Category Archives: Justice

* The pain pills saga

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The dentist prescribed ibuprofen 800s and, for me to take at night if the toothache became severe, Hydrocodon-Acetaminoph 7.5-325.  This is a narcotic.  “Pain pills.”

I have a large zipper bag with four compartments.  There is a main compartment, which I can lock; a front compartment; a left side compartment; and a right side compartment.

Every afternoon when I sit on my bunk, I empty my pockets and put my phone, debit card, and cash in the main compartment.  I take my afternoon meds, which are already in there, and lock it all back up.

Related:  Giving it all away

Continue reading * The pain pills saga →

* Why you should know about Freddie Gray’s life

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Janell Ross’s 12/19/15 WaPo column includes a remarkable statement:

The abbreviated and not at all easy life of Freddie Gray was, to some extent, shaped by Gray’s choices. He was an American and an adult with at least some of the attendant free will that people assume comes with either status.

In the present political climate, I never expected to see such words in print.

Read the article:
Continue reading * Why you should know about Freddie Gray’s life →

* This program turned me away.

Bible, Career goals, Get on your feet, Homelessness, Job search/Job prospects, Justice, National news, OUR BEST POSTS, , , , , ,

Adapted from a 12/03/15 e-mail to my brothers and some others.

Given instability at the shelter where I’ve been for almost five years, I decided to apply to a certain program affiliated with a major national charity and major local soup kitchen.  This program is residential, has a nice facility, and (as I understood it) was geared toward taking men with histories of addiction or homelessness and rendering them self-supporting.

Since it is a residential program, I would no longer have to carry my bags everywhere I go, vastly increasing the radius within which I can look for work; and, I supposed, I would be able to work any shift.  After all, unlike the shelter where I’ve been, they’ve got a big shove towards self-sufficiency.

They rejected me.

I wrote:

Baptismal grace means: when you get knocked down, you get back up.

Blog post (from October ’14, about getting back up): Life in the outer darkness

In the immediate future, I will be checking out options in transitional housing, and case management services at the clinic where I’m currently in treatment for everything I’m in treatment for.

=====================================

What happened?

Continue reading * This program turned me away. →

* Headlines about race

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Beginning as of the earliest link below, I have, and plan to continue to, attempted in good faith to copy every single headline that appears in my Yahoo! News feed pertinent attitudes toward race.

My hypothesis was that, overwhelmingly, it is only the attitudes of white people towards race, that are studied and reported.  The data here below speak for themselves.

Continue reading * Headlines about race →

* “Seeing red” is real. But how does it happen?

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The scientific reason your world brightens up when you do

This study affirms some common observations about color perceptions and emotional states. When one is enraged, the color red appears more vivid in one’s perceptions; when depressed, the color blue. When one feels elated, all colors appear brighter, and in times of severe depression color perception can all but disappear; the world looks black and white.  Or, perhaps, bleak and white.

The study attempts, and IMO fails, to attribute these things to the activity of neurotransmitters such as dopamine.  But there is no finding of direct action by such neurotransmitters on the color-perceiving apparatus of the visual cortex.

Continue reading * “Seeing red” is real. But how does it happen? →

* Bootstraps

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Psalm 150:6:  “Let all things that have breath praise the Lord.”

At the homeless shelter where I stay, we’re required to attend chapel every night.  Monday, for the first time in months, Jervis Ray preached.  His text was Psalm 23.  However, he was soon enough back to his same old same old, haranguing us that we’re not grateful enough for our “blessings.”  “God woke you up in your right mind,” with the use of two arms and two legs.

He calls us to praise God that our bootstraps aren’t like others’.  “There are lots of people in hospitals who don’t know where they are.”

That stung me, as my oldest brother will be soon enough in just that state.

Continue reading * Bootstraps →