Anybody who knows anything about the mentally disabled knows a large percentage of them smoke incessantly, usually has a eating disordered, the care of them in their formative years are so negligent –how does smoking interact with their approved drugs. Haved you checked out their average life span.
So what you got is these disabled housed in horrible deficient quarters, we got a huge failure to enforce our fire codes –they got a mental deficiency that creates dysfunctional behavior like smoking in bed and on the couch.
Like I said, this isn’t Bush’s fault –it built up in the democratic years of Clinton. I hold the democrats more responsible than the republicans
Lets play make believe. Let’s say our country is led by a dictator, and we live in tyranny without our beautiful constitution. Say the care of the disabled and tumoiled children in this mythical tyranny was equivalent to what we have here today in our great country. I wonder what we would think of this dictator in relationship to the care of the disabled –I wonder what we would think of that nation system which that fueled such inhumanity.
So does democracy defuse accountability –is that the major short coming in how we play democracy in this country. Does it come down to we got freedom –but we have no systematic accountability in our system…….
So like our disabled friends, we have the freedom to smoke as we please –but we don’t have the intellectually ability and upbringing/ training to control our behaviors –we can’t understand of the horrible death toll and personal risk of a painful death. So, we have the freedom to self regulate ourselves, and we have the freedom to treat any segment of our collective society as we see fit -exspecially if they take money out of our pockets.
I wonder did they consider any special circumstances on the tobaco law suites with the particular problems of the disabled and smoking –shall we talk about all they time they mindlessly sit in front of the TV.
Rooming houses flirt with disasterBy BILL TORPY, CRAIG SCHNEIDERThe Atlanta Journal-
ConstitutionPublished on: 02/05/05
A fire that raged through a rooming house this week sent two men to the morgue and two others to the hospital.
It also brought to harsh light a nagging problem for Atlanta: the proliferation of illegal, unsafe boardinghouses.
JOHN SPINK/AJC STAFF
(ENLARGE)
Atlanta police Detective J. Morales and boardinghouse operator Lucy Dessesseau walk off to talk in front of the burned home where two residents died in a blaze this week.
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Residents and officials complain that such dwellings operate below the radar of the city government and endanger people by clustering drug addicts, alcoholics and unstable people under one roof.
They also acknowledge that a shortage of affordable housing in Atlanta makes operating such houses profitable.
The northwest Atlanta rooming house that burned, according to the woman who ran it, was a haven for eight men, most with mental and physical problems — a place that sheltered society's castoffs and kept them off the streets.
For $400 a month, the men got a room in a rundown cinder-block duplex. There was a padlock on the refrigerator — but no smoke detector.
Lucy Dessesseau, who started renting the duplex last April for about $600 a month, said a city zoning official told her she could sublet to six people on each side of the building.
"If I was doing anything illegal, the city would have told me," she said.
The men she rents to, she said, are "high functioning. They can take care of themselves."
She said she has known some of them for years. "I did good with them. They love me."
Citations issued
On Friday, Atlanta police cited Dessesseau for operating a boardinghouse without a permit and a business without a license.
Dessesseau acknowledged that the two-story dwelling on Akridge Street did not have a smoke detector when one of the boarders turned on the stove burners at 3 a.m. Wednesday and fell asleep. A pan of food caught fire, and the sleeping man and another resident died. Two more residents were injured, one critically.
After serving papers on Dessesseau, police went to the house next door, which also rents to a number of unrelated people. Terry Wilson was cited for operating an illegal rooming house.
City Councilman Ivory Young, whose district includes the two houses, contended the citations to Dessesseau were "a slap on the wrist."
"People died because of negligence," he said. "This is not over."
Neighborhoods in his district have a "huge number" of illegal dwellings that "are very difficult to monitor because from all appearances, they are single-family houses," the councilman said.
"We need a massive effort to address the condition and use of property, address by address in the city," Young said.
He said some property investors exploit the shortage of affordable housing in such areas and maximize their profit by subdividing the dwellings. "The investor sees an opportunity to rent out as many rooms as possible at the cost to the neighbors around it," the councilman said. "There's such a market for these types of houses that they are filled to the brim."
Accident waiting
Both of the Akridge Street homes cited Friday are owned by Gordon Irvine, who owns and manages about 100 properties. He said he knew Dessesseau was going to sublet the duplex, which he said he had not visited for a while.
Residents at the other home cited said there was a fire there last year after a resident left bagels in a toaster oven. No one was hurt. Debra Lurry, 53, who has lived there about six months, said the incident left her wary.
"I'm scared to go to sleep. I'm scared they'll burn it up in there," said Lurry, who pays $100 a week for a room there with her husband. She said the two-story home, which she said houses as many as nine people, has holes in the walls, burn marks near an electrical outlet and heating problems.
As for the fatal fire next door, she said, "I've been looking for this to happen."
Wilson complained he was being singled out by police. He said the practice he was cited for is occurring all over the neighborhood. "Why are you picking on this house?" he asked. Wilson pointed across the street and said, "There's one over there and there and there and there."
Makeda Johnson, who is chairwoman of a nearby neighborhood planning unit, said such dwellings "increase the transient population, they destabilize the community."
"How do they pay their rent? How do they get their money?" she asked. "The community becomes prey."
A city task force last year mapped the rooming and personal care homes that had permits. Data analyst James Henderson, an engineer with a Midtown tech company who worked as a volunteer with the task force, said he found 323 such homes, plus 114 homeless shelters, clustered throughout the northwest and south sides of Atlanta.
And those were "just the ones we know about," he said. The dwelling that burned and the one next door were not on the map, Henderson noted.
How many more are there?
"I don't know the answer to that question," he said. "That's the scary part. They come to light when they burn down."
'It's a pandemic'
Officials in the mayor's office, the building department and the code enforcement offices did not respond to repeated calls to answer questions about rooming houses.
Kline Driver, who renovated several such buildings in northwest Atlanta, said, "If the city cracked down they'd put thousands [of people] out on the streets. It's a pandemic down there."
Driver said the habits of residents in many of the dwellings, coupled with the crumbling facilities, make disasters inevitable. "It's a miracle we don't have 10 of these burning down a night," Driver said.
At the two houses cited Friday, at least 10 crimes have been reported to police in the last three years, including rape, aggravated assault and the selling of cocaine.
Johnson, the NPU chairwoman, said cracking down on such housing creates other problems.
"These must be shut down, but the problem is, where do these people go?" she asked. "It's a Catch-22. You can't just throw them out. They're going to end up on the street. They're going to end up under bridges."
Dessesseau took some of the survivors of the fire to a personal care home she runs nearby. That business, which is licensed by the state, was inspected a year ago by the Department of Human Resources and cited for having failed to conduct fire and disaster drills.
A last resort
On Friday, the burned home was surrounded by yellow crime scene tape. A stuffed animal and a cloth heart had been placed in the corner of a broken window.
Police have allowed Wilson to continue operating the rooming house next door, for the time being.
The residents there — a mix of people with mental and physical aliments, and people just struggling to get by — spoke of the troubles of the place, and possibly finding another place to live.
"I don't like rooming houses," said Clynette Creamer, 46. She and her husband were removing their belongings to go elsewhere.
She said one resident often kept two children at the house, a girl about 12 and a boy slightly younger. "I wouldn't want my kids here," she said.
Joseph Hill, 42, sat on the porch of the rooming house, nervously scratching his beard.
"Where am I going to go?" he asked.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Friday, February 04, 2005
People Power Gets to G7
"The task will not be easy, Mandela said. ''But not to do this would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up.''
DEVELOPMENT:People Power Gets to G7
Sanjay Suri Nelson Mandela, 86, needed no support when he walked up to address thousands at Trafalgar Square in London Thursday. He had the support of a cheering crowd, and of one of the most powerful movements ever to gather against world poverty.
LONDON, Feb 3 (IPS) - Nelson Mandela, 86, needed no support when he walked up to address thousands at Trafalgar Square in London Thursday. He had the support of a cheering crowd, and of one of the most powerful movements ever to gather against world poverty.
Mandela spoke at Trafalgar Square -- London's traditional venue for people to make a political statement -- on the eve of the meeting Friday and Saturday of finance ministers from the G7 countries (the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan). He was carrying a message for that meeting, and succeeded before it began.
Steps to counter poverty are already set to dominate the G7 meeting. Traditionally G7 finance ministers are more given to talk of exchange rates and macro multinational issues.
What Mandela says counts, and behind Mandela spoke about 220 British civil society groups who invited him to the Trafalgar Square rally. The British groups came together late last year in a campaign 'Make Poverty History'.
''Many of us realised that 2005 is going to be an important year to campaign against poverty,'' Lysbeth Holdoway from Oxfam who has been working with the Make Poverty History campaign told IPS Thursday. This year Britain has presidency of G8 (which includes also Russia) and will have presidency of the European Union (EU) in the second half of the year.
''So we have come together this year in UK and around the world to put pressure on governments to act,'' she said. The British movement is tied internationally into the Global Campaign for Action Against Poverty.
Mandela was invited to Trafalgar Square ''because he is such an important leader, and we know that if he came people would have to take action,'' Holdoway said.
The immediate result was that civil society, backed by all major trade unions and the Church of England, has managed at least in substantial measure to set the agenda for a G7 finance ministers' meeting.
''As you know, I recently formally announced my retirement from public life and should really not be here,'' Mandela said. ''However, as long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.''
Mandela linked the new civil society campaign with his own campaign against apartheid. ''The Global Campaign for Action Against Poverty can take its place as a public movement alongside the movement to abolish slavery and the international solidarity against apartheid,'' he said.
Mandela told the wildly cheering crowd: ''I can never thank the people of Britain enough for their support through those days of the struggle against apartheid. . . . Through your will and passion, you assisted in consigning that evil system forever to history. But in this new century, millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved, and in chains. They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free.''
There was more than emotion to Mandela's appeal. ''The steps that are needed from the developed nations are clear,'' he said. ''The first is ensuring trade justice. The second is an end to the debt crisis for the poorest countries. The third is to deliver much more aid and make sure it is of the highest quality.''
Mandela said finally: ''I say to all those (G7) leaders: do not look the other way; do not hesitate. Recognise that the world is hungry for action, not words. Act with courage and vision.'' Mandela was due to take his message directly to the ministers at a meeting with them Friday.
The task will not be easy, Mandela said. ''But not to do this would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up.''
The Mandela-civil society cocktail was made considerably stronger with support from Britain's chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister) Gordon Brown. Brown wants the ministers to extend a freeze on debt repayment by the tsunami-hit countries, and to take decisions to write off the debt of the poorest nations.
At the least Brown wants about 40 billion dollars owed by the poorest countries, most of them in Africa, to be completely written off. He is also looking for radical decisions on more fair trade rules and for a doubling of developmental aid.
Members of the Make Poverty History campaign point out that 2.8 billion people around the world live in poverty, and that 30,000 die from poverty- related causes every day
Britain last hosted the G8 meeting in Birmingham in 1998. An estimated 70,000 people came together then to form a human chain around the city centre to demand cancellation of unpayable debt.
DEVELOPMENT:People Power Gets to G7
Sanjay Suri Nelson Mandela, 86, needed no support when he walked up to address thousands at Trafalgar Square in London Thursday. He had the support of a cheering crowd, and of one of the most powerful movements ever to gather against world poverty.
LONDON, Feb 3 (IPS) - Nelson Mandela, 86, needed no support when he walked up to address thousands at Trafalgar Square in London Thursday. He had the support of a cheering crowd, and of one of the most powerful movements ever to gather against world poverty.
Mandela spoke at Trafalgar Square -- London's traditional venue for people to make a political statement -- on the eve of the meeting Friday and Saturday of finance ministers from the G7 countries (the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan). He was carrying a message for that meeting, and succeeded before it began.
Steps to counter poverty are already set to dominate the G7 meeting. Traditionally G7 finance ministers are more given to talk of exchange rates and macro multinational issues.
What Mandela says counts, and behind Mandela spoke about 220 British civil society groups who invited him to the Trafalgar Square rally. The British groups came together late last year in a campaign 'Make Poverty History'.
''Many of us realised that 2005 is going to be an important year to campaign against poverty,'' Lysbeth Holdoway from Oxfam who has been working with the Make Poverty History campaign told IPS Thursday. This year Britain has presidency of G8 (which includes also Russia) and will have presidency of the European Union (EU) in the second half of the year.
''So we have come together this year in UK and around the world to put pressure on governments to act,'' she said. The British movement is tied internationally into the Global Campaign for Action Against Poverty.
Mandela was invited to Trafalgar Square ''because he is such an important leader, and we know that if he came people would have to take action,'' Holdoway said.
The immediate result was that civil society, backed by all major trade unions and the Church of England, has managed at least in substantial measure to set the agenda for a G7 finance ministers' meeting.
''As you know, I recently formally announced my retirement from public life and should really not be here,'' Mandela said. ''However, as long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.''
Mandela linked the new civil society campaign with his own campaign against apartheid. ''The Global Campaign for Action Against Poverty can take its place as a public movement alongside the movement to abolish slavery and the international solidarity against apartheid,'' he said.
Mandela told the wildly cheering crowd: ''I can never thank the people of Britain enough for their support through those days of the struggle against apartheid. . . . Through your will and passion, you assisted in consigning that evil system forever to history. But in this new century, millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved, and in chains. They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free.''
There was more than emotion to Mandela's appeal. ''The steps that are needed from the developed nations are clear,'' he said. ''The first is ensuring trade justice. The second is an end to the debt crisis for the poorest countries. The third is to deliver much more aid and make sure it is of the highest quality.''
Mandela said finally: ''I say to all those (G7) leaders: do not look the other way; do not hesitate. Recognise that the world is hungry for action, not words. Act with courage and vision.'' Mandela was due to take his message directly to the ministers at a meeting with them Friday.
The task will not be easy, Mandela said. ''But not to do this would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up.''
The Mandela-civil society cocktail was made considerably stronger with support from Britain's chancellor of the exchequer (finance minister) Gordon Brown. Brown wants the ministers to extend a freeze on debt repayment by the tsunami-hit countries, and to take decisions to write off the debt of the poorest nations.
At the least Brown wants about 40 billion dollars owed by the poorest countries, most of them in Africa, to be completely written off. He is also looking for radical decisions on more fair trade rules and for a doubling of developmental aid.
Members of the Make Poverty History campaign point out that 2.8 billion people around the world live in poverty, and that 30,000 die from poverty- related causes every day
Britain last hosted the G8 meeting in Birmingham in 1998. An estimated 70,000 people came together then to form a human chain around the city centre to demand cancellation of unpayable debt.
Pollutants go down drain
New --Sorry meant regional head of EPA New England not the top dog!.......
