A Man's Home is His Garbage Dump

Some hoarder dude left a trash pile around... for decades... that is big enough to show up on Google Maps... and cops and social services have been back and forth with this guy "discussing" the problem and doing a "welfare check" occasionally.

Finally, the county is stepping in and the fellow shows up in court going, "I've been sick.  So lemme have some time to collect evidence and get a lawyer." 

Really. 

But most comments on these sorts of stories sympathize with the hoarder.  He should have rights.  That's his stuff you're touching.  (Sure, it's full of rats, and is a health and fire hazard to everyone within a 5-mile radius, but it's his stuff.)  Bla. Bla. Bla.

See, I don't think so.  Weeds overgrowing a place that are consistently over a foot tall, or huuuge bunches of trash piled about the yard, means something needs to be done.  When things are way over the line we all think of as being in the "normal" range, and it's been that way for a while, something needs to be done.

And yet... around here?  The cops will look at the cars IN YOUR DRIVEWAY, and if the license plates are expired, you must have a junker car on your hands.  You get a citation.  Great source of revenue.

Or some other chick gets fined for growing tomatoes in her front lawn.  Sure, it's tacky and I think pretty ugly but hey.  Her land.  Why can't we all just be reasonable?  Huh?

Adultery is Like an Ice Cream Choice.

Old people were all sexxxy before they got dementia.  So now that they have dementia they should be able to go on with their sexxxy lives!  Just, you know, make sure it's consensual and all and then let Gramma go at it!  Go Grams!

Oh.  She's married?  Well, that's ok.  See, decisions about when and how and with whom to have sex are not serious decisions, like deciding whether to have a surgery.  It's more one of those not-so-serious decisions like what kind of ice cream to have after dinner.  So these old people who have dementia should be able to act out their feelings and whatever and have (ahem) fulfilling lives in the nursing home.  Nevermind that Gramma isn't sure what year it is.  She's horny!

One group of siblings just decided not to tell Mom that Dad was carrying on with some other wrinkly chick in the home she was using their life savings to pay for.  So what if Dad has lost most of his faculties and never would have done that before?  And so what about their marriage?  We need to empower senior living and, you know, the patient choosing when and how to engage in the act and all that.  Plus it's a "fundamental human right" to do the nasty.

I'm serious.

The Letter the Colleges Won't See

I know you're getting a lot of applications from students with excellent job records and a number of extracurricular activities as well as good grades. I'm asking you to consider my jobless son who doesn't do much at school after hours anyway. The boxes on your application form don't give us a space to adequately explain what's going on here.

His brother has severe mental illness, and from one day to the next we don't know what is going to happen. Whether it will be a "good" day or whether the police will be by. (Applicant teen) has had a friend over on perhaps four occasions during the last five years. Please note that these visits occurred when his brother was in the mental hospital. If nothing else, it would be nice if you could admit him so that he'd have a place he'd "have" to go, and he wouldn't feel obligated to give up his young adulthood as he's given up his teen years.

Mental illness is one of those odd things. Some days, his brother is well. At other times, he can snap with little warning and become quite violent. This makes it impossible for his parents to schedule work times for Applicant teen or be available to drive him to work. We simply cannot leave a raging teen in the house. Unfortunately, things are not under control even with medication and much outside support.

It is true that on more than one occasion, (Applicant teen) has been deliberately disobedient to his mother. He has stood between his mother and his brother when his brother was violent. He refused to go downstairs, to just get out of the situation and let Mom deal with it. I hope you consider that this means Applicant teen knows when to follow the rules and when to disobey for what he sees as the greater good. Though I still wish Applicant teen had obeyed without question.

Applicant teen is like a third parent to my children. Many of the younger children have special needs as well. Applicant teen watches them so that I can homeschool his younger siblings during the summer as well as on those many unplanned dramatic events during which we must have the mental health workers and/or police over. He also is in total charge of our home and the children for about a four hour stretch during the weekly visits the adults must make to a mental health center for his brother.

He really doesn't get much thanks or respite himself. I hope that you, College Very Far Away From Here, will consider his application and give him such a great scholarship that he leaves and does not come home until Christmas break (if then). I don't know how we'll manage without him, but I know he needs to leave.

I understand that in sending him to your school, I run a good risk of his realizing that he has been overburdened all these years and that his family is messed-up. I love him enough that I'm ready to let him go anyway.

I don't suppose you have a scholarship for people who have been affected by mental illness? Can't hurt to ask. Thanks! :)