WHAT'S A KID TO DO?
What’s up with the kids today? It's all part of the meltdown of the modern world. America has always been a cult of personality. And check out the personalities we are idolizing: overpaid, under-talented, anorexic, vapid people obsessed with their place in the grand pecking order. This country has lost its way and seems intent on following the lead lemming into the abyss. We can't really blame the kids; they are just following their herd. With cranial sponges leaking from a daily overdose of Madison Avenue's latest list of what they should be consuming in order to stay "cool", they founder, full of fear, through the day like extras from "Night of the Living Dead", desperately clinging to all this insubstantial crap the world is force-feeding them. In a nation that refuses to embrace the uniqueness of the individual, they swagger down the path of the alleged renegade, never realizing that they are simply prisoners of their own cult. America has become an engine fed by fear. Hope seems to be considered a mental illness. Our kids need something real to believe in and they need to stop looking outside themselves. Embrace those you love and listen to the fears of our children, for they are our own.
LONG-TERM UNEMPLOYMENT & RELATIONSHIPS
This fractured economy is having many tragic effects on Americans caught in its wake. Unemployed men and women in committed relationships, are confronting anxiety and confusion where once existed compassion and security. The inability for people to find employment, or having to settle for employment far more menial than their previous careers, has changed the way people relate to themselves and each other, particularly in a man's inability to fulfill his archetypal role as "provider and protector". Not being able to provide for a partner or a family has deeply skewed the long-term unemployed male’s self-image.
We are generally considered to be made up of three images: how we see ourselves, how others see us and how we really are. Long-term unemployment with no glimpse of relief has distorted "how the American male sees himself" part. The "who he really is" part, his intrinsic character values remain intact, but becomes virtually inaccessible encased deep within the crust of his new troubled and tarnished fiscal impotency.
Of course, the self-esteem of women is equally damaged. Given the particular dynamics of the relationship, she may feel forced to remain in unfulfilling relationships simply because her survival instincts have kicked in. Or she may feel traumatized and depressed by her own inability to provide safe harbor for those she loves.
All of this has caused the long-term unemployed to suffer from a form of post traumatic stress disorder, skyrocketing prescriptions for antidepressants to an all-time high and sending their suicide statistics soaring past the general population
On a more positive note, church attendance and peer group counseling memberships are on the rise. But the malodorous stench of desperation will likely effect once happy couples for many years to come as top economists predict that a return to normalcy in the workplace will not return until the middle of the decade. Unfortunately, that will just be too late for many of long-term unemployed. Dismayed, frightened and apparently forgotten by both political parties and the mainstream media, the LTU appear to be the ultimate victims of political arrogance and greed.
It seems that they have no choice but to judge themselves by a new set of standards since "how much you make" has gone the way of the PT Cruiser (yes, production has been canceled - sorry). Perhaps this will all end up being a good thing, but from one who has struggled with unemployment for over two years and knows many others who continue to deal with this cumbersome appendage, I can assure you no one has stepped forward to champion our cause and the phoenix is still smoldering in the ashes.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, GRASS VALLEY UNION
The unfortunate death of “transient” Mark Rye during our recent arctic blast is a sad commentary on the state of our nation, our state and our city. Misspent revenues and intense infighting have created a condition of lifeboat ethics where you are either on the boat or under it.
Those of us still afloat or clinging to the sides simply have no room for people like Mark Rye who likely wandered into oblivion in the 1980s when Governor Reagan closed all the mental health facilities in California.
Calling them a superfluous drain on our economy, this single heartless act created a perpetual tsunami of misery and fear. Millions of Mark Ryes, who in a civilized society would be given basic health care and shelter, are left to battle their demons alone, hunkered inside dumpsters, curled up in makeshift tents pieced together from found plastic or shivering in skimpy sleeping bags worthless against sub-freezing weather.
Armed with nothing but a pint of rot gut whiskey and shards of memories both real and imagined, they challenge our humanity with a simple imperative scribbled on crumpled cardboard: Please help me! It is a very sad commentary on a very sad time in America.
