Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/04/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]All across North America (perhaps elsewhere too?) there was a move to deinstitutionalize the care of the mentally sick and disabled. Naturally promises were made that alternate community based facilities would be developed. Equally naturally this did not happen in many places. Where I grew up, half way houses and assisted living programs were (and are) very successful. Strong advocacy groups are necessary to insure that the disadvantaged are not forgotten. John Collier On Monday, April 29, 2002, at 05:36 AM, Gary Elshaw wrote: > I tried resisting, but failed. I agree with Karina on this too. I was > there > in the midst of the bubble in March of '99 and was amazed at the level > of > homelessness I saw. Honestly, I figured there was a homeless person > every > 50-100 metres in the centre of the city. The other thing that amazed me > was > the number of folks I met who justified the homeless population's plight > with some bizarre urban myths. The roommate of the friend I was staying > with > told me that a lot of the homeless were ex-company CEO's who made more > money > begging on the streets than they did as corporate execs. And she > believed > what she was saying. My friend told me that the reason SF had an > enormous > number of homeless was because the climate in SF was so good. Of course > it > was less than 5 degrees outside while he was telling me this...I could > go on > about the number of elderly, and obviously mentally impaired, homeless > folks > I saw being beaten by the cops in San Diego in the brief 3 days I was > there > too. > > The most frustrating thing was, I felt, after a while, that I was the > only > one seeing half this stuff. I felt, and still feel pretty disturbed by > some > of the stuff I saw at 4am in San Diego. > > I too ended my trip in South Africa and found the homelessness less > obvious, > but perhaps that is all it was--less obvious. > > Part of the thing with the U.S. for us tourists is the discrepancy > between > the images we have of the U.S, which are mainly film and TV--these > images > are a far cry from the reality. Sheesh, who woulda thunk it, a > discrepancy > between the representation and the thing itself - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html