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We would have moved to Eugene a year earlier had Peggy been able to find work at Sacred Heart Medical Center (I did property maintenance and assumed I could find a job anywhere). As we sat in Fresno (see two posts back) with Peggy’s job running out, she called Sacred Heart to ask about job openings. The news was encouraging, so we drove up for an interview, and she was hired as an ICU nurse. Within weeks, we rented an apartment; flew to Mississippi to sell our house; loaded our possessions into a U-Haul; and moved to Oregon at the hospital’s expense.
When we arrived in ‘86, Eugene had a large hippie population and called itself the “Berkeley of the North” and the “Tie-Dye Capital of the World.” Near where we now live is the site on which Eugene’s founder, Eugene Skinner, built a cabin when he arrived in 1846 with 1,200 other settlers. During the next decade, 20,000 people came to the Willamette Valley, most of them over the famed Oregon Trial. By then, 92% of the indigenous Kalapuya had died of settler-borne diseases and their survivors imprisoned on distant reservations where their tribal identity was lost through intermarriage with other tribes. I joined two lodges that Skinner had belonged to (the Freemasons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows—IOOF)—and searched the minutes without finding a single mention of the plight of the Kalapuyas.
Upon our arrival, Eugene was home to communes, the Hemlock Society, the University of Oregon, and a national polyfidelity group. City buses were new to me, and I got a kick out of bussing to whatever classes interested me at Lane Community College, and I worked at the University of Oregon as liaison between the university and a building contractor. During our first year in Eugene, we lived in two apartments and bought a house. I had only known two foreigners in Mississippi, but, because of the University of Oregon, they were common here, and so it was that Peggy and I had a delightful Saudi roommate followed by a disagreeable Bosnian roommate.
Most of the Eugenians I met weren’t born here, and I found that they discussed their shrinks and support groups as casually as Mississippians did their preachers. In another reversal, I met people who embraced atheism, Bahai, Buddhism, Sikhism, New Thought, nature worship, and Wicca. An avid baker, I discovered flours that were new to me (spelt, kamut, quinoa, barley, buckwheat, and amaranth), and I even found grits (a Southern staple) in a heartier form called polenta.
Most cars had bumper stickers promoting liberal, anarchistic, vegetarian, and/or environmentalist values, although I would occasionally see “Loggers Are An Endangered Species Too,” or “Ted Kennedy’s Car Has Killed More People than My Gun.” Street demonstrations abounded, as did Volkswagen vans painted with trees, rainbows, unicorns, and peace symbols. The Grateful Dead performed yearly, and with them came the Deadhead Invasion consisting of thousands of blissed-out freaks who promptly emptied local food banks.
The annual Oregon Country Fair with its drugs, nudity, wild costumes, and painted bodies, epitomized Eugene’s anything goes mentality, and Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, made the news with asinine speeches, including one in which he encouraged a high school audience to smoke pot. The Saturday Market featured local artists and craftspeople, but the California Invasion—aka the Californicators—had yet to run up home prices and imbue Eugene with a Middle America mentality that their predecessors came here to escape. Olympic track and field trials were—and are—often held in Eugene (aka TrackTown USA), and it was here that Bill Bowerman used a waffle iron to create the sole of the world’s first Nike.
Memories of protests against the War in Vietnam—including burning the records at a local draft board—were still fresh, as was the Weather Underground, two members of which were arrested separately after my arrival. One of the two, Silas Bissell, was convicted of firebombing an ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) center and the other, Katherine Power, of participating in a bank robbery in which a guard was machine-gunned. Both had lived respectable lives in Eugene, Bissell as a physical therapist, and Power as co-owner of the popular Napoli Restaurant.
In the ‘90s, many of Eugene’s anarchists and environmentalists endorsed violence to combat capitalistic exploitation, and so it was that they vandalized vehicles, smashed store windows, attacked the police, burned a ski lodge, twice firebombed SUVs at Romania Chevrolet, toppled a fire tower, freed animals at a fur farm, vandalized a furniture store during its yearly “leather sale,” burned a lumber company, disabled high-transmission lines, sabotaged logging equipment, vomited on Eugene’s mayor at a city council meeting, fire-bombed the Oakridge Ranger Station, placed bombs inside a tanker truck at Tyee Oil, and vandalized a modest home in a rundown neighborhood because its owner had committed the crime of gentrification by repainting.
