Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/04/28

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: calling on the LUG to do a good deed: leica scholarship
From: kiklaas@iinet.net.au
Date: 29 Apr 2002 01:19:52 -0000

Thank you Joe for giving me an honest assessment.  ie. not another head in 
the sand response.

Karina


> 
> From: Karina Klaas <shutterbug@iinet.net.au>
> >
> > That is not to say homelessness down not exist in Australia but having
> never
> > visited thte States before my preconceived notion of what to expect 
formed
> > on the basis of the  movies and TV watched, my impression, wrongly, was
> that
> > most Americans lived reasonably well.  I asked my friend, whom I was
> > visiting at the time where the poorer areas were - she lived in Santa
> > Monica, and she responded there weren't any - she must have had her 
head
> in
> > the sand because I caught a Greyhound (not like they are in the movies 
- -
> > another shock in itself) to San Fran and started noticing these areas
> during
> > the drive on the way.
> >
> > Karina
> >
> 
> Karina,
> 
> Social ills such as crime, homelessness and others, exist in the USA for
> different reasons than in other parts of the world.
> In the case of homelessness, there are three major reasons for it in the 
US.
> 
> 1) Mental illness. This is the overwhelming cause. This group includes
> alcoholics and drug addicts.
> In the past mentally ill patients who were deemed non-violent and not
> dangerous to themselves where housed and cared for in mental hospitals. 
In
> the eighties, in a move to save expenses, the Reagan administrations 
ordered
> all non dangerous patients released. The result was a swelling of the
> homeless ranks. That I know of, the policy is still enforced.
> 
> 2) Destitution. Many individuals and families are destitute to the point
> that they are reduced to living in the streets. The causes of such 
calamity
> are many, from abandoned spouses to loss of job, to poor personal 
choices,
> devastating illnesses, etc.
> 
> 3) Non conformism. There is also an element that refuses to conform to
> conventional life styles and chooses to be homeless.
> 
> I have worked as a volunteer in shelters for the homeless and these seem 
to
> be the prevailing causes.
> 
> Joe
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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