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Sporadic Wampus outbreak has a good ring to it. Now you will get me started :)

You hit onto something that has been dwelling in the back of our minds for years. We were puzzled that we always were able somehow to muddle through our relations with the various institutions "helping" our son and others were not.

In our case, it was personal and individual. We were in the faces of the ones giving us the problems and most other parents left it to the institution to be the governing authority.

One time in Virginia the authorities collectively decided our son had a bowel obstruction because he was in distress. Without checking with us, they rushed him to the emergency room and prepared him for major surgery, which would have killed the frail kid. It was a collective decision, nobody to pin down. We rushed there and while my wife grabbed our son away, pulling out the tubes herself, I promised violent wrath on any who would resist us. The ER doc, self-appointed god, was hysterical, had staff call the police. We left before they arrived, took him home. A few hours later his simple migraine was passed and he was smiling. The authorities came to our house and found a happy kid.

We can recount time and again the sad stories of those who trusted the institution, and yes, even when so many of the nurses and help were wonderful. Too often that trust was fatally misplaced.

Point being you cannot defer to the institution. Go for the individuals.

As for the live music, live presence touches even the most gravely handicapped as we witnessed. TV noise and radios do not do that much, but live presence does. You can see it in their eyes.

8mm

The North Country Gazette checks in today...There's something about Pinellas County that is NKR (Not Quite Right)

Frances has had four heart attacks. She can't go out of her yard without a wheelchair. Feeding the birds and squirrels is everything to her but there's a Grinch in Pinellas County again, right in her own homeowners association----she might even end up before the Pinellas County judicial tyrant George Greer if the Grinch has his/her way.

The Grinch Of Pinellas County

8mm

(this includes Ohioan from Florida's ping list, update to 11/14.)

Yeah, it does. Sporadic Wampus Outbreak (aka SWO) it is.

"Point being you cannot defer to the institution. Go for the individuals."

Nor can you deter an institution from its course - unless you can make it clear to those who run it that unless they change their ways they'll have a shortage of individuals willing to risk working there. So go for individuals. It may be the only thing that works. "Working through the system" is a myth, and everyone knows that down deep.

Taking on individuals is a concept that will take time to catch on. People are conditioned to take on the institutional/corporation/agency structure itself. They need to realize these structures let individuals avoid responsibility and insulate them from the consequences of their actions. Then real progress will be made. And don't let anyone weasel away by saying, "I'm just doing my job."