So up to 80% or more flow of a stream or river can come from from all of the sewage plant sources. I got a paper and pulp corporation in a lot of trouble back in the summer of 1999 -I ended up bankrupting the corporation. New England was in a historic drought at the time –the Ashuelot river had record breaking low flow conditions –and this plant was turning the river waters milky white. The CEO was defrauding the banks and the stockholders to the tune of 400 million dollars –such that they didn’t have enough money to invest in pollution control. I posed the question to the state of New Hampshire –what percentage of the water coming from Ashuelot River is coming from non natural sources. They started an investigation on the river pollution loads in low flow conditions. They said the pollution load is based on a 10 year average low flow conditions -thus the limits are based on the low flows during that period. The state pollution expert said the current river flow is way below the analyzed worst case low flow. I began asking him about how this facility is characterized in state and federal regulation –I had not a clue how the state and EPA controlled the pollution from any of these facilities. He told me these facilities are controlled from a federal permit process that is periodically renewed. I had to pump him for information–he didn’t volunteer anything!!! So I asked him, when was the last time the Winchester NH American Tissue permit was renewed? He said the permit was many years out of date –they don’t have enough resources for the state to renew the permitted. So I asked him, that these companies could be using all sorts of chemical that wasn’t contained in the out of date permits. So I’d asked him how widespread is this problem in New England –he said you don’t want to know –it’s huge. You understand what was happening here, the government was intentionally withholding resources for the permitting processes –such that the permit holders could pump more pollutants into our river and streams. Shortly after the EPA admitted there was a wide spread permitting problems –there was a tremendous back log of out of date pollution permits throughout NE – and the head of the EPA stepped down.
We had a democrat for a president at the time: President Clinton......
Wonder what the percentage of the water in a river system gets recycled through a water user -say a factory -we had historic high water temps too.
"Bill Zawiski, an aquatic biologist for the Ohio EPA, said PPCP pollution appears to be most severe in streams such as Tinkers Creek that are dominated by sewage plants. As much as 80 percent of the flow of 33-mile Tinkers Creek goes through one of the eight sewage plants in that watershed, Zawiski said."
Posted on Fri, Feb. 04, 2005
Pollutants go down drain
Medicines, household chemicals flow into creeks; Ohio studies effect on fish
By Bob DowningBeacon Journal staff writer
Tinkers Creek is a pretty, tree-lined stream that meanders through southern Cuyahoga and northern Summit and Portage counties. Its water quality is considered good, and it should be a good habitat for wildlife.
So where are all the fish?
Despite improved water quality, the fish population in this Cuyahoga River tributary has not improved in the last 20 years.
Now the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is looking at whether the culprit is a newwater-pollution threat: tiny amounts of thousands of chemicals widely used in medications, beauty aids, cleaners and foods. These substances include caffeine, cotinine (from tobacco products), antibiotics, contraceptives, painkillers, antidepressants, hormones, steroids, chemotherapy drugs, insect repellents, veterinary medicines, soaps, perfumes, plasticizers and fire retardants.
``It's an emerging concern,'' said Steve Tuckerman, a water expert with the EPA. ``We don't know yet if it's a `Hey!' kind of problem or a `Holy s---!' kind of problem. There's a lot of work still to be done. But it's a problem that we're going to be dealing with for a long, long time.''
Trace amounts of chemicals -- known as pharmaceutical and personal care pollutants (PPCPs) -- enter wastewater from toilets, showers and sinks.
Americans spend an estimated $190 billion a year on prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Experts say that 50 percent to 90 percent of ingested drugs are excreted from the body in still-potent form.
The antidepressant Prozac, for example, frequently turns up in streams draining high-income suburban communities.
These PPCPs survive in wastewater even after it is treated and disinfected. Sewage plants don't screen for such materials and can remove some but not all of them. State and federal regulations generally don't address their disposal.
`Pandora's box'
The chemicals -- measured in parts per trillion or parts per billion -- are bioactive, meaning they can enter the bioprocesses of living organisms, especially aquatic species.
``It's a real Pandora's box,'' said Michael McGlinchy, director of Akron's Public Utilities Bureau.
``It's a very serious issue, and one that we need to know more about.... It's definitely going to get more attention and study in the coming years. It's a problem we're just learning about.''
Although the chemicals have been in waterways for decades, they are just starting to get serious study from scientists. They are considered ``emerging contaminants'' and the next bigwater-pollution problem.
Scientists have more questions about the presence of the substances in the water supply than answers. They are unable to say how great a threat such chemicals pose at low levels and what threat might be created by combinations of chemicals.
Hormonal changes
But there is special concern about substances that trigger hormonal changes in fish, and about the release of antibiotics into the environment. Some studies have linked environmental exposure to hormones to deformed sex organs in wildlife, sex reversal in some fish species and declining fertility in humans, as well as to cancers and other diseases.
The American Water Works Association, a national trade group based in Denver, says the fact that a substance is found in drinking water does not mean that substance is harmful to humans. The best advice for consumers, said association spokesman Greg Kail, is to avoid flushing leftover drugs down the toilet or dumping them down the drain.
Jeff Trewhitt, spokesman for the national Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, based in Washington, D.C., said pollution from personal care products is not seen as a major issue, although it is causing concern.
Leftover drugs, in their original containers, can safely go into landfills, Trewhitt said.
Ohio sites tested
In 1999-2000, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted the first national look at PPCPs. The agency tested for 95 chemicals in 139 waterways in 30 states. The sites were chosen to include potential hot spots or problem areas. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland was tested, along with seven other Ohio waterways.
The report, released in June 2002, offered no conclusions on risk.
Of the sites tested, 80 percent had at least trace amounts of one chemical. Half had five or more chemicals. Thirty-four streams had 10 or more contaminants. Eighty-two of the chemicals were found in at least one sample.
Most common were caffeine, steroids and nonprescription drugs. Those findings mirrored results from similar studies in Canada and Europe.
At least 31 antibiotic and antibacterial compounds were found in the samples. At least 11 compounds were linked to birth control and hormone supplements.
Of the 95 chemicals tested for, 81 are unregulated.
Tinkers Creek
Bill Zawiski, an aquatic biologist for the Ohio EPA, said PPCP pollution appears to be most severe in streams such as Tinkers Creek that are dominated by sewage plants. As much as 80 percent of the flow of 33-mile Tinkers Creek goes through one of the eight sewage plants in that watershed, Zawiski said.
PPCP problems are not found in Yellow Creek and Furnace Run, other Cuyahoga River tributaries in Summit County that are not dominated by sewage plants, he said.
And the EPA is not seeing similar problems in Euclid Creek, an urbanized stream in eastern Cuyahoga County.
Tinkers Creek isn't meeting Ohio's standards for the number of fish in the water and the variety of species. It gets a grade of fair to poor.
Ideally, the stream would get a rating of at least 38 out of 60 possible points for its fish, Zawiski said. In 2000, the stream got a high of 32 points and a low of 21 points in EPA sampling at seven sites.
``Right now, we don't know what's causing the fish problems on Tinkers Creek,'' he said, ``but it's possible that it is (PPCP) chemicals. That's what we're starting to look at.''
There is no evidence of fish changing sex because of hormonal drugs in Tinkers Creek, he said, but some tests probably will be conducted this summer. Such tests are expensive -- $1,000 to $1,500 each -- and the EPA hopes the sewage plants will help pay for them.
Zawiski said the state hopes to complete its investigation of Tinkers Creek in 2006.
``The biggest problem,'' he said, ``is that most people don't realize what goes into the waterways and what kind of impact that's having.''
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com
© 2005 Beacon Journal and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.http://www.ohio.com
So up to 80% or more flow of a stream or river can come from from all of the sewage plant sources. I got a paper and pulp corporation in a lot of trouble back in the summer of 1999 -I ended up bankrupting the corporation. New England was in a historic drought at the time –the Ashuelot river had record breaking low flow conditions –and this plant was turning the river waters milky white. The CEO was defrauding the banks and the stockholders to the tune of 400 million dollars –such that they didn’t have enough money to invest in pollution control. I posed the question to the state of New Hampshire –what percentage of the water coming from Ashuelot River is coming from non natural sources. They started an investigation on the river pollution loads in low flow conditions. They said the pollution load is based on a 10 year average low flow conditions -thus the limits are based on the low flows during that period. The state pollution expert said the current river flow is way below the analyzed worst case low flow. I began asking him about how this facility is characterized in state and federal regulation –I had not a clue how the state and EPA controlled the pollution from any of these facilities. He told me these facilities are controlled from a federal permit process that is periodically renewed. I had to pump him for information–he didn’t volunteer anything!!! So I asked him, when was the last time the Winchester NH American Tissue permit was renewed? He said the permit was many years out of date –they don’t have enough resources for the state to renew the permitted. So I asked him, that these companies could be using all sorts of chemical that wasn’t contained in the out of date permits. So I’d asked him how widespread is this problem in New England –he said you don’t want to know –it’s huge. You understand what was happening here, the government was intentionally withholding resources for the permitting processes –such that the permit holders could pump more pollutants into our river and streams. Shortly after the EPA admitted there was a wide spread permitting problems –there was a tremendous back log of out of date pollution permits throughout NE – and the head of the EPA stepped down.
We had a democrat for a president at the time: President Clinton......
Wonder what the percentage of the water in a river system gets recycled through a water user -say a factory -we had historic high water temps too.
"Bill Zawiski, an aquatic biologist for the Ohio EPA, said PPCP pollution appears to be most severe in streams such as Tinkers Creek that are dominated by sewage plants. As much as 80 percent of the flow of 33-mile Tinkers Creek goes through one of the eight sewage plants in that watershed, Zawiski said."
Posted on Fri, Feb. 04, 2005
Pollutants go down drain
Medicines, household chemicals flow into creeks; Ohio studies effect on fish
By Bob DowningBeacon Journal staff writer
Tinkers Creek is a pretty, tree-lined stream that meanders through southern Cuyahoga and northern Summit and Portage counties. Its water quality is considered good, and it should be a good habitat for wildlife.
So where are all the fish?
Despite improved water quality, the fish population in this Cuyahoga River tributary has not improved in the last 20 years.
Now the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is looking at whether the culprit is a newwater-pollution threat: tiny amounts of thousands of chemicals widely used in medications, beauty aids, cleaners and foods. These substances include caffeine, cotinine (from tobacco products), antibiotics, contraceptives, painkillers, antidepressants, hormones, steroids, chemotherapy drugs, insect repellents, veterinary medicines, soaps, perfumes, plasticizers and fire retardants.
``It's an emerging concern,'' said Steve Tuckerman, a water expert with the EPA. ``We don't know yet if it's a `Hey!' kind of problem or a `Holy s---!' kind of problem. There's a lot of work still to be done. But it's a problem that we're going to be dealing with for a long, long time.''
Trace amounts of chemicals -- known as pharmaceutical and personal care pollutants (PPCPs) -- enter wastewater from toilets, showers and sinks.
Americans spend an estimated $190 billion a year on prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Experts say that 50 percent to 90 percent of ingested drugs are excreted from the body in still-potent form.
The antidepressant Prozac, for example, frequently turns up in streams draining high-income suburban communities.
These PPCPs survive in wastewater even after it is treated and disinfected. Sewage plants don't screen for such materials and can remove some but not all of them. State and federal regulations generally don't address their disposal.
`Pandora's box'
The chemicals -- measured in parts per trillion or parts per billion -- are bioactive, meaning they can enter the bioprocesses of living organisms, especially aquatic species.
``It's a real Pandora's box,'' said Michael McGlinchy, director of Akron's Public Utilities Bureau.
``It's a very serious issue, and one that we need to know more about.... It's definitely going to get more attention and study in the coming years. It's a problem we're just learning about.''
Although the chemicals have been in waterways for decades, they are just starting to get serious study from scientists. They are considered ``emerging contaminants'' and the next bigwater-pollution problem.
Scientists have more questions about the presence of the substances in the water supply than answers. They are unable to say how great a threat such chemicals pose at low levels and what threat might be created by combinations of chemicals.
Hormonal changes
But there is special concern about substances that trigger hormonal changes in fish, and about the release of antibiotics into the environment. Some studies have linked environmental exposure to hormones to deformed sex organs in wildlife, sex reversal in some fish species and declining fertility in humans, as well as to cancers and other diseases.
The American Water Works Association, a national trade group based in Denver, says the fact that a substance is found in drinking water does not mean that substance is harmful to humans. The best advice for consumers, said association spokesman Greg Kail, is to avoid flushing leftover drugs down the toilet or dumping them down the drain.
Jeff Trewhitt, spokesman for the national Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, based in Washington, D.C., said pollution from personal care products is not seen as a major issue, although it is causing concern.
Leftover drugs, in their original containers, can safely go into landfills, Trewhitt said.
Ohio sites tested
In 1999-2000, the U.S. Geological Survey conducted the first national look at PPCPs. The agency tested for 95 chemicals in 139 waterways in 30 states. The sites were chosen to include potential hot spots or problem areas. The Cuyahoga River in Cleveland was tested, along with seven other Ohio waterways.
The report, released in June 2002, offered no conclusions on risk.
Of the sites tested, 80 percent had at least trace amounts of one chemical. Half had five or more chemicals. Thirty-four streams had 10 or more contaminants. Eighty-two of the chemicals were found in at least one sample.
Most common were caffeine, steroids and nonprescription drugs. Those findings mirrored results from similar studies in Canada and Europe.
At least 31 antibiotic and antibacterial compounds were found in the samples. At least 11 compounds were linked to birth control and hormone supplements.
Of the 95 chemicals tested for, 81 are unregulated.
Tinkers Creek
Bill Zawiski, an aquatic biologist for the Ohio EPA, said PPCP pollution appears to be most severe in streams such as Tinkers Creek that are dominated by sewage plants. As much as 80 percent of the flow of 33-mile Tinkers Creek goes through one of the eight sewage plants in that watershed, Zawiski said.
PPCP problems are not found in Yellow Creek and Furnace Run, other Cuyahoga River tributaries in Summit County that are not dominated by sewage plants, he said.
And the EPA is not seeing similar problems in Euclid Creek, an urbanized stream in eastern Cuyahoga County.
Tinkers Creek isn't meeting Ohio's standards for the number of fish in the water and the variety of species. It gets a grade of fair to poor.
Ideally, the stream would get a rating of at least 38 out of 60 possible points for its fish, Zawiski said. In 2000, the stream got a high of 32 points and a low of 21 points in EPA sampling at seven sites.
``Right now, we don't know what's causing the fish problems on Tinkers Creek,'' he said, ``but it's possible that it is (PPCP) chemicals. That's what we're starting to look at.''
There is no evidence of fish changing sex because of hormonal drugs in Tinkers Creek, he said, but some tests probably will be conducted this summer. Such tests are expensive -- $1,000 to $1,500 each -- and the EPA hopes the sewage plants will help pay for them.
Zawiski said the state hopes to complete its investigation of Tinkers Creek in 2006.
``The biggest problem,'' he said, ``is that most people don't realize what goes into the waterways and what kind of impact that's having.''
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com
© 2005 Beacon Journal and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.http://www.ohio.com
Thursday, February 03, 2005
The death of my mother: Marion Mulligan
(It’s amazing how time prepares us for the future –or better yet trains us for what is ahead of us. We are well versed in the worth of a disabled life –and the controversy surrounding death of a loved one).
I remember clearly being in my mothers Hospital emergency room in around 1990. She was hooked up to a ventilator and all those of tubes. It seemed straightly quite and peaceful –I was waiting for my brother and sister to come to the hospital. I remember the doctors talking about the curled arch of my mother’s foot –they said this was the result of my mother’s increasing brain damage. Iit definitely was curled. She had a severe stroke. She smoked and drank to the bitter end.
