Well?

[Undertoad]

The real reason this is happening is entirely political. It doesn't matter whether it's a real need or a real issue.

The state of the union speech was intended to raise several issues into the public domain. The intent is not for the Republicans to promote an agenda, but to control the agenda. As long as marriage is on the social agenda radars of the country, the Rs have an issue in which they have the support of 60% of the country.

It was particularly important to keep this an issue while Dean was the front-runner. Now that he is not, the issue may disappear.

[Lady Sidhe]

Originally posted by Griff
I think his proposal is exactly the same kind of well-meaning nonsense that Hillaries stuff would be. Maybe they should both start by thinking about what exactly the government doing right now to destroy families before coming out with new programs. The hard left sees it as a sinister attempt to force people into government approved families, while the hard right sees it as a chance to save the family from outside influences (snicker) using the power of government. If Hillary got her chance it'd be the same, except that society becomes more important than the family.

*crazy idea for the day*- Balance the freaking budget before starting any new social engineering schemes which will backfire in most peculiar ways.

I couldn't have said it better myself. However, I don't mind the idea of low-cost counseling. I think that's a good idea. But it should be available to anyone who needs it, not just couples. Lots of people end up on the streets because they can't afford mental health services (a lot of the people I worked with in the hospital had been picked up off the streets and later found to be mentally ill), and a lot of people who just need Zoloft for depression are being turned away. Free clinics don't accept anyone who isn't floridly psychotic, homicidal, or suicidal. That leaves out a lot of people who could be helped BEFORE they got to that point.

Sidhe

[Torrere]

I think that the description of the forum may be auspiciously over-clever.

[wolf]

Originally posted by Lady Sidhe
and a lot of people who just need Zoloft for depression are being turned away. Free clinics don't accept anyone who isn't floridly psychotic, homicidal, or suicidal. That leaves out a lot of people who could be helped BEFORE they got to that point.

Not true ...

You don't have to be floridly psychotic or homicidal or suicidal to qualify for treatment, either as an inpatient or an outpatient.

Admittedly, some communities are better than others at this, but there are community based outpatient centers that provide free or sliding scale tx for mental health consumers ... because it's understood that outpatient treatment is WAY cheaper than inpatient. There are also intensive case management programs designed to help the high recidivist patient populations stay out of the hospital longer (it's inevitable that they will be back, but if you can hospitalize someone twice a year instead of twice a month, the system is working).

The Medical Assistance state insurance program is utilized by a lot of severely mentally ill folks ... and WORKS. In fact, what most people don't realize is that the psych benefits from MA are a lot better than those of most private insurances.

[Lady Sidhe]

Originally posted by wolf


Not true ...

You don't have to be floridly psychotic or homicidal or suicidal to qualify for treatment, either as an inpatient or an outpatient.

Admittedly, some communities are better than others at this, but there are community based outpatient centers that provide free or sliding scale tx for mental health consumers ... because it's understood that outpatient treatment is WAY cheaper than inpatient. There are also intensive case management programs designed to help the high recidivist patient populations stay out of the hospital longer (it's inevitable that they will be back, but if you can hospitalize someone twice a year instead of twice a month, the system is working).

The Medical Assistance state insurance program is utilized by a lot of severely mentally ill folks ... and WORKS. In fact, what most people don't realize is that the psych benefits from MA are a lot better than those of most private insurances.

Ok, let me rephrase, then...In OUR community, the free clinic will not take a person as a patient unless they are (a) floridly psychotic, (b) homicidal, or (c) suicidal. I know this because I went there in an attempt to get my Zoloft, which I am supposed to take for major depression, at a lower cost, as I could no longer afford almost $200/mo. What they told me was that they didn't deal with "minor" cases, and that unless I was sucidal, homicidal, or psychotic, they couldn't help me. A friend's sister, who is schizophrenic, was turned away as well, because she wasn't actively psychotic at the time.

THAT'S why I think that low-cost psychiatric clinics are a good idea. Not all free or low-cost clinics will take people who need treatment but can't afford it. They want numbers/cure rates they can show the city government so they get their allocation the next fiscal year.

Sidhe

[Lady Sidhe]

Originally posted by Torrere
I think that the description of the forum may be auspiciously over-clever.

It was meant to be a pun, especially if you know how the name is pronounced. I like puns. *shrug*

Sidhe

[Torrere]

Originally posted by Lady Sidhe


It was meant to be a pun, especially if you know how the name is pronounced. I like puns. *shrug*

Sidhe

I definitely caught the pronunciation, and like the pun; but I also thought it was funny because it's intended forum filled with controversy.

[Lady Sidhe]

Ok, first poem...I had to write a sonnet for a poetry class, so it was the first sonnet I ever wrote...and very concrete, which I wasn't accustomed to, which was why I was so tickled when it got published...



