Poverty & Prejudice: Debunking the Common Poverty Myths

Working hard and barely gettin' by,

that's the American way.

Working less and gettin' filthy rich,

that's the American Lie.

-- Emerald A. Behrens

The rich just keep getting richer. So quotes the Forbes article by Kerry A. Dolan and Luisa Kroll in Inside The 2014 Forbes 400: Facts And Figures About America's Wealthiest, after a time of deep recession in modern American history. According to that same article, those rich people saw an increase of their wealth rise $270 billion from 2013 to 2014.

According to the article, Wealth and Inequality written by Sarah Glazer (CQ Researcher), 10 percent of America's wealthiest controlled half of the nation's income in 2012, with foreign tax havens that shelter trillions of dollars.

These new statistics have been compared to the Gilded Age, a time of unprecedented prosperity and great inequality in America. It also raises questions on whether this unanticipated wealth increase comes at the expense of the disappearing middle-class and how it will ripple out to the overall financial situation and joblessness problem in the nation.

As economists and social activists struggle to defend or raise awareness about this issue, what's interesting to note is how the rich perceive themselves in their new lofty height of elite supremacy in America.

Many of those in their gilded, economically advantaged plutocracy see themselves as self-righteous individuals whose family values, upbringing and moral character have helped them realize the American Dream. These people have the justification of their immense wealth as proof of their (some would call it god-given) placement in the societal stratosphere. This elite standing allows them to look down upon the poor, the non-workers, the dependents of society, and reprimand them for their lazy, unskilled and nonproductive ways.

Surely the poor deserve such reprimanding since they are neither productive, as perceived by their lack of wealth, or motivated as perceived by their dependency?

Unfortunately, much to the chagrin of the extremely wealthy these outwardly depreciating views are not only negative and full of bigotry, they're also incorrect.

It is a sad truth that poverty has been around in America since the country was founded yet it's surprising that in this day and age of technological advances and previously unheard of wealth, where trillions of dollars circulate through our economy, there's still the issue of poverty.

As the economic crisis in 2008 and previous decades have shown, when the government suffers from lack of funds, those dependent on the government for their funds, suffer more and oftentimes these security buffers are not enough to alleviate the threat of poverty.

Sasha Abramsky's book, The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives, is a testimony from interviews of the many who suffer on the margins of society, too poor to be counted as below poverty level, some of whom are living in slums of urban cities and in rural colonias (encampments) without running water or electricity.

It's proof that Michael Harrington's illumination of the issue of poverty in 1962 with the book, The Other America, hasn't changed the problem of poverty much.

Many in America still fall under the poverty line, despite having a job. Barbara Ehrenreich's book, Nickel and Dimed follows her own investigative journey behind the scenes of the working poor whose full-time jobs as housekeepers, waitresses, hospice workers and Wal-Mart employees, don't pay enough to keep them out of poverty. Eherenreich writes that most people are trapped in their low-wage jobs, unable to climb the ladder of success due to restrictions of location (such as not having a car, or picking a job close to home). Employees have limited options and have little control over the kinds of jobs they get. One major factor in these jobs which makes a worker so helpless is the loss of self-respect and civil rights, as Ehrenreich cites her experience with purse searching bosses, drug testing, and degrading employment personality tests that asks the employee if they "find it hard to stop moods of self-pity". (59) It is a vicious cycle where low-wage workers suffer more than economic hardship, they suffer social stigma too. It is a "culture of extreme inequality" where the corporate decision makers and bosses look down upon their workers. In the chapter, Evaluation, Ehrenreich points out, "For reasons that have more to do with class--and often racial--prejudice than with actual experience, they tend to fear and distrust the category of people from which they recruit their workers." (212)

These full-time low-wage workers who are not by any means lazy or unskilled are what some would call, the deserving poor, those who deserve an extra hand up through government incentives, tax breaks, or an extension of welfare benefits. As Michael B. Katz describes in his book, The Undeserving Poor: America's Enduring Confrontation With Poverty, "Today they are most often referred to as the working poor and in recent years they have elicited sympathy and support from public programs." (3)

However, there are those considered the undeserving poor, those who supposedly bring poverty unto themselves. These people are viewed as: lazy, possessing questionable morals, having inadequate parental backgrounds: born of single-mothers, non-married or divorced parents, unskilled, or mentally unfit for society.

