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Actually it was the liberals who sued on behalf of the patients asserting their liberty and rights were violated by forcing them into institutions. They won a Supreme Court ruling which Reagan had to abide by.
But that isn't as fun as repeating the "Reagan turned the mentally ill loose" lie over and over.
This goes back directly to Gov Cuomo who closed most of the state of NY Mental Institutions in 1990. The state was going broke then, and i am 100% sure of this because my current bride was 6 months away from 10 years tenure. She was working for Rochester Syc. got laid off, and watch Cuomo tell everyone why they were being punished, which stunned everyone since no one had done anything wrong and then he went further saying his speeches would cover his expenses.
And these patients were just released..... if they had someone to take them they did and if not they went homeless into the streets.....
Some are drunks, druggies and losers, and some have PTSD. Sounds like a song...
That's just plain sad! You should never look a gift horse in the mouth! I would hope that people like that would be grateful and not greedy! Just plain sad!
Yes with how mean and uncaring people are today,i would have to agree!!
No, he doesn't. They make it very difficult, but I can still muster up a bit of sympathy even for this sorry lot. They're hurting in ways most of us probably cannot understand. I don't know if it's economically, psychologically, socially or all of the above, but they're hurting. So, like many, they lash out at the easiest targets to externalize the pain they feel inside.
Most homeless folks have family members somewhere. Family should be required to take over direct responsibility and care for them. They should become wards of their family instead of wards of the community or the state.
Many are mentally unstable. Many are addicted to drugs and alcohol. Some are just financially really down on their luck. For those down on their luck (financially) there are programs that can help them, and family should be required to take them on. Family can seek that help out and/or support them until they get back on their feet.
For those with mental, drug or alcohol issues they should become their families problems.
Yes....yes....I know about free will and maybe the homeless won't want to be with family. And yes I know that some families are messed up and it may not be a wonderful situation for the homeless person to be with family.
But all of that is better than the current situation of allowing hundreds if not thousands of homeless in every mid-sized and large city to roam unchecked as their crazy, drug and booze addled selves. There is a town in Alaska where the homeless move to BECAUSE they receive so many support services - free housing (without pre-conditions), free food, free medications, free busing, free haircuts and yes even pedicures (and I know ........ minimizing foot problems but still........). A town where you can be stopped three times in one day by the same person asking for money. A town where you can see them passed out under a covered picnic shelter downtown where the tourists roam. A town where you can see three guys in a store doorway in the middle of the day with white powder on their hands while they freely and openly swap pills. They are euphemistically called "chronic inebriates".
My point is better family than the rest of us. Better family than the taxpayers.
My other point is that handing these folks things freely and without preconditions or expectations is a waste of money, time, effort and honestly an open heart. They are users straight up because of their "issues" - giving people stuff without expecting anything in return is a fools game. As it goes with homeless it goes with other more formal safety net programs financed by us and distributed by the government. If you expect nothing you will get nothing (other than higher expectations on the part of the recipient). Give me something. Now give me something else.
It's all unenforceable and will never happen, but these people should belong to their families and not us.
It is a real problem. In Atlantic City, apparently mentally ill people are actually dropped off by agencies who don't want to care for them, leading to tragedy.
She did not know how long she had been in Atlantic City, which has long been a magnet for the homeless, some of whom are bused there by welfare agencies from other counties and cities.
In New York, it is very difficult to voluntarily commit someone. The most famous case was Joyce Brown/Billie Boggs:
I once heard a wiser man than I, and a genuine Christian put it like this when someone questioned giving money to the homeless, lest this person use it for booze: "Maybe that drink is what gets him through one more night." What have I lost?
On the flip side, what have I gained? I'll tell you. A hope that the money I gave brought a little happiness to someone who has probably endured untold nasty looks on that day and on most days and is on the periphery of society. That hope counts for a lot.
I'll tell you one other thing: Cultures change through good acts modeled for others. When people see others consistently behaving in enlightened ways, it begins to catch on. We did not change cultures of intolerance through laws, we changed cultures of intolerance through repeated acts of compassion and resistance to injustice.
I really don't believe those nasty people constitute a majority. Make a few of them think. Just a few. Start there and then build on it.
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