I had a pretty awful poetry instructor, too. First off, he believed that if you were dead, you were trash. The first thing he said on the first day of class was, "I want you to know that Edgar Allen Poe never wrote a single decent line of poetry in his life." He didn't like T.S. Eliot, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, or Shakespeare. I couldn't stand the guy. He made us read choppy poetry, and had all these RULES for poetry that, for the class, were written in stone, such as:

It has to be at least ten lines or it's not a poem

If you don't write it for other people (if you write it only for yourself), it's not a poem (I haven't written one poem for other people. It's all been for my own enjoyment. If others like it, cool. If not, find something else to read)

You can't use words with more than two syllables, because some people don't understand big words (he jumped on me for using the word "behest.")

You can't be abstract; you have to be concrete. (we clashed on that one...most of my poetry was abstract)

It can't rhyme. (wasn't that big a deal...at that time, I was experimenting with prose poetry anyway)

It can't be emotional. (HUH???)

This man would read a student's poem in front of the class (badly...he...read..like...this..with..no..emotion), and then rip the poem apart talking about what trash it was. He actually said that about one girl's poem...and I quote, "This is trash." and threw it in the garbage. She left the room crying. There's just no call for that.

I remember he called me to his office one day to discuss my poetry (I was influenced by Poe and Shakespeare, so you can imagine how we clashed in class). He told me "I don't like the way you write, but I guess SOMEBODY has to write that way." When the time came for teacher evaluations, I wrote four pages to him, and signed my name. He gave me an "A" for the class.

I couldn't stand him, and I think that if I ever found out that my child was being taught by someone as cruel and narrow-minded as he was, I'd pull her out of the class and make sure the school knew why. He was just an awful man....but he was tenured, so we really couldn't do anything about it. I just thought it was a shame, becuase there were a lot of people in the class who could have been stellar poets, if he hadn't told them their work was shit. I mean, I'd been writing for years, so his criticisms didn't bother me, but some of those who were just starting out weren't so thick-skinned, and it was kind of sad to see their artistry crushed by an instructor who was trying to mold in stone something as fluid as poetry...

Anyway, that's my rant for the day...now here's the poem...

I tried to bring across the idea of the lonliness of someone who who has survived her partner of many years, and has been somewhat "forgotten" by her children, and yet still dresses up in the hope that someone may visit her.

I wrote it because I remember when a friend and I once visited a nursing home on a whim, and the lonliness on the faces of all those old people whose children had abandoned them to an institution just broke my heart. I and a friend sat and talked to a group of old folks all day, just to give them some company...the stories they told about their lives...the things they'd seen and done...it was amazing, and their children didn't know the living history they were missing by ignoring their relatives. All in all, it was a fascinating day, but it made me so sad I never went back...this poem is one poem I think that maybe I DID write, subconsciously, for other people...a memorial to all those old people who were abandoned in that nursing home.

A SONNET IN FUTILITY

In an ancient, chipped, brown rocking chair
The old woman sits in her very best;
She sits and rocks, and rocks and stares
At the winter-abandoned paper nest
Underneath her front-porch eaves.
Like the wasps, her own have flown...
Around the nest, the windy leaves
Swirl, as she sits poised beside the phone.
No more busy buzzing noise
Of insect nest or active house
She rocks and thinks with downcast eyes
Of long-gone children, long-dead spouse.
But still, she peers from her window-nest,
Rocking, in her very best.


Sidhe

[wolf]

Sidhe ...

In order to make your forum readable ...

Start separate topic threads with titles that actually reference what they are about.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I agree with wolf. You'll have people wandering into the thread, possibly weeks from now, that will want to comment. If you jump topics in the same thread, it'll get real confusing. I've seen this happen in a lot of threads that wandered off topic and it gets real messy.

[Lady Sidhe]

Sorry about that. My bad. I'll do better in the future, I promise.


Sidhe

[russotto]

Behest only has two syllables.

[Lady Sidhe]

Yeah, but he said that I shouldn't use that word because not everyone knows what it means.
I don't know about other people, but when I don't know what a word means, I look it up. It's just another example of the "dumbing down" that goes on in the school system, even, sadly, in college.

Sidhe

[ladysycamore]

Originally posted by sycamore
I think it does take a village to raise a child. While many parents do a great job of raising their children, I don't think they can cover everything there is to know. That's where the village comes in.

Watch for the village idiots, though.

[ladysycamore]

"Ok, let's see...first topic of discussion: Let's start with something relatively low-key....How about President Bush's Marriage Plan?

He wants to allocate $1.5 billion (during a five-year period) to help couples develop skills that promote "healthy marriages." The money would go to train counselors to help couples, with an emphasis on those with low incomes. Thus far, it's passed both the House and the Senate Finance Committee, and now they're trying to get it through the Senate as well."

Hm...ok. I guess my questions would be: what kind of counselors would be helping these couples? Would it be "faith based" and unbiased? If the focus will be on low income families, will there be adequate funding to assist them in their financial needs?

PLus, I just don't completely believe this will be only for those who are already married or are thinking about it. I feel it's a precursor for those of us who are not married (yet), or for those who do not want to be married, no matter what. Some people are just.not.marriage.material, and to try to convince those people otherwise, IMO, is wrong (just like society tries to convince people to procreate...not everyone is cut out to be parents).

So, that's my take on it.