Although some of these crimes were committed elsewhere, Eugene was nonetheless the hub from which many militants operated. Mayor Jim Torrey called his city “The Anarchist Capital of the United States,” and invited their representatives to meet with him for an hour (they spent the hour silently glaring). Eugene’s reign of terror only ended when an FBI investigation resulted in prison sentences for ten men and nine women.* Here’s the Register-Guard bio of Jeff Luers, Eugene’s best known anarchist, who, at age 21, received a 23-year sentence for burning vehicles and planting bombs. https://www.registerguard.com/article/20140406/news/304069982.
Since my arrival, Eugene has come to suffer from the problems that characterize many American cities. When I arrived in 1986, cars were excluded from several downtown blocks, which was a charming area with playful statuary, quaint shops, open-air restaurants, galleries featuring local artists, and hanging baskets with cascading petunias. Then, activist bureaucrats sent in the bulldozers, and when the dust cleared, the pedestrian mall had been reopened to cars, and the small shops and restaurants replaced by multi-story apartment buildings reminiscent of Communist Romania. The shoppers, strollers, and diners took their business to the suburbs, and in their place were muggers, vandals, addicts, belligerent drunks, aggressive panhandlers, paranoid schizophrenics, gangs of shoplifters, and lowlifes that congregate in front of businesses and harass customers.
Thanks to activist bureaucrats, Eugene now has the highest per capita homeless population in the country.* Large city parks house hundreds of campers, making them off-limits to those whose taxes paid for their creation and continue to pay for their maintenance. Camping on sidewalks and in vehicles is still a crime, but the police forward complaints to a Catholic charity that has no enforcement power and is only interested in helping the campers. My neighbors and I clear our neighborhood of needles, liquor bottles, and fast-food wrappers. More puzzling is the amount of usable food, clothes, blankets, and foam mattresses, that the homeless throwaway. The news media claims that one in five Eugenians go to bed hungry, yet Oregon’s poor tend toward obesity, and the state announced last week that the impoverished can now use the “Oregon Trail Card” (a government-funded debit card) to shop at yuppie markets which are unaffordable to many people.
I’ll end on an up-note by mentioning that lawyers for twenty-one high school students entered Eugene’s Federal District Courthouse this month to ask judge Ann Aiken to allow a suit that was instituted six years ago to finally go to trial. If that suit prevails, the federal government’s support of the fossil fuel industry will be declared un-Constitutional in that it conflicts with the right to a life-sustaining environment.***
* http://www.citymayors.com/society/usa-cities-homelessness.html
**https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganashttps://newtalavana.org/https://www.eugeneweekly.com/2006/12/07/flames-of-dissent-2/
A final interesting link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_activism_in_Eugene,_Oregon.
27 comments:
Yet another interesting post.
School students here took the Federal Government's Environment Minister to court saying that their endorsement of coal mines put their lives at risk, and should be considered before any further fossil fuel projects are accepted. They won - and the Federal Government is a) ignoring the court and b) appealing.
You can find one story about it here.
Goodness. I read every word and am wrung out. You sucked me in and held me hostage. I am better for it, surely. :) It was worth my time, so thanks.
Waving at you from Texas! ~~
As always, your reports about the past are fascinating to me. Especially the descriptions of your first exposures to the offerings of a 'hippie town' are a treat to read. I grew up in a loose hippie community, and lived close to many such towns - Santa Cruz, San Francisco, Berkeley . . . I often feel like 'American hippie culture' is a much more appropriate label for my cultural identity than any exact heritage. The struggles of Eugene in the twenty-first century are much like these other towns, and so they are familiar to me in that way as well, even though I have only lived here a handful of years.
I have also met quite a number of people here in Eugene who were not born here, enough that I'm a little surprised when I do meet someone who has lived here all their life. When I was still using Lyft to get around town I met at least five drivers who had grown up within a ten minute drive of where I did.
