The days are filling up with events, concerts, festivals and even a splash of sun here and there. So make a note to get your Street Roots first thing Friday morning and you’re weekend will be free to embrace Portland in spring! Here’s what’s rolling on the press right now:
All in their heads: Traumatic brain injuries are often misdiagnosed, especially on the streets. Kate Cox researches the prevalence of TBI among the homeless, and how little we know about how these injuries contribute to, and are caused by, life on the streets.
Witness for the revolution: Stacy Brownhill profiles Ken Hawkins, a former conflict zone journalist, about revisiting the site of the 1979 San Salvador Metropolitan Cathedral where he was almost killed. Hawkins has gone on to launch EverySecondChild.org, which brings photojournalists together to raise awareness about child poverty.
Loretta Smith: Multnomah County’s District 2 commissioner is taking stock of the needs of her constituents, beginning with a groundbreaking forum for African-Americans.
Plus, news from Commissioner Nick Fish on the agenda for dealing with discrimination in Portland’s rental housing, an update on the cuts to needy families in Salem, and a report on a new hate crime law in Seattle. You’ll also find commentaries from Western States Uniting Communities and OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon, with a proper dose of poetry to keep things light and heavy all at once. Get your copy bright and early and share a smile with your friendly neighborhood vendor!
I think it’s a huge mistake to fall into line with the prevailing lockstep about ignoring people’s symptoms of living in this extremely alienated suicidal society, and playing all these games about such pain being so-called “all about” human-denying mystifications. Whether they be s0-called “mental illness” (really, difficulties in living, as well as self-taught, atomized ways to deal with pain) or “traumatic brain injuries.”
As a survivor of such labelings, i know the value of being viewed as fully human versus being viewed as having a brain disorder! Believe me, you don’t want to be so reduced and objectified!
So, as usual, we get “the lesser of two evils” (still evil, a.k.a. severe alienation), in order to stop The Men With Gunsfrom reaping their terroristic policies. The doves (a.k.a. liberals) play “Nice” and Tell us, in good ol’ Wizard of Oz fashion, that our brains are broken; not that the society in which we live is devouring its own. In the interests of organizing, we play along with their cowardice (they’re afraid to face reality, to speak truth no matter the consequences).
Another way out? Speak our truths unabashedly while refraining from demonizing the ones who reflect (and yes, I do mean reflect) the insanity that they themselves have had planted in them. That is, The Men With Guns are victims as well. They are the worst victims. How? Because they Believe, and they carry out the severely alienated policies of the truly lost (the planners and designers of such a long-running situation).
Doves are always playing games with their cowardice; they engage in the populist strategy of seeking to mobilize others than themselves to attack, and when under attack, seek to deflect it by calling for empathy. Do they empathize? What are their lives really about other than playing along in the program??
The bottom line is that I wish to demonize no one. I wish to point out (a.k.a. demystify) such truths as i see them, caustically if i feel such needs it, and to promote our commonalities. We are all afraid to stray from the paths Provided. From the doves to the hawks, and over to we masses taking the consequences for all this cowardliness. So how to build bridges without undermining our mutual humanity?
I say, call it out as you see it; don’t play hiding games! The weakest members of humanity have to pay the consequences of all the hiding; we cannot hide.
Well, this is getting long and i’ve basically spoken my spiel. A little work would make this into a “polished” response, but i don’t really care about that. If you get anything out of it, if you get the gist of what i’m trying to share, good!
Gee, the bit about brain damage of the tbi type being mistaken for mental illness. It seems to pay more to heap the brain injured in with the mental illness crowd. I think, the army army national guard developed a ,rather, simple test for brain damage. Basicly, it is proteins leaking out of the brain. Correcting that problem is interesting,though. To put it politely, it may take more than durgs tailored directly for the brain damage. Let me see, hmm., fix the damage that allows the proteins to leak out, then go rather heavy on the proteins themselves. It is known that any one with any injury needs more protein than normal-to heal. Maybe that could augument the healing, to a certain extent the brain injury. Maybe see what the Omega series fatty acid does in ,perhaps, helping heal the brain along with higher rate of proteins?