I also remember when I was a child of about 8 or 9 years old. My father died of a heart attack at the young age of 44 –I was seven when he died. My mother would go out drinking with a married man friend a few years later after my dads death –she’d come home to the low income inner city project drunk all the time. Many times she’d end up in a fight with this man –there would be huge drunken fight in his car sitting outside the house. The neighbors got quite used to these enormous screaming fights. Humorously, they found out at times there would be ripped up bills (Money) and broken jewelry on the ground where the car was the night before –and my mother would send out her kids to pick up the pieces. All the adults in our part of the project had boyfriends and girlfriends –many who came in and out of their houses all the time. I mean, there was family fights all the time –it was always funny watching your neighbor in a funny fight with a spouse or friend….
More time than I care to think about, she’d get into the house still in an enormous rage. She’d wake us up going into each of our rooms telling us we were no good son of a bitches and lazy –we’d never amount to anything –and we would hear all the time that “we’d be sorry when she was dead and gone”. She’d go on a tirade for about an hour until her rage was spent. She’d hit us at time, slap our faces and heads, but we quickly leant to dodge her drunken blows.
Where does it come from when her children can look at this child abuse in a humorous manner? The next morning we would talk to each other about her visits –and our management of her outburst, screaming in our rooms –and we’d think it was extremely funny when one of us got stuck in a corner of the room. What we’d learnt later was the trick to say something funny to my mother, make fun of the situation –and if you got her laughing, her rage would be over for everyone. That humor ended up burying a lot in all of us kids–and it was very destructive to each of us.
My mother was still living in that project in 1985. The boyfriend had turned into a long term partner –but he died a few years earlier. My wife and I visited her often. We recognized she was floundering in that project –but I told my wife I was not going to rescue her. We’d adopted my daughter in 1986–talk about what a miracle can do to you. I worried about what my mother would think about a Korean adoption being she was so proud of being Irish –but she’d came from an international project community. I started to see something different in my mother eyes as I brought my daughter to my mothers project apartment –or was it a change in me. I’d asked her to come live up north with us, we’d find you an apartment –amazingly she agreed.
I’d thought I’d never leave my daughter alone with my mother. But I’d notice after a few months she was drinking less –and was more responsible when she was drinking. She made a few friends in the apartment –and she was having a good time. My daughter and my mother absolutely lit each other up when they were together. We began leaving my daughter alone with my mother for a short period –then longer periods –she always wanted to take care of Kristie. I began watching my daughter’s relationship with my mother –and I knew that Kristie was delighted with staying with my mother. A wonderful special relationship developed between them –and that’s how I began of forgive my mother for her past problems. In the end, my feeling about my mother was transformed –I could only forgive her through the love I’d seen in my daughter’s eyes for my mother. How truly fortunate I was in those last two years!
So one morning I am talking care of my daughter when I got a phone call from one of my mother’s friends. She’d told me my mother had a head ache, it had gotten worst –now she was becoming unresponsive and she was making noises while breathing. I’d told them to call the ambulance –I'll be right down with my daughter. When I got down there I’d notice the police car –I’d went up to her apartment. She was sitting on the couch –she was making terrible noise while breathing –the officer said the ambulance is right around the corner. I became so frighten to be near her –but I’d grabbed her hand and she squeezed it. She couldn’t talk, but I knew she kept trying to regain hold of my hand. They took her to the local hospital –then up to Dartmouth hospital.
Her primary doctor told us she had a huge stroke in her head. It was right over her motor control; he said we’d had a horrible decision ahead of us. He’d told us in a meeting with my brother and sister that he’d thought she wouldn’t survive the next few days –and he’d would be a vegetable if she did survive. He said she would never be able to feed herself again. He’d told us we could withhold medical care from her –and she would quickly die. We’d quickly agreed that my mother repetively talked about wanting to die if she became not able to take care of herself. We agreed to pull the plug on my mother.
We were by ourselves, my brother and sister; I said you know we got to get another’s doctors opinion on this. I just wanted another doctor’s validation of the prognosis. Before long we were we in a meeting with both these doctors. The new doctor didn’t have such a stark opinion as the first one, but he said the damage was severe. It seemed the first doctor was a little perturbed with second one’s opinion, which unnerved me. We still agreed to pull the plug.
The doctor said they would remove the meds intended to reduce her brain swelling. He said the brain would swell, would begin protruding out of the area by her spine – then he would give her increasingly amounts of morphine –and the swelling would stop her breathing and heart beat.
It took about two days before her brain was swelled enough before they would risk talking her off the ventilator. I remember being in her room by myself –I commanded my mother to move her right toe. It made a movement to my horror. I never asked her to do that again. I rationalized it was a coincidence –an involuntary movement done at the right time.
The doctor said he was ready to give my mother a respiratory test. My guess the doctor was engineering my mothers death for us –making sure when we got in the room for the final time –he’d remove my mother from the respirator in front of us –she’d stop breathing immediately and her heart beat would stop in a few minutes for us.
The doctor came back saying my mother was ready for us. We got in there –they quickly remove my mother from the respirator –all the other line had been removed.
My younger brother began having second thoughts –he said he thought she was suffocating, he couldn’t take it. The doctor calmly told him your mother can’t feel anything at all. My brother regained control of himself –and we all waited for our mother's heart to stop.
We were all crying!
It was so ugly her death –it was so horrible those last few days. I clearly remember the uncertainties that kept popping up.
We all have no regrets for what we did.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, Nh
I remember clearly being in my mothers Hospital emergency room in around 1990. She was hooked up to a ventilator and all those of tubes. It seemed straightly quite and peaceful –I was waiting for my brother and sister to come to the hospital. I remember the doctors talking about the curled arch of my mother’s foot –they said this was the result of my mother’s increasing brain damage. Iit definitely was curled. She had a severe stroke. She smoked and drank to the bitter end.
I also remember when I was a child of about 8 or 9 years old. My father died of a heart attack at the young age of 44 –I was seven when he died. My mother would go out drinking with a married man friend a few years later after my dads death –she’d come home to the low income inner city project drunk all the time. Many times she’d end up in a fight with this man –there would be huge drunken fight in his car sitting outside the house. The neighbors got quite used to these enormous screaming fights. Humorously, they found out at times there would be ripped up bills (Money) and broken jewelry on the ground where the car was the night before –and my mother would send out her kids to pick up the pieces. All the adults in our part of the project had boyfriends and girlfriends –many who came in and out of their houses all the time. I mean, there was family fights all the time –it was always funny watching your neighbor in a funny fight with a spouse or friend….
More time than I care to think about, she’d get into the house still in an enormous rage. She’d wake us up going into each of our rooms telling us we were no good son of a bitches and lazy –we’d never amount to anything –and we would hear all the time that “we’d be sorry when she was dead and gone”. She’d go on a tirade for about an hour until her rage was spent. She’d hit us at time, slap our faces and heads, but we quickly leant to dodge her drunken blows.
Where does it come from when her children can look at this child abuse in a humorous manner? The next morning we would talk to each other about her visits –and our management of her outburst, screaming in our rooms –and we’d think it was extremely funny when one of us got stuck in a corner of the room. What we’d learnt later was the trick to say something funny to my mother, make fun of the situation –and if you got her laughing, her rage would be over for everyone. That humor ended up burying a lot in all of us kids–and it was very destructive to each of us.
My mother was still living in that project in 1985. The boyfriend had turned into a long term partner –but he died a few years earlier. My wife and I visited her often. We recognized she was floundering in that project –but I told my wife I was not going to rescue her. We’d adopted my daughter in 1986–talk about what a miracle can do to you. I worried about what my mother would think about a Korean adoption being she was so proud of being Irish –but she’d came from an international project community. I started to see something different in my mother eyes as I brought my daughter to my mothers project apartment –or was it a change in me. I’d asked her to come live up north with us, we’d find you an apartment –amazingly she agreed.
I’d thought I’d never leave my daughter alone with my mother. But I’d notice after a few months she was drinking less –and was more responsible when she was drinking. She made a few friends in the apartment –and she was having a good time. My daughter and my mother absolutely lit each other up when they were together. We began leaving my daughter alone with my mother for a short period –then longer periods –she always wanted to take care of Kristie. I began watching my daughter’s relationship with my mother –and I knew that Kristie was delighted with staying with my mother. A wonderful special relationship developed between them –and that’s how I began of forgive my mother for her past problems. In the end, my feeling about my mother was transformed –I could only forgive her through the love I’d seen in my daughter’s eyes for my mother. How truly fortunate I was in those last two years!
So one morning I am talking care of my daughter when I got a phone call from one of my mother’s friends. She’d told me my mother had a head ache, it had gotten worst –now she was becoming unresponsive and she was making noises while breathing. I’d told them to call the ambulance –I'll be right down with my daughter. When I got down there I’d notice the police car –I’d went up to her apartment. She was sitting on the couch –she was making terrible noise while breathing –the officer said the ambulance is right around the corner. I became so frighten to be near her –but I’d grabbed her hand and she squeezed it. She couldn’t talk, but I knew she kept trying to regain hold of my hand. They took her to the local hospital –then up to Dartmouth hospital.
Her primary doctor told us she had a huge stroke in her head. It was right over her motor control; he said we’d had a horrible decision ahead of us. He’d told us in a meeting with my brother and sister that he’d thought she wouldn’t survive the next few days –and he’d would be a vegetable if she did survive. He said she would never be able to feed herself again. He’d told us we could withhold medical care from her –and she would quickly die. We’d quickly agreed that my mother repetively talked about wanting to die if she became not able to take care of herself. We agreed to pull the plug on my mother.
We were by ourselves, my brother and sister; I said you know we got to get another’s doctors opinion on this. I just wanted another doctor’s validation of the prognosis. Before long we were we in a meeting with both these doctors. The new doctor didn’t have such a stark opinion as the first one, but he said the damage was severe. It seemed the first doctor was a little perturbed with second one’s opinion, which unnerved me. We still agreed to pull the plug.
The doctor said they would remove the meds intended to reduce her brain swelling. He said the brain would swell, would begin protruding out of the area by her spine – then he would give her increasingly amounts of morphine –and the swelling would stop her breathing and heart beat.
It took about two days before her brain was swelled enough before they would risk talking her off the ventilator. I remember being in her room by myself –I commanded my mother to move her right toe. It made a movement to my horror. I never asked her to do that again. I rationalized it was a coincidence –an involuntary movement done at the right time.
The doctor said he was ready to give my mother a respiratory test. My guess the doctor was engineering my mothers death for us –making sure when we got in the room for the final time –he’d remove my mother from the respirator in front of us –she’d stop breathing immediately and her heart beat would stop in a few minutes for us.
The doctor came back saying my mother was ready for us. We got in there –they quickly remove my mother from the respirator –all the other line had been removed.
My younger brother began having second thoughts –he said he thought she was suffocating, he couldn’t take it. The doctor calmly told him your mother can’t feel anything at all. My brother regained control of himself –and we all waited for our mother's heart to stop.
We were all crying!
It was so ugly her death –it was so horrible those last few days. I clearly remember the uncertainties that kept popping up.
We all have no regrets for what we did.
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, Nh
Ugly Polluted yellow brown air in Bear Mountain and Peekskill NY
New@3/05 6PM
UNHEALTHY AIR WARNING ISSUED
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection says ground-level particle pollution is expected to reach unhealthy levels today.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- Officials say the levels should be of particular concern for sensitive groups including people suffering respiratory problems such as asthma.
The prediction came after moderate ground-level particle pollution concentrations were monitored yesterday in southwestern and coastal sections of the state.
.......................................
You know I was going up and the down the Bear Mountain of NY and Peekskill, in a blue sparkling day yesterday –as I got up to the point where I could see long distances –there was a ugly yellow/brown/grey tint in the atmosphere in all directions. It seemed to be layered –so I was wondering what caused it. It looked like the pollution of old days. I wondered was that NYC that caused it, was it about a cold day and all of our house heating –was it industrial from somewhere. I telling you it was ugly looking.
It didn't come from Indian Point!
States See High Levels of Air Pollution
1 hour, 42 minutes ago
Science - AP
By ELIZABETH DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer
MINNEAPOLIS - Air pollution built to unhealthy levels around the upper Midwest, a wintertime rarity caused by the absence of strong wind, and problems were expected to continue Thursday for children and other sensitive groups.
Minnesota officials warned that air in the Twin Cities was unhealthy for anyone Wednesday, and Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, this week had their first-ever winter air alerts, warning of unhealthy conditions for people at risk.
Sunnier skies and increased wind were improving conditions in Minneapolis on Thursday, but air was expected to remain at levels unhealthy for children, the elderly and people with breathing problems from there to central Ohio. Those people were advised to avoid strenuous activities.
In Illinois, officials expected the air quality index in the Chicago area to be from 109 to 139, within the range considered unhealthy for sensitive groups. Air is considered unhealthy for everyone at 150 and above.
The region's pollution built up when a stagnant air mass over the region trapped fine particles near the ground this week. The particles come from sources such as car exhaust, factories and fireplaces. The air mass was expected to remain over the region for much of the week.
"Things that emit pollution are going to go out into the air and not really go anywhere," said Rick Hiltbrand, a National Weather Service (news - web sites) forecaster in Chanhassen.
Martin Bernerd was back outside training for a half marathon along the Mississippi River in St. Paul on Wednesday after the area saw its worst air quality in 25 years.
"With the sun coming out, the air just looks better," Bernerd said.
___
UNHEALTHY AIR WARNING ISSUED
The Maine Department of Environmental Protection says ground-level particle pollution is expected to reach unhealthy levels today.
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- Officials say the levels should be of particular concern for sensitive groups including people suffering respiratory problems such as asthma.
The prediction came after moderate ground-level particle pollution concentrations were monitored yesterday in southwestern and coastal sections of the state.
.......................................
You know I was going up and the down the Bear Mountain of NY and Peekskill, in a blue sparkling day yesterday –as I got up to the point where I could see long distances –there was a ugly yellow/brown/grey tint in the atmosphere in all directions. It seemed to be layered –so I was wondering what caused it. It looked like the pollution of old days. I wondered was that NYC that caused it, was it about a cold day and all of our house heating –was it industrial from somewhere. I telling you it was ugly looking.
It didn't come from Indian Point!
States See High Levels of Air Pollution
1 hour, 42 minutes ago
Science - AP
By ELIZABETH DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer
MINNEAPOLIS - Air pollution built to unhealthy levels around the upper Midwest, a wintertime rarity caused by the absence of strong wind, and problems were expected to continue Thursday for children and other sensitive groups.
Minnesota officials warned that air in the Twin Cities was unhealthy for anyone Wednesday, and Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, this week had their first-ever winter air alerts, warning of unhealthy conditions for people at risk.
Sunnier skies and increased wind were improving conditions in Minneapolis on Thursday, but air was expected to remain at levels unhealthy for children, the elderly and people with breathing problems from there to central Ohio. Those people were advised to avoid strenuous activities.
In Illinois, officials expected the air quality index in the Chicago area to be from 109 to 139, within the range considered unhealthy for sensitive groups. Air is considered unhealthy for everyone at 150 and above.
The region's pollution built up when a stagnant air mass over the region trapped fine particles near the ground this week. The particles come from sources such as car exhaust, factories and fireplaces. The air mass was expected to remain over the region for much of the week.
"Things that emit pollution are going to go out into the air and not really go anywhere," said Rick Hiltbrand, a National Weather Service (news - web sites) forecaster in Chanhassen.
Martin Bernerd was back outside training for a half marathon along the Mississippi River in St. Paul on Wednesday after the area saw its worst air quality in 25 years.
"With the sun coming out, the air just looks better," Bernerd said.