Also: “Ted Kennedy’s Car Has Killed More People than My Gun” is a hilarious sentiment. My hat off to the person who came up with that for the sticker.
(I'm going to comment twice because I seem to have hit the character limit)
Comment 2:
I must push back a little on what you wrote in your last paragraphs (you must have known I would!). I share many of your concerns about the crime and public misbehavior, and the huge homeless camps should be seen as a mark of shame for the city. I often view trips to downtown with unpleasant anticipation, because of how many climactically unpleasant experiences I have had there, or awful scenes I have witnessed.
Yet I cannot help but read some implication of blame in your words that I think is misplaced. For instance 'The news media claims that one in five Eugenians go to bed hungry, yet Oregon’s poor tend toward obesity, and the state announced last week that the impoverished can now [...] shop at yuppie markets which are unaffordable to many people' seems clearly to imply that the poor are NOT really hungry, or at least that many people considered poor and in need of help do not actually need it. Yet many studies have shown that obesity is in fact quite often stems from the LACK of access to good food, junk food being much more plentiful and cheap than healthy food. The health costs increase exponentially over time, but to a person who simply needs to eat today, junk can be procured already prepared for a much more reasonable price than healthy food.
Similarly, while homelessness often is the end result of long use of drugs or untreated mental health problems, usually the cause-and-effect is the other way around. Housing crunches in Eugene were severe BEFORE the lockdown, but the economic upheaval among our poor in the last few years is what has forced the majority of the people you see in the camps out on the street. The various counts they do of the current street populations seem to indicate somewhere around 3/4 are from Lane County and are not 'chronically homeless', meaning they were forced onto the street relatively recently. The circumstances of street life are enormously damaging to the mind, and people evicted from their homes with nowhere else to go often turn rather quickly to drugs to dull their stress, or develop mental illnesses not previously present, or turn to crime to make ends meet.
So in conclusion, I share your horror at the situation, but despite being the 'face' of the problem, the homeless themselves are far greater victims than they are perpetrators of any societal evil. The wound is what emits the blood and the pain, but the wound is not the sword that made the cut. If huge droves of people who had homes until recently have wound up on the streets, then in my eyes their desperate actions are far more to blame on the people who drove them there than the desperate poor themselves. The powers and interests which control housing in the city are the subject of many dark thoughts of mine.
On a personal note, I am diagnosed with schizophrenia, a disorder and a diagnosis which has had an enormous effect on my life and personality, and I note your inclusion of 'paranoid schizophrenics' among the undesirables of downtown with some pain.
I am a tie dye hold out. I still dye my own Tshirts in a big pot on the stove. I love polenta. I don't know what to say about how our society has rather disintegrated. Drug use is extreme here too and results in crime and homelessness and family horrors, that perpetuate down generations. The extreme rise in home value which has increased rents too, to epic highs, has pushed poorer folk farther and farther out to try to find something they can afford. Many of the poor I know work while they live in cars or old RV's parked where they can. This is ridiculous. You get evicted once, you probably can't ever rent again. Anyhow.....what a mess.
'I joined two lodges that Skinner had belonged to (the Freemasons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows—IOOF)—and searched the minutes without finding a single mention of the plight of the Kalapuyas.' - Sad, but not surprising. Whilst the following is delivered in a light tone, it's done so to highlight the many times settling in the US resulted in terrible losses for the previous inhabitants - https://twitter.com/TadhgHickey/status/1462706574204583937
I agree with Max regarding the homeless. It's also true that those of us with mental health conditions find it much harder to seek help and once on the streets will only have such conditions made worse. There's little understanding about this generally.
Back to you though! Ace post, most enjoyable, I knew nothing of Eugene or the history of the area and you tell it well, as ever.
What are grits? Fried polenta?
'Since my arrival, Eugene has come to suffer from the problems that characterize many American cities.' - It's your fault then!
Excellent essay, yet again.
Depressing, but not too unusual in the way that poverty and increasing mental health problems are increasing in every part of this hopeless planet. Is there a way to solve all these humanitarian troubles? I know that it is as sure as death and taxes that politicians and governments of whatever colour, red, blue or green will be trying and failing for as long as the world spins on.
