Whether you agree or disagree with the policy, this is the direct, predictable and inevitable result of the governments decision to close all the long term mental hospitals and ‘mainstream’ those unfortunate people into the community. We have far better medications now, but the universal common thread among every family member or friend I have known with severe mental illness is that they don’t want to be on meds and the history is in just about every case, a cycling between remission and recurrence secondary to refusal to stay on their meds
And then, you ad in US policy since the latter part of the 20th century to not just decriminalize drugs, but to tacitly encourage their use and you have created the forces that have resulted in what is going on in the streets of so many US cities.
It is a tragedy of epic proportions and there are no solutions available. Current government policy is only going to make matters worse and the hypocrisy of leadership that hides itself behind fences and
Doesn’t truly give a damn smells every bit as bad as the encampments themselves
I grew up middle income and not exposed to all the wrongs of the world. Now at 83 even with the roof over my head and able to put food on the table I think more of what it is like to be elderly. How many are alone, little food, no family, no friends. Even my church friends don't call to see if we need anything. Caring for a husband with dementia I wonder are they afraid to visit? Or is this left over pandemic? I'm wishing I could do more, walker doesn't go far. Wonder how many elderly you run into in these cities with no help?
Years ago the Humane Society had a poster with a child, an elderly person, a puppy. It read "They have no choice they have no voice". True.
I'm sorry to hear that Bonnie. I would hope that it's only about the Pandemic.
I find one of the more dispiriting things about the US/West is how we treat the elderly -- shuffled off to homes away from family, as opposed to being cared for by family and community.
In my experience, American elderly aren’t shuffled off to homes away from family. They choose to move away from family, to places like Florida, leaving their adult children and grandchildren, repeating the mantra that “I gave my life to my kids for 18 years and now it’s my turn to focus on me.”
This was not an easy article to read, but I appreciate the directness and the lack of sentimentality.
The visibly destitute are a spectacle to keep us all in line. Their degradation is a warning to us all of what will befall any of us if we question the boss, rock the boat or refuse to play the game.
In a thoroughly transactional society there remain people who have nothing to trade. The fate we leave them to says a great deal about what we think of those others like ourselves with whom we do transact business in one way or another.
Thank you for this. I'm from California, but I've lived in Germany for over 20 years. Whenever I go back to visit family I'm truly shocked at the homelessness and people who are obviously suffering from major mental illness and getting no help. You have some homelessness in Berlin and heroin addiction seems to be on the rise in the area where I live, but the issue is no where near as acute as it is in US cities. Very upsetting.
Great post and one that hits home. Sleeping upstairs in our house is Eddie, a friend from my early days in Seattle. He has been homeless the last few months. The pandemic was not kind to him..forced isolation. His mind is active and scrambled at the same time. This in addition to years of guilt he carried around because he was not the “man” his mother wanted him to be. Instead, a brilliant artist, funny as hell and gay gay gay. He’s here with his dog Boomer and I am thankful but know his road ahead long and hard and exhausting. I know him and am in a position to help but my God there are so many like him who are completely lost and in our midst.
Thank you for the Thanksgiving thoughts. Your observations on how women and men (and children) inhabit their geography and culture is wonderful. I believe that every traveler is an outsider. And when the outsider returns home, the outsiders sensitivities remain. A critique of America is not an either/or proposition, but the continuation of the great American opportunity to question and answer the meaning of human freedom. Thank you for your perceptions on being human on planet earth.
The thing that we won't admit is that so many of our friends and neighbors (and even ourselves) are on a razor's edge of keeping their whole lives somewhat straight. As long as we balancing on that edge we can proudly boast we have it all together. Heaven for bid there is a job loss, a family member gets sick, domestic violence or a car accident and it all falls to pieces...just. like. that.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road is not the future, it is simply now presented as the future. Thank you for bearing witness and telling their stories with dignity and compassion.
There is much about America and its culture I'd like to change, but when you find yourself approvingly citing Soviet propaganda, you may have let your anger get ahead of your better judgement. I've been seeing more and more contempt in your writing lately, to the point that I've started to wonder if you still enjoy this.
You missed the point. Arnade is not approvingly citing Soviet propaganda. He's saying that some of the criticisms that might sound like propaganda or exagerations are in fact true in SOME cases: We do have some very high economic inequality for such a wealthy country, we do have some de facto segregation by neighborhoods and districts, we do unusually extremely high firearm homicide rates for a wealthy country that's not in a warzone.
So people who hear about America having far too much inequality, far too much of a gap between obscenely rich and poor, too many shootings, people going bankrupt because of insane high medical costs, etc will one day come to America and see that in some areas and some instances, some of that stuff that might sound like anti-American propaganda (a violent and economically unfair place) is true.
I don't dispute his arguments on the merits. But none of those criticisms need to reference Soviet propaganda to be made. That's the action of someone who's so desperate for another weapon he's grabbing everything at hand. Which isn't the spirit that animated his writing until recently.
It was more me being taken aback from this guys observation. I'll never forget it, because up until that moment he was absolutely overwhelmed with the positive of being in the US
He's still here. Still happy to be here. But he's also aware that its not the heaven he had initially thought it would be
Brave and true as ever Chris—thank you.