___
Brattleboro and the Vermont Fire safety codes corrupted
Well, I hate to do this –but I’m going to be as provocative as I can here. As you should know I’ve had problems with the Vermont Yankee fire brigade, and the peculiar response to the Brattleboro fire department who responded to the recent VY transformer fire. The bottom line question I asked from this; was on a national scale, are we providing adequate resources and management to the fire departments thought the nation. Did you catch that Boston Globe series on that?
When the VT politician’s gives out metals of heroism in an event like this, and the coincidence of inadequate fire capabilities on a national scale in a major newspaper –you have to wonder what the real rationale is with the medal giving orgy. It is my experience that they are tying to cover-up the incompetence and failure to act with the VT politicians -and all the town officials and elites on their oversight and management of the fire services. Does anybody remember the Rode Island nightclub fire that killed over a hundred?
What you should know is that a fire like the Wilder building it should have never happened…the sin is it should never have happened….and we know for decades that old buildings can be serious threat of a large scale fire in the old parts of our town and cities. We invented the modern fire code and sprinklers for that in response to the horrid death toll from these disasters. What we know is that the real–estate and property owners have a lot of influence in setting the fire department interpretation of fire codes. We know for a fact that Brattleboro has been involved in political fire department favors in support of the property owners.
I know the buildings across the street from the Wilder building are sprinklered –why didn’t the wilder building have sprinklers? What are the codes for sprinklers? Don’t you have a perverse reward system for not following the rules when you think about giving state grants for the reconstruction of the destroyed building -so your reward the rule breaker and you punish the people who have to invest in a sprinklers system?
So from what I see in Brattleboro the fire safety codes are completely corrupted by corrupt official and the politicians –and I would wonder if it is a state wide corruption with fire safety codes with all the happy faces seen in the Vermont House of representatives.
I consider that is a direct threat to the health and safety of many Vermonters who walk and dwell in corrupted safety fire coded buildings.
Brattleboro Reformer
House honors firefighters By CAROLYN LORIé Reformer Staff
Tuesday, February 01, 2005 - BRATTLEBORO -- The Vermont House of Representatives honored the firefighters of the Brattleboro Fire Department on Monday for their quick action and professional handling of the Wilder Building fire.
State Reps. Daryl Pillsbury, I-Brattleboro, Sarah Edwards, P-Brattleboro, Virginia Milkey, D-Brattleboro, and Patricia O'Donnell, R-Vernon, as well as Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, presented Chief David Emery and Assistant Chief Michael Bucossi with a copy of a House resolution recognizing the "outstanding work of the Brattleboro Fire Department."
"We're proud to have you protecting us," said Pillsbury.
The brief ceremony was held at the fire station.
The fast-moving blaze that tested the mettle of the department broke out on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2004. Shortly before 6 a.m., the alarm in the historic Wilder Building sounded and minutes later the Brattleboro crew was on the scene.
It wasn't long before the top two floors of the building were engulfed. Two firefighters, Chris George and Greg Seymour, escaped serious injury when they recognized the signs of an impending flashover and knew just what to do.
Eventually, more than 15 departments and over 100 personnel fought the blaze. At the peak of the effort, 7,000 gallons of water per minute were being pumped into the fire. By the end of the day, 700,000 gallons of water were used.
The fire started when one of the tenants, Rose Billetdeaux, fell asleep with a lit cigarette. She suffered burns over 40 percent of her body. There were no other injuries, but 10 people living on the third and fourth floor lost their homes, all their possessions and at least two cats. Water damage also destroyed two businesses on the ground floor.
What wasn't destroyed was the historic Latchis Theater next door. The resolution refers specifically to this accomplishment, recognizing the amount of vigilance and expertise it took to keep the theater from catching fire.
Town Manager Jerry Remillard, a former firefighter, echoed that sentiment.
"There were break points in that fire that had to be handled correctly," he said. "We are very fortunate to have the department and personnel that we do."
In addition to state legislators, Selectboard members Pat DeAngelo, Joerg Mayer, Steven Steidle and Kevin Yager attended Monday's ceremony.
"We have an incredible fire department here in Brattleboro," said DeAngelo. "They deserve every bit of recognition they get -- at every fire they fight."
According to White, who works closely with fire departments around the state, Emery is a well-respected figure within the firefighting community.
Though the chief was out of town when the blaze began, the lawmakers praised him for ensuring that his department was well-run and well-prepared.
Firefighter Chris George, whose name appears in the resolution, said he was pleased with the House's honor.
"Knowing we have a good reputation in the state should make everyone feel proud," he said.
George was quick to point out that without the aid of the other departments, their task would have been much more arduous.
Despite the hours and hours the men spent putting out the fire and the hours spent dealing with the aftermath, most of the firefighters are hesitant to take any credit.
Moments after the ceremony ended, Bucossi, whose name appeared in the resolution for his role as commander-in-chief for much of the blaze, shrugged his shoulders and said: "It's quite an honor to be recognized like this -- especially just for doing your job."
When the VT politician’s gives out metals of heroism in an event like this, and the coincidence of inadequate fire capabilities on a national scale in a major newspaper –you have to wonder what the real rationale is with the medal giving orgy. It is my experience that they are tying to cover-up the incompetence and failure to act with the VT politicians -and all the town officials and elites on their oversight and management of the fire services. Does anybody remember the Rode Island nightclub fire that killed over a hundred?
What you should know is that a fire like the Wilder building it should have never happened…the sin is it should never have happened….and we know for decades that old buildings can be serious threat of a large scale fire in the old parts of our town and cities. We invented the modern fire code and sprinklers for that in response to the horrid death toll from these disasters. What we know is that the real–estate and property owners have a lot of influence in setting the fire department interpretation of fire codes. We know for a fact that Brattleboro has been involved in political fire department favors in support of the property owners.
I know the buildings across the street from the Wilder building are sprinklered –why didn’t the wilder building have sprinklers? What are the codes for sprinklers? Don’t you have a perverse reward system for not following the rules when you think about giving state grants for the reconstruction of the destroyed building -so your reward the rule breaker and you punish the people who have to invest in a sprinklers system?
So from what I see in Brattleboro the fire safety codes are completely corrupted by corrupt official and the politicians –and I would wonder if it is a state wide corruption with fire safety codes with all the happy faces seen in the Vermont House of representatives.
I consider that is a direct threat to the health and safety of many Vermonters who walk and dwell in corrupted safety fire coded buildings.
Brattleboro Reformer
House honors firefighters By CAROLYN LORIé Reformer Staff
Tuesday, February 01, 2005 - BRATTLEBORO -- The Vermont House of Representatives honored the firefighters of the Brattleboro Fire Department on Monday for their quick action and professional handling of the Wilder Building fire.
State Reps. Daryl Pillsbury, I-Brattleboro, Sarah Edwards, P-Brattleboro, Virginia Milkey, D-Brattleboro, and Patricia O'Donnell, R-Vernon, as well as Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, presented Chief David Emery and Assistant Chief Michael Bucossi with a copy of a House resolution recognizing the "outstanding work of the Brattleboro Fire Department."
"We're proud to have you protecting us," said Pillsbury.
The brief ceremony was held at the fire station.
The fast-moving blaze that tested the mettle of the department broke out on Saturday, Dec. 4, 2004. Shortly before 6 a.m., the alarm in the historic Wilder Building sounded and minutes later the Brattleboro crew was on the scene.
It wasn't long before the top two floors of the building were engulfed. Two firefighters, Chris George and Greg Seymour, escaped serious injury when they recognized the signs of an impending flashover and knew just what to do.
Eventually, more than 15 departments and over 100 personnel fought the blaze. At the peak of the effort, 7,000 gallons of water per minute were being pumped into the fire. By the end of the day, 700,000 gallons of water were used.
The fire started when one of the tenants, Rose Billetdeaux, fell asleep with a lit cigarette. She suffered burns over 40 percent of her body. There were no other injuries, but 10 people living on the third and fourth floor lost their homes, all their possessions and at least two cats. Water damage also destroyed two businesses on the ground floor.
What wasn't destroyed was the historic Latchis Theater next door. The resolution refers specifically to this accomplishment, recognizing the amount of vigilance and expertise it took to keep the theater from catching fire.
Town Manager Jerry Remillard, a former firefighter, echoed that sentiment.
"There were break points in that fire that had to be handled correctly," he said. "We are very fortunate to have the department and personnel that we do."
In addition to state legislators, Selectboard members Pat DeAngelo, Joerg Mayer, Steven Steidle and Kevin Yager attended Monday's ceremony.
"We have an incredible fire department here in Brattleboro," said DeAngelo. "They deserve every bit of recognition they get -- at every fire they fight."
According to White, who works closely with fire departments around the state, Emery is a well-respected figure within the firefighting community.
Though the chief was out of town when the blaze began, the lawmakers praised him for ensuring that his department was well-run and well-prepared.
Firefighter Chris George, whose name appears in the resolution, said he was pleased with the House's honor.
"Knowing we have a good reputation in the state should make everyone feel proud," he said.
George was quick to point out that without the aid of the other departments, their task would have been much more arduous.
Despite the hours and hours the men spent putting out the fire and the hours spent dealing with the aftermath, most of the firefighters are hesitant to take any credit.
Moments after the ceremony ended, Bucossi, whose name appeared in the resolution for his role as commander-in-chief for much of the blaze, shrugged his shoulders and said: "It's quite an honor to be recognized like this -- especially just for doing your job."
Crazy Radio gives patients voice
Crazy Radio gives patients voice
By Nicola Fell BBC correspondent, Argentina
Saturday afternoon in Buenos Aires: tucked away behind the towering, prison-like Jose Borda psychiatric hospital, a large group of people is gathering.
Under the shade of a tree, a haphazard radio studio is being put together.
This is Radio La Colifata, which in Buenos Aires slang means Crazy Radio - the first radio show in the world to broadcast live from a mental hospital.
Julio Cesar is one of the show's presenters.
He admitted himself to the hospital 10 years ago, when he sank into deep depression after losing his eight-month-old daughter.
"I didn't want to live, work, eat, or leave the house," he says. "My family didn't understand me. My family was censoring me and being in the house was making me ill.
"So I preferred to be here, where I had total freedom to express myself."
Speech therapy
Alfredo Olivera, a psychologist who created Radio La Colifata, explains how it all began: "I simply used a small Dictaphone.
They aren't so crazy as people often think - they say things that are spot on Hector Eduardo Costa, Listener
"I invited some patients to sit around a table and speak about whatever they wanted. The only thing they had to do was, if they wanted to talk, they had to have the Dictaphone in their hand and when they were finished pass it to another.
"This, as a concept, already had a therapeutic element - the right to speak and giving the right to another."
Mr Cesar believes that for his own recovery, it was more powerful than drugs.
"The doctors are very technical," he says. "They give you a pill and tell you to sleep, and then you are cancelled out.
"The radio releases you and the wall around the hospital no longer exists. The antenna knocks it down."
Popular
More than a therapy, the show has proven popular with an estimated 12 million listeners.
Taxi driver Hector Eduardo Costa listens as he works through the night.
I thought they would say: 'Hey, look at the crazy guy,' but it's the opposite - they embrace me in the streets Hugo Norberto Lopez, Presenter
He says: "They aren't so crazy as people often think. They say things that are spot on. Sometimes they write poems, sing songs, and it is very interesting."
Away from the media limelight, the hospital says the show has had great therapeutic results.
Thirty percent of patients who participate are released, and not one of these patients who continues outpatient therapy at Radio La Colifata has been readmitted.
That compares with two-thirds of patients being readmitted if they do not continue outpatient therapy with the radio, its creator Mr Olivera says.
The Radio La Colifata team are now trying their hand at television, with their debut on Canal 7, as part of its health programme.
Patient Hugo Norberto Lopez is presenting as part of his outpatient treatment.
He believes Radio La Colifata plays an important educational role in society: "It de-mystifies mental illness.
"In my district, I thought they would say: 'Hey, look at the crazy guy,' but it's the opposite. They embrace me in the streets and congratulate me. It shows people are beginning to understand."
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4120397.stmPublished: 2005/01/31 14:32:54 GMT© BBC MMV
By Nicola Fell BBC correspondent, Argentina
Saturday afternoon in Buenos Aires: tucked away behind the towering, prison-like Jose Borda psychiatric hospital, a large group of people is gathering.
Under the shade of a tree, a haphazard radio studio is being put together.
This is Radio La Colifata, which in Buenos Aires slang means Crazy Radio - the first radio show in the world to broadcast live from a mental hospital.
Julio Cesar is one of the show's presenters.
He admitted himself to the hospital 10 years ago, when he sank into deep depression after losing his eight-month-old daughter.
"I didn't want to live, work, eat, or leave the house," he says. "My family didn't understand me. My family was censoring me and being in the house was making me ill.
"So I preferred to be here, where I had total freedom to express myself."
Speech therapy
Alfredo Olivera, a psychologist who created Radio La Colifata, explains how it all began: "I simply used a small Dictaphone.
They aren't so crazy as people often think - they say things that are spot on Hector Eduardo Costa, Listener
"I invited some patients to sit around a table and speak about whatever they wanted. The only thing they had to do was, if they wanted to talk, they had to have the Dictaphone in their hand and when they were finished pass it to another.
"This, as a concept, already had a therapeutic element - the right to speak and giving the right to another."
Mr Cesar believes that for his own recovery, it was more powerful than drugs.
"The doctors are very technical," he says. "They give you a pill and tell you to sleep, and then you are cancelled out.
"The radio releases you and the wall around the hospital no longer exists. The antenna knocks it down."
Popular
More than a therapy, the show has proven popular with an estimated 12 million listeners.
Taxi driver Hector Eduardo Costa listens as he works through the night.
I thought they would say: 'Hey, look at the crazy guy,' but it's the opposite - they embrace me in the streets Hugo Norberto Lopez, Presenter
He says: "They aren't so crazy as people often think. They say things that are spot on. Sometimes they write poems, sing songs, and it is very interesting."
Away from the media limelight, the hospital says the show has had great therapeutic results.
Thirty percent of patients who participate are released, and not one of these patients who continues outpatient therapy at Radio La Colifata has been readmitted.
That compares with two-thirds of patients being readmitted if they do not continue outpatient therapy with the radio, its creator Mr Olivera says.
The Radio La Colifata team are now trying their hand at television, with their debut on Canal 7, as part of its health programme.
Patient Hugo Norberto Lopez is presenting as part of his outpatient treatment.
He believes Radio La Colifata plays an important educational role in society: "It de-mystifies mental illness.
"In my district, I thought they would say: 'Hey, look at the crazy guy,' but it's the opposite. They embrace me in the streets and congratulate me. It shows people are beginning to understand."
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/4120397.stmPublished: 2005/01/31 14:32:54 GMT© BBC MMV
Indian Point and Westchester Diner
Wow. I was eating at the Westchester Diner sitting right outside Indian Point yesterday. It quite amazing walking in the dinner with the choice of the daily specials sitting on the table in the entrance –where you get to see the real meal before you even sit down. I had the fried fish dinner.
I’d talked to many local people –with both positives and negative of the plant. The public certainly knows the plant is there.
My most memorable person I talked to was a black woman working at the local supermaket. I wonder how she was doing in this high income area. I asked her what does she think of the plant. She said she doesn’t know. She talked about all the other threats about the country, chemical plants and discharges –what is one more. She told me she is hanging on by her fingernails like all of the rest of us around here.
