The Irresponsible Wheel Gets the Compassion, I Gather
I've been working in the geriatric field for about eleven years now. And, while most of that time has been spent in the area of therapeutic rec, I have in fact done some case management duty, too. One story, in particular, stands out.................................................................................................It was an 82 year-old woman with various health concerns (respiratory problems, especially) and whose husband lived in a convalescent home (she also had two daughters but they both lived out of state). Her only sources of income were Social Security and rental income from the apartment upstairs..............................................................................................Well, to make a long story short, the people who lived upstairs were absolutely miserable. They partied heavily, trashed not only the apartment but made a mess of the outside as well, and, on top of that, didn't frigging pay their rent, either. The old lady ended up having to take them to court to have them evicted (this, after they fell a good 6-7 months behind on their rent) and it was very stressful...............................................................................................But you know what made it even more outlandish? The judge (and, yes, the people eventually did get evicted) was seemingly more sympathetic to the dysfunctional family (yeah, they had a couple of kids, too) than she was to the poor old lady. I mean, I almost wanted to scream at the guy, "Dude, she's frigging 82 and on oxygen! How's about a little compassion for the real victim here. These people can purchase cigarettes and brewskis every day but they flat-out can't pay ANY of their rent (and, yes, the old gal was very reasonable about it - 'Pay me what you can', she would say and they paid her NOTHING)? Come on, man!"......................................................................................................You see what I'm saying, though? There's really something wrong with the system here.
There may or may not be something wrong with the system, per se. There is DEFINITELY something wrong with the people in charge of the system.
ReplyDeleteThere's not enough information there, Les, for me to have a strong opinion. If these renters were truly as bad as she says, and she is truly trying to be a good person, then yes, this would be a terrible situation. The evidence does indeed lean toward that - it's the kids part that makes me think so, as the state always leans towards preserving families with children, even when it's a little risky. But there's just not enough information here for me to decry the judge or the system.
ReplyDeleteI guess what I'm trying to say here is be careful of second-person anecdotes. They're usually only so reliable.
JMJ
I'm sure this story is accurate. It damn near takes an act of god to evict a bum renter.
ReplyDeletejmj - While I agree with your 2'nd person anecdote comment in general, this one seems pretty straightforward and truthful. At least to me. I'm fairly certain Will has his facts correct.
ReplyDeleteTherefore I can only say the elderly women was reasonable in her request relative to HER property rights, the judge was just another over sympathetic liberal, and the state should be reacting in much shorter time to evict laggards and parasites from property they don't own and refuse to contribute anything to. The people were not renters, they were squatters.
I have some direct experience with welfare queens doing this sort of thing. Yes, I use that term. Most people on welfare are white, after all. There's nothing racist about it.
ReplyDeleteThese people wouldn't even cash in their empty beer bottles. I ended up doing it (taking them out of the recycling bin and/or garbage) and giving the money to the old gal. She died 4 years ago and I still see the husband of the squatters (perfect term, Les) bombing around.
ReplyDeleteWill: The kind of people who smash the toilet within weeks of moving in, and you wonder what they used after that? Seen that.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that I'm still as compassionate as I am is a miracle....I don't know, dmarks, I guess that it all boils down to balancing compassion with tougher love sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI learned a lot from this kind of people. Jersey could be right.
ReplyDelete