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Gerald Minsk wrote: Surely there is something we can do, besides paying lip service and passing out band-aids.I would respectfully note that in 1997 Barbara Young, a Modesto activist with 20 years experience in business before becoming a client, resigned from the Board of the California Network “because they were not taking care of business.” [personal communication] I think what you’re writing, and what I’m proud to say is on the Accountability Caucus Website — click on Gerald’s pepper — speaks to this concern. A local Medical Director described to me the system of care, in relationship to someone hemorrhaging, bleeding to death. Perhaps at the next Network meeting, some of these issues can be addressed. It appears the Network’s public policy agenda is somewhat out of balance, in relationship to the priorities of the people who need the most help. That still remains the mentally ill homeless.Unfortunately this is open to mis-construction. If we only attend to the ‘worst case’ and neglect the general picture, we will be so out of balance that it won’t work. The problem is that we have gone the other way and thru our limited organizational methods fairly well ‘given up’ on the people who are in the worst situation. This is in addition to the fact that our self-help/peer recovery activity in general is not generally done accountably. :-( The general implication is that we have to find a better balance AND we just plain have to work a lot harder at the problem. I mean, the depth of the society’s commitment to creating homelessness and dissing the mad is quite something and working that thru is rather — shall we say — complex. With all the AB 34 money being contracted, just to remind everyone, it’s a drop in the bucket, and only 13 counties got any money at all.Amen. The reality is awhile we sleep in our warm safe homes tonight, a lot of our brothers and sisters are not. Since the system still appears to be slow to move on these matters, why are we also. Why can’t we rise to the occasion, and make this an issue, demanding more money, more services?Here I appreciate your concern, but I also note a lot of us have been butting our heads up against this one for a long time. I myself have come to the conclusion that a clients movement dominated by the system’s politics of hate and divide-and-rule (so-called ‘partnership’) and indifferent to the matters of ethics (‘who gets hurt’, and ‘how’) has not been up to snuff and will basically never be either. So part of the problem IMHO consists in refining the kind of political ‘tool’ we use to work for what is needed. Sorry, this is tough advice, but it’s informed by a lot of struggle and trouble. The other point is political — a liberal sentiment like ‘demand more and more services’ is framed within the society’s “liberal” v. “conservative” split. We need to frame this ‘issue’ I think from our own ground and make the powers that be reach to us. Remember, ultimately it’s THEIR lives which are degraded if they live by dissing us and driving the poor to rack & ruin. Respectfully Andrew Phelps | ||||||||
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