Earlier this week, in between finals, food poisoning, and phenergan an ongoing human right's issue came to my attention - Anchorage's homeless. This situation has been to focus of a number of articles and interviews in the local paper and news outlets, especially after the proposed construction of the Red Rose Inn, a housing structure that would provide shelter for chronic inebriates, and allow them to continue to imbibe alcohol while present. At first, I thought the controversy over that project, and the condition of those on the street had died down. I was wrong. Now, local conservatives are suggesting that we forcibly remove and/or incarcerate the homeless in order to pressure them into becoming sober, and return to being productive members of society.
Yet, I've seen this situation play out before during Ronald Regan's administration (1981-1989). Yes, the same Ronald Regan who was an active supporter of Sen. Joe McCarthy and his witch-hunt for supposed Communist sympathizers in America, and the same Ronald Regan who decided to balance the budget of California by closing the mental hospitals sending thousands of mentally ill patients onto the streets.
Indeed.
That same situation, is now playing out here in the State of Alaska, specifically the Municipality of Anchorage. This week, I listened to one of the local conservative radio pundits claim that the only way to encourage the homeless to "hit rock bottom", is to first remove all of the social service programs geared towards helping those who are on the streets return to safe and productive lifestyles. Once those are gone, authorities need to forcibly commit them to mental health care facilities as a deterrent to "choosing their current lifestyle". Except, as it was with Bush and Regan, if that were to happen, within a year of passing and implementing this asinine plan, those same conservative pundits would take to the airwaves, and call for those same people to be returned to the streets because if they faced the reality of homelessness it would force them to make the choice to change their lives.
I see, so people who are schizophrenic, manic-depressive, drug-addicted (which is mental and physical), or what-have-you are going to suddenly develop the mental capacity to make important decisions for their health and well-being? Ignoring the fact that the reason why they were homeless or committed in the first place is because they are incapable of functioning in that capacity. I don't know which is more disturbing, the complete lack of understanding of the unique circumstances that leads to homelessness in the first place, or the willingness to shuffle these people around like a deck of cards, and use them to to raise political stakes and win hands of power and public prestige.
I'm sorry, but sitting on your backside calling for social reforms that have no chance of success is easy, it's hard to actually get up, get involved, and work towards making an actual difference in this community. Wait, I forgot, according to these pundits such action is merely "enabling" people to remain homeless, and therefore they can't support said action because it's "against their beliefs". Really, because from where I'm standing it sounds like a convenient excuse for continuing to be a part of the problem, rather than be a part of a viable solution.
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Yet, I've seen this situation play out before during Ronald Regan's administration (1981-1989). Yes, the same Ronald Regan who was an active supporter of Sen. Joe McCarthy and his witch-hunt for supposed Communist sympathizers in America, and the same Ronald Regan who decided to balance the budget of California by closing the mental hospitals sending thousands of mentally ill patients onto the streets.
Indeed.
That same situation, is now playing out here in the State of Alaska, specifically the Municipality of Anchorage. This week, I listened to one of the local conservative radio pundits claim that the only way to encourage the homeless to "hit rock bottom", is to first remove all of the social service programs geared towards helping those who are on the streets return to safe and productive lifestyles. Once those are gone, authorities need to forcibly commit them to mental health care facilities as a deterrent to "choosing their current lifestyle". Except, as it was with Bush and Regan, if that were to happen, within a year of passing and implementing this asinine plan, those same conservative pundits would take to the airwaves, and call for those same people to be returned to the streets because if they faced the reality of homelessness it would force them to make the choice to change their lives.
I see, so people who are schizophrenic, manic-depressive, drug-addicted (which is mental and physical), or what-have-you are going to suddenly develop the mental capacity to make important decisions for their health and well-being? Ignoring the fact that the reason why they were homeless or committed in the first place is because they are incapable of functioning in that capacity. I don't know which is more disturbing, the complete lack of understanding of the unique circumstances that leads to homelessness in the first place, or the willingness to shuffle these people around like a deck of cards, and use them to to raise political stakes and win hands of power and public prestige.
I'm sorry, but sitting on your backside calling for social reforms that have no chance of success is easy, it's hard to actually get up, get involved, and work towards making an actual difference in this community. Wait, I forgot, according to these pundits such action is merely "enabling" people to remain homeless, and therefore they can't support said action because it's "against their beliefs". Really, because from where I'm standing it sounds like a convenient excuse for continuing to be a part of the problem, rather than be a part of a viable solution.
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