Ignorance Is Not An Excuse

Ok, call me naive or what you want but if someone is planning to work in the mental health field then you expect a certain amount of tolerance and common sense to come from that person. You are working with a sect of the population that is highly susceptible to being taken advantage of, to being dismissed, and just in fact are not treated with the same rights, respect, or dignity that you and I may be treated with. Having a mental diagnosis in a lot of ways can be ranked right up there with racism. There was a time where to have a mental illness meant that you were locked away for the rest of your life no matter how you may have recovered or what actions you did. Nowadays we do attempt to treat those with mental illness's as people. It is unfair and just plain wrong for anyone to go into this field and not want to work with the population because of fear or because they are looking for a job that they believe they can slack off at. Myself and my colleagues are some of the hardest working people I know. Unfortunately when working with this population you do not make progress quickly with most and when you do make progress you rarely get the recognition or the credit for all of the work that you may have done that led up to that turning point.

I must say the absolute stupidity of some of my counterparts in my school environment, and some of those that I come in to contact with on a daily basis through my job is mind boggeling to me. I don't understand it.

This past summer I took a course where there were many young, white, women, and a few men who were planning on going into the school counseling or community agency counseling field and I felt that some of their views were single minded and at times racist. I don't understand how you can want to be in a position to help young people achieve with their grades and amongst their peers and be such an idiot. The sad part about it was that most of them had no idea the way that they were being. They don't know anything else and since they weren't being outwardly racist they found nothing wrong with it. We all know in the real world though ignorance is no excuse for bad decisions and I could see these people potentially harming someone's child or if they are in the community agency side of things harming all kinds of people. It takes a certain knack for being directive yet letting the person make their own decisions and being open and honest and receptive and all these things that require tact and experience with those who are different from you. Our school focus' on the whole multi-cultural idea but I don't feel like most of these students are really embracing it.

I was in class this week and one of those people who was in a previous class was talking about I guess she believed that there was this immence about of research and statistics that stated that children receiving reduced or free lunch were more likely to have fas (fetal alcohol syndrome) or be born as "crack babies".... Yeah, I'll give you a second to process that..........................
I was looking at her like she was retarded. I couldn't help it. A teacher who works with students who receive reduced or free lunch explained to her that someone's economic status did not correlate to their parents, A) not receiving any or proper prenatal care, or B) being addicted to alcohol or drugs. She tried to make it a little more light hearted and pointed out to her someone who meets the economic requirements for their kid to receive those services most likely doesn't have the cash to be smoking crack or buying out the ABC store. It's more of the upper middle class stay at home and in a lot of cases, white women that would be on some type of drug or addicted to alcohol out of boredom or unhappiness with their life. They have the resources and the availability and may use it as an easy way out at first and then realize they have an addictive personality to late. When you are working three jobs to feed your kids you don't have time to be addicted to drugs. She still had this look on her face like "are you sure?" BANANAS!!!!

I also had the priviledge this week to work with a woman whom is supposed to be providing services to one of my residents. She asked where this particular resident was from. It so happened that this resident is from a more upper class area. This particular resident came to us from a homeless shelter however and had been out on their own and really struggling for awhile. Her response to this was that she was surprised that...wait for it.... "mental illness occurs even in families that are more well to do." Yeah, she said that! I was able to catch myself this time since I had to be the one to make the next statement. So I said, oh, well I thought you were going to say that you were surprised that someone from such a well to do family was out on the streets struggling to maintain and is still struggling when she has family that is close by and could easily be a help to her. I continued to say, I think it is very sad that many of the residents we have here have trust funds and come from families with money and because of the stigma or past actions of that person with mental illness they don't feel like they can be bothered with them. I did not want to point out her ignorance or how moronic she sounded, but I did want to make a point. I think I did an alright job of that.

Soooo as you see it's been very interesting here lately. I don't know how some people get into this line or work or why they believe that this is the correct line of work for them. I only hope that I can offer a level of services maybe not 100% of the time but most of the time that will show people that we're all not like that, and that some of us are in this because we should be.

Stuck In My Head For NO Reason

Remember back in the time when the only signs we had was pickets

But now in '94 it be this way something come wicked

G-angs killin others for colors

Things that we wear for fashion

Other brothers taking for a reason to be blastin

What the kcuf is goin on

Not soft like buttercups

But had enough of singing that same song

See I stayed across the street from the projects

Take out your Mama's trash and groceries to her trunk to keep my pockets

Fat like cellulite only been to jail one week for some shulbit

And I pray to God I won't repeat I shoulda pulled it

When I had the chance to, knowing I shouldn't of did that

Cause if I did that, ya'll would not hear that

That shit that keeps you on your tipey tipey toes

Like the sell out not callin no names but reallywho's bad

I go through obstacles like a whole box of condoms

You can't forget where you come from...

Ever get certain lines stuck in your head. I wasn't really into Outkast when this song came out. If you can't exactly place it, it's "Sumthin Wicked This Way Comes" by TLC, off of the Crazy Sexy Cool CD. It's the opening verse of the song and for some reason it's always stuck in my head. I'll just find myself humming it from time to time out of nowhere. I guess it's just one of those verse's you don't forget, I don't know why, but anyways...

My Two Cents

If I hear the name Sara or Sarah however the fuck you spell it Palin one more time I'm going to throw up. I'm so sick and tired of hearing about this chick and her family and bla bla bla! I could give a good shit about her pregnant daughter or the dui she got in her twenties...

What they need to be focusing on is that this chick is up there saying that Obama and Biden don't know about responsibility and don't have the kind of experience she has. Where the fuck does she get off? She was mayor of bumblefuck nowhere in Alaska. Someone made a joke earlier today that they were voted as their class president by the same amount of votes that this trick got to win that. Yeah, so what she's Governor of Alaska. She's had that position for all of 20 freaking months. That leaves me absolutely no faith in her running the country if that old fart McCain gets elected and kicked the bucket. He's a retard anyway, how the hell do you not know how many houses you own. That tells me right there that this man isn't going to do shit to help me and my plight. If you are so well off that you don't remember how many houses you have. They are saying that they chose Palin to get that female vote in. Well... even if Obama had chosen Clinton as his running mate the differences are infinite. I'm not going to vote for Palin just because she's a female. FUCK THAT! At least with Clinton firstly she's a democrat, secondly her husband was president for two terms, and more importantly she herself is senator. She has experience in big government positions and has been around for a long time. This Palin chick is a right wing republican which really burns me up. I don't see how people can be completely to the left or the right. Either option is extreme to me and shows a lack of common sense.

Anyway that's my two cents. Hopefully this country does realize that we need a change, and a positive change at that and electing the guy who chose to work for the disadvantaged when he could've been making money hand over fist and easily sounds like someone I can get behind. As opposed to some senile war veteran and his Britney Spears twenty years later and with a degree running mate. No THANKS!!!