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ThorGoLucky
Snuggle Wolf
USA
1487 Posts |
 Posted - 03/25/2010 : 00:33:46
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Over the years, I had crossed paths often with a presumably homeless man in and around downtown Corvallis, Oregon. He had a shaved head, no teeth, and an camouflage outfit as if he just jumped off a helicopter from the Vietnam conflict.
My first encounter with him was when he was ahead of me on a sidewalk, and then he suddenly turned around and accused me of following him. Um, huh?
As the years went on, I often encountered him. I'm a friendly kind of guy and would at least nod my head as we passed or say hi. But soon my overtures of friendly acquaintance were met with accusations of faggotry. And he became well known to the local police as an unstable man, in and out of custody.
In several occasions when he had seen me walking along the sidewalk, he would jaywalk across vehicle traffic to cross the street so as to avoid me and/or put his hand over his face theatrically so as to indicate that he would have no eye contact for such a faggot as me.
That mode went on for years.
Then this week I was walking with my dog across town and saw him approaching along the sidewalk, though he was not immediately recognizable as he had grown his hair out and wore regular street clothing. I cringed as he got closer, expecting the latest verbal assault.
He greeted me and we talked briefly about the nicety of canine companionship. Before we departed, he offered his hand in a shake. I accepted, and then he lifted my hand to his lips and kissed it. We then exchanged warm departing words.
What a transformation.
May he keep up the medication or whatever the heck it is that's helping him not verbally assault me, friends and strangers.
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Edited by - ThorGoLucky on 03/25/2010 00:38:50
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 03/25/2010 : 09:23:39 [Permalink]
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Good story. It sounds like he's on much needed meds alright. I live in a city known here as the home of the homeless. Many of these people are in desperate need of psychiatric help, but the funding that was once available for those people vanished in budget cuts and with our state cutting funding for mental health care, which really goes back to Prop 13, which put Schizophrenics and others with organic mental disorders on the street and off their meds. It pains me to see them, and I do what I can. (What that often means is buying a cheap lunch at the local 7/11 for someone in need of food.) It is a part of the health crisis going on in America in general, though not really one that was talked about during the debate to get health care passed, at least not in open session that I could see.
All I see is that we treat people in serious need of intervention, and who are unlikely to seek it out themselves because they are not able to, badly. We have thrown them out of care and on to the streets. It's a disgrace and in my view, and just another way that we are sliding into what I would call a third world country. |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 03/25/2010 : 09:36:00 [Permalink]
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| Better living through chemistry. The guy is apparently lucky enough that his psychosis is treatable by whatever meds he's getting. It's great that this still happens for some people! |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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An unexpected transformation of a crazy man
