A family member of mine, who has had 8 children (6 different women - all supported by the State). One of those young mothers has one of his daughters (a really beautiful daughter - about 7 years old). He mows lawns and lives in a dump of a house in the city (Flint). Niki (the young mother [I think she's 25 now?]) moved into the projects. What are the project? Oh, well, the Project exist just outside of Flint where there used to be the city dump. About 3 decades ago they (the State) paved over the garbage dump and put up a housing project to "help the poor". If you want to get shot, drive around there for a day. Anyhow, so the other day she's taking a shower and someone drives-by and loads 100+ rounds into all of these project-houses and a few bullets randomly hit her while she was in her shower; one in the hip and one in the side (that one "hit some vitals" or so I was told). I should mention, "random" is really just "who the hell knows why". It could be literally anything. White trash moving into the ghetto and that whole Travan Martin and some cracked up junkie does a drive-by. Violence is nearly-random in those neighborhoods. To look at, Niki is a beautiful girl - tall, thin, beautiful hair, nice smile, nice face. Tries her best to be polite. To put on a polite face. But it's hard. She has a lot of anger. The cracks will appear in less then an hour. They say Niki has a "mean spirit". I think she was turned into a mean person. Her childhood ruined her. She could have just easily been a loving school teacher - alas, that was not her fate. What's her story? Well, as I understand, her family (also on State aid, you know to "help the poor") were all drug abusers. Her father wanted to be a "Rock Star" and I suppose welfare helped keep the bills paid while he played "gigs". Neither her mother or father gave two shits about Niki. They never loved her. Never treated her with love. As I understand it anyway. Just a couple of self-centered cold welfare-white trash douche bag parents. Anyway, to make a short story short, Niki started selling drugs and doing some B&E with her cousin. Her cousin apparently thought raping his victims was a good idea. Not long and they were caught. Having turned State evidence Niki got out in 3 years and recently moved to the projects (you know, the place the State "helps the poor") and was just shot by random drive-by. I worry about their daughter. Niveah I was told she was "happy and adjusted". My response was: I don't think you can be F*cking 'happy and adjusted' living in the god damn Projects in FLint in a drug-den. Response: Don't use Gods name like that. What do you want me to do? I don't have money for them. I really don't want to know. Those people are evil people (referring to Niki and her family). *sign* -- When I say the system is broken, what I mean is: The system is broken. I could write why Liberalism failed and why "Thank you Steve Jobs you took his Kidney - Happy Now!!??" ... is 180 degrees of insane but it wouldn't really matter. Poverty breeds poverty. Niveah's grandmother works for children protective services for the State. She's done nothing. The State is not going to help you. The community could, maybe, if it's not overwhelmed and moral. But not the State. Anyway, the conversation ended with with me being told Yea, Niveah, I can tell she's not happy inside. But, what can I do? The Great Society indeed.
There are more things that factor into this than I could possibly mention here... but let me simply say that for our country to really start to heal and repair, it has to evolve beyond the petty class system and individualism and understand that everyone's actions will affect everyone else in some way. From CEO's who cut bottom-level labor to "save money" yet pay themselves huge bonuses every year to government officials who couldn't begin to organize repairs after a flood yet sit in office day after day paying nothing for their food, shelter, or bottled water... even right down to the "poor" living on Welfare and Unemployment because they aren't willing to work "menial" jobs they see as beneath them. Our entire system is broken, yes... but so is our society and our mindset.
I don't believe the system or society can be fixed short term. It's not fixable in say 10-15 years. A generation (or two) were happily sacrificed to save the "financial system". As if this was a good thing. Anyhow, we'll probably go through a few phases as Citizens get used to their lower standard of living and living with less Liberty. That's the history of things. It'll take a long time to reach the very bottom. "Humanity" is slowly moving forward morally. We don't hear our leaders saying we should go kidnap people from Africa to fix the economy. I don't expect to see 6 year old working in shops to fix the economy. I do wonder if, when, a Demagog is elected - just what our "cultural revolution" will look like. WWIII? Civil War? Peaceful transition? No one knows. As for this thread: Niveah's life with her father - he loves her. Sadly, they live in a ghetto shit-hole named East-Side Flint. Walking distance to Angelo's actually. But, that is their life in this "Great Society". Niki OTOH as I said lives in the Projects. Mercury literally leaks out of the ground there (it was built right on top of the old City dump). IMO she really shouldn't be a part of Niveah's life - at least not unsupervised. This would be the safest option for Niveah.
It's interesting to see how socialism is changing other societies. America's just went straight down the toilet. NO one bats an eyelash at public service teacher unions? Yeah, you get a job for life with great health benefits and wonderful pension AND you get to have a union. Society is literally broken from the government - we initially created government to provide a few limited "services" for us, and now we serve said government. Australia is an interesting example in socialism. Luckily Australians have a lot of resources - it's sort of like KSA. Even an incompetent government politician (paid much higher than those in the USA) can lie through their teeth, make a mess of the economy and yet there seems to be plenty enough money to play with. Not forever, but long enough not to worry society about those State-size farms they'll need to sell off to China. Woo Hoo fee-money. Japan is also an interesting example. They refuse to sell off Japan to outsiders. They also don't give Citizenship easily. They were the most socialistic society in the world in the 1980s. More than Communist China. They claimed to have achieved the "Great Society". Just as their economy imploded and they made the immoral decision to "save the banks". The government just doubled the sales tax. I don't think it will help. I think Fukushima was the tipping point. I do admit it is amazing how quickly Japanese "respond to the call". I think we (Americans) used to be like this? They reduced their energy demands by 20% in less than 2 month. You wouldn't know it to be in Japan. Pretty amazing. I wonder if it won't start with Japan then Spain, Europe, England and finally America.? Anyway, lets see how long the myths we tell ourselves hold up in the real world...
