reply to post by Resinveins
If you think mental illness is a result of poor choices... I don't think we have much to say to each other.
Basic reading comprehension. You lack it.
I said that a poor choice was a poor choice, regardless of your state of mind while making it.
Gravity doesn't care if you're on PCP - it will smash your ass into the ground, anyway. Alcohol doesn't care if your wife cheated on you and your
father just passed away - it will still kill you. A snake doesn't care if it is a four year old that doesn't know any better - it will bite when
provoked.
I'm not even going to criticize your post ... I think it represents itself well as is.
Such an arrogant animal you are. Perhaps you should display some signs of sentience before presuming yourself to be capable of levying a valid
criticism.
reply to post by MrWendal
If this is what you truly believe... than I am sorry to say you are either a complete moron or completely misinformed.
It's not about belief. It's about fact.
I have been homeless. It had nothing to do with my choices in life. I did not do drugs or drink myself to death. I was homeless due to
circumstances completely out of my control.
You list two effects as though one is causal to another:
[circumstance outside of one's control]
Homeless.
My father died while I was depending on him for a home (as well as my brothers). That was a circumstance outside of my control. It meant I had to
find some other place to live.
I could not reasonably afford my own apartment at the time. I did, however, end up staying with friends. Still am. There were many places for me to
seek a home, many people I knew who were willing to help me without much protest.
This is not exclusive to myself - I've witnessed quite a bit of drama around town and seen people avoid homelessness a wide number of ways.
Of course, I did not stay homeless and the ONLY reason I did not stay homeless was because one person who was able to give me work. He was
running his own business and decided to take a chance on me (a homeless 18 year old) and I took that chance and made it into a career. I am now 39
years old.
Does this not reinforce what the person you are responding to said?
You were motivated to seek a job. You found one and are no longer homeless and, I presume, leading a far more productive and fulfilling life.
So all it took was one opportunity and one job and I busted my backside to be as good as I can be at that job and in doing so I have stayed
employed for over 20 years. So don't sit here and tell me that being homeless is a choice that people choose to make because they are all drug
addicts and alcoholics.
By your own admission - homelessness was a brief, transitional time in your life. It was not a way of life for you, but a circumstance.
I've volunteered at local homeless shelters and community kitchens through my life - and you see a lot of the same faces, year in - year out. They
qualify for government aid programs (receive government aid programs - if you do a little eavesdropping on their conversations), and will rarely jump
on opportunities to work. There are people who transition through and who do jump on opportunities to work and leave that lifestyle - but there are a
lot who treat it as a lifestyle.
Some are mentally . . . not there. So you can't hold too much against them. Some are physically disabled (can't really hold much against them,
either - although I make an exception for the ones that are obese to the point of being disabled...) - but most are just chilling. They adopt a way
of life where people provide for them, and they get to sloth about.
I would strongly suggest you go to a homeless shelter some where. Work the soup kitchen and take the time to get to know some of these homeless
people. What you find out my just change the way you view homeless people. Yes there are some drug addicted homeless. Yes there are some alcoholic
homeless. However, you can not paint every single homeless person with the same broad brush. Doing so, quite simply, is beyond ignorant!
Honestly, a lot of your addicts and mentally challenged do not frequent homeless shelters and/or kitchens. Those that do are usually the far more
mild cases (or are more easily treated by therapy or cheaper drugs that shelter staff can provide).
We've got box-car homeless around here. You've got to go a way outside of town - but that is where you will find a lot of the 'real' homeless
(the people who, literally, do not have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of). Drugs that will cause that kind of addiction are rare, here
- so most of them in these parts are just unable to function, mentally.
