Posts tagged with 'repair'

 

The world is full of ambitious people who have the drive but not the resources. I know I could’ve had a PhD or two under my belt but couldn’t even afford to get an Associate’s degree. (2 complete years). In the USA, you have a SMALL window of help: Age 18-23, approximately. After that, help dries up and life moves on. Gotta work. Had your chance, etc. I don’t regret it because the US is a class based system, mostly hinging on family community status and provable family income. Even with assistance, if your family couldn’t have afforded tuition, it also means you won’t be able to afford to avail yourself of opportunities that come only to those with sufficient connection and family (not personal) income. I didn’t have that and it’s ok. I like my life and glad for the choices I made out of what was available and my capabilities and drive. But I feel for those who DO want more, strive for it, have the intelligence but get little of the assistance (for lack of family community status and family income). If you pry behind the stories of the “self made successes”, you’ll usually find big helpers along the way that “lift” them up and continue to, often political in some way.

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I thought it looked familiar. This is Newark NJ, two towns away from where I grew up. In the 90s, Newark area was the center of testing “Broken Window theory”. The idea was: If you’re hard on someone for spitting out a wad of gum or having garbage or a broken window in your yard, you’ll prevent worse crime. Sounds logical right? Guess what? It was wrong. Broken Window was a failure and abandoned. But police culture got accustomed to stop anybody for anything and be hard on them. That’s what I see here. Guys are hanging out and laughing. Mocked the cop? Oh well snowflake, get over it. But no, cop escalated it instead of walking off. If you escalate it, EVENTUALLY someone is going to throw a punch or do SOMETHING wrong. This looks like a “hate crime” against cops. But cops aren’t a protected class are they? Oh wait.. they get qualified immunity so yes they are. The Untouchables.

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I thought it looked … [read full article]

 

Politicians don’t want to spend tax money (not their money but they find ways to make it theirs) on mental health. They’ll do it for prisons but not schools nor long term psychiatric care. If the same funds that used to be spend for long term care was spend on community mental health programs, simple outpatient facilities mental and wellness programs, I think you’d see less problems caused by the unstable. The problem isn’t precisely the loss of institutions: it’s the loss of mental health as a managed aspect of communities, whether institution or outpatient. In short: the money’s not spend on mental health anymore, not unless you’re of the correct class. Then the funds show up.

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Politicians don’t want to … [read full article]