Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Nothing Funny About Surrendering Our Autonomy

When I was a kid,
"Mad Magazine"
was Funny and Outrageous!

(Double-Click-Picture to Enlarge)

But with the topics in the picture above... 
"Not so much." 

Have you been following any of the hearings that are going on in our House of Representatives?

So How did we get to this place in American History? 

How did we abdicate our assumed freedom of organized  political expression to the whims of an elitist media.
  
How did we underestimate their intent?

How did we allow our, "Politically Correct," Elite Class to;

1) LEGALLY alter our Election Rules to place rural communities at a disadvantage.

2) Project their offensive cultural biases through our public media without opportunity for rebuttal?
 
3) Control and Censor Public Social Media Communications.
 

In the critical moments of the last Presidential campaign The President's microphone went silent.... 

(According to President Macron of France.)

Well not only his microphone. That avenue of communication had been blocked long before the election as his message was continually hijacked and subjected to pundit spin. From the beginning of his campaign, Trump's statements to the media were consistently censored, or conveniently contorted to fit the narratives that would feed the media's thirst for creating contempt.

Many say Trump was a fool for his blunt, kneejerk, from the gut campaigning style. They say that he got exactly what he deserved for his crassness and harsh criticism of the, "Traditional Press!"

Didn't he label them, "Fake News." What should he expect?

Others applauded his maverick resourcefulness and determination as he maneuvered in and around the traditional media moguls, bumping and badgering and blazing new pathways for expressive freedom and dialogue.

Regardless... When the, "Official Press," wasn't, misrepresenting his motivations by innuendo or deemphasizing and minimizing his many accomplishments, they simply ignored him. As they do to this day.

Do you remember his obsessive chantings of, "Lock her up?" 

When I heard it I considered it, "way over the top," and judged him as being pompous. But in time, it was actually understandable. When you consider the findings of the Durham Probe and who financed the massive public deception resuling in an unjustified impeachment trial. Consider the video content on this topic below.



Analyst arrested with lying to FBI about Christopher Steele’s Trump-Russia dossier in Durham probe
CNBC Television
(Note: this is not Fox News)

But, why so much with this President? Was this really a new response? Or was it just, his boisterous presence that pushed these activist out from the shadows like so many hungry rats.


What about Trump's monumental international success in dealing with the Israeli/Arab crisis, This Jerusalem Post Article is titled...

DIPLOMATIC AFFAIRS:
The Abraham Accords domino effect will lead to more peace deals... It was hard to predict in January 2020 that, by the end of the year, Israel would have relations with four more Arab countries.  By LAHAV HARKOV
Published: JANUARY 1, 2021 13:53

(see full article content at link below)
https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/the-abraham-accords-domino-effect-will-lead-to-more-peace-deals-653940

These treaties were considered so important that they were labeled, "The most important strategic development in the region," by Amwar Mohammed Gargash, diplomatic advisor to the President of the United Arab Emirates, at the 2022 BR24 Munich Security Conference. Strategic, because of the, "Agenda of tolerance, stability and prosperity," that they created.

A more likely assumption is that his political presence and unique successes in fostering U.S. and Multinational Autonomy, as displayed in the Abrahamic Peace Accords, posed a threat. It threatened those who were anxious to resume their agenda of  inflaming areas of opposition and conflict and then profiting from the process of providing weapons and funding activist elements in opposing factions.

But since the 2020 election, with our very abrupt and awkwardly executed withdrawal from Afghanistan, coupled with our return to the divisive policies of Obama, Kerry and Biden, we appear to be resuming this middleman role and abandoning the job of genuine Peacemaker.

And in the, "Biden Vacuum", China has stepped forward. 

Just recently they have seized the momentum created by Trump to broker a peace plan between Iran and Saudi Arabia.




How important was China for the Iran-Saudi Arabia deal? 
| DW News
  DW News

Currently China’s President Xi Jinping is also presenting a twelve point plan for ending the war in Ukraine that President Zelensky is anxious to respond too. Will President Xi succeed?