The damage that humans have created over a few ticks of the clock in the last few centuries seems to me to be impossible to repair. Sorry to be so downcast but life makes me feel like this. Best wishes, Philip
"School students here took the Federal Government's Environment Minister to court saying that their endorsement of coal mines put their lives at risk..."
As far as I know, the suit filed in Eugene is the first of its kind in America, although I should add that among the plaintiffs are people from other parts of the US. I have no thought that they will prevail, but I respect the hell out of them for trying, and I regard their action as one more brick in the wall against those whose highest value in life is short-term financial profit.
"Waving at you from Texas! ~~"
Hello, Texas (a state that I knew well when I lived in Mississippi), and thank you very much for the kind words. Here's the address of another reader from Texas: https://www.blogger.com/profile/00535475792150335186
"I am diagnosed with schizophrenia, a disorder and a diagnosis which has had an enormous effect on my life and personality, and I note your inclusion of 'paranoid schizophrenics' among the undesirables of downtown with some pain."
Is it your position that dangerous psychotics should be allowed to interact freely with the public? Do you mean to put yourself in the same boat with the local paranoid schizophrenic who shot a stranger to death because the killer thought the stranger was attacking his brain with radio waves? Peggy and I are getting old and with age comes frailty--plus our family consists of five defenseless cats--so if we had any doubt whatsoever that you were suffering from delusions that might someday cause you to harm us, we would not welcome you into our home. Likewise, if you were to tell us that you think it likely that you might someday suffer from delusions that would cause you to harm us, we would not welcome you into our home. Surely, the sine qua non of a friendship is the trust that one's friend won't assault him or her, and neither Peggy nor I have ever felt anything but complete safety in your presence. I no more accept the belief that all psychotics are dangerous than I accept the belief that all sane people are harmless, but I strongly favor getting those who are dangerous off the streets, regardless of their mental condition.
cont.
By the way, Strayer (who commented in this chain) was once confined to what was formerly called The Oregon State Hospital for the Insane (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_State_Hospital). During her stay, she was physically abused, and, upon her release, found herself homeless on the bank of the Willamette River where, in her words, "the cats saved me." Strayer (aka Jody) is the person whose strength, optimism, and good deeds, I respect more than those of anyone else I know--or know of--because she has devoted her entire life and her every resource to helping those who need help desperately yet are unable to thank their benefactors (I've no doubt but what other species would receive much more help from our species if only they could bolster our egos through their gratitude).
Max, we are not going to agree about the homeless. They have been the bane of my life in this neighborhood for thirty years, and I see them not only as a danger to myself, my wife, and my neighborhood, but to my town. I give money to PBS, to Wikipedia, to cat charities, to the Lane County History Museum, and, at times, to various environmental charities. I don't give money to people-oriented charities (except through my taxes). There are enough deserving charities out there that everyone can find one or more that he or she believes in and can in some way contribute to. You believe in helping the homeless, and I support your right to help them. Neither of us can change the other's view about the homeless. This is why, when you talk about them, I don't say much, fearing that doing so would drive a wedge between us. Yet, you've read my blog for awhile now, and, as you know, I write what I please, and I write as I please. You have sometimes thanked me for my tolerance regarding things about you that--you imagine--I might find hard to accept, so I ask the same from you regarding this issue. By the way, please see the comment from Ruby End.
Finally, I often have to use two frames to submit a single comment, and this is true on my blog and on the blogs of others.
I read empires rarely last longer than about 300 years, of course there have been exceptions but eventually they all come to an end. It's my opinion that the American empire is in decline because it has reached the end of its lifetime. It has been so rich and powerful, we have no real outward enemies that can do us serious harm (well, up til now) and so we have turned on ourselves. Seriously, this whole gun culture thing, the rise of violence for a solution to every annoyance, the us vs them mentality, turning our penchant for aggression inwards. Trump was not the cause but the end result with his unchecked hatred, his penchant for retaliation, his incessant lying and glorification of himself, his childish name calling. He not only made it OK to be a terrible person in public, he made it desirable to be one. No nation that wasn't already morally bankrupt would have embraced that bullshit as far too many Americans did. And kicking prayer out of school did not cause the moral bankruptcy. In fact I would lay the blame at the feet of religion. I have no idea where this country goes from here but I don't think it will be good. As I've read, it's a good time to be old. I fear for what my grandchildren will be living through.