There has been much talk from conservative and liberal groups on how to deal with these so-called undeserving poor but not many bi-partisan solutions have resulted. Many reforms in the past seeking to eradicate poverty were put in place during Lyndon B. Johnson's time with the War on Poverty crusade that was later criticized by conservatives. In order to put these plans in place it was important to count how many people needed it and how much they needed. Thus a system of counting a poverty level had to be made.

According to the article Framing the Poor by Max Rose and Frank R. Baumgartner, poverty has historically been measured by income. In 1961, the poverty line was established by multiplying by three the minimum income required for a basic diet. Inflation, changing incomes and other factors have altered this formula, though current formulas are more accurate. (33)

The chart study of the poverty gap used in Framing the Poor, shows that the gap has increased since the 1970's, more than twice since the 1960's in fact. In the authors' words, "The poor have gotten poorer." (35)

With so many more government programs in place to help the poor now, the question of why poverty still exists is a conundrum for major economists. Conservatives (and their rich counter-parts) are eager to answer that global economies have created more competition in job markets along with higher technological careers that require more than a high-school diploma to apply, thus creating an uneven employment field for many Americans. Conservatives are also quick to point out that the government has wasted "Trillions" of dollars in welfare programs designed, as they say, to help the "welfare queens" and "cheaters" of the system.

Robert Rector along with William Lauber, of the conservative Heritage Foundation, wrote a disparaging account of how the government wastes "Trillions" of U.S. taxpayer dollars in, America's Failed $5.4 Trillion War on Poverty. (Katz 198)

Rector, along with many conservatives, cite the collapse of the marriage culture, the breakdown of the family and other social ills, as contributing to the problem of poverty. Rector was a major player in the 1996 federal welfare reform legislation which required those on welfare to work in order to get their benefits. Another popular target on the cause of poverty in America, as cited by Rector's profile on the Heritage Foundation website, is immigration.

What the Heritage Foundation neglects to mention (as with many other conservatives) is the racial profiling, single-mother blaming and overall bigotry that colors their rhetoric when it comes to their reform measures.

The biggest shame in America in regard to social inequality has been the issue of race and its connection to poverty. With the history of slavery, indentured servitude of women in the early American colonies and harsh treatment of Native Americans, this nation of freedom and liberty for all has hardly lived up to its constitutional promise. Race still plays the biggest role in regard to poverty and its stereotypes in connection to welfare have yet to wear off.

Black welfare queens. Promiscuous women with many children. Single-mothers. Fathers likely in jail or on the street selling drugs. These are all the conceptions of those on the welfare system, particularly people of color. It's no coincidence these ideas have been fostered and enforced by the white elite.

According to Michael B. Katz' chapter, Poverty and the Politics of Liberation, Social Darwinism beginning in the late 1800's became the scientific argument in favor of good breeding stock, as described later in eugenics (29-38), which was the leading vogue of social politics concerning the poor in the 1900's. As the poor, namely immigrants and those of foreign blood were seen as inferior, blacks fit this new role as the undesired race. Under the guise of birth control (and many other supposed illnesses such as hysteria), sterilizations were performed for women deemed mentally ill and unfit to have children.

Many of these were most likely involuntary and Katz writes of one 1920's court case in Virginia where the sterilization order on a woman was challenged but overturned, upholding the statute that allowed sterilization "within the police power of the state... and that it did not constitute cruel or unusual punishment." (37) During World War II, with the knowledge that the German Nazi's supported eugenics to further their agenda of racial superiority, the popularity of eugenics waned. However, involuntary sterilization would remain in America well into the post-world war era, much to the horror of civil rights proponents.