Ukraine's Zelensky wants to meet China’s Xi Jinping to discuss peace plan – BBC News
 BBC News

But enough about Biden. What about Trump's accomplishments? Shouldn't we recognize the international cooperation and order that Trump's policies brought to Mexico and the U.S. Southern border during his time in office? 

What about the reductions in human trafficking and reductions in drug smuggling during his term? 

Our current approach has transferred hundreds of millions to even billions to the Cartels who hold the monopoly on providing illegal access across our Southern Border. Lets not forget the brave sacrifices that Mexican candidates made with the hopes for change during Trump's time in office where international border cooperation increased. 



Mexican candidate shot dead while posing for selfie


Mexico: 130 politicians killed ahead of elections


And let's not forget to compare Trumps' Presidential response to the Global Covid-19 Pandemic, to how other administrations responded to the AIDS crisis just a few years earlier.

The following Health and Human Services article from September 16, 2020 describes the ACTION Trump took that led to multi-millions of doses that were administered before he left office. This included the very vaccinations that Joe Biden received.

https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/2349357/trump-administration-releases-covid-19-vaccine-distribution-strategy/

This quick and focused action allowed over 3 million doses to be delivered to the public by December 13, 2020. His was an emphasis on providing options, not punishments and control.
 

COVID-19 vaccines delivered to all 50 states

If your current understanding does not recognize these facts, it is probably due to the effect of what Trump bluntly described as,

"Fake News."
Or more precisely,
the consistent patterns of politically
motivated selective, biased or even
activist reporting that dominate
so many U.S. media platforms.


So how did somebody like Trump get elected in the first place?

Early on in the race, candidate Trump, had established many effective, pathways to communicate with the American people. Through social media channels and in person rallies. These were his most direct means. As you may remember he spoke and, "Tweeted," freely and frequently on various social media channels.


...and this is where the CRITICAL SILENCING occurred!
...During the clutch moments of the 2020 election!


In fact, his communications were officially blocked and their content degraded in the most humiliating ways!

Consider the response of French President Emanuel Macron to these acts of censorship...

"...suddenly cut the mic and put the mic on mute and killed the platforms where it was possible for him and his supporters to express themselves...because of the speech is decided by a private player, a private social network. I want it to be decided by a law voted by your representative or regulation..."
 

To hear President Macron's full comment, Click link below. 

This sentiment was harmonized with by several European Leaders.
 
But was this rejection of both candidate and President Trump by our Social Policy elites, social media moguls and mainstream narrators valid? 

Had Trump truly fallen from the favor of the American people? 

Although his antics were often annoying, the SURVEYS of the time say a DEFINITE NO! Consider the link below that describes the popularity of President Trump during the very time in question...

On the contrary...
American's that were polled
expressed great favor for Trump

Consider this 20/20 Gallup Pole



(Click Link below for Gallup article.)
https://news.gallup.com/poll/328193/donald-trump-michelle-obama-admired-2020.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_content=morelink&utm_campaign=syndication

So what did happen?

President Trump Permanently Banned From

 Twitter | NBC Nightly News


Leading to additional widespread censoring and social cancelling according to the normalization of imposed, "Political Correctness."




Jim Jordan CALLS OUT "BIG MEDIA"
and "BIG TECH" Mar 12, 2021
"....Today big tech has more (political power) than Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and Henry Ford combined." through controlling the content of what we see."

And in harmony Glenn Greenwald calls for long overdue Anti-Trust-Legislation to protect the public from the monopoly like power of these biased organizations.  



Glenn Greenwald rips Twitter, Facebook for blocking 

Hunter Biden story


So to our shame in the eyes of the world, we continue under the yoke of our media led elitist control. 
  
So, who would have actually won in 2020 if there had been no interference to hindered the process of a free and fair election? Who knows?  No one knows for sure, but we do know that no election has ever been run perfectly. 

But the size of the margins of error do matter because it is in the margins that the elections are often won. 

I am certain that we can do better. We must!

But all of that is behind us now. What matters now is that we support our elected Representatives who are working to correct these problems.

We all need to Wake Up and Demand 
the best government possible.


One that is responsive and accountable to all of our people! The world is counting on us to act.

