Markham's Behavioral Health

Homeless in New York City has hit all time record in 09/08.

From the New York Times, 10/29/08:

In what some see as a sign of the economic downturn’s impact on the city’s poorest, more families entered the homeless shelter system in September than in any other month since data has been collected.

Some 1,446 families entered shelter in September, city officials said. That was the highest number in one month since the city began keeping track 25 years ago. In each of the past three months, the city has seen record numbers of families admitted to shelter.

With the increase, roughly 9,300 families are now in shelter, or more than 28,000 people. In 2003, when the previous record was set, the average daily census of families in shelter was 9,200.

The federal government bails out the plutocrats with billions of dollars and the poor people suffer. Something is terribly wrong in America.

To read the whole Times article click here.

 

Health Care in the next administration from NEJM

From the New England Journal of Medicine web site regarding a recent panel discussion on health care policy in the next administration:

"The future of health care in the United States — access, cost, and quality — is a critical issue in the 2008 presidential election. On September 12, senior health policy advisors — David Cutler of Harvard University for Democrat Barack Obama and Gail Wilensky of Project HOPE for Republican John McCain — discussed their candidates’ positions on health care reform in a symposium cosponsored by the Journal and the Harvard School of Public Health. The debate was moderated by Arnold Epstein, of the Journal and the Department of Health Policy and Management at HSPH, and featured questions from a distinguished panel of experts: Karen Davis of the Commonwealth Fund, Jon Kingsdale of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, and Thomas Lee of Partners HealthCare and the Journal."

To watch the video or access the transcript click here.

12% of United States troops in Iraq and 17% of troops in Afghanistan are on anti-depressants

On June 5, 2008, Time Magazine ran a story entitled, "America's Medicated Army". Here is a snippet from the article:

The medicines are intended not only to help troops keep their cool but also to enable the already strapped Army to preserve its most precious resource: soldiers on the front lines. Data contained in the Army's fifth Mental Health Advisory Team report indicate that, according to an anonymous survey of U.S. troops taken last fall, about 12% of combat troops in Iraq and 17% of those in Afghanistan are taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping pills to help them cope. Escalating violence in Afghanistan and the more isolated mission have driven troops to rely more on medication there than in Iraq, military officials say.

It seems that fighting pre-emptive and immoral wars is not good for one's mental health. I wonder when we as a nation will realize the error of our ways and demand that our government do something about it?

I don't know of any other occupation that has this high a rate of mental illness. Would you want your loved one to enter such a career?

Prozac: The Military's Secret Weapon, MSNBC with Joe Scarborough. Video lasts 3:25

This is article #4 on militarism.

1/4 - 1/3 of females in the United States military are raped by their fellow soldiers

I was reading at article recently which said that 1/3 of female soldiers in the United States military report being raped. I thought, "How can that be? That can't be right," and so I did a little research and it not only is right, but 1/3 may be low. Here is a snippet from an article in the Los Angeles Times from March 31, 2008. Here is a snippet:

The stories are shocking in their simplicity and brutality: A female military recruit is pinned down at knifepoint and raped repeatedly in her own barracks. Her attackers hid their faces but she identified them by their uniforms; they were her fellow soldiers. During a routine gynecological exam, a female soldier is attacked and raped by her military physician. Yet another young soldier, still adapting to life in a war zone, is raped by her commanding officer. Afraid for her standing in her unit, she feels she has nowhere to turn.

These are true stories, and, sadly, not isolated incidents. Women serving in the U.S. military are more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire in Iraq.

The scope of the problem was brought into acute focus for me during a visit to the West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center, where I met with female veterans and their doctors. My jaw dropped when the doctors told me that 41% of female veterans seen at the clinic say they were victims of sexual assault while in the military, and 29% report being raped during their military service. They spoke of their continued terror, feelings of helplessness and the downward spirals many of their lives have since taken.

Numbers reported by the Department of Defense show a sickening pattern. In 2006, 2,947 sexual assaults were reported -- 73% more than in 2004. The DOD's newest report, released this month, indicates that 2,688 reports were made in 2007, but a recent shift from calendar-year reporting to fiscal-year reporting makes comparisons with data from previous years much more difficult.

To read the whole LA Times article click here.

 

My wife and I had 9 children: 3 sons and 6 daughters. We have 12 grandchildren: 8 granddaughters and 4 grandsons. I would be opposed to their being in a situation where they were that likely to be raped. Using the 1/3 rape rate that would mean that 2 of my daughters and almost 3 of my granddaughters would be raped if they were in military service. It is a terrifying thought which leaves me with the conclusion that the greatest threat of terrorist attack to my loved ones would be in the United States military, not for Al Queda or whoever it is we are supposed to be afraid of.

NOW on PBS covers rape story.

Video lasts 3:45 CNN - Recruiter rape - Video lasts 6:20

This is article #3 in a series on militarism.

Working class gets screwed by politicians and one, a fictional politician, Mays Gilliam, is the only one with the guts to say "That ain't right!"

Chris Rock as Mays Gilliam in the movie, Head Of State, gives his "That ain't right!" speech. Wouldn't it be wonderful to find an actual politician who would advocate for the working people in this country?

