s current economical struggles.
April 24, 2010 at 2:55 am #692957
SmittyParticipantGoogle the community mental health act of 1963 and get back to me. Kennedy (D-MA) was President.
Reagan SIGNED a bill passed by the CA congress as GOVERNOR.
God you libs make me ill.
April 24, 2010 at 5:32 am #692958
HunterGParticipantJust as ill as you cons make us ill, Smitty.
April 24, 2010 at 6:37 am #692959
FullTiltParticipantwill someone please think of the children!!!
April 24, 2010 at 4:42 pm #692960
JoBParticipantSmitty…
could you pull your head out of your little
red/blue place long enough to ponder the fact that all of those families who have lost their homes in the mortgage scandal that has ended up filling bankers and speculators pockets had to go somewhere.. and that some of them spent every last penny they had and ruined their credit trying to hang onto their homes?
could you pull your head out of your little red/blue place long enough to realize that the mentally ill are wandering our streets causing distress because we aren’t providing them with adequate medical care?
could you pull your head out of your little red/blue place long enough to realize that many of our country’s disabled find themselves on the streets when they are no longer able to work?
those homeless people are people.
While it is true that a small percentage of them are what we used to call bums who would rather live off the scraps of society than hold down a job..
the greater percentage are now Americans who would work and live somewhere with an address if they had the option.
Look around you smitty. some of your neighbors are one adjusted mortgage away from losing their homes… one illness away from losing their jobs and their health care… one con away from losing the retirement accounts they thought secure.
If you honestly think concern about the conditions that have created the homeless in our society is just another lib way of dissing Bush.. you are a fool…
and that has nothing to do with your party affiliation.
there are some issues that have to do with human concern.. and this is one of them.
April 24, 2010 at 4:52 pm #692961
JoBParticipantbtw.
before some like minded idiot flags the above post..
the little red/blue place is the political filter that some people seem to view every social issue through…
in my opinion, when you have to make your point by playing the political card.. you don’t have much to add to a discussion… the little red/blue… you are with us or you are against us… and if you are against us you don’t count drivel was supposed to end with high school.. with the notable exception of sporting events.
also…
an if/then proposition only applies when if is true.
was my post condescending? yes.
was it insulting? only if you take it that way.
April 24, 2010 at 5:23 pm #692962
EscondidoMemberExcellent post JoB.
April 24, 2010 at 6:17 pm #692963
SmittyParticipantJoB,
I threw out the “bush’s fault” thing because that has been the excuse for everything and anything since 2009. Media, pundits, politicians, you name it. Kind of like Global Warming is the cause of every 1 degree warming from the historic norms. It gets old, and I was trying to beat someone to the punch – not making light of the homeless.
Someone else blamed Reagan – I assume you were scolding them as well?
I have nothing but sympathy for most of them. Hopefully most people have parents, siblings, cousins or good friends that can help them out or house them for awhile. I know I would take my sisters and their families into my home in a heartbeat. Short of that, the government should kick in – I’m just not sure it should be the first option.
April 24, 2010 at 6:31 pm #692964
HelperMonkeyParticipant“I threw out the “bush’s fault” thing to turn what wasn’t a political discussion in any way into a partisan argument where I could bash liberals”
fixed that for ya, Smitty.
April 24, 2010 at 6:35 pm #692965
FullTiltParticipantHAHA!!!
April 25, 2010 at 6:25 am #692966
JoBParticipantSmitty…
i don’t know how to tell you this.. but there is a lot that was Bush’s fault.
I don’t blame him because he was a republican but because his administration’s policies came pretty close to tanking our economy.. and might yet.
There was a lot that was Reagan’s fault as well… and had you been a small business owner during his trickle down economics.. you would be well aware of the economic effect of his policies…
That said.. there is a great deal that Clinton has to answer for as well…
but it’s amazing to me how well conservatives overlook the economic prosperity of the middle class and the downturn in the deficit during his turn at the helm.
as for the homeless… It’s all well and good to assume that every homeless person has a family that will take care of them.. but that hasn’t ever been true and is less so these days when so many families are struggling themselves to stay afloat.
Every day as a disabled person i am reminded the only difference between me and many of the homeless is that i am lucky enough to have one heck of a support system.
while i suppose it could be said that i have earned my husband’s and family’s love and support… and there would be some truth to that… i have to be honest and point out that i have simply lucked out… my actual disability income by itself wouldn’t even support the luxury of living in my car.
April 26, 2010 at 12:26 am #692967
MousePotatoMemberWhich President was it that claimed ketchup was a vegetable for public school? Hmmm. Can’t remember…. Gotta love a man that thinks that way….
Bet he did wonders for our financial district.
April 26, 2010 at 12:50 am #692968
MousePotatoMemberOn a more ‘on topic’ note, my daughter and I walked out into our alley two days ago and walked into a cloud of pot smoke puffed by 3 apparently homeless or vagrant men. (I remember the smell from MANY years ago. Honestly….)
Me, (being the angry idiot) basically chased them out of the alley by taking pictures of them with my phone and declaring “Hey boys, 911.”. There were quite a few angry words between us but in the end they left. In retrospect it was quite foolish of me to go after them. My daughter fortunately gets her sense from her mother and had immediately back-tracked to the house. (Very bad of me to have put her in any peril.)
Bottom line is they appeared to be homeless and we live on 34th near the original area described. We have been here for more than a decade and have seen a serious increase in crime over the last 2 to 3 years. Perhaps it is related to the economy or the recent house-to-multi-dwelling-apartment changeover but it is alarming. We have a great neighborhood but the feeling of security is waning.
I do feel for the homeless but the people we have seen lately do not appear to be down and out but more like out and ugly. More likely that they are out because of life choices or mistakes that prevent them from getting assistance from the public system.
I hope them well but I hope to NOT find them in my alley smoking pot….
April 26, 2010 at 2:10 am #692969
Garden_nymphMemberMP,
…”out and ugly” giggling still! Hmmm, what will our fellow contributors to this thread read into THAT comment?!
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