So write your legislators and let them know your concerns with the abusive powers of both, "big tech," and biased news organizations that seek to silence the voices of those in rural areas and those that continue to hold traditional values.

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Tuesday, February 21, 2023

How affirmation killed the boy who cried wolf

How affirmation killed the boy who cried wolf! Our passive aggressive “Kindness...”  




Do you remember the story of the shepherd boy who was so unpopular, his  neighbors left him to die? Instead of providing responsible oversight and teaching him through appropriate consequences, they just left him to his own ends. 

They literally desensitized themselves to the dangers the boy faced,  blamed him for failing to meet their expectations, and left him to die.

Even though they knew he lacked the maturity to deal with the dangers, they closed their eyes, turned away and lost him to the wolves along with their their pasture full of mutton.

This story always makes me ask, where were the adults?

Today we have created similar circumstances in our homeless communities. But instead of failing one shepherd boy, we now have failed to prepare portions of an entire generation. Or so it seems.

How, you say? By relieving ourselves of our generational responsibilities. Our responsibility to instill maturity through  appropriate and protective consequences; through providing reality based social and moral structures. 
 
Personally, I am shocked that we have become so desensitized. I know that other nations like India had normalized apathetic indifference long ago. That they routinely accept the impending deaths of the destitute and starving just outside their doors with barely a pause. But here in America? This is new for me. How about you?

But it is true! Right now, countless numbers of our young people are literally dying in the streets of the cities we live in as we casually support those that perpetuate their enslavement to addictions. 
 
Again, I am not talking about India or Asia. Thousands of our young adults and children die as prey to an enemy far more cunning than any pack of wolves ever could be.

How could this be? The video below talks about a tent camp much like the ones in your neighborhood.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvCc8fQYRTc

Portland mother finds suspected fentanyl in front yard, feet

 away from children’s toys   (Dec 2022)KPTV FOX 12 Oregon

 
And scores of deaths in our Beaverton schools...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-J1lB41MU4

Local law enforcement, health officials warn of cheap, 

counterfeit opioid pills laced with fentanyl (April 25, 2021)KGW News


But could there be a bigger picture?

Do we live in a purely capitalistic world, controlled only by supply and demand, or are there other forces at work? For the bigger picture, we have to consider other causes and effects, and what is likely to come next if political powers are involved, because, believe it or not, this could actually be a visible part of a much larger global movement. Below I will present a possible scenario, and end with a description of what happened in a free country that was forcibly placed under a tightly controlled socialist system.

Currently the producers of fentanyl in China are working tirelessly in concert with the Cartel networks of Central America to EXPLODE the supply and rapid distribution of very cheap, highly addictive, deadly drug products to an American army of mostly young, volunteer users of which many are hopelessly addicted to their products.

 Yes, out of their seeming generosity the Chinese suppliers have cut prices to rock bottom levels to make the supply affordable and profuse in clockwork harmony with our Covid shutdowns and the disruptions of the recent BLM global protest movements. Yes those were the protest movements that Vice President Harris labeled as essential! Did you participate? 

The leaders of this movement chose to signify their goals with the upraised, “Communist fists of solidarity.” 

This movement was extremely effective and triggered a majority of our US legislators to further align their efforts with the leader of the, "People for the American Way. The result was to stop the vast numbers of criminal prosecutions and call for the defunding  and restricting of protective police interventions. 

It was the igniter that lit the fires of social change. Fires that effectively desensitized the people of America. 

Consider the video below. It was created five years ago and as you can see, the efforts of this oligarch have been very, very effective. 

Billionaire George Soros Puts Big Money Into Local Races (HBO)

8.45M subscribers

But how can you say that! Wasn't this movement an awakening of the global conscience! Didn't it awaken the masses to struggle against class and racial oppression and the abuses of, "Puritanical," sexual morality! Aren't we embracing freedom? We are a, "Progressive," people! Aren't we?

And we as a progressive people have responded in perfect harmony with their goals!  We have enhanced and broadened the distribution of death by cutting our focused police enforcement efforts; by decriminalizing most drug sales and use, and by refusing to prosecute the property crimes and other related abuses that allow continued use the like theft and prostitution that funds their efforts.
 