What I got from her she was facing a mountain of threats against her lifestyle -she was fatalistic with all the problems around her. Isn’t that amazing.
...By the way I visited Stony Point, Mount Ivy, Briarcliff Manner and Chappaqua. What I noticed was all the high voltage power lines and all the multi million dollar houses on the mountains–and those telephone poles loaded with thick heavy cables. Wonder how many car accidents there are between telephone poles? I like those huge cables that needs a wire web around the cable and attaches to the straining telephone poles. What I am getting at, is can you imagine the results of a major hurricane –it will be economic damage unlike we’ve ever had –we’ve become so venerable.
I’d talked to many local people –with both positives and negative of the plant. The public certainly knows the plant is there.
My most memorable person I talked to was a black woman working at the local supermaket. I wonder how she was doing in this high income area. I asked her what does she think of the plant. She said she doesn’t know. She talked about all the other threats about the country, chemical plants and discharges –what is one more. She told me she is hanging on by her fingernails like all of the rest of us around here.
What I got from her she was facing a mountain of threats against her lifestyle -she was fatalistic with all the problems around her. Isn’t that amazing.
...By the way I visited Stony Point, Mount Ivy, Briarcliff Manner and Chappaqua. What I noticed was all the high voltage power lines and all the multi million dollar houses on the mountains–and those telephone poles loaded with thick heavy cables. Wonder how many car accidents there are between telephone poles? I like those huge cables that needs a wire web around the cable and attaches to the straining telephone poles. What I am getting at, is can you imagine the results of a major hurricane –it will be economic damage unlike we’ve ever had –we’ve become so venerable.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Train wreck in the Vermont state mental hospital
Thu, 27 Jan 2005 10:24:57 -0800 (PST)Subject:Re: [Root_Cause_State_of_the_Practice] Train Wreck: What can rooticians learn from this one?
For decades, transit officials have been aware that the system was obsolete, but updating it - both logistically and financially - has been seen as impractical.”
222 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/26/nyregion/26subway.html?pagewanted=print&position=www
If you think this is a republican issue or President Bush with the disabled you are wrong. Most of the managers and the "hands on" people with the disabled are hard nosed liberals. What I find most amazing, is how the good people can turn any ideology into a destructive tool of self interest.
You should see the distorted liberal rationales they use as tools to hide what is going on in the name of human rights and dignity. Almost without any controls they can accuse any employee with a human right violation in an attempt to hide the greater abuse that is going on. It is a concentration of unconscionable power bar no other industry, because it is perceived and structured as they are doing it in the interest of the weak and powerless. They are abusing power in this manner for the sole interest of selfish self interest. It’s the old iceberg.
We see it in the Clinton(president) and Dean (VTgovernor) where they created policies of economic governmental efficiencies in the name of votes–cut backs to the least of us- and they slit the throats of many helpless people in the name of a smaller government philosophy –i.e. it’s clearly what the public wants and demands of the democratic politicians. You see that’s the dirty little shame and secrete of our whole nation –is the majority of us are systematically abusing the least of us. That’s why it’s so intractable. Didn’t the governmental cutbacks in the Clinton administration lead to the NASA Columbia tragedy? Didn’t that destroy the NASA safety culture really? So what do we really think about the Vermont state mental hospital meltdown?
You see it’s us…us…us… –who is committing crimesagainst ourselves-most especially our liberals.
We’ve seen many so called liberals democratic governors, who have with malice have cut costs of the human services in a bid to get reelected even as they intentionally reduced transparency to themselves of the wreckage of lives all around them -and to the public. What we get is these perpetual seasonal political reorganization of the human service agencies– they spends tons of money on experts, reorganization experts and credit card dinner and drinks, thus the elites gets a bonus out of the horrors, everyone gets destabilized by the repeated changes of the organization -but it creates the illusion that the political class is acting on the horrors of the system.
Folks it’s political class protection and nothing elsehere –and the democrats are up to their necks withthis knowingly disgrace…
We are watching very closely the recent subway fire in Manhattan subways –the A and C lines. It’s amazing the interactions with the “undesirables”( homeless and disabled) potentially setting the fires –and disrupting 600,000 people’s lives for months and years–antiquated and 1930’s engineering of the wiring ofthe subway –not being able to find the money for the system upgrades – and the status of our mega city infrastructures as seen in this. It’s a world wide problem.
We sit there looking at these sparkling cities from a distant -but we wonder what is really going on in the belly of the beast.
Isn't that the symbol of our times on the big picture?
Thanks,
mike
State hospital loses fundingFebruary 2, 2005
By Darren M. Allen Vermont Press Bureau
MONTPELIER — Two months after restoring millions of dollars in funding for the Vermont State Hospital, the federal government yanked it all away again, Gov. James Douglas announced Tuesday.222
Prompted by the disappearance of two patients from the Waterbury hospital last week, the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services late Monday decided to decertify the trou2led 113-year-old inpatient psychiatric facility, citing safety concerns.2222
The decertification means the state will lose nearly $3.1 million in the current and following budget years, and, in all likelihood, will hasten the facility's closure.222
"This situation is entirely unacceptable," Douglas said. "The problems are so severe and so systemic, that nothing short of total reform will be acceptable."222
To that end, the governor said he wanted to accelerate the closure of the hospital, a move contemplated to occur no sooner than 2009 under current administration timetables. Both Douglas and Agency of Human Services Secretary Charles Smith declined to specify how quickly the closure can occur.22
"We are going to accelerate even faster plans to close the state hospital," Smith said. "We obviously will take a very hard look at those timetables."222
The decertification comes 60 days after the hospital regained certification after having lost it for 14 months. The federal government first took away the hospital's Medicare and Medicaid funding amid two patient suicides and findings of inadequate care. That move cost Vermont about $5 million.222
The decertification also comes at a time when the state budget can least afford another multi-million dollar hit, legislative and administration officials said. The current year's budget adjustment act — scheduled for debate on the House floor in a day or two — will be affected, as will next year's full budget.222
"It doesn't seem like there is any option but to find the money and work through this," said Speaker of the House Gaye Symington, D-Jericho. "The last thing we needed was another $1.5 million hit to the budget."222
Douglas was said to have been livid late Monday night when he received word of the pending decertification, particularly since he believed that the management and care changes made over the fall were "a step in the right direction," according to Administration Secretary Michael Smith.2222
Douglas said, "For many months, I thought we were making great progress and were moving in the right direction. The hospital has failed to create a culture of safety."2222
The two disappearances last week were reported to the federal government by the Vermont Division of Licensing and Protection. In one instance, a patient with permission to be outdoors left the hospital grounds Thursday, but was later returned.2222
A day earlier, Mary Ellen Gottlieb, 46, was taken by two attendants to Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington for a medical appointment. One of the attendants left to check on the car, and, when Gottlieb asked the other to get her a drink of water, she fled, according to the Vermont State Police.222
She was still at large Tuesday night, and was "considered to be a danger to herself and others," the police said.222
Legislative leaders and mental health advocates said they were generally pleased that the governor wants to accelerate the hospital's closing, but they were concerned with the current roster of nearly 50 patients.
"At last we have the motivation to move expeditiously towards closing," said Sen. James Leddy, D-Burlington. He has long advocated closing the troubled hospital and finding better treatment options for its patients.2222
He suggested that the state should seriously consider sending some patients to empty psychiatric beds in New Hampshire hospitals.2222
Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, also expressed concern for the safety of the patients. She said they were subject to the equivalent of a lock-down in the wake of the disappearances last week.222
"No one could leave, and while this was not a punishment, that is the net effect to the patients," the longtime mental health advocate said.2222
She noted that the administration has been talking about closing the hospital for at least two years. Until now, she questioned Douglas' resolve.222
"I'm very much hopeful this will turn that around and provide the emphasis and impetus that was lacking," she said.222
Douglas' resolve appeared more sturdy Tuesday.222
"I find this entire situation completely unacceptable," the governor said. "This lack of rigorous attention to detail — this failure to meet its most fundamental obligations — is, I believe, indicative of pervasive systemic flaws that must be and will be addressed as expeditiously as possible."222
His administration secretary reiterated that "all options are on the table."222
Ed Paquin, executive director of Vermont Protection and Advocacy, said the decertification "has made a political decision for the administration. Clearly they have a huge challenge, but one thing has been decided for them: they have to address this quickly."222
Symington said that while she commended the governor for taking quick action, the fate of the patients must not be ignored in crafting a solution.222
"You can't just wish away this population of 54 patients," she said. "We can't just come in today and close the door. These patients have nowhere to go tomorrow."222
Vermont Press Bureau reporter John Zicconi contributed to this report.2222Contact Darren Allen at darren.allen@rutlandherald.com.
For decades, transit officials have been aware that the system was obsolete, but updating it - both logistically and financially - has been seen as impractical.”
222 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/26/nyregion/26subway.html?pagewanted=print&position=www
If you think this is a republican issue or President Bush with the disabled you are wrong. Most of the managers and the "hands on" people with the disabled are hard nosed liberals. What I find most amazing, is how the good people can turn any ideology into a destructive tool of self interest.
You should see the distorted liberal rationales they use as tools to hide what is going on in the name of human rights and dignity. Almost without any controls they can accuse any employee with a human right violation in an attempt to hide the greater abuse that is going on. It is a concentration of unconscionable power bar no other industry, because it is perceived and structured as they are doing it in the interest of the weak and powerless. They are abusing power in this manner for the sole interest of selfish self interest. It’s the old iceberg.
We see it in the Clinton(president) and Dean (VTgovernor) where they created policies of economic governmental efficiencies in the name of votes–cut backs to the least of us- and they slit the throats of many helpless people in the name of a smaller government philosophy –i.e. it’s clearly what the public wants and demands of the democratic politicians. You see that’s the dirty little shame and secrete of our whole nation –is the majority of us are systematically abusing the least of us. That’s why it’s so intractable. Didn’t the governmental cutbacks in the Clinton administration lead to the NASA Columbia tragedy? Didn’t that destroy the NASA safety culture really? So what do we really think about the Vermont state mental hospital meltdown?
You see it’s us…us…us… –who is committing crimesagainst ourselves-most especially our liberals.
We’ve seen many so called liberals democratic governors, who have with malice have cut costs of the human services in a bid to get reelected even as they intentionally reduced transparency to themselves of the wreckage of lives all around them -and to the public. What we get is these perpetual seasonal political reorganization of the human service agencies– they spends tons of money on experts, reorganization experts and credit card dinner and drinks, thus the elites gets a bonus out of the horrors, everyone gets destabilized by the repeated changes of the organization -but it creates the illusion that the political class is acting on the horrors of the system.
Folks it’s political class protection and nothing elsehere –and the democrats are up to their necks withthis knowingly disgrace…
We are watching very closely the recent subway fire in Manhattan subways –the A and C lines. It’s amazing the interactions with the “undesirables”( homeless and disabled) potentially setting the fires –and disrupting 600,000 people’s lives for months and years–antiquated and 1930’s engineering of the wiring ofthe subway –not being able to find the money for the system upgrades – and the status of our mega city infrastructures as seen in this. It’s a world wide problem.
We sit there looking at these sparkling cities from a distant -but we wonder what is really going on in the belly of the beast.
Isn't that the symbol of our times on the big picture?
Thanks,
mike
State hospital loses fundingFebruary 2, 2005
By Darren M. Allen Vermont Press Bureau
MONTPELIER — Two months after restoring millions of dollars in funding for the Vermont State Hospital, the federal government yanked it all away again, Gov. James Douglas announced Tuesday.222
Prompted by the disappearance of two patients from the Waterbury hospital last week, the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services late Monday decided to decertify the trou2led 113-year-old inpatient psychiatric facility, citing safety concerns.2222
The decertification means the state will lose nearly $3.1 million in the current and following budget years, and, in all likelihood, will hasten the facility's closure.222
"This situation is entirely unacceptable," Douglas said. "The problems are so severe and so systemic, that nothing short of total reform will be acceptable."222
To that end, the governor said he wanted to accelerate the closure of the hospital, a move contemplated to occur no sooner than 2009 under current administration timetables. Both Douglas and Agency of Human Services Secretary Charles Smith declined to specify how quickly the closure can occur.22
"We are going to accelerate even faster plans to close the state hospital," Smith said. "We obviously will take a very hard look at those timetables."222
The decertification comes 60 days after the hospital regained certification after having lost it for 14 months. The federal government first took away the hospital's Medicare and Medicaid funding amid two patient suicides and findings of inadequate care. That move cost Vermont about $5 million.222
The decertification also comes at a time when the state budget can least afford another multi-million dollar hit, legislative and administration officials said. The current year's budget adjustment act — scheduled for debate on the House floor in a day or two — will be affected, as will next year's full budget.222
"It doesn't seem like there is any option but to find the money and work through this," said Speaker of the House Gaye Symington, D-Jericho. "The last thing we needed was another $1.5 million hit to the budget."222
Douglas was said to have been livid late Monday night when he received word of the pending decertification, particularly since he believed that the management and care changes made over the fall were "a step in the right direction," according to Administration Secretary Michael Smith.2222
Douglas said, "For many months, I thought we were making great progress and were moving in the right direction. The hospital has failed to create a culture of safety."2222
The two disappearances last week were reported to the federal government by the Vermont Division of Licensing and Protection. In one instance, a patient with permission to be outdoors left the hospital grounds Thursday, but was later returned.2222
A day earlier, Mary Ellen Gottlieb, 46, was taken by two attendants to Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington for a medical appointment. One of the attendants left to check on the car, and, when Gottlieb asked the other to get her a drink of water, she fled, according to the Vermont State Police.222
She was still at large Tuesday night, and was "considered to be a danger to herself and others," the police said.222
Legislative leaders and mental health advocates said they were generally pleased that the governor wants to accelerate the hospital's closing, but they were concerned with the current roster of nearly 50 patients.
"At last we have the motivation to move expeditiously towards closing," said Sen. James Leddy, D-Burlington. He has long advocated closing the troubled hospital and finding better treatment options for its patients.2222
He suggested that the state should seriously consider sending some patients to empty psychiatric beds in New Hampshire hospitals.2222
Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, also expressed concern for the safety of the patients. She said they were subject to the equivalent of a lock-down in the wake of the disappearances last week.222
"No one could leave, and while this was not a punishment, that is the net effect to the patients," the longtime mental health advocate said.2222
She noted that the administration has been talking about closing the hospital for at least two years. Until now, she questioned Douglas' resolve.222
"I'm very much hopeful this will turn that around and provide the emphasis and impetus that was lacking," she said.222
Douglas' resolve appeared more sturdy Tuesday.222
"I find this entire situation completely unacceptable," the governor said. "This lack of rigorous attention to detail — this failure to meet its most fundamental obligations — is, I believe, indicative of pervasive systemic flaws that must be and will be addressed as expeditiously as possible."222
His administration secretary reiterated that "all options are on the table."222
Ed Paquin, executive director of Vermont Protection and Advocacy, said the decertification "has made a political decision for the administration. Clearly they have a huge challenge, but one thing has been decided for them: they have to address this quickly."222
Symington said that while she commended the governor for taking quick action, the fate of the patients must not be ignored in crafting a solution.222
"You can't just wish away this population of 54 patients," she said. "We can't just come in today and close the door. These patients have nowhere to go tomorrow."222
Vermont Press Bureau reporter John Zicconi contributed to this report.2222Contact Darren Allen at darren.allen@rutlandherald.com.
