Posted on 08/16/2007 9:28:44 AM PDT by Lorianne
Having worked in a mental hospital for years it became apparent to me that most of the “mental” cases were there because of bad choices (ie drugs and alcohol). They had destroyed their bodies and minds with substance abuse. A very small percentage were actually mentally ill. They would come in, clean up, get their dental work and eyeglasses and then leave til the “next time”.
As long as these programs are funded there will be no lack of “mentally ill” freeloaders.
What have you got against the word bums?
As an individual who has worked with the homeless
Count me in also . We are called tax payers .
I found myself in need of a large box about the size of a 30 cu.ft. refrigerator carton and went to the local appliance store to ask if I could get one before they got tossed in the dumpster.
I was told that they cut them up before delivery, throw away the pieces just to keep from being blamed for making the homeless(bums) problems worse.
I remember a news story from years ago about a bum that got kicked out of a public library in NYC. He sued and won! This is probably why these bums are going to stay right were they are.
Playing with his joystick in the library is not a "homeless problem" it's a "pervert problem."
This is why we need to bring back institutions for the mentally ill. Some people can be treated and go on to live normal lives, but others cannot, and we cannot have such people running around and being a danger to self and others. State facilities for the chronically mentally ill should be revived and expanded.
State facilities for the mentally ill need not be expensive, however: army-style tent cities would be fine. These could be built on state-owned land and staffed by doctors and nurses working there in exchange for state-paid medical/nursing school tuition. Camps in agricultural areas could have a working farm or ranch to give the patients the opportunity to do productive, useful, and therapeitic work; other camps might specialize in conservation work (tree planting, state park maintenance, erosion control, etc.) or civil engineering (road building and maintenance, dam repairs, signmaking, etc.), but none would allow patients to skip medications or lie about all day doing nothing. Needless to say, all camps would be sex-segregated and alcohol-free.
States have three choices when it comes to dealing with the mentally ill: institutionalize them (the old solution), ship them off to some other state (not a solution at all), or let them go wild (as we do today). My idea definitely has problems, but if there’s a solution out there that that better deals with the situation, I want to see it.
I can't agree with that. 90% of the "homeless" are that way through their own actions and many prefer homelessness.
And his ignorance about the value of libraries, too.
It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Enlighten us.
I’m assuming Hillarycare will solve this problem by putting social workers in libraries or some other form of socialized medicine. sarc/off
Libraries, thanks to the so-called civil rights lawyers, have become homeless shelters and pornography dens. It’s no place for children. Now imagine what hospitals will look like when medicine is socialized.
I think it was NJ, and he won a bundle, too.
Absurd.
I read that they purposely used awful colors in order to make people want to leave. They did this to keep street people away, they say, but those insensitive louts don’t notice. It’s more intelligent visitors to the building who race for the exits.
Seattle’s newer public buildings seem to have been designed by the same design team. The Seattle Art Museum is another paean to empty space, with that huge grand airy stairway leading from the lobby to......ta dum....the coffee shop, the best space in the building.(Endowed perhaps by Howard Whazhisname of Starbucks?) Nice coffee, but then the alleged collections are jammed into dark, low-ceilinged, unappealing spaces. Perhaps the recent remodel effort helped, but I'll wager they created more empty space. At least they don't allow bums in the door.
The old library in San Francisco had hundreds of thousands of books, some of them treasures published early in the 20th century, with several floors of dimly lit stacks with floors made of glass bricks to allow the little bit of light available to filter into every corner. If you could get past the bums sitting like smelly sacks of wet laundry on the steps and in the lobby, the stacks were a wonderland for those who loved knowlege for its own sake. I spent many happy hours lost in those stacks. Eventually, though, the street people won and I joined Mechanics Library, a great little library that kept the bums out. Membership was something like $25 per year. Maybe it's time to give up the notion of "free" public libraries and charge members fees, put up gates, employ ticket takers, and allow those of us who love books to enjoy them in peace. Books online suck, imo. Not even close to the experience of curling up with a good book.
Terrific observation. I'll use it well and often with my liberal friends.
The liberals did indeed get this trend going, but i don’t see anybody from either side clamoring for money to re-establish decent custodial care for the mentally ill. It’s expensive and in most states probably would involve raising taxes (or cutting something else). In fact, mental health is one of the first things cut when hard times roll around.
He probably wasn’t born then and thinks he’s the first person to ever came up with this solution.
However, this mentally-ill issue is now just part of social medicine promotion.
The Suzzalo Library at the UW is a wonderful library.
Oh go cry me a river! Boo hoo, the homeless! Tell them to get a frickin job. If the are mentally ill, they belong in a hospital, not roaming the streets. There are lots that are homeless because they made bad decisions, but its their responsibility, not mine. No one is entitled to a free ride.
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