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John if you want sympathy maybe you shouldn't generalize everybody. Rich and snobs are synonymous? Non-whites are illegals?
Your writing and behavior (other than the near-racist remarks) don't reveal any obvious mental illnesses that may prevent you from earning a decent wage, elsewhere. What is tying you to LI? Provided housing? Go to the city where mass transit and jobs are plentiful, and apts can be cheap. You can still commute to your program. Hell, maybe you'd learn to appreciate suburban life more. Of course then you'd also have to deal with more non-whites which is obviously not to your liking.
For someone who has had to deal with a lot, maybe you should be grateful for what you do have because you've got to know by now it won't get any better there or even anywhere else. You're life-experienced enough to know.
I am not familiar with you or your issues but I feel for you. There is nothing as bad as feeling helpless and alone. Do you have a social worker assigned to you? Maybe you could ask to speak to another. There are plenty of Westbury-type neighborhoods that lie between rich and poor areas. How about Levittown, East Meadow, Farmingdale, Bethpage - all decent places but nothing great. While you are lucky to be taken care of, it is unfortunate that you have to play by "their" rules. They probably see it as "beggars cant be choosy." I dont see why you couldnt be moved to a different, similar area. Is Bravo similar to Compare? I would feel the same way. I feel like a foreigner when I go there. Everyone speaks spanish and it is just depressing looking, kind of like a giant bodega. While that might not bother some (although, no one I know would even shop at such a supermarket), your issues probably magnify the situation. I hope things work out for you and please call to speak to another social worker or person who could listen to your concerns, without costing the "govt" further expense. A lateral move to a similar neighborhood does not seem unreasonable. If all else fails, tell them that the anxiety you are experiencing about waiting for buses late at night in your unsafe area is causing you extra stress that affects your health. Good luck.
I know the whole "beggars" can't be choosy story. I dont mean to sound ungrateful, I am very grateful, but I fear what the future brings. This whole thing with the buses has thrown my life into disarray. If only the folks that run Nassau County read this forum and see what they are doing to people's lives by cutting bus service. Yes I have written them letters, but maybe I need to write another and make it personal like this post.
Yes Bravo is very much like Compare, maybe worse. I can't bring myself to even set foot in there since there is a nasty rotten food smell just walking by. I've been to plenty of ethnic style supermarkets in the city, but these ghetto supermarkets (Associated,Compare,etc) are always nasty, lack variety, and are expensive.
I may have to to try other agencies, if things get bad enough.
Last edited by Johninwestbury; 10-24-2014 at 11:45 AM..
John as you already know, this is not helping you as it will only invite the comments as you have suggested. If however, it makes you feel better to vent, that is your choice. You are putting your very vulnerable and raw emotions and frustrations on a public forum and you will be vilified. I am sure that if your counselor is aware of this activity he/she has tried to discourage you too, for the responses you get for the most part will not be helpful.
Unless you have been privy to mental illness you will never understand the point of view, anguish, sheer helplessness that many of those suffering feel. I am involved and have seen what happens to a perfectly normal family member who at 18 simply snaps, it a difficult position to be in. He did not ask for this, nor did John, but it is in fact the world in which they and their families live. These people struggle every day to make sense of life, often with out the answers even from the medical community. Is it frustrating to deal with the effects of mental illness, yes. It is heartbreaking to not be able to help someone that you love and simply feel that you can't reach. I have walked in those shoes as many others have and it is a very difficult journey.
Well I did feel better by venting, and was able to sleep after typing this. I know it will invite "hater" comments, but I just had to. Yes I've been discouraged to post stuff here, but I can't help it, I'm the type to speak up when I see something wrong, I just can't keep quiet. Which is funny since I used to be so intoverted when I was young and never spoke up. I just want others to open their eyes about mental illness, their fellow LI'ers. It is very misunderstood. Like I said I probably would regret writing the post, I certainly didn't mean to villify everyone on LI as there are plenty of good people, its just sometimes the bad ones seem like they are everywhere.
Those in power really need to see what they are doing to people's lives.