Monday, January 31, 2005
Falloff from talking about the firefighting capability of Vermont Yankee-much public good
Fallout from talking about the fire fighting capability of VY –much public good!
http://www.boston.com/news/specials/fires/
Boston Globe special Report
Deadly delays:The Decline of Fire Response
From: "Mike Mulligan" <steamshovel2002@y...>
Date: Tue Jul 6, 2004 5:27 pm Subject: Fallout from talking about the fire fighting capability of VY –much public good!
I guess the question is -we need a bigger creative conception ofwhat a fire department can do for us –how about homeland security specialist. Do we need a greater federal professional bureaucratic structure -such that the feds enforce nationwide minimum standardand train all local departments on the most current technology?
I think we really now need a national report on the current firefighting capabilities –I think you would find enormous deficiencies in services with budget problems in recent years throughout the country.
What we really need is a creative brainstorming session of professional experts -what is the most modern progressive new idea of the organization of a city's' firedepartment. I am telling you for a fact these fire fighters come in daily contact with members of the public –they see things that other officials don't –and I got a feeling this information could be put to great use for the public benefit.
I guess I would ask it to the firefighters, the fire department management, city and municipal managers --- tells us about your most creative prefect fantasy of a new ultra progressive modern public service and fire fighting department. Like community policing –how can we drive the skills of the fire department down into the ommunity. I am talking about big community pre fire fighting and pro public safety strategy. It's time to think really big!
Take for example the fire fighters, they would know of areas of the town with repeated fires. They would know of the economic concerns of the area -thus as the biggest pre fire strategy –the idea that the fire fighters could be the ones to push for economic development of the idea and the need for greater social services. What could we do with a closer collaboration of the fire fighters, the police, and the social agencies -the greater integration of all of our public services in bettering the lives of its people?
You see what I am saying –these fire fighters have become very skilled observers of the "fire situation" and they have a very accurate perception on the environment around them. We should use those skills in other ways.
How this relates to nuclear –it started with talking about the firefighting capabilities of Vermont Yankee!
Report: Fewer resources mean greater risks for firefighters
January 31, 2005
BOSTON -- Most firefighters who died fighting fires in recent years were working under substandard conditions -- arriving too late and without enough help or resources, according to a Boston Globe analysis published Monday.
And most were entering burning buildings where there was no one inside to save.2222
The newspaper examined federal investigative reports from 52 fires around the country that killed 80 firefighters between 1997 and 2004.
The Globe found that in just 35 of the 52 fires, departments were able to get one firefighter to the scene within 6 minutes.
In 27 of the fires, four firefighters were able to get to the scene within 6 minutes, the minimum force recommended by the National Fire Protection Association.
The manpower standard for safe and effective work at a building fire -- 15 firefighters arriving within 10 minutes -- was met in only 18 of the fires.
In 14 of the 52 fires, there was a suspicion that someone might be inside the burning buildings. In only six of fires was there actually anyone inside.
The deaths studied did not include those from heart attacks or motor vehicle accidents. The incidents involved a mix of volunteer and career fire departments in cities like New York and Memphis, as well as small towns.
Some fire chiefs questioned whether they should stop sending firefighters into burning buildings if they can't there soon enough and with enough people to do the job safely.
"We're a can-do organization. We give it the old college try," said Chief Ronald J. Siarnicki, former chief in Prince George's County, Md., who keeps count of line-of-duty deaths as executive director of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
"But maybe we need to stop accepting a five-person crew to cover an entire town. Maybe we need to say, 'We don't have the resources to do this job.' We're losing firefighters, and there are so many near misses," he told the Globe.
The number of fires in the United States has declined sharply, but the number of firefighter deaths are steady at about 100 per year, not including Sept. 11. More than half of those deaths were from heart attacks and motor vehicle accidents.
Each death is unique, but delays and low staffing add to the risk, said Vincent Dunn, a retired New York City deputy fire chief who examined the Globe's findings.222
"The more firefighters you have, the faster you can put out the fire," he said. "Chances of a firefighter's death increase the longer a fire burns."
In Massachusetts, the firefighters' union estimates the state has lost about 1,000 out of 13,000 firefighters since 1981. That's when a state law took effect known as Proposition 2 1/2, which limits property tax increases.
During that time, the population has increased and departments have taken on added duties such as ambulance calls.
The number of full-time firefighters nationwide is essentially unchanged, but the volume of emergency calls has doubled.
Other hazards identified by the Globe include shortages of equipment, such as self-contained breathing apparatus, and use of risky tactics beyond the capacity of small departments. There is also a lack of available backup for weary fire crews, something federal investigators warned of after the 1999 fire that killed six Worcester firefighters.
It was lack of survivor benefits that drew national attention to the 2003 death of part-time firefighter Martin McNamara. Voters in Lancaster, the town where he died, later rejected a tax increase to raise $650,000 in pension funding for his family.
A legislative committee is working on a bill to require death benefits for volunteer firefighters, but there is no move to set state requirements for equipment, staffing or training. 22222
© Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.boston.com/news/specials/fires/
Boston Globe special Report
Deadly delays:The Decline of Fire Response
From: "Mike Mulligan" <steamshovel2002@y...>
Date: Tue Jul 6, 2004 5:27 pm Subject: Fallout from talking about the fire fighting capability of VY –much public good!
I guess the question is -we need a bigger creative conception ofwhat a fire department can do for us –how about homeland security specialist. Do we need a greater federal professional bureaucratic structure -such that the feds enforce nationwide minimum standardand train all local departments on the most current technology?
I think we really now need a national report on the current firefighting capabilities –I think you would find enormous deficiencies in services with budget problems in recent years throughout the country.
What we really need is a creative brainstorming session of professional experts -what is the most modern progressive new idea of the organization of a city's' firedepartment. I am telling you for a fact these fire fighters come in daily contact with members of the public –they see things that other officials don't –and I got a feeling this information could be put to great use for the public benefit.
I guess I would ask it to the firefighters, the fire department management, city and municipal managers --- tells us about your most creative prefect fantasy of a new ultra progressive modern public service and fire fighting department. Like community policing –how can we drive the skills of the fire department down into the ommunity. I am talking about big community pre fire fighting and pro public safety strategy. It's time to think really big!
Take for example the fire fighters, they would know of areas of the town with repeated fires. They would know of the economic concerns of the area -thus as the biggest pre fire strategy –the idea that the fire fighters could be the ones to push for economic development of the idea and the need for greater social services. What could we do with a closer collaboration of the fire fighters, the police, and the social agencies -the greater integration of all of our public services in bettering the lives of its people?
You see what I am saying –these fire fighters have become very skilled observers of the "fire situation" and they have a very accurate perception on the environment around them. We should use those skills in other ways.
How this relates to nuclear –it started with talking about the firefighting capabilities of Vermont Yankee!
Report: Fewer resources mean greater risks for firefighters
January 31, 2005
BOSTON -- Most firefighters who died fighting fires in recent years were working under substandard conditions -- arriving too late and without enough help or resources, according to a Boston Globe analysis published Monday.
And most were entering burning buildings where there was no one inside to save.2222
The newspaper examined federal investigative reports from 52 fires around the country that killed 80 firefighters between 1997 and 2004.
The Globe found that in just 35 of the 52 fires, departments were able to get one firefighter to the scene within 6 minutes.
In 27 of the fires, four firefighters were able to get to the scene within 6 minutes, the minimum force recommended by the National Fire Protection Association.
The manpower standard for safe and effective work at a building fire -- 15 firefighters arriving within 10 minutes -- was met in only 18 of the fires.
In 14 of the 52 fires, there was a suspicion that someone might be inside the burning buildings. In only six of fires was there actually anyone inside.
The deaths studied did not include those from heart attacks or motor vehicle accidents. The incidents involved a mix of volunteer and career fire departments in cities like New York and Memphis, as well as small towns.
Some fire chiefs questioned whether they should stop sending firefighters into burning buildings if they can't there soon enough and with enough people to do the job safely.
"We're a can-do organization. We give it the old college try," said Chief Ronald J. Siarnicki, former chief in Prince George's County, Md., who keeps count of line-of-duty deaths as executive director of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
"But maybe we need to stop accepting a five-person crew to cover an entire town. Maybe we need to say, 'We don't have the resources to do this job.' We're losing firefighters, and there are so many near misses," he told the Globe.
The number of fires in the United States has declined sharply, but the number of firefighter deaths are steady at about 100 per year, not including Sept. 11. More than half of those deaths were from heart attacks and motor vehicle accidents.
Each death is unique, but delays and low staffing add to the risk, said Vincent Dunn, a retired New York City deputy fire chief who examined the Globe's findings.222
"The more firefighters you have, the faster you can put out the fire," he said. "Chances of a firefighter's death increase the longer a fire burns."
In Massachusetts, the firefighters' union estimates the state has lost about 1,000 out of 13,000 firefighters since 1981. That's when a state law took effect known as Proposition 2 1/2, which limits property tax increases.
During that time, the population has increased and departments have taken on added duties such as ambulance calls.
The number of full-time firefighters nationwide is essentially unchanged, but the volume of emergency calls has doubled.
Other hazards identified by the Globe include shortages of equipment, such as self-contained breathing apparatus, and use of risky tactics beyond the capacity of small departments. There is also a lack of available backup for weary fire crews, something federal investigators warned of after the 1999 fire that killed six Worcester firefighters.
It was lack of survivor benefits that drew national attention to the 2003 death of part-time firefighter Martin McNamara. Voters in Lancaster, the town where he died, later rejected a tax increase to raise $650,000 in pension funding for his family.
A legislative committee is working on a bill to require death benefits for volunteer firefighters, but there is no move to set state requirements for equipment, staffing or training. 22222
© Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
If there is a god, why did he enable us to build thermal nuclear divices.
…”if there is a God, why did he enable us to create thermo nuclear devices?...
Well, I believe we are embedded in a perfect system –a creative matrix. I mean, I’ve been out in a moonless desert by myself breathlessly looking up at the stars and universe -wondering about what the meaning of this is to me. Is it just a quantum chance that we are here?
I think god is saying to us when look up at the universe –this is how creative perfection can be –and it’s telling us that this is what we should strive for that in our individual and collective world. I believe god is saying you can be as creative as I can be. Isn’t making and having a baby a similar magnitude miracle as inventing the universe. I don’t necessarily believe in the god of religions—but you get some good clues in them.
So we are embedded in the dichotomy of good and evil. This system is designed to drag us into enlightenment. If you look at the planetary conciseness change from after the development of the bomb –look at the new language we invented (MAD); look at how the bomb made us more interconnected (the red phone line to Russia); what about the positive technological fallout…the internet as we talk... So in the face of stark so call evil –you see god has invented a system where he can transform the worst evil we can dish up –into a miracle of infinate hope and goodness.
So if you see another hungry abandon disabled child in he world; if you see tyranny of another Auschwitz; if you see the hopelessness of an inner city neighborhood, if you see the shallowness of a million dollar gated community –the universe is begging each of us to be as creative in counteracting these negative as she was in making the stars, in and above our heads. That’s right; any of us has the power to interact with any of these so called hopeless problems on this planet in a big way…. indeed we were born for that…
So we sit here wondering about the industry of making the hydrogen bombs –the negative image we get is wrecking our cities and the killing of millions…of ending humanity as we know it…
But the flip side of it is the universe is always asking us… is inviting us… begging… pleading… lovingly…confident in our goodness …. of who can you be creatively in relation to the perceived horrors of a nuclear exchange or any of the horrors that is facing us today –what kind of world relationship structure can you create to counteract that…
The bigger and more intrangent the evil –the bigger the jump we make in our race towards enlightenment. Just tell me who would we be if there were no evil?
The universe is the most optimistically creative structure that was ever conceived –and it has complete faith in us and our future enlightenment! Every one of us!
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Well, I believe we are embedded in a perfect system –a creative matrix. I mean, I’ve been out in a moonless desert by myself breathlessly looking up at the stars and universe -wondering about what the meaning of this is to me. Is it just a quantum chance that we are here?
I think god is saying to us when look up at the universe –this is how creative perfection can be –and it’s telling us that this is what we should strive for that in our individual and collective world. I believe god is saying you can be as creative as I can be. Isn’t making and having a baby a similar magnitude miracle as inventing the universe. I don’t necessarily believe in the god of religions—but you get some good clues in them.
So we are embedded in the dichotomy of good and evil. This system is designed to drag us into enlightenment. If you look at the planetary conciseness change from after the development of the bomb –look at the new language we invented (MAD); look at how the bomb made us more interconnected (the red phone line to Russia); what about the positive technological fallout…the internet as we talk... So in the face of stark so call evil –you see god has invented a system where he can transform the worst evil we can dish up –into a miracle of infinate hope and goodness.
So if you see another hungry abandon disabled child in he world; if you see tyranny of another Auschwitz; if you see the hopelessness of an inner city neighborhood, if you see the shallowness of a million dollar gated community –the universe is begging each of us to be as creative in counteracting these negative as she was in making the stars, in and above our heads. That’s right; any of us has the power to interact with any of these so called hopeless problems on this planet in a big way…. indeed we were born for that…
So we sit here wondering about the industry of making the hydrogen bombs –the negative image we get is wrecking our cities and the killing of millions…of ending humanity as we know it…
But the flip side of it is the universe is always asking us… is inviting us… begging… pleading… lovingly…confident in our goodness …. of who can you be creatively in relation to the perceived horrors of a nuclear exchange or any of the horrors that is facing us today –what kind of world relationship structure can you create to counteract that…
The bigger and more intrangent the evil –the bigger the jump we make in our race towards enlightenment. Just tell me who would we be if there were no evil?
The universe is the most optimistically creative structure that was ever conceived –and it has complete faith in us and our future enlightenment! Every one of us!
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Rudy Guliani and "The Million Dollar Baby"
Rudy Giuliani and Million Dollar baby?
(I am still working on this but here is a begginning)
I was employed as personal attendant for a troubled severe Cerebral Palsy man. I pushed his wheel chair all over southern NH for a year. He had two degrees –one in music and the other in history. I fed him most of the time –he had much difficulty in feeding himself. I was with him; I think three of four times when some small incident (to me) set him off to a temper tantrum. We called the police and rescue, where the police would subdue him –place him on a stretcher –he’s go to the hospital, talk to the Psychiatrist, get some pills and then go home. I was amazed that they would do this over and over again. I knew he was on the cusp of getting arrested.
What I will never forget in talking to all the town officials - what did they thought of the John in their minds. You know, I was trying to get the historic record. He had caused a lot of trouble in the town. I remember talking to one policemen –he told me a story of finding him in the night after a snowstorm (the sidewalks weren’t shoveled), a mile or so from his apartment –where he was wheeling in the middle of the road and no coat on. The cop said it was extremely cold outside. The cop passionately said John was a hazard to the cars and to an extreme hazard himself with the cold. The cop said it was very dangerous with nobody talking care of him. I didn’t catch the meaning with the term “extreme hazard to himself” –what the community was prepared to do in defense of the person.
So what I got from all of the people around John is he was very troubled –his problems happened over and over again without solution-and it was an extremely tragic situation for the town and John. They said he was going downhill fast in the last year. He live in the middle of a small town because there was flat side walks –so he could get around and visit the local college, restaurant, and stores on his own. I understood that Tom “though” he had a sort of girl friend where she dumped him –and this led to a severe depression. This is where I learned that minor issues facing us –ends up being a life or death situation for the disabled.