Whether you agree or disagree with the policy, this is the direct, predictable and inevitable result of the governments decision to close all the long term mental hospitals and ‘mainstream’ those unfortunate people into the community. We have far better medications now, but the universal common thread among every family member or friend I have known with severe mental illness is that they don’t want to be on meds and the history is in just about every case, a cycling between remission and recurrence secondary to refusal to stay on their meds
And then, you ad in US policy since the latter part of the 20th century to not just decriminalize drugs, but to tacitly encourage their use and you have created the forces that have resulted in what is going on in the streets of so many US cities.
It is a tragedy of epic proportions and there are no solutions available. Current government policy is only going to make matters worse and the hypocrisy of leadership that hides itself behind fences and
Doesn’t truly give a damn smells every bit as bad as the encampments themselves
I grew up middle income and not exposed to all the wrongs of the world. Now at 83 even with the roof over my head and able to put food on the table I think more of what it is like to be elderly. How many are alone, little food, no family, no friends. Even my church friends don't call to see if we need anything. Caring for a husband with dementia I wonder are they afraid to visit? Or is this left over pandemic? I'm wishing I could do more, walker doesn't go far. Wonder how many elderly you run into in these cities with no help?
Years ago the Humane Society had a poster with a child, an elderly person, a puppy. It read "They have no choice they have no voice". True.
I'm sorry to hear that Bonnie. I would hope that it's only about the Pandemic.
I find one of the more dispiriting things about the US/West is how we treat the elderly -- shuffled off to homes away from family, as opposed to being cared for by family and community.
In my experience, American elderly aren’t shuffled off to homes away from family. They choose to move away from family, to places like Florida, leaving their adult children and grandchildren, repeating the mantra that “I gave my life to my kids for 18 years and now it’s my turn to focus on me.”
Thank you for that.
This was not an easy article to read, but I appreciate the directness and the lack of sentimentality.
The visibly destitute are a spectacle to keep us all in line. Their degradation is a warning to us all of what will befall any of us if we question the boss, rock the boat or refuse to play the game.
In a thoroughly transactional society there remain people who have nothing to trade. The fate we leave them to says a great deal about what we think of those others like ourselves with whom we do transact business in one way or another.
You've written this so well--spot on. I hope you with more.
Thank you for this. I'm from California, but I've lived in Germany for over 20 years. Whenever I go back to visit family I'm truly shocked at the homelessness and people who are obviously suffering from major mental illness and getting no help. You have some homelessness in Berlin and heroin addiction seems to be on the rise in the area where I live, but the issue is no where near as acute as it is in US cities. Very upsetting.
Great post and one that hits home. Sleeping upstairs in our house is Eddie, a friend from my early days in Seattle. He has been homeless the last few months. The pandemic was not kind to him..forced isolation. His mind is active and scrambled at the same time. This in addition to years of guilt he carried around because he was not the “man” his mother wanted him to be. Instead, a brilliant artist, funny as hell and gay gay gay. He’s here with his dog Boomer and I am thankful but know his road ahead long and hard and exhausting. I know him and am in a position to help but my God there are so many like him who are completely lost and in our midst.
😢
Happy thanksgiving. We’re the lucky ones.
There is no getting around the fact that being poor in America is extremely, unrelentingly difficult.
Time to drag out the good vibes machine for another toot. I dig this piece.
Thank you for the Thanksgiving thoughts. Your observations on how women and men (and children) inhabit their geography and culture is wonderful. I believe that every traveler is an outsider. And when the outsider returns home, the outsiders sensitivities remain. A critique of America is not an either/or proposition, but the continuation of the great American opportunity to question and answer the meaning of human freedom. Thank you for your perceptions on being human on planet earth.
The thing that we won't admit is that so many of our friends and neighbors (and even ourselves) are on a razor's edge of keeping their whole lives somewhat straight. As long as we balancing on that edge we can proudly boast we have it all together. Heaven for bid there is a job loss, a family member gets sick, domestic violence or a car accident and it all falls to pieces...just. like. that.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road is not the future, it is simply now presented as the future. Thank you for bearing witness and telling their stories with dignity and compassion.
Thankful for you today Chris. Blessings to you and your family.
There is much about America and its culture I'd like to change, but when you find yourself approvingly citing Soviet propaganda, you may have let your anger get ahead of your better judgement. I've been seeing more and more contempt in your writing lately, to the point that I've started to wonder if you still enjoy this.
You missed the point. Arnade is not approvingly citing Soviet propaganda. He's saying that some of the criticisms that might sound like propaganda or exagerations are in fact true in SOME cases: We do have some very high economic inequality for such a wealthy country, we do have some de facto segregation by neighborhoods and districts, we do unusually extremely high firearm homicide rates for a wealthy country that's not in a warzone.
So people who hear about America having far too much inequality, far too much of a gap between obscenely rich and poor, too many shootings, people going bankrupt because of insane high medical costs, etc will one day come to America and see that in some areas and some instances, some of that stuff that might sound like anti-American propaganda (a violent and economically unfair place) is true.
I don't dispute his arguments on the merits. But none of those criticisms need to reference Soviet propaganda to be made. That's the action of someone who's so desperate for another weapon he's grabbing everything at hand. Which isn't the spirit that animated his writing until recently.
It was more me being taken aback from this guys observation. I'll never forget it, because up until that moment he was absolutely overwhelmed with the positive of being in the US
He's still here. Still happy to be here. But he's also aware that its not the heaven he had initially thought it would be
PS: The next few posts, on food in El Paso, and Bishkek & Almaty will hopefully be more positive!
You really should visit Tangier in Morocco. You'd love it.