Video lasts 3:25

'Tent cities' of homeless on the rise across the US

The British newspaper, the Telegraph, reported on September 20, 2008 on the rising growth of tent cities in the United States as people are being evicted from their homes being repossesed. It seems outrageous that Republican polticians like Phil Graham say that the poor economy is just a figment of the imaginiation and John McCain says that the fundamentals of the economy are still strong.

There is something seriously wrong when we are being lied to by polticians seeking even higher office and it takes news coverage from outside our country to get the information about what is happening in our own country because it is too politically incorrect to report the truth by our own media.

Here is a snippet from the Telegraph story:

In Reno, Nevada, the state with the nation's highest repossessions rate, a tent city recently sprung up on the city's outskirts and quickly filled up with about 150 people. Many, such as Sylvia Flynn, 51, who came from northern California, ended up homeless after losing their jobs and home.

Officials say they do not know how many homeless the city has. "But we do know that the soup kitchens are serving hundreds more meals a day and that we have more people who are homeless than we can remember," Jodi Royal-Goodwin, the city's redevelopment agency director, said.

In California, the upmarket city of Santa Barbara is housing homeless people who live in their cars in city car parks while Fresno, has several tent cities. Others have sprung up in Portland in Oregon, and Seattle, where homeless activists have set up mock tent cities at city hall to draw attention to the problem.

Meanwhile, new encampments have appeared, or existing ones grown, in San Diego, Chattanooga in Tennessee, and Columbus, Ohio.

It is interesting how the federal government has billions and billions of dollars to bail out the mismanaged financial institutions but can't help ordinary citizens who were victimized by the same financial insitutions' predatory pracitices. It seems that the working folks will get screwed twice: first loosing their homes, and second having to pay taxes to bail out those who screwed them.

It will be interesting to see how the victimized vote come November. My guess is that they are so indoctrinated into the baloney of the Republicans and trickle down economics that they will continue to support their own oppressors. Of course, having no permanent address, they can't register to vote and so will be disenfranchised and won't be able to vote at all.

'Tent cities' of homeless on the rise across the US - Telegraph.

Government steps in again, bails out AIG with $85B of taxpayers money

The big lie of Reaganomics exposed. The little guy and the middle class gets screwed again as our plutocracy marches on manipulating our economy for the benefit of the rich and powerful and the politicians they are in bed with. So much for Friedman and his idiot disciples who preach a free market and a smaller role for government. I can't see how the Repbulicans have any credibility left with any Americans who have the brains to understand what is going on.

Under the Repbulican administration of the last 8 years capitalism has gotten way out of control. Now we have to pay for misguided policies and the foolishness of the American voters who put these idiots in power.

Government steps in again, bails out AIG with $85B - Yahoo! News.

Fed pumps $50B into nation's financial system - The big lie of free markets

Milton Friedman and his disciples are a bunch of charlatans when it comes to their preaching about free markets. They are only free when the plutocrats are making money. When they loose money the markets quickly become socialized by the government and the taxpayers pay. When will the voters catch on to the nonsense that comes out of Washington?

Fed pumps $50B into nation's financial system - Yahoo! News.

The Silenced, the book

The following synopsis comes from the school library journal posted on the Amazon web site.

The Silenced begins with Marena running late for her bus that takes her from her readaptation community to her Youth Training Facility. Classes are lead by instructors of public enlightenment and consist of recitation of Zero Tolerance Party propaganda. Stern, silent state officers patrol the halls. As the book progresses, Marena begins to remember things that she was somehow made to forget. It becomes clear to her that her father was there when the state officers dragged her mother from their home years before. As regulations tighten, she isn't sure who she can trust besides her boyfriend, Dex, and newcomer Eric. She realizes that, like her mother, she cannot remain silent in the face of state oppression. The three friends choose graffiti as their primary form of rebellion. DeVita's novel has many of the same character types and situations as other dystopic works—the enemy who has a change of heart, the unsympathetic character who nevertheless proves to be brave, and the friend who is a traitor. While readers may not find any conceptual surprises, this is a gripping read and young adults will certainly empathize with the characters' conflicts between self-expression and a desire to fit in. They will find the Zero Tolerance credo that the state's first priority must be the safety of its citizens to have a chilling resonance with statements in the news today.—Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI

While The Silenced is marketed for grade 7 and up, many adults have enjoyed this novel by James Devita. I heard about the novel on the NPR radio show To The Best Of Our Knowledge. Having read it, I am chilled by the similarities to the Bush Administration which we have lived through in the last 8 years. I think this is an important book that all Americans read who are concerned about the direction which our country has been going in especially in the last 8 years.

Army recruiters use unethical and illegal recruiting tactics on naive young people

How desperate are Army recruiters to fill the ranks to fight in the immoral and illegal war in Iraq? Desperate enough to use unethical and illegal tactics to intimidate naive young people into signing up.

Army recruiters prey upon young people and threaten them with arrest and jail if they don't sign up. Amy Goodman on Democracy Now interviews parties involved in this latest scandal. This show aired on August 6, 2008

If you have young people or work with young people, this is an important show which provides information about unethical recruiting tactics by the military.

You can listen by going to the Democracy Now web site by clicking on the link below.

Democracy Now! | August 06, 2008.