Keene NH had facing a downtown crisis many years ago. Many buildings became empty as the companies had left the area for economic reasons. Somebody had a good idea –where they though they would make apartments in these abandoned buildings. I won’t go into the politics of real-estate and making money, gaining local, state and federal bond monies –to bail out the people who owned the buildings –and the false altruism inherent in this.
So we ended up with a bunch of disabled and low income apartment ringing the center of this beautiful downtown –with a lot of so called malcontents milling around the downtown businesses. I became a low income project and section eight housing inspector for about 6 months –well until they figured out what I was up to. What I can say is the low income projects was totally mismanaged and in disgraceful conditions, we were in a severe housing shortage crisis, the section 8 housing was totally politicized and was littered with startling substandard section eight housing –and the landowners running around with amazing political power about the whole process. I imagine a lot of money was being made.
In the background of this there was rumors of a huge big box store building boom just around the corner –and there was going to be a new highway built in response to this. By the way, this has all come to pass. So as I was pushing around John –all the down town store owners were seeing a reduction in the size of their businesses –and they were very fearful of the future. (Today there are many new empty storefronts.) They thought the rather regular disturbances from the undesirables were affecting their businesses –so they passed a new noise, among other ordinances. It signaled a new police response in the area.
What can clearly be said is the low income housing immediate and long term management was in complete disarray –with those living on the margins being seen a creating more trouble –and with enormous new threat to the old businesses and real-estate of the inner town. We got a severe Rudy Giuliani response to this in the name of a business threat. Did I tell they had no room in the jails –and the jails were severely under funded and mismanaged? Did I tell you the social services were also under funded –were absolutely immorally politicized, fractured, mismanaged, and useless. What can clearly be said is the social services became a jobs program for the locally politically incestuously connected.
So John became to painful to watch as he was wheeling around town –he wet his pants often because of the drugs he was taking, and at times he smelled terrible. A rude and indecent comment was made at a restaurant from a drunken customer. John was running out of places to eat –they kept kicking him out because of him creating a disturbance. Well, I think the community became fed up with him –so the comments were coming more frequent. So we told him if he gets mad –go outside and start screaming. Well, he was outside this day loudly mulling over this rude comment –where the police got a report of this. Matter of fact he was only ½ block away from the police station. The cops quietly walked up to him, tackled him in his wheel chair and breaking the large pane front window of the restaurant with John’s shoes.
The chief of police gave me this rationalization for quickly talking John out on this day and putting hand cuffs on him. John could be sitting under a pistol –with the aim of killing the police. I quickly got thrown out of his office with the assist of many other officers – I became irrational. I said,” I have to feed the guy, I have to wipe his ass –he can’t put his finger around a pistil –he doesn’t have the muscle control to keep the gun steady –he couldn’t even shoot himself…..that’s the problems you see here you f….. Idiots.”
This began a series of arrest for John. I visited him at the jail. I talked to the warden –he said john is very lucid, talkative, and friendly to all the jailers and inmates. The warden told me his jail was violating John’s human rights –the jail was built at the turn of the century –and it was not at all adequately for John’s disability. He surprisingly told me over 25% percent of the inmates could be considered to have mental problem. The warden told me he was setting up a meeting with a judge about this-john was shortly released. They are in the process of building a new jail as we speak.
So effectively the community found it too painful to put up with John. So these repeated jailing interacted with his on going depression. Wouldn’t you be depressed if you couldn’t find a girlfriend? John is now in the state hospital.
You understand what I am getting at –you see how these subtle outside interactions set him up for death in a mental institution: the indifference of the community, and the social service, and the dead agencies who could have interacted with his disabilities. John is on social security disability. You see how the long term disjointed low income housing policies set the death of john – how the economic death of the inner town and it’s hollow rebirth had a hand in it; how the politics of making money in real estate; of the politics of altruism with overhauling dead and dying inner town buildings with local, state and federal monies for the low income; and of making enormous monies with mindlessly putting together dead buildings and the disabled in the inner town. Believe me the primary determinant of the policy and rationale was about maximizing profits and political power –you have no idea of the power with the real-estate people, the politicians and the investing elites. It is immorality of the highest order –and the liberal were up to there necks with it...
Come on, the whole community and all of our governmental agencies have committed mercy euthanasia in our hearts with john. He was suffering too much for everyone –he made us suffer by watching him wheel around in his broken body…dirty... smelling…shit loaded pants …his broken mind and heart… You wanted to mercy kill him no doubt, so he wouldn’t disturb your beautiful dying green garden plotted business sidewalks -- the tree lined artificial chemically fertilized and watered Central Square -right across from that beautiful old NH white church.
To put him deep inside a mental institution; to put him silently in a corner of a room where no could hear of his rages; we could give him comfort with a “I’m crazy for you teddy bear” in a straight jacket; we could smother him in the mother’s love of a snugglely papoose board – and then to silence him once and for all with a tormented death. You know what we were hiding from –it was too painful to imagine putting yourself in that wheel chair. We are so frightened by that –and we should be…. It’s a living decades worth of tormented death no doubt… Kill him …Kill him…Kill him …stop his pain…he hurting us too much…It’s better we kill him, oh he wanted that himself, we could all see that…than look at ourselves in the mirror. You see that it is better not for us to face moral death –than look at our collective indifference to the plight of the disabled –to understand our horribly dysfunctional interaction with John through his lifetime. It is better that John faces his death …that we all not face our moral death by looking in the mirror. Another worthless death for our collective good it becomes.
You know what I got out of it –I couldn’t behaved any better than John –I couldn’t control my life any better than him if I was put in that chair within the current system. It’s was a normal human reaction…………………………………………………………………….
You see, we wanted to control his normal response to a dyfuctional and immoral system.
(I am still working on this but here is a begginning)
I was employed as personal attendant for a troubled severe Cerebral Palsy man. I pushed his wheel chair all over southern NH for a year. He had two degrees –one in music and the other in history. I fed him most of the time –he had much difficulty in feeding himself. I was with him; I think three of four times when some small incident (to me) set him off to a temper tantrum. We called the police and rescue, where the police would subdue him –place him on a stretcher –he’s go to the hospital, talk to the Psychiatrist, get some pills and then go home. I was amazed that they would do this over and over again. I knew he was on the cusp of getting arrested.
What I will never forget in talking to all the town officials - what did they thought of the John in their minds. You know, I was trying to get the historic record. He had caused a lot of trouble in the town. I remember talking to one policemen –he told me a story of finding him in the night after a snowstorm (the sidewalks weren’t shoveled), a mile or so from his apartment –where he was wheeling in the middle of the road and no coat on. The cop said it was extremely cold outside. The cop passionately said John was a hazard to the cars and to an extreme hazard himself with the cold. The cop said it was very dangerous with nobody talking care of him. I didn’t catch the meaning with the term “extreme hazard to himself” –what the community was prepared to do in defense of the person.
So what I got from all of the people around John is he was very troubled –his problems happened over and over again without solution-and it was an extremely tragic situation for the town and John. They said he was going downhill fast in the last year. He live in the middle of a small town because there was flat side walks –so he could get around and visit the local college, restaurant, and stores on his own. I understood that Tom “though” he had a sort of girl friend where she dumped him –and this led to a severe depression. This is where I learned that minor issues facing us –ends up being a life or death situation for the disabled.
Keene NH had facing a downtown crisis many years ago. Many buildings became empty as the companies had left the area for economic reasons. Somebody had a good idea –where they though they would make apartments in these abandoned buildings. I won’t go into the politics of real-estate and making money, gaining local, state and federal bond monies –to bail out the people who owned the buildings –and the false altruism inherent in this.
So we ended up with a bunch of disabled and low income apartment ringing the center of this beautiful downtown –with a lot of so called malcontents milling around the downtown businesses. I became a low income project and section eight housing inspector for about 6 months –well until they figured out what I was up to. What I can say is the low income projects was totally mismanaged and in disgraceful conditions, we were in a severe housing shortage crisis, the section 8 housing was totally politicized and was littered with startling substandard section eight housing –and the landowners running around with amazing political power about the whole process. I imagine a lot of money was being made.
In the background of this there was rumors of a huge big box store building boom just around the corner –and there was going to be a new highway built in response to this. By the way, this has all come to pass. So as I was pushing around John –all the down town store owners were seeing a reduction in the size of their businesses –and they were very fearful of the future. (Today there are many new empty storefronts.) They thought the rather regular disturbances from the undesirables were affecting their businesses –so they passed a new noise, among other ordinances. It signaled a new police response in the area.
What can clearly be said is the low income housing immediate and long term management was in complete disarray –with those living on the margins being seen a creating more trouble –and with enormous new threat to the old businesses and real-estate of the inner town. We got a severe Rudy Giuliani response to this in the name of a business threat. Did I tell they had no room in the jails –and the jails were severely under funded and mismanaged? Did I tell you the social services were also under funded –were absolutely immorally politicized, fractured, mismanaged, and useless. What can clearly be said is the social services became a jobs program for the locally politically incestuously connected.
So John became to painful to watch as he was wheeling around town –he wet his pants often because of the drugs he was taking, and at times he smelled terrible. A rude and indecent comment was made at a restaurant from a drunken customer. John was running out of places to eat –they kept kicking him out because of him creating a disturbance. Well, I think the community became fed up with him –so the comments were coming more frequent. So we told him if he gets mad –go outside and start screaming. Well, he was outside this day loudly mulling over this rude comment –where the police got a report of this. Matter of fact he was only ½ block away from the police station. The cops quietly walked up to him, tackled him in his wheel chair and breaking the large pane front window of the restaurant with John’s shoes.
The chief of police gave me this rationalization for quickly talking John out on this day and putting hand cuffs on him. John could be sitting under a pistol –with the aim of killing the police. I quickly got thrown out of his office with the assist of many other officers – I became irrational. I said,” I have to feed the guy, I have to wipe his ass –he can’t put his finger around a pistil –he doesn’t have the muscle control to keep the gun steady –he couldn’t even shoot himself…..that’s the problems you see here you f….. Idiots.”
This began a series of arrest for John. I visited him at the jail. I talked to the warden –he said john is very lucid, talkative, and friendly to all the jailers and inmates. The warden told me his jail was violating John’s human rights –the jail was built at the turn of the century –and it was not at all adequately for John’s disability. He surprisingly told me over 25% percent of the inmates could be considered to have mental problem. The warden told me he was setting up a meeting with a judge about this-john was shortly released. They are in the process of building a new jail as we speak.
So effectively the community found it too painful to put up with John. So these repeated jailing interacted with his on going depression. Wouldn’t you be depressed if you couldn’t find a girlfriend? John is now in the state hospital.
You understand what I am getting at –you see how these subtle outside interactions set him up for death in a mental institution: the indifference of the community, and the social service, and the dead agencies who could have interacted with his disabilities. John is on social security disability. You see how the long term disjointed low income housing policies set the death of john – how the economic death of the inner town and it’s hollow rebirth had a hand in it; how the politics of making money in real estate; of the politics of altruism with overhauling dead and dying inner town buildings with local, state and federal monies for the low income; and of making enormous monies with mindlessly putting together dead buildings and the disabled in the inner town. Believe me the primary determinant of the policy and rationale was about maximizing profits and political power –you have no idea of the power with the real-estate people, the politicians and the investing elites. It is immorality of the highest order –and the liberal were up to there necks with it...
Come on, the whole community and all of our governmental agencies have committed mercy euthanasia in our hearts with john. He was suffering too much for everyone –he made us suffer by watching him wheel around in his broken body…dirty... smelling…shit loaded pants …his broken mind and heart… You wanted to mercy kill him no doubt, so he wouldn’t disturb your beautiful dying green garden plotted business sidewalks -- the tree lined artificial chemically fertilized and watered Central Square -right across from that beautiful old NH white church.
To put him deep inside a mental institution; to put him silently in a corner of a room where no could hear of his rages; we could give him comfort with a “I’m crazy for you teddy bear” in a straight jacket; we could smother him in the mother’s love of a snugglely papoose board – and then to silence him once and for all with a tormented death. You know what we were hiding from –it was too painful to imagine putting yourself in that wheel chair. We are so frightened by that –and we should be…. It’s a living decades worth of tormented death no doubt… Kill him …Kill him…Kill him …stop his pain…he hurting us too much…It’s better we kill him, oh he wanted that himself, we could all see that…than look at ourselves in the mirror. You see that it is better not for us to face moral death –than look at our collective indifference to the plight of the disabled –to understand our horribly dysfunctional interaction with John through his lifetime. It is better that John faces his death …that we all not face our moral death by looking in the mirror. Another worthless death for our collective good it becomes.
You know what I got out of it –I couldn’t behaved any better than John –I couldn’t control my life any better than him if I was put in that chair within the current system. It’s was a normal human reaction…………………………………………………………………….
You see, we wanted to control his normal response to a dyfuctional and immoral system.
Disabled child in suicide attact: Down's syndrome
This isLONDON31/01/05 - News and city section
Disabled child in suicide attack
Terrorists used a disabled child as a suicide bomber on election day, Iraqi interior minister Falah al-Naqib said today.
In all, 44 people were killed in a total of 38 bomb attacks on polling stations. Police at the scene of one the Baghdad blasts said the bomber appeared to have Down's syndrome.
Mr Al-Naqib praised an Iraqi citizen who was killed while preventing one suicide bomber from reaching a crowd of people outside a polling station.
Disabled child in suicide attack
Terrorists used a disabled child as a suicide bomber on election day, Iraqi interior minister Falah al-Naqib said today.
In all, 44 people were killed in a total of 38 bomb attacks on polling stations. Police at the scene of one the Baghdad blasts said the bomber appeared to have Down's syndrome.
Mr Al-Naqib praised an Iraqi citizen who was killed while preventing one suicide bomber from reaching a crowd of people outside a polling station.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
To my Jewish friends: Schindler asked what’s a person worth to you
Well, I am going to ask my Jewish friends for a favor. I am pitching you a slow ball –I hope you will hit it out of the ball park. The world desperately needs to hear some words coming from you now.
I will lay the card on the table. I have more than a theory that we in the USA and throughout the world – we don’t adequately care for our physically and mentally disabled – and our children who come from families of turmoil. The preferred manner of care of the disabled is we throw them in jails in the USA –or give them substandard care, if any at all. You know we have a budget problem –so it’s only going to get worst. According to the UN it’s a “crime against humanity" for any country to treat any group of individuals in a degrading and disparate manner. There is no doubt in my mind that we in the USA treat the disabled as a group -as in crimes against humanity.
So here are some excerpts from your Sharon’s 1/26/05 Auschwitz speech.
“Mr. Speaker, the sad and horrible conclusion is that no one cared that Jews were being murdered.”
“And indeed, during the most terrible, critical hour, those in power and the declared friends did not lift a finger.”
“ We know that we can trust no one but ourselves.”
So I think we need some words or a speech from one of your politicians –maybe somebody big in an academic field –somebody connected with the Nazi experience. So what is our human responsibility to care and stand up for the weak and powerless? What does it mean when we begin to treat one group in a degrading and inhuman manner –when we turn our heads- when the group disproportionally ends up in our jail for unexplained reasons?
So if we know that nobody would stand up to the Jews prior to WW II –so why wouldn’t a country not stand up again for the needs of the weak and powerless today.
