I was thinking that if they think these druggies are a problem now what
are they going to do when the druggies can't find a place to live.
On 9/14/2017 10:24 AM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
So, the good citizens of Huntington, West Virginia have a problem.
What to do about the drug abuse in their fair town. The "City
Fathers" gather and ponder the problem and look for a solution. They
find that they are looking at two distinct courses of action. They
might begin a rehabilitation project, one that not only rehabilitates
people, but their living conditions. The towns citizens might begin a
massive cleanup of the housing where these drug addicts live. They
might begin a Works Program, training and placing the unemployed in
community jobs such as cleaning streets, vacant lots, parks and trash
dumped along the local roads. They might even learn to fill pot holes
and clean up the yards of elderly and disabled folks. The townspeople
might even go so far as to offer credit courses to assist in future
jobs.
Or they could levy a fine on the landlords if they fail to kick the
drug violators out of their apartments and rental homes. In other
words, simply move the problem from one place to somewhere else. As
an old rehabilitation teacher, I have certainly had my share of
"failures", heartbreaks, people who might have turned a corner and
made a new start, but who could not do so. But I have seen a greater
number of folks, given just a nudge, a small bit of kindness and
attention and positive support, pick up and go forward. The small
budget we work with has paid for greater dividends to both the
individuals and to the entire community, than to have not put one dime
toward their plight. Left alone, these elderly blind people, the
folks we are charged with serving, if left alone a great number of
them will end up costing the community for their upkeep. Not only
does the community lose, but so do the individuals.
Too many years have passed since the lessons learned from
"Hoovervilles" around the nation in the 30's and early 40's, and FDR's
solution by setting up WPA and similar projects to train and employ
people rather than to abandon them. But this is exactly what the City
Fathers of Huntington, West Virginia have chosen to do, abandon the
drug abusers. Return in twelve months and I can assure you that these
same City Fathers will be sitting at the same conference table facing
the same problem...only worse.
Carl Jarvis
On 9/13/17, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It is interesting that the city of Huntington, West Virginia just passed
an ordinance that if tenants are arrested for drug offenses the landlord
must evict them or pay a stiff fine.
On 9/13/2017 5:08 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
Bonnie,
That's a terrible story. My feeling is that the root of the problem has
to
do with the fact that our society criminalizes addiction rather than
seeing
it as a medical problem and treating it. People who are given drugs under
medical supervision, don't have to engage in criminal behavior. In
Portugal,
where they have a different approach from our's, they don't have the same
kinds of issues. There's an excellent book about this which I've read,
but
of course, I can't remember the name offhand. I understand that it's very
complicated. I was married to someone who had a severe drinking problem.
Addiction is an illness, one that is terrible to live with, if you're
impacted by it.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bonnie L.
Sherrell
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2017 3:40 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Utah nurse arrested for defending
patient's
rights
My first teaching contract was with the White River School District,
teaching in the Rainier Institution and School for the Retarded in
Buckley,
Washington. One of our teaching assistants was a former police officer
who
had lost a good deal of his hearing by refusing to wear ear protection
while
on the firing line doing shooting practice. He admits he was too macho
to
live at the time. Marv admitted that he was glad he lost so much hearing
to
the point he had to leave the force, as he'd begun to realize that
constant
exposure to the worst of human behavior was driving him to become abusive
and so cynical he wouldn't listen to explanations as to what had really
happened. He suspected that if he'd not been forced to leave when he
did,
eventually he'd probably end up being arrested himself for beating up
prisoners who would prove to be innocent of any crime.
A few years after I moved to my present home, I rented my barn to a guy
who
had been close friends for years with Jack, whom Tony and I had known for
close to fifteen years. Even though he'd not seen this Dave for over
twenty
years, Jack was certain that Dave would be an okay tenant. After a year
of
tenancy, Dave and his live-in girlfriend got back into methamphetamines
and
began reverting to typical druggy behavior, which included stealing
everything that wasn't nailed down and a few things that literally had
been.
By the time they began openly stealing to me, every complaint made
against
them was responded to with, "We're sorry, but our hands are tied." I
couldn't get anyone to help retrieve stolen property or to help force
them
off my property, even when they'd not paid rent for months and had been
caught in possession of stolen cars and goods and selling drugs from the
barn. I had to go through the whole eviction process, which involved
having
to hire a lawyer as the judge in my county who handled eviction cases
would
not allow private citizens to represent themselves in his courtroom. Not
until they were finally gone did I learn that they'd been recruited as
police informants and thus were being protected by the very officers and
institutions intended to protect the general public from them, and
although
most of the officers in the region wanted them put away for good they
were
threatened when they arrested them until they accepted they couldn't do
anything to protect anyone from almost anything the pair did. I don't
know
what agency was protecting them, but even when they proved no help at all
in
weeding out other drug offenders or car thieves, IF they got arrested
they'd
be released usually before the arresting officer finished the paperwork
necessary to process them into jail. I could have lost everything I
owned
because of these yahoos, and I was powerless to do anything about it
except
to go to court to have them evicted, even when they'd begun threatening
me
with physical harm and were constantly turning off the water to the house
(the controls for the well and water were there in the barn where they
could
easily manipulate them while I couldn't as easily turn the water back on)
during the hottest summer we ever had. This summer may have been the
driest
summer on record, but the year these two were constantly denying me water
was the hottest I ever remember, with the heat being at record levels
starting in May.
It's hell when good police officers are forced to allow people they are
dying to see go to prison for well documented crimes to continue on with
their criminal careers and decent people are forced to endure
exploitation
and threats until some legal sham is enacted forcing the criminals to
begone. Officers who responded to my complaints and those of my
neighbors
finally told me they could do nothing until I managed to get them evicted
(and the judge would not allow me to list their criminal activities among
the reasons for the eviction--he'd only accept the fact they'd not paid
rent
for five months as THE reason) and legally off my property. But even
then
they were not allowed to do anything to stop them from ranging around two
counties squatting on property and continuing to steal except finally to
evict them from said counties as vagrants. Oh, yeah--force them off the
Peninsula to become similar problems elsewhere in the state.
Bonnie L. Sherrell
Teacher at Large
"Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the
very
wise cannot see all ends." LOTR
"Don't go where I can't follow."
We gave the Goblin King control of our nation!