Fuck Niveah's psychotic mother, the one shot in the drive-by, Nikki has custody of her again. Then, shockingly, Niveah's father, my relative - aged 31 had a major cardiac event over the weekend. Which is unbelievable. He's only 31, why on earth would he have a heart attack? It's pure coincidence I just happened to be thinking of Niveah a week ago or so. Just shocking. I hope he's OK, but, I really don't know. I don't understand why a court would award Nikki custody? It makes almost no sense. Nikki lives in the f*cking project and was just randomly shot while in the shower. She freaken was in prison and apparently waved the gun around while her sick-in-fucking-head cousin raped someone they were robbing. What kind of f*cked up judge would put a child into the care of a deranged person like this? It's literally going into the toilet.
These people are your relatives. What are you doing to help them out, considering you've told us that you make a good salary?
Good question. Others in the family, doing much better than I am financially, who are not able to have their own children tried to adopt - it wasn't able to happen. It's just not legally possible if one parent says no. And they say no. I've bought lots of electronic learning material as well as tons of books for the kids. There's a polite thanks and everything is either traded or gets tossed in a heap in their house. I was told to my face, you're wasting your time and money. Yeah, I bought cloths, food, tried to set an example while I was there. Nothing sinks in their thick heads. I could just as well be speaking Japanese or Klingon. At the end of the day, either you want to act like a parent or you don't. I've tried to make every argument, logical and otherwise, to stop feeding the kids Koolaid and frozen microwave meals. They don't care. They're gong to do what ever they damn well want to and that's that. They say, yes yes yes and you turn around and they have a cigaret in one hand and a McHappy meal in the other. I live about 20+ hours flight away, so, it's not like it's exactly a drive up the road. Niveah's father was given $60,000 in a windfall insurance payout - he blew through it in 12 weeks. 12 weeks. Gone. Probably the most money he will see in his life. He lives in a house that's, what? ..... $800 and you could buy it outright. Eastend Flint. A dump. He could have bought a nice house then. People argued he shouldn't be given the money in one lump sum. That's not how it works. They're adults. While I don't know Nikki from shit, I know Niveah's father grew up in a nice 3000 sq foot brand new house surrounded by farm land. Sure, their parents weren't the best, but my god, they had a relatively decent life. Motorcycles. Camping trips. Bikes. Average middle class family. Dad was an alcoholic, sure. Mother was a bit nutty. But, nothing way over the top as I understand it. Part of it, IMO, is because these kids had no opportunity. When they graduated from High school there was no GM or Ford there with a laborer job waiting. The parents didn't realize or didn't care that times changed. So, the ended up doing shit jobs and that's where they're at now. And there are millions more of them. Millions more to come as the Depression we're living through becomes clearer. Yeah, maybe this heart attack was stress. I think so. I heard he crawled out of the hospital against all advice, told he could drop over on the spot - because he has to get to court to make his case Niveah stays with him and not Nikki. At least he has that much straight in his head. You'd have to be insane to leave her with Nikki. Kids like that get abused in neighborhoods like the Projects. It's almost unbelievable how quickly society can fall in on itself. Or so it seems to me.
This drive by and then this heart attack.... damn it. I don't know. I really don't know. I mean, I do know how shit it is. I don't know what can be done. I'll plead with his father (her grandfather) to speak to his ex-wife again. She works for child services for f*ck sake.
A book I am still digesting and will probably re-read: http://www.amazon.com/Realm-Hungry-Ghosts-Encounters-Addiction/dp/155643880X I recommend it to you. There needs to be an entirely new approach to poverty and drug addiction in particular. I stopped being an anarcho-syndicalist a long time ago at least in part because I realized the changes needed in people were more profound than politics. . But I'm not really sure if it will ever happen. I just see that politics is just the surface manifestation, this much I know, more an effect than a cause. There are so many terrifically damaged people and as a society we can't seem to care about them. CPS is so badly mismanaged in my state, and so deprived of funds...that if I saw child abuse occurring (I haven't as an adult so far) I'd be afraid to report-not because of the parents but because of CPS. http://www.khou.com/home/Report-Houston-Agency-Missed-Abuse-Clues-in-50-of-Cases-98515049.html http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-5234084-504083.html CPS is dreadful in my state, but it's not very much better elsewhere, I don't think. I'm sorry you are going through finding out how the system deals with the people you love, Michael.
The world unfortunately is full of suffrage. Some due to unprecedented natural disasters, others through mankind's short-sightedness. It's so overwhelming to most, that it drives most people to appear ambivalent in regards to emotion and apathy from not knowing what do about things that aren't necessarily in their power to control. When a family member (no matter the distance in relationship) is effected directly by such things, it's closer and more personal which is why some people want to respond and do things where of course they might not have if it had been a complete stranger. (For instance, if you saw a starving Somalian on the television, you might be shocked that someone is starving in this day and age... at least long enough to flick from the "fund-aid" commercial to some other channel to continue the apathetic trend of "Escapism".) I guess it can be said "You can only help those that are willing to help themselves". So if you wanted to aid them, you would need to work out a way to prove to them that they need some form of help and convince them that they need to not just accept help but learn how to help themselves. It's a pity society has moved so far away from the old "clan caste" system, otherwise you'd just get some older family members together to speak such words of wisdom and then suggest what other family members can do to put it into action.