John if you want sympathy maybe you shouldn't generalize everybody. Rich and snobs are synonymous? Non-whites are illegals?
Your writing and behavior (other than the near-racist remarks) don't reveal any obvious mental illnesses that may prevent you from earning a decent wage, elsewhere. What is tying you to LI? Provided housing? Go to the city where mass transit and jobs are plentiful, and apts can be cheap. You can still commute to your program. Hell, maybe you'd learn to appreciate suburban life more. Of course then you'd also have to deal with more non-whites which is obviously not to your liking.
For someone who has had to deal with a lot, maybe you should be grateful for what you do have because you've got to know by now it won't get any better there or even anywhere else. You're life-experienced enough to know.
Let me first make it clear I have NO PROBLEM with non-whites. I love visiting Queens when I can to visit Flushing, for example. I like the Indian part of Hicksville as well. Heck I get all my asian teas usually in Flushing or Hicksville! What is happening in my community has nothing to do with being around "non-whites". These guys that hang around look like they are up to no good. They loiter, drink, and are possibly gang members. It is THEIR BEHAVIOR. Let me make that clear.
Heck the better sections of town north of the parkway are middle to upper class black, and have always been that way. I picked Westbury 15 years ago because I liked the mix of people. That was before these low class "undocumented" people arrived. So please, stop throwing race into it, really gets me angry.
I got plenty of friends who are hispanic so stop assuming I dislike them, I dislike illegals, vagrants, ppl who are up to no good! Heck I only usually look at hispanic, indian, chinese girls, even some black ones, I dont even like white girls that much, I bet y'all were surprised with that!
Race has nothing to do with it. We have an underclass of folks living in Westbury. They make me feel unsafe. And I have good reason to fear them.
I am grateful for what I have, and I could deal with stuff until Ed Mangano decided to get rid of the MTA and have this damn private company come and chip away at bus service every 3 months. As I said before, I chose Westbury 15 years ago because of the bus service. Now I worry I may lose it almost completely. Then I'm forced to walk down that street at night, cabs are expensive you know.
I've spoken to other folks who take cabs just to avoid that walk at night so I aint the only one. But those are regular folks, no mental illness.
Its alot of stress. I know I wasn't gonna get much help here but I had to vent. I am grateful, I know things could be much worse, I fear the future. I see warning signs that things could get worse. One day I could wake up and it's gonna be Hempstead. Without any buses. Thats all I gotta say.
You'd get a lot more sympathy for your alleged issues if you stopped bashing everyone over the head with these rambling woe-is-me posts 3x a week. Suck it up.
if you think that's "mean and and heartless", what would you call it if they simply took away the free housing and whatever other benefits you're getting?
I don't mean to be unsympathetic, but you're really fixated on this "unsafe to travel at night" issue, and I have to wonder what it is that you're doing that requires you to travel at night. You don't appear to be employed, and anything else I can think of that would be a "must" (grocery shopping, errands to the bank/post office/whatever, going to the laundromat, medical appointments, etc.) are all things that could be done in the daytime.
As a younger person, I lived alone in some borderline sketchy areas (supporting myself as a full-time student didn't leave much left over for rent!), and I avoided feeling unsafe at night by - shocker! - not going places at night unless I had a friend to travel with or money for the cab ride home. I understand that you're distressed that Westbury is not the community you hoped it would be/thought it was in the past, but you seem to be fixating on a problem - decreased bus service at night - that could easily be dealt with by changing up your schedule.
You're not the only person in the world who has lived or is living in a community that isn't so safe after dark, and the County can't be expected to provide door-to-door bus service for everyone. As a taxpayer, I don't particularly want my tax dollars to go to making sure that highly underutilized bus lines keep running at all hours of the day and night for the convenience of the select few who use those lines. I'm sorry you're on the losing end of this particular situation, but I'm not sorry the county's not blowing more money on services that very few people actually use.
if you think that's "mean and and heartless", what would you call it if they simply took away the free housing and whatever other benefits you're getting?
but there are flop houses too
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