Through these, seeming “Progressive Advances,” our city centers have been shut down, many of our small businesses bankrupted and our communities have begun to rot and decay. Currently record numbers of our growing volunteer army of addicts die quietly on the sidelines of our society. A tribute to our newly found, ”Politically Correct Compassion.”
 
But is this the worst of it? Or could there be more to come?
 
Have you stopped to consider what will happen when China’s benevolent pricing wanes thin and she raises the price of the drugs so many thousands now cherish so deeply?
 
What will this voluntary army do? Will it continue to lie dormant on the sidelines dying quietly as they do now. With their habit maintenance costs so comfortably low? Or will they rise up and violently take whatever they believe they need to feed their  addiction. Although already huge in comparison to past decades; This problem is much smaller than it could be due to a seeming generosity in keeping pricing low. But what will happen when the price doubles? Or triples? Or quadruples?
 
Commitment to feeding an addiction is greater than commitment to country or commitment to racial justice or commitment to family or religion or political beliefs or even personal integrity or opinion.
 
At America’s birth, a gunshot occurred that historians say was heard around the world. At that time, the people in the colonies united to fight for what they saw as freedom. Today I wonder whether I will also hear shots fired at people like me that fail to embrace today’s progressive global revolution. It clearly is time to WAKE-UP and take our country back. Fortunately the generations that preceded ours created a form of Government that maximized a true diversity of opinion and more importantly a search for true diversity of benefit. At one time this was the true meaning of, "for the public good." Actions that would benefit every part of society.

Imagine how quickly the Covid epidemic would have ended if our leaders dedicated their efforts to exploring the diversity of medical and scientific opinion and benefit, rather than maximizing fear through punitive punishments and reality distorting narrative controls.  

Our system of representative government still exists and can function again if we the people choose to speak up. Not with the communist fist of blind solidarity, but with the resolve of faith and reason and genuine love for our fellow man and woman. I am hoping that it is not already too late.
 
Two years ago I asked many of you to pray with me that God would deliver our world from the scourges brought on by the Covid pandemic, both through the illness and through our many overreactions and punishments we inflicted on each other. 

Today I am asking you to pinch yourself, open your eyes, and WAKE-UP and SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING around you and then pray soberly for our nation and also find ways to do your part as an American citizen. It's time to become active in campaigns and vote intelligently.

If you by chance have formed an allegiance to the progressive views signified by the upraised, “Communist fist of solidarity,” I think the following video will be enlightening.
 
As I have mentioned in previous posts, I was adopted from a German orphanage shortly before the creation of the Berlin Wall. My extended birth-family lived on the Communist side in the German Democratic Republic. I reunited with them as an adult at age 52. 

The following Video describes the changes they experienced as they were forcefully molded into a Socialist Collective State that was committed to the goals of absolute equity for the working class.  

The video is a combination of personal testimony and historical documentary. 

I added the subtitles to present my family history and highlight the parallels I see between the changes they experienced and what we are experiencing today. 
               
Returning to the GDR an Adoptees POV

Jack and Carla 252 subscribers

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Video Information:

 An adoptee‘s POV on East Germany,
Collectivist thought and sacrifice
 
This personalized video is focused on how citizens in the new German
Democratic Republic adapted from childhood to adulthood. It presents
how my birth family immigrated to East Germany, the lives of people
their age upon their arrival, and how they adapted.
 
It also highlights our reunification. Personal photography, video and
comments are interspersed as themes intersect. Throughout the
video, I provide a running commentary of how the forced changes in
the German Democratic Republic compared with changes I see happening
here in the United States. This video is presented as a viewpoint commentary
of the content I described.
 
“All the videos, songs, images, and graphics used in the video
belong to their respective owners and I or this channel does not claim
any right to any but the personal content that I added.
 
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance
is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting,
teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by
copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.”
 