You say very nice things about me, Snow. Thank you.
"Many of the poor I know work while they live in cars or old RV's parked where they can. This is ridiculous. You get evicted once, you probably can't ever rent again."
I'm aware that landlords are very reticent about renting to people whom they fear they will have problems from. I'm sure this is partly because it can be so hard to evict renters. My father and I financed the selling of a Mississippi house that we both owned. The market being depressed, we didn't even get enough from the house's sell to pay for the materials that went into it. The real estate agent told us that it wasn't necessary to check the buyer's credit because she was putting down a large down payment, so we didn't do a credit check because of her advice, and also because the lawyer put a clause in the contract saying that we could evict the buyer if she missed a single payment. We later learned that the realtor gave us bad information, and that the lawyer's clause was unenforceable. Then came fifteen years during which the buyer never made a single payment on time, and was often months behind in her payments. We started foreclosure again and again and again, but she always caught up just in time. So, that's my experience with selling a house, and while I've never rented, it is my understanding that it can be that same kind of a headache. So, while it certainly sucks to live in a car or camper while working full time, it's conceivable that property owners have a good reason for rejecting at least some such people, although I've no doubt that there are those who get punished for circumstances that were beyond their control. I don't know what the answer is.
"I agree with Max regarding the homeless. It's also true that those of us with mental health conditions find it much harder to seek help and once on the streets will only have such conditions made worse."
I anticipated you and Max being on the same page about this. Like you, he has problems that make it impossible for him to hold a job, so, also like you, if he didn't have the support of others, he would end up on the street where he would surely die an early death. Because of his plight, I don't expect him--or you--to have understanding of, or sympathy for, my position, which stems from the fact that homelessness is being handled in such a way that the closer to downtown one lives or works, the more he or she suffers from the presence and bad behavior of many of the homeless. Then there's the hideousness of tents everywhere, garbage everywhere, and tarps on rusty cars, vans, buses, and motorcoaches. So it is that the downtown has gone from being a source of civic pride to being a dangerous and ugly area that residents avoid and from which businesses are fleeing. The state of the downtown also discourages visitors from moving here and factory owners from opening new facilities, which in turn reduces the tax revenues needed to help the homeless. So, what is the answer?
Last week, Max expressed sympathy with the anarchist position according to which neighborhood groups would voluntarily come together to offer assistance. He specifically mentioned feeding programs, but who are these volunteers who would have the time and the resources to pay for--and perhaps cook--three meals a day year in and year out, regardless of the weather. Then there's the cost of clothes, housing, medical care, dental care, education, rehab, psychiatric counseling, and other social services, and, perhaps, spending money for the homeless, all this for people who are unable or unwilling to contribute in return? Finally, every dollar spent for one thing means one less dollar to spend for another, so what would you envision being sacrificed for the homeless? In the minds of the homeless and their advocates, no price is too much, and those who disagree are callous people whose values and concerns are undeserving of consideration. This view appears to be the dominant--or at least the most vocal--view in Eugene, although I can't see that what the city has done thus far has much helped the homeless, although it has given the downtown area the appearance of a refugee camp. If I didn't already live here, there is no way in hell I would move to such a place, and I've no doubt that most people share my view, regardless of how they feel about the homeless.
'Max, we are not going to agree about the homeless.' - Yes, I understand. I'm perfectly fine leaving the matter in 'agree to disagree' territory, and if so then I am at least glad that I have my disagreement down in writing, hahah. Like your writing, you know I generally say what is on my mind, but I do not do so to indict you or as you say drive a wedge. I respect you and your opinion and I thank you for reading them, even if we both know we will disagree with the other.
I agree quite readily with ellen abbot's comment, I think she hits the nail on the head.
