On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:14:46AM -0400, frank theriault wrote: > On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 1:43 AM, Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: > <snip> But, due to the actions of > > half a dozen homeless kids, when I see someone that is homeless I'm > > far more inclined that the reason is self inflicted than due to purely > > hard luck. <snip> > > In a way you're right. Most homeless that I've gotten to know have > extremely serious substance abuse problems and/or have major mental > illnesses. If that makes their decision to be homeless "self > inflicted" then so be it.
There was the friend of the woman I was dating in '86 that decided to walk away from a high paying tech job and be homeless. He was the one that got busted for stealing the CD player and CDs out of my car. Note, writing my initials on my CDs with a sharpie have led to the perps being busted on two occasions. > > I tend to think that most "choose" homelessness because they simply > can't function in society. This has truth to it. > > None of that means that one ought not be responsible for their actions > - what was done to your home was horrible and you have every right to > be angry with ~those individuals~ - however they may or may not be > representative of others in their situation. I agree that you cannot claim that the traits of a group are necessarily the traits of any one member of that group. Saying that people are homeless due to their own actions is like saying that the people on this list are men who are over 40. > > I think what's happening with the "tent city" that Marnie is > chronicling may be something slightly different. There are likely > quite a few in that community who were living "on the edge" and were > pushed over that edge by losing their jobs in this fragile economy. > However there are also likely a number in that "village" that have the > substance abuse and mental illness problems that traditionally have > plagued the homeless. I'm sure it's a very brutal place to live. It's tough to figure out which are which. Who will take a hand and lift themselves out of poverty and who will take a hand and lift your wallet. I've also found that the harshest critics of people in those situations are often the ones that clawed their way out of them. You should talk to my ex-wife about the homeless sometime, she'll make me seem like Pollyanna. -- The fastest way to get your question answered on the net is to post the wrong answer. Larry Colen [email protected] http://www.red4est.com/lrc -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