The original source, “The Lost World of Communism,” was produced
by Peter Molloy and Lucy Hetherington and debuted on BBC Two
on Saturday, March 14, 2009. It was the first in a series of three. The video titled,
“A Socialist Paradise; How the collapse of communism affected people in the
'socialist paradise' of East Germany,” was used.
 
This was the first in a three-part British documentary series examining the legacy
of communism and offering glimpses into the daily lives and thoughts of those
living behind the Iron Curtain between 1945 and 1989.
 
It utilized film and television footage and recollections from personal interviews
and scenes from historical events. It and the other two episodes can be
viewed on you-tube as well as many other internet sites that feature documentaries.
 
The original is considerably longer, and covers many topics that I have not
included, some of which would be considered, “adult only,” topics with
sexually explicit scenes. All of these, including any revealing displays of nudity
have been intentionally omitted from this video, as these topics are not specific to
the viewpoint commentary I am presenting.

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Location: Portland, OR, USA

Saturday, February 4, 2023

DEFUNDING MENTAL HEALTH IN PORTLAND


 Becoming Real about our Psychiatric Community 



Being a real psych-nurse.... required BECOMING REAL about all the effects of mental illness 


In November of 2017, I was working on Thanksgiving day in the ED at Unity Center in Portland, Oregon, talking with anguished parents about our seemingly futile efforts to help their loved one. At the time, I was deeply saddened with our inability to do more for their son and sympathetic with their frustrations. A frustration I have recently experienced first hand with our foster son.

Unity was a joint venture where Portland's four largest psychiatric hospitals closed and reopened as the consolidated, "Unity Center," with a special added emphasis on, "Emergency Stabilization," and community support.  

At that time I had 22 years of floor and charge nurse experience and was excited to work in the new, "Psychiatric Emergency Room," where expectations for a quicker recovery and earlier discharge became a frequent, but often unrealistic hope. 

In REAL psych-nursing the best we can usually provide are islands of relief in a troubled sea of changing symptoms. My task was to prepare them for success on this very difficult journey. 

As a nurse, BEING REAL was about truly being there with them. Often in their pain and their loss, but also in helping them to recognize their victories.

The video clip below is this type of story.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4cC1SwFWxU

Titled: A Mother's Story...

This is the story of  Kaye Warren's family as they share about the loss of one of their sons to mental illness.

In response, she and her husband Rick have committed themselves to making the problem of MENTAL ILLNESS REAL in the churches and communities across America....

So, why all this talk about being REAL? 

It is important because it is the process that allows us to take the pain of others without damaging ourselves. It is simple enough for a child to understand, and as old as the hills. The conversation below is from a book that I read to my children on the topic when they were very young. It is titled, "The Velveteen Rabbit." 

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. 
"It's a thing that happens to you....

"Does it hurt?" asked the Velveteen Rabbit .....

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become." It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept......" 

Photo and quote source, Margery Williams' 1922 children's classic, The Velveteen Rabbit,

Today I am still hoping and praying that the Warrens will be  successful in helping people to become REAL ENOUGH TO STAND WITH AND SUPPORT their neighbors, their peers and our families.

The video below is of a Sermon on the topic...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W52-H5-6qW8

It is the only sermon I have ever given in front of a congregation. I gave it after I returned from the Conference on Mental Health hosted by the Warrens with approximately 10,000 healthcare and pastoral worker attendees. Speakers included Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murphy and many, many others. They and their congregation organized and sponsored it at the Saddle-back Church campus in CA.

But all of this was from years ago... What about now?

Very recently  KGW News broadcast a story about TODAY'S MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS and Portland's inability  to keep mental health workers. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqdqSyB4-4k

What's keeping workers from going into the mental health care field?


This broadcast discusses outpatient care at the community level. It presents some very good ideas that include, "peer support," and apprenticeship approaches and alludes to low starting salaries, (at around $40k) with the assumption that funding alone is the primary problem. But it did not mention how outpatient mental health worker pay scale and demand is influenced by hospital pay scales. With outpatient workers pay being lower. 

It also does not mention the critical shortages of mental health workers in our local hospital. Shortages due to the significant pay cuts and the exodus of workers since the hospital consolidation into the Legacy controlled Unity Center. 