"What are grits? Fried polenta?"
Although they are processed differently, grits and polenta are both made from a mixture of the brains and genitals of aborted fetuses. This is why Democrats and atheists gorge on them, and why those who love Jesus and carry assault rifles protest outside of grit's factories while chanting , "Hey, hey, Biden man, stop putting baby brains inside 'dem cans." Now for our next question...
"What are grits? Fried polenta?"
If memory serves, you're the second person in this chain to ask that. The following is from: https://hhjonline.com/what-is-the-difference-between-cornmeal-grits-and-polenta-p9404-191.htm. "Cornmeal is finely ground dried corn.... Grits are a type of cornmeal mush that originated with Native Americans and is still widely consumed across the southern United States. Grits are most commonly served as breakfast or a side dish to other meals.... Polenta is a dish native to Italy and, similar to grits, is a coarsely ground corn product. Polenta is made with a variety of corn called 'flint,' which contains a hard starch center. This hard starch provides a distinctly granular texture even after cooking."
By the way, if ever you're in the American South, for chrissake, don't walk into a restaurant and order "a grit." Many Yankees and foreigners have died as a result of making such a mistake.
'Since my arrival, Eugene has come to suffer from the problems that characterize many American cities.' - It's your fault then!
Sadly yes, but my cruelty and stupidity are hardly my fault but rather the result of having been force-fed grits as a child. All Southerners are pretty much like I, which is why most of us voted for Trump and taunt the homeless by saying. "Let them eat grits."
cont.
This was an interesting timeline of your time in Eugene. You have seen a lot of changes some good and some not good. Thank you.
The homeless, self medicating etc, that you seem to loath, are human beings trying to cope, the same as you are. Until one deals with the causes rather than just "moving them on to the next town" they will always be there. At least you don't call yourself a Christian.
I agree with Max.
'Is it your position that dangerous psychotics should be allowed to interact freely with the public? Do you mean to put yourself in the same boat with the local paranoid schizophrenic who shot a stranger to death [...]? [...] if we had any doubt whatsoever that you were suffering from delusions that might someday cause you to harm us, we would not welcome you into our home.'
I had not noticed this paragraph until now. I am appalled by this. No, I do not 'put myself in' with a murderer, but that you thought of him in connection with that label 'schizophrenia' means that you have put him in with me. I did not know that my disease placed me under such suspicion that I may need to be barred from your home, or that I need reassurance that you have never 'felt anything but complete safety in [my] presence'. Your final statement, 'I no more accept the belief that all psychotics are dangerous than I accept the belief that all sane people are harmless' is a cowardly equivocation frankly beneath you. We are not talking vaguely about 'good and bad people'. We are talking about people with illnesses whose presence you have specifically listed here in this post as a sign of the decline of the city and its morality. I don't care if you thought you were talking about only the 'dangerous' ones. You have painted all of us with the same brush, and if you do not see that you have done so, than that is bigotry of the blindest kind.
I know you asked me to read your blog, and to comment on it, but if this is how you treat your friends in a public forum, then I think I shall take off reading it. Have a good Thanksgiving.
"The damage that humans have created over a few ticks of the clock in the last few centuries seems to me to be impossible to repair."
I agree. I think that, as a species, our time is limited, and my primary sorrow about this is that we are taking so many species down with us.
"He [Trump] not only made it OK to be a terrible person in public, he made it desirable to be one. No nation that wasn't already morally bankrupt would have embraced that bullshit as far too many Americans did. And kicking prayer out of school did not cause the moral bankruptcy. In fact I would lay the blame at the feet of religion."
I think everything you wrote in your comment is true, but these sentences stand out. Max [see below] also appreciated your comment, and I recommended your blog to Anonymous [see above].
"You say very nice things about me, Snow. Thank you."
When I'm feeling low, I think of your strength and your determination to do good.
"This was an interesting timeline of your time in Eugene."
Thank you.
"The homeless, self medicating etc, that you seem to loath, are human beings trying to cope, the same as you are."