As"Oskar Schindler asked: Look, All you have to do is tell me what its worth to you. What's a person worth to you?"
So what new country would we have to invent for the mentally and physically disabled –so that they have to power to demand full human dignity? We know the Nazi experience began with the mercy killing of the disabled.
Who is supposed to stand up for them today?
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
I will lay the card on the table. I have more than a theory that we in the USA and throughout the world – we don’t adequately care for our physically and mentally disabled – and our children who come from families of turmoil. The preferred manner of care of the disabled is we throw them in jails in the USA –or give them substandard care, if any at all. You know we have a budget problem –so it’s only going to get worst. According to the UN it’s a “crime against humanity" for any country to treat any group of individuals in a degrading and disparate manner. There is no doubt in my mind that we in the USA treat the disabled as a group -as in crimes against humanity.
So here are some excerpts from your Sharon’s 1/26/05 Auschwitz speech.
“Mr. Speaker, the sad and horrible conclusion is that no one cared that Jews were being murdered.”
“And indeed, during the most terrible, critical hour, those in power and the declared friends did not lift a finger.”
“ We know that we can trust no one but ourselves.”
So I think we need some words or a speech from one of your politicians –maybe somebody big in an academic field –somebody connected with the Nazi experience. So what is our human responsibility to care and stand up for the weak and powerless? What does it mean when we begin to treat one group in a degrading and inhuman manner –when we turn our heads- when the group disproportionally ends up in our jail for unexplained reasons?
So if we know that nobody would stand up to the Jews prior to WW II –so why wouldn’t a country not stand up again for the needs of the weak and powerless today.
As"Oskar Schindler asked: Look, All you have to do is tell me what its worth to you. What's a person worth to you?"
So what new country would we have to invent for the mentally and physically disabled –so that they have to power to demand full human dignity? We know the Nazi experience began with the mercy killing of the disabled.
Who is supposed to stand up for them today?
Thanks,
mike mulligan
Hinsdale, NH
Oil up the printing presses-fires highlight weaknesses...
Oil up the printing presses
I never understood on any public service spending (low income housing -public buildings) or infrastructure ---why does the financing have to go through the bond companies and Wall Street. So if you wanted to upgrade the BQE for 10 billion dollars –why couldn’t you borrow the monies from an efficient governmental agency -that charges no or nominal interest payments –for 50 or 100 years? I’d like to get the difference in financing cost from that.
Also why couldn’t we expand the money supply to the tune of the 10 billion dollars for a legitimate governmental infrastructure –oil up those printing presses.
I mean china has a huge stash of American dollars –that they are using it to finance their infrastructure projects –why can’t we do that?
mike
January 30, 2005
Fires Highlight Weaknesses New Yorkers Often Overlook
By SAM ROBERTS
wo major fires rudely reminded New Yorkers last week just how vulnerable they are to a nearly invisible threat: Inadequate government investment in maintenance and modernization and the surging population are overwhelming the city's aging public works and its lagging supply of housing.
One fire, initially thought to have been caused by a homeless person trying to keep warm, destroyed a Depression-era subway signal relay room in Lower Manhattan, disabling two lines and disrupting 580,000 daily riders for months. The other, in an overcrowded Bronx building that had been illegally carved into smaller apartments, killed two firefighters and left dozens of tenants homeless.
The fires suggest that despite cheerleading over declining crime and welfare rolls and a heralded economic rebound, some of the same problems that have historically bedeviled the city - a fragile infrastructure and vulnerable residents - may once again be out of sight and even out of mind, but they have not gone away.
The city's public works and the state-run mass transit system are in vastly better shape than they were a generation ago after years of neglect. Still, the subway system just celebrated its centennial, 7 percent of the city's water pipes are more than 100 years old - one, in Greenwich Village, dates to 1844 - and more than 400 bridges are rated in only fair condition. Repairs often cannot keep pace with normal wear and tear.
Panhandling and public encampments by homeless people that invited comparisons to Calcutta have all but vanished. But nearly half the city's households spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent, and about 15 percent are rated as overcrowded. The city itself estimated last year that hundreds of people live in the subways, and the shelter system is housing more than 8,800 individuals - more than in any year since 1989 - and more than 8,700 families, including 15,000 children.
In one sense, the city's real estate boom has become part of the problem.
"As the city becomes more prosperous, places you could squat -in Tompkins Square Park or in abandoned buildings in the Bronx or Harlem - aren't there any more," said Kenneth T. Jackson, a Columbia history professor and editor of "The Encyclopedia of New York City." "And it's not just the homeless. Some people have shelter, but in conditions going back to the turn of the century."
In the Bronx, two firefighters died when they jumped five stories to escape a fire in a residential building. The top floor had been converted into a warren of illegal apartments that evoked Jacob Riis's 19th-century photographs of immigrant ghettos, and the fire itself was tentatively attributed to a thin extension cord that snaked from one partitioned bedroom to another, overheated and ignited a mattress.
Most illegally renovated apartments are believed to be in one-, two- and three-family homes that have been converted into boarding houses to accommodate the city's burgeoning population, particularly newly arrived immigrants. Housing construction, particularly in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, has surged
According to a Department of City Planning report released last week, about half of the apartments rented since 1990 were occupied by a foreign-born head of household. The census estimated that the city's population surpassed a record eight million in 2000. The census counted 2.9 million foreign born, but Joseph J. Salvo, director of the department's population division, estimates that the immigrant population is at least 300,000 higher.
A telephone survey of low-income families last year by the Community Service Society, an advocacy and research group, found that almost half were on the verge of eviction and that most had less than $100 in the bank. David R. Jones, the society's president, said that the number of apartments renting for less than $500 a month was dwindling, and that prospective tenants faced a nine-year wait for public housing. He said the city administration was "not ill-intentioned, but they're not looking at structural issues."
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has proposed spending $3 billion to build or renovate 65,000 apartments over five years. Last week, he proposed investing $60 billion on public works over the next decade, including $532 million in housing for the homeless.
But despite the economic rebound and real estate boom that enabled him to submit a balanced budget, overall, spending outpaces revenues. In addition, 15 cents of every tax dollar already goes to paying off past debt to build or repair 6,000 miles of water mains, 5,700 miles of streets and 1,000 school buildings, among other things. The mayor deferred $1.3 billion of the city's five-year, $13 billion school construction plan for at least a year, blaming Gov. George E. Pataki for not including the money in the state budget.
"The city has, in recent years, concentrated on maintenance," said Ronnie Lowenstein, director of the city's Independent Budget Office.
In 1998, Alan G. Hevesi, then the city comptroller, warned that the city needed to spend at least $40 billion more on public works over 10 years, but added, "While the need is enormous, the city's ability to meet all capital obligations is limited both by law and by insufficient funding capacity."
Mr. Hevesi, now the state comptroller, warned last year that according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's own estimates, stations and the signal system would not be in a "state of good repair" until 2024 and 2027, respectively. Despite fare increases and service cuts, Peter S. Kalikow, the chairman of the authority, said last month that without new taxes and fees from the state, the authority could afford either its $17 billion program to maintain the system or $16 billion to expand it, but not both.
Transit advocates said the governor's budget would cripple the expansion and even leave money for maintenance in doubt.
Last November, a report commissioned by the state warned of severe consequences - "the transportation infrastructure will deteriorate, the economy will falter, jobs will be lost and the quality of life in New York State will suffer dramatically" - unless tens of billions of dollars were invested in the next five years alone.
But when the system, whose cars date to 1963 and whose pumps were designed when the Panama Canal was being built, will be in good repair is arguable.
Last Sunday's subway fire disrupted service on the A and C lines. Transit officials had been warned for decades that the signal system was obsolete, but they spent most construction dollars elsewhere. The authority invested $288 million on its first computerized signaling system, scheduled to begin on the L line in July.
Repairs to the A and C line could be finished faster if the lines were shut entirely. But that is not considered feasible - just as it is not feasible to close one of the two existing tunnels for repairs or even inspections until a third water tunnel is completed.
In some cases, the delay has been in developing technology and finding suppliers. "If somebody gave us $50 billion tomorrow, we could not any faster upgrade these signals," Mr. Kalikow said Thursday.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS Help Back to Top
I never understood on any public service spending (low income housing -public buildings) or infrastructure ---why does the financing have to go through the bond companies and Wall Street. So if you wanted to upgrade the BQE for 10 billion dollars –why couldn’t you borrow the monies from an efficient governmental agency -that charges no or nominal interest payments –for 50 or 100 years? I’d like to get the difference in financing cost from that.
Also why couldn’t we expand the money supply to the tune of the 10 billion dollars for a legitimate governmental infrastructure –oil up those printing presses.
I mean china has a huge stash of American dollars –that they are using it to finance their infrastructure projects –why can’t we do that?
mike
January 30, 2005
Fires Highlight Weaknesses New Yorkers Often Overlook
By SAM ROBERTS
wo major fires rudely reminded New Yorkers last week just how vulnerable they are to a nearly invisible threat: Inadequate government investment in maintenance and modernization and the surging population are overwhelming the city's aging public works and its lagging supply of housing.
One fire, initially thought to have been caused by a homeless person trying to keep warm, destroyed a Depression-era subway signal relay room in Lower Manhattan, disabling two lines and disrupting 580,000 daily riders for months. The other, in an overcrowded Bronx building that had been illegally carved into smaller apartments, killed two firefighters and left dozens of tenants homeless.
The fires suggest that despite cheerleading over declining crime and welfare rolls and a heralded economic rebound, some of the same problems that have historically bedeviled the city - a fragile infrastructure and vulnerable residents - may once again be out of sight and even out of mind, but they have not gone away.
The city's public works and the state-run mass transit system are in vastly better shape than they were a generation ago after years of neglect. Still, the subway system just celebrated its centennial, 7 percent of the city's water pipes are more than 100 years old - one, in Greenwich Village, dates to 1844 - and more than 400 bridges are rated in only fair condition. Repairs often cannot keep pace with normal wear and tear.
Panhandling and public encampments by homeless people that invited comparisons to Calcutta have all but vanished. But nearly half the city's households spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent, and about 15 percent are rated as overcrowded. The city itself estimated last year that hundreds of people live in the subways, and the shelter system is housing more than 8,800 individuals - more than in any year since 1989 - and more than 8,700 families, including 15,000 children.
In one sense, the city's real estate boom has become part of the problem.
"As the city becomes more prosperous, places you could squat -in Tompkins Square Park or in abandoned buildings in the Bronx or Harlem - aren't there any more," said Kenneth T. Jackson, a Columbia history professor and editor of "The Encyclopedia of New York City." "And it's not just the homeless. Some people have shelter, but in conditions going back to the turn of the century."
In the Bronx, two firefighters died when they jumped five stories to escape a fire in a residential building. The top floor had been converted into a warren of illegal apartments that evoked Jacob Riis's 19th-century photographs of immigrant ghettos, and the fire itself was tentatively attributed to a thin extension cord that snaked from one partitioned bedroom to another, overheated and ignited a mattress.
Most illegally renovated apartments are believed to be in one-, two- and three-family homes that have been converted into boarding houses to accommodate the city's burgeoning population, particularly newly arrived immigrants. Housing construction, particularly in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, has surged
According to a Department of City Planning report released last week, about half of the apartments rented since 1990 were occupied by a foreign-born head of household. The census estimated that the city's population surpassed a record eight million in 2000. The census counted 2.9 million foreign born, but Joseph J. Salvo, director of the department's population division, estimates that the immigrant population is at least 300,000 higher.
A telephone survey of low-income families last year by the Community Service Society, an advocacy and research group, found that almost half were on the verge of eviction and that most had less than $100 in the bank. David R. Jones, the society's president, said that the number of apartments renting for less than $500 a month was dwindling, and that prospective tenants faced a nine-year wait for public housing. He said the city administration was "not ill-intentioned, but they're not looking at structural issues."
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has proposed spending $3 billion to build or renovate 65,000 apartments over five years. Last week, he proposed investing $60 billion on public works over the next decade, including $532 million in housing for the homeless.
But despite the economic rebound and real estate boom that enabled him to submit a balanced budget, overall, spending outpaces revenues. In addition, 15 cents of every tax dollar already goes to paying off past debt to build or repair 6,000 miles of water mains, 5,700 miles of streets and 1,000 school buildings, among other things. The mayor deferred $1.3 billion of the city's five-year, $13 billion school construction plan for at least a year, blaming Gov. George E. Pataki for not including the money in the state budget.
"The city has, in recent years, concentrated on maintenance," said Ronnie Lowenstein, director of the city's Independent Budget Office.
In 1998, Alan G. Hevesi, then the city comptroller, warned that the city needed to spend at least $40 billion more on public works over 10 years, but added, "While the need is enormous, the city's ability to meet all capital obligations is limited both by law and by insufficient funding capacity."
Mr. Hevesi, now the state comptroller, warned last year that according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's own estimates, stations and the signal system would not be in a "state of good repair" until 2024 and 2027, respectively. Despite fare increases and service cuts, Peter S. Kalikow, the chairman of the authority, said last month that without new taxes and fees from the state, the authority could afford either its $17 billion program to maintain the system or $16 billion to expand it, but not both.
Transit advocates said the governor's budget would cripple the expansion and even leave money for maintenance in doubt.
Last November, a report commissioned by the state warned of severe consequences - "the transportation infrastructure will deteriorate, the economy will falter, jobs will be lost and the quality of life in New York State will suffer dramatically" - unless tens of billions of dollars were invested in the next five years alone.
But when the system, whose cars date to 1963 and whose pumps were designed when the Panama Canal was being built, will be in good repair is arguable.
Last Sunday's subway fire disrupted service on the A and C lines. Transit officials had been warned for decades that the signal system was obsolete, but they spent most construction dollars elsewhere. The authority invested $288 million on its first computerized signaling system, scheduled to begin on the L line in July.
Repairs to the A and C line could be finished faster if the lines were shut entirely. But that is not considered feasible - just as it is not feasible to close one of the two existing tunnels for repairs or even inspections until a third water tunnel is completed.
In some cases, the delay has been in developing technology and finding suppliers. "If somebody gave us $50 billion tomorrow, we could not any faster upgrade these signals," Mr. Kalikow said Thursday.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company Home Privacy Policy Search Corrections RSS Help Back to Top
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Matthew 5--48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5
“Love for Enemies
43“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[h] and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you: Love your enemies[i] and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
The Beatitudes
1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying:
3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Salt and Light
13“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
14“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
The Fulfillment of the Law
17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Murder
21“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother[b]will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,[c]’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
23“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
25“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.[d]
Adultery
27“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’[e] 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Divorce
31“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’[f] 32But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.
Oaths
33“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ 34But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
An Eye for an Eye
38“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[g] 39But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Love for Enemies
43“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[h] and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you: Love your enemies[i] and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
“Love for Enemies
43“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[h] and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you: Love your enemies[i] and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
The Beatitudes
1Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2and he began to teach them saying:
3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Salt and Light
13“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
14“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
The Fulfillment of the Law
17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Murder
21“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder,[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother[b]will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,[c]’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
23“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
25“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.[d]
Adultery
27“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’[e] 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Divorce
31“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’[f] 32But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.
Oaths
33“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ 34But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
An Eye for an Eye
38“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’[g] 39But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Love for Enemies
43“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[h] and hate your enemy.’ 44But I tell you: Love your enemies[i] and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
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