Let me explain. With the consolidation of the city's four major Mental Health Hospitals into the Unity Center, overseen by the Legacy Hospital System, a vast number of Behavioral Health Therapists, (BHT) were demoted to the lower pay status of  a Behavioral Health Associate (BHA).  

This was not based on seniority or demonstrated ability, but solely on past educational achievement. In addition the employees of the more conservative Adventist's Medical Center and the more conservative workers from the other three hospitals were often criticized, or even ostracized for their conservative views or even lack of enthusiasm for advancing progressive social change. The failure of Unity to create respectful appreciation and compromise, created a culture shock for many on both sides. 

Consider, the mission statement (at that time) from AMC. 

"To demonstrate in human form the healing ministry of Jesus Christ." 

It recently was changed to... 

"Showing God's love through excellent service in patient care."

And Legacy's 

"Our mission is good health for our people, our patients, our communities and our world. Above all, we will do the right thing." 

It seemed that at Legacy, "doing the right thing," meant, If you are not excited about doing the "right,  (progressive) thing." You should  be pushed out.

Legacy's rejection and devaluation of the workers that held more conservative values resulted in many being fired, mostly by having their positions eliminated. Many quitting and many others retiring early like me. All making it easier to replace them with workers at beginner pay scale.

And so today we have a very significant shortage accompanied by low wages due to pay cuts as most BHTs were replaced with lower paid BHAs.   

As for increasing mental health demand; the pernicious effects of substance abuse and addiction destroy mental health stability causing demand to explode!  

With the recent decriminalization of possessing and selling small amounts of (formerly illegal) drugs, we have made well over 90% of the drug transactions that occur on our streets either legal, or only a  misdemeanor. With our passively open border, (to Cartel activity),  drug supply is more abundant than ever, and virtually legal. 

Today, the incentives that made quitting use, like lack of supply, incarceration, negative social consequences, drug courts and even many recovery options have been removed. Theoretically voluntary counseling will solve this problem if we fund it sufficiently. But I find this very unlikely as I see no mechanism to create motivation for change. For many caught in addiction, even watching those around them die from overdosing has little to no deterrent effect. Since using is no longer interrupted by the negative circumstances we have eliminated, it is unlikely that it will be interrupted by anything but overdose and death. Sadly, in my opinion, the more likely outcome of throwing more money into counseling, will be very well paid, but very ineffective therapists. 

I review the severity of these problems and homelessness in my post link at the bottom of this page.


Pondering Homelessness and Community 


Where a permanent tiny house village is destroyed, and a public relations, Police Officer is interviewed and talks about the problems he sees with what I have described above. 
Click the link below to see the blog. 

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Monday, January 16, 2023

Pondering Homelessness and Community

Pondering Homelessness and Community 

For decades my family hosted a community Christmas Party. Our house was very large and ideal for hosting. 

Attendees at our party included a blind internet talk show host who banged amazing jazz rhythms out of our piano, an international business owner, many stay at home and single mom's, their husbands and children along with several residents of a tiny house village. 

Today I am writing about the last group. At that time they lived in garden shed cabins on the large lot directly behind ours. At one point when their water was cut off, we provided a hose from our garden area. The City was unhappy and wrote us a threatening letter, but we recognized their need for water. That was the summer of 2009. It was a very hot summer and our neighbor Rick had kidney disease.

You see, the landowner and leader of the group had failed to meet city regulations for community housing standards and resisted demands for building code compliance. Eventually after many court hearings all that was on his property was removed.

Today the neighborhood appears to have improved (by superficial standards), as a nice new home now stands where the village was. But for the people that lived in the village life has worsened greatly. Most are living in parked vehicles, possibly in a neighborhood near you. There have been numerous trips to the hospital for frostbite, kidney malfunction and pneumonia and one has died.     

I chose to write after recently seeing the article at this link.
 https://www.columbian.com/news/2022/dec/16/decriminalization-of-drug-possession-leaves-officers-in-clark-county-on-sidelines/

If you follow my posts, you will recognize the officer, whom I hold in very high regard. You can hear him speaking in the second video below. He was much more hopeful then. Even in spite of the circumstance. 