While we're all trying "to cope," some people cope by doing good, and some cope by harming others, and my sympathy is with the former. When businesses are forced out of business, and families are forced to move to the suburbs because their children can't play in their own yards, my sympathy is not with the people who cause the problem. Do I think the problem-causers deserve help? Yes. But do I think the harm they do should be tolerated? No.
"No, I do not 'put myself in' with a murderer, but that you thought of him in connection with that label 'schizophrenia' means that you have put him in with me."
Paranoid schizophrenia isn't an insult but a diagnosis (https://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/schizophrenia-paranoia). My intention wasn't to lump you in the same boat with paranoid schizophrenics but to tell you why I don't put you in the same boat. I only did this because you were offended by my assertion that paranoid schizophrenics are dangerous. Max, when my attempt to explain that your hurt feelings were caused by your misunderstanding of what I meant to say only makes you more angry, I despair.
"Your final statement, 'I no more accept the belief that all psychotics are dangerous than I accept the belief that all sane people are harmless' is a cowardly equivocation..."
You're accusing me of being both a coward and a liar! I'm going to assume that, despite your belief that someone you trusted has suddenly and inexplicably attacked and betrayed you by showing a side of himself that you never suspected, you nonetheless remain open to understanding me what I actually believe as opposed to projecting thoughts onto me that are unrelated to what I believe. With that in mind, I'll try yet again to explain myself...
cont.
It sometimes happens that paranoid schizophrenics commit heinous crimes, and that some such people are found "not guilty by reason of insanity." Such cases tend to make the news, leading to the commonplace perception that insane people are dangerous. Indeed, this perception is so commonplace that politicians sometimes publicly deny it--I think Biden might have done so. My point was that one might just as well interpret instances in which sane people commit crimes as evidence that sane people are dangerous. Again, I only wrote as I did because you took my statement that paranoid schizophrenics personally, and I was trying to explain to you that it wasn't meant personally. Continuing right along, yes, I very much believe that paranoid schizophrenics are dangerous. I had a gun-loving neighbor who abused people who thought that people who parked on the street in front of his house were out to get him. I don't want people like that anywhere near me, and I know that their inability to hold jobs or have anything approaching normal relationships often ends in them being homeless, and homelessness exacerbates their symptoms. Such people sometimes walk past my house yelling, cursing, and threatening invisible people, and I find this worrisome, because I don't know but what all that rage might be turned upon me. If you take my concern about this personally, I don't know what to say to you, although I am doing my dead-level best to come up with something useful.
"We are talking about people with illnesses whose presence you have specifically listed here in this post as a sign of the decline of the city and its morality."
Yes, I did mention them among others who I regard as posing a far greater problem, yet it was only the mention of paranoid schizophrenics that bothered you. Addicts commit crimes to pay for drugs. Homeless people are enraged, and sometimes threatening, because they blame society for making them homeless or for not doing enough to help them out of homelessness. Panhandlers sometimes threaten or attack people who refuse to give them money. People who shout threats at invisible people add to the perception that the downtown area is unsafe. Having nowhere else to go, homeless people pee and crap in the open or, at best, in the shrubbery (I've seen them do so on the sidewalk in front of my house). Thanks to the advent of hundreds of homeless campers in my neighborhood, I don't dare ride my bike on the bike path because of the many broken liquor bottles--I do sometimes sweep up the glass shards so others won't puncture their tires, and this leads me to correct an omission. In listing the charities I support, I said that none of them are dedicated to helping people. I later remembered that I support the Freedom from Religion Foundation (which wages a legal war against religious oppression), and I am also on a list of local volunteers who are willing to help Afghan refugees assimilate into American life--I have yet to be called.
"You have painted all of us with the same brush, and if you do not see that you have done so, than that is bigotry of the blindest kind."
I respond to people's comments as I read them, so I just came to this sentence. If you're not just speaking out of anger, that is if truly believe that your insights into why I think as I do are superior to my own, I see no reason to continue making a good faith attempt to tell you why your interpretation of what I said is unrelated to what I meant to say. Indeed, if I am as oblivious to what motivates my beliefs as you suggest, instead of explaining myself, I should ask you to explain me. Because I have no wish to do this, I leave it to you to think as you will.