Involuntary sterilization of Black women was a rude awakening to the existing racial hatred that remained after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement. In September 1973, Triple Jeopardy, a magazine published by the Third World Women's Alliance (TWWA) in the 1970's, focused on the plight of black women in the U.S. who were being involuntarily sterilized, based on the legacy of eugenics. (Katz 91)

According to Dorothy Roberts Killing the Black Body, 5,000 black women during the 1930's and 1940's were sterilized under the diagnosis of being mentally deficient in states that still recognized eugenics in their laws. In 1980, cites Roberts, 700,000 sterilizations took place under the form of birth control. She states, "It was a common belief among Blacks in the South that Black women were routinely sterilized without their informed consent and for no valid reasons." Government reimbursement to surgeons under Medicaid acted as financial incentives to perform such unnecessary surgeries, even though these had a "greater risk of killing the patient". (Katz 91-92)

Little has changed since then regarding the belief that Black women are the major recipients of welfare and that they have too many children, as conservatives are always pointing out as the epidemic of single-motherhood and the curse of dysfunctional families (mainly blacks and immigrants) are to blame for America's poverty crisis.

It's largely ignored by the conservative rich finger pointers that many welfare, single-mothers are white, particularly those in the mid-west, south, and Appalachia region.

Location also defines a person's poverty level, from upbringing to schooling and employment, where you live determines how poor you are. In Stephen J. Scanlan's paper, "Mined" for Its Citizens? Poverty, Opportunity Structure, and Appalachian Soldier Deaths in the Iraq War, Scanlan uses a spatial inequality framework on poverty and connects it to research on the military and society. Drawing sources from websites that lists the casualties of the Iraq War, Scanlan gathered information about the soldiers' hometown and found a disproportionate number of them from Appalachia, noting also the employment opportunities there and how it may have affected military recruitment.

Some of the most startling findings include facts that, "The hometowns of Appalachian soldiers dying in Iraq have poverty rates nearly 30 percent higher than the rest of the country." (55) As a poor region, employment would be lower, as well as educational opportunity.

Most people looking for better conditions would have to move to another area (if they could afford to do so), or look for existing work that may not pay a living wage. In a region such as Appalachia, where mining and manufacturing may be the only jobs available, there is limited opportunity for anything else and these jobs are considered high-risk when it comes to health and livelihood for families.

Also, according to Scanlan, these jobs have not increased wages or reduced unemployment or poverty. Retails jobs that are available, don't pay enough and are not prevalent enough for the citizenry to escape the poverty of the area. As a result, the citizens are being "mined" by the military and with limited opportunity for employment or education, a career in the Army, Marines or Navy is seen as an attractive alternative to poverty, especially with promises of GI benefits including a paid ticket to college. However, many of these recruits never live to see these promised benefits and as proven by the results, a disproportionate number have died overseas, as stated, "Appalachia has a higher rate of soldier deaths from the Iraq War than the United States as a whole...". (56)

Education as a way out of poverty and as a path to employment is the most sought after goal. For those who can afford it, a degree is a ticket to higher pay and better employment. For those who can't afford it, there is financial aid and Affirmative Action, which remains disputed. But what if getting an education is not the ticket to better employment? What happens when education fails in its goal for employment?

Barbara Ehrenreich visits this new hard truth in uncertain economic times (before the downturn of 2008), to see what happens to people who have Master's Degrees and still can't find a job in her second book dealing with poverty and inequality, Bait and Switch The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream.

Ehrenreich puts herself in the middle of a white-collar job search, along with those who have finished college, started families, saved for retirement and have done everything right, except for being fired. For these people who've never been on welfare, never exhibited "laziness" and have done an "above and beyond" job, it's a harsh reality of economic uncertainty when the job you've sacrificed your life for betrays you. In the Conclusion, Ehrenreich states that many CEO's profited from firing their employees. "...by eliminating other people's jobs, top management can raise its own income." (224) In the end, these former employees have to start all over and it's a tough climb back to the top again, some never make it but must content themselves with low-wage jobs that may not be temporary. Ehrenreich states this new trend in her chapter, Downward Mobility, where many have found "survival jobs" and although no longer unemployed, their new job has no chance of upward mobility. "...in a society where worth is measured entirely by income and position, downward mobility carries a sense of failure, rejection and shame."(210) For those who've spent over twenty years in a white-collar job, entering the new job market as an "older person" brings shocking revelations of discrimination and existing ageism in our society.

As Ehrenreich finds out, she can't even find a job. After going through job coaches, job fairs, job make-overs, job seminars and even Christian job searches, it's surprising that a person with a Ph.D. and background in writing can't land a descent employment spot.

For those recent graduates entering the job field, competition is high and most rural towns where these students hail from suffer the condition of "brain drain" (Scanlan 46), where higher-employment jobs in other cities or even other states, lure those with higher-education to other locations.

Those who do graduate with higher-education degrees find themselves entrenched in student loans, with thousands of dollars in debt increased with any medical bills and previous debt they suffer from. Even finding a full-time job after graduation is a herculean task and many stick with part-time jobs that can't pay off their debt.

This reality goes against rich conservatives who say all you need is a good education and a good job to reach the middle class and if you're lucky reach the very wealthy top. Ron Haskins, former White House advisor to Republican President George W. Bush, published his book Creating an Opportunity Society (2009) with Isabel Sawhill, which was covered by Sarah Glazer who wrote in the CQ Researcher that, "Haskins stresses the role of personal responsibility. In 2009, he analyzed census data to see how adult Americans were doing if they followed three norms of modern society: finish high school, get a full-time job, and wait until age 21 to get married before having children. Young adults who followed all three had only a 2 percent chance of winding up in poverty and a 74 percent chance of reaching the middle class, he found." (Glazer 344)

Of which young adults who followed this formula isn't clearly stated, nor are the statistics he uses to back this claim up. It's hard to know how Haskins analyzed the census data to find his claim out but there isn't always a right way to analyze data as economists stills struggle with how to calculate poverty and there are many ways of reading statistics.

In Kip Hagopian and Lee E. Ohanian's paper The Mismeasure of Inequality, the authors find other studies reporting about income inequality misleading and their paper seeks to correct these issues using the Gini coefficient (also Gini index). They state the Gini coefficient is the most common methodology used in measuring income inequality, where "The figure of merit for the Gini coefficient for income inequality ranges from zero to I.0, where zero represents total equality (all persons have identical incomes) and I.0 represents total inequality (one person has all of the income)." (4) The authors compare the Gini coefficient to other European nations and contest that better measures of living standards are not income, but consumption.

Although, according to Julie A. Litchfield's article, "Inequality: Methods and Tools." (1999) published on the World Bank website, whose mission is to end extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity, the Gini coefficient is the most commonly used measure of inequality but it varies when the distribution varies. The Poverty Analysis page, Measuring Inequality, states, "If a society is most concerned about the share of income of the people at the bottom, a better indicator may be a direct measure... ." (http://go.worldbank.org/3SLYUTVY00) The Gini coefficient has been criticized by some as misleading and too easy to oversimplify.

It is curious that Hagopian and Ohanian include "income from underground economy" as part of the lower-income household. It does not specify what kind of underground economy provides an income along with bartering.

Although the authors quote that "46 million Americans live below the official federal poverty line" they stress that they have "a somewhat higher standard of living than is commonly believed", quoting another report from a 2009 American Housing Survey showing that poor households: own a home, have air conditioning, a color TV, a refrigerator, stove and oven, a car or truck, microwave oven, DVD or VCR, satellite connection and dishwasher. (11)

The authors stress they are not making light of the poor but that poor by their definition needs to be redefined. Though they state that there isn't a clear consensus among economists about why inequality in the U.S. is higher than other industrialized countries, they present their own findings about what makes people poor and incomes suffer. "Differences in individual ability and preference (defined as capacity and desire to earn), age, globalization... [and] the substantial influx of low-skilled, low-income immigration into the U.S. workforce over the past 30 years." (12-13) While they argue that what makes incomes greater is, greater economic freedom, lower aggregate taxes, less stringent regulation, entrepreneurship, and technology.

Since Kip Hagopian and Lee E. Ohanian are from the conservative right (citing sources from the Heritage Foundation and where Ohanian is a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution), they support anti-tax measures against the rich, saying that they disagree that public policy should address the issue of inequality through income distribution. The usual argument is that billionaires such as Sam Walton (Wal-Mart) and others have contributed much to the economy and growth of America. They claim that enacting policies based on "value judgements" is counterproductive and that even a small increase in taxes ("taxes on capital income") would bring down labor productivity, wages and living standards. Instead of trying to tax the rich, the authors claim, it is more important to fix a broken K-12 education system. (18-19)

It is interesting to note in the paper how many times the argument shifts from taxes to educational values which are seen to be broken and how immigrants and those who are unskilled and have no "desire to earn" are to blame for income disparity. The rich are not to blame, for in a Capitalist society, earning a billion dollars a year is a sign of success, not a crime. Yet it's curious to see how reluctant the rich are to share their earnings, having contempt for those who don't make nearly enough as they do, and how they support many reports and studies that show how the poor aren't really that poor. They put much money into conservative think-tanks, private schools and Republican parties that share they same "family values" and anti-government spending "fiscal conservative" ideas they do, raising an alarm to any hint of tax increase or unfriendly business environments with government regulations and oversight. If being rich isn't a crime in this country, why are the rich people so reluctant to share the wealth or have any government oversight? Perhaps it is because the means by which the rich get rich, isn't all that family value friendly after all.

Forbes magazine article, John Paulson Pays A High Price For His Adventure in South African Gold, written in 2014 by Tim Treadgold, shows the ugly side of Capitalism in America and those that profit from the suffering of others. Paulson, a billionaire fund manager of Paulson & Co. is described by Treadgold as, "a man who played the sub-prime crash of 2007 to perfection, making billions of dollars for himself and clients of his fund-management business, Paulson & Co." (Forbes.com)

While many lost their homes and were thrown into poverty, people like Paulson made more money, billions of dollars, at the poorer people's expense. Banks were given government bail-outs and a hidden world of corruption was unveiled within banks, where bank employees were given commissions for every loan they signed a customer onto, whether or not that customer could afford to pay off that loan. Many people years later are still suffering from the effects of that horrible scandal, which happened because government oversight was lifted and banks were given free reign over the loans they controlled.

But Paulson's scandal doesn't end there as Treadgold goes on to describe how the billionaire botched his gold investment in South Africa, a region of destitute people, where horrendous working conditions exist alongside the history of apartheid. The company which Paulson has a stake in, AngloGold Ashanti, was accused of human rights violations in the scope of $2.1 billion dollars by Council on Ethics, The Government Pension Fund Global, in a report to the Ministry of Finance in June 2012, "due to an unacceptable risk that the company’s operations may cause severe environmental damage and contributes to serious or systematic human rights violations." (http://www.regjeringen.no)

The Council on Ethics was established by Royal Decree [Norway] 19 November 2004 and provides an evaluation of whether investments in specified companies are inconsistent with the ethical guidelines. It is also of particular note that this council has strict measures of ethical responsibility and has a List of Excluded Companies that are excluded from the Government Pension Fund's investment universe. Companies that "violate fundamental humanitarian principles", conduct "sales of weapons and military equipment to Burma", "Manufacture tobacco" and conduct "Behavior that is considered to involve contributing to grossly unethical conduct" are listed. Under that last section, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (31 May 2006) is listed along with companies committing malfeasance: Boeing Co. (Production of nuclear weapons), Phillip Morris Cr AS., and Phillip Morris International Inc. (Production of tobacco).

Such ethical violations are not always present with multi-billion dollar companies, their CEO's and their investors but it's a problem that the country of Norway has seen fit to address and raises the question of whether the United States of America should also have a list of companies that violate human rights and ethical standards, and whether more regulation is necessary.

Those that push for more regulation argue that companies need to be responsible for the harm they do and mitigate the damage, either with harsh fines, imprisonment of CEO's who knowingly commit these crimes or with a complete shutdown of the companies. For those whose interests rely on the corporate powers for profit, where corporate entities enjoy the same rights as an individual before the law, they argue that punishing the corporations goes against the American ideals of freedom, prosperity and Capitalism.