(Picture from article)
From the article, at the link above...

Decriminalization of drug possession leaves officers in Clark County on sidelines....Vancouver neighborhood police officer Tyler Chavers has watched fentanyl take over the city’s streets in the past two years...

Something I and my neighbor didn't see at his tiny house village before police defunding and decriminalizing most gateway and hard drug activity.

During the demolition, I was very impressed with our police, including officer Chavers, and the respect and self control they showed while enforcing the court order to clear my neighbors property.

In my eyes, it was a very sad situation since my neighbor had successfully created and sustained a house/shed village on his 2.5 acre lot for decades. Although substandard in many ways, the sheds were permanent, warm, dry and shared needed bathrooms and a kitchen.

As landlord, he demanded a standard of behaviors that seemed to minimize impact on the neighbors and still allowed gainful activity to tenants. Several actively recycled bottles and cans. One repaired bicycles and small engines, and others worked at odd jobs. It operated much like the Re-Store in N Portland.

Drug culture seemed low key or absent, and I was not aware of any reports of the kind of car traffic or chaos that comes with drug sales or prostitution, the most common ways of funding drug use among our poor. Once the police did come over a domestic dispute.

But their collection of building materials for recycling was abnormally large and unusual for our neighborhood, as was his 2.5 acre lot located at the end of a dead end street.

He fought the city for about 20 years before being shut down. He eventually agreed to have the City buy his property. 

(Hear his perspective in the videos below.)

CREATING HOMELESSNESS (part 1) 
A NOT SO BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

and...


CREATING HOMELESSNESS (part 2) 
Destruction and Hopes for Collaboration

In the videos you will hear some explosions. I am not sure what caused them. Perhaps he was trying to feel powerful. I know that he felt he had provided something of value and was angry that it was being discarded. Fortunately, his destructive actions were in harmony with the goals and requirements of the situation.

In an unfortunate contrast; Today, we have a much greater tragedy occurring with our nation wide explosion of both StreetSide Homelessness and, "legalized," Drug Dealing.

I say legalized because today, as many as 98% of the drug transactions that occur are considered either "legal," or merely a misdemeanor, even as the deadly supply mushrooms thanks to our current tolerance of the Cartel fed distribution network.

Instead of incentivizing creative self reliance, in our vulnerable communities, we have incentivized, an explosion of dealer and trafficker profits along with the mass deaths, community suffering and human enslavement that comes with it.

But this is not just happening to strangers, or even neighbors. Currently it has captured the lives of two of our former foster children. 

In September 2022 we drove 27 hours one way cross country to offer needed resources and encourage recovery support, just four days after one had been Nar-caned along with a co-user who died. And just days before Christmas another was admitted to Legacy Salmon Creek ED for stabilization after having multiple drug related seizures and then, declared stable enough to be discharged, and so I was called, but they were still so high on either meth or mushrooms that they didn't even understand that I was there to pick them up. They just wandered off while talking to invisible people. I waited for some time and eventually called the police because I was afraid, they would be hit by a car.

Both the hospital and the police could do nothing according to our new community standards. 

This seeming gentleness is not kindness or even tolerance. It borders on murderous disregard masquerading in a costume of progressive virtue. 

If you marched to defund the police and are backing the decriminalization (that promotes) these criminal behaviors. What are you thinking? Shame on you!

The deaths and destruction they are causing is a result of these very actions and it is happening in each of our neighborhoods.

In the future consider the historical and social context. Movements rarely act responsibly. It took decades to create and adapt the systems we so carelessly destroyed. Keeping police training current, and effective actually requires additional investment. Defunding is an insane approach. 

Currently I am grateful for the many church volunteer and city planned efforts that our mayor (in Vancouver WA) has taken to address these problems. Chief among them, Living Hope and Exchange Churches.

Actions surprisingly similar to many of the things my neighbor was doing.

If you are caught in a cycle of addiction, please realize that this is not an effort to attack. I am here to talk about having a healthy community and encourage you to consider the testimony in this link. https://www.driveoutaddiction.com/testimonials
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