I understand Max, and as you're friends in real life think you should chat offline because the written word is fiendish at times and easily misconstrued. I suspect he thinks as I do; that were it not for fortunate circumstance he could well be one of those people on the streets. If I'd had no family to support me I too would have been homeless in my twenties when I was unable to get sickness benefit nor work. Once on the streets you're in a kind of hell, and I can see how just to deal with the horror they drink excessively and/or take drugs whilst battling health issues both mental and physical. I doubt anyone could in that position and not end up with mental health issues. Many people here who have been helped off the streets with programs set up for them have gone on to have jobs and rejoined society with pride and most importantly support for their medical conditions. This isn't a reason why the violence is okay, it is saying sure, arrest them if they commit crimes but don't then chuck them back out onto the streets in the same pattern. I know you like to think you'd not commit violence or steal, but take away your home, your assets, your loved ones, and try and survive when society for the most part despises you and you'd go nuts. We all would.
Grits. Brains and abortions! Good God. Hahahahaha. I'll pass, I'm ok there. I'll stick to crispy fried potatoes.
Ruby End (end of what I might ask?), thanks for your comment. At my age and with my problems, I couldn't survive homelessness. However, aside from societal collapse, it shouldn't come to that. Peggy and I never made a lot of money, but I started saving when I was eight; Peggy and I saved jointly from the time we were married; and neither of us ever purchased anything that we couldn't have paid for outright if we chose--including the four houses we've owned. I sometimes hear it said that the average American is but two paychecks away from homelessness. Even allowing for such possibilities as medical disasters (a major cause of bankruptcy in America) and long periods of joblessness, the claim suggests (assuming it's true) an incredible amount of improvidence. Admittedly, there are those like my friend, Strayer, who do nothing wrong and still end up on the street through unavoidably bad luck or the misdeeds of others. Some such people have an incredible amount to offer, and I am all for helping them. I am not for helping the lowlifes and criminals who, based upon my experience, make up a significant part of the homeless population. Of course, it might be argued that their criminality is the result rather than the cause of their homelessness, but how is one to know, and if this can be said about them, why can't it be said about other criminals; that is, where does societal responsibility end and personal responsibility begin, and does it matter in regard to finding solutions?
You praised me recently for my loyalty. While it is true that I place a high value upon loyalty, I refuse to tolerate attacks on my character or my intentions, particularly when they persist despite my denial.
Very interesting post. Usually towns are named after the founder’s last name but Eugene sounds better than Skinner. Ann Arbor was named after the wives of the founders, both named Ann, who both liked the trees here So Annarbour though should have been anns’ arbour.
As for grits, I thought they were dried hominy which is prepared by soaking corn kernels in lye making them puff up. polenta is just coarsely ground corn.
While in the Bay Area recently saw many homeless encampments particularly in Oakland. No tent cities in Ann Arbor anymore.
How to solve homelessness? No idea
As for Ted Kennedy, my favorite remade ad was for Volkswagen: if Teddy had driven a Vogenswegan Beetle, Mary Jo would still be alive
Beetles floated
I have read this post many times and cant figure out what to say about it. You must live quite close to the centre of town?
"Usually towns are named after the founder’s last name but Eugene sounds better than Skinner."
It was originally called Eugene City, which I would prefer, but no one asked. Skinner built his first cabin on the bank of the Willamette River (at the base of what is still called "Skinner Butte") despite warnings by the Indians that he would be flooded out yearly (the next year, he moved higher up). I had wondered about the origin of the lovely name Ann Arbor.
"As for grits, I thought they were dried hominy..."
That's also my understanding, although I don't know why given that grits and polenta taste alike (at least to me) except for the coarseness of the grind.
"How to solve homelessness? No idea."
I don't know either, but allowing them all to live downtown is certainly doing a lot of harm to businesses and residents.
"Beetles floated."
In the mid-sixties, I learned to drive standard shift in one, but had no idea until at least the 1980s that they were originally a Nazi manufacture.
"I have read this post many times..."
Thank you.
"You must live quite close to the centre of town?"
About a fifteen minute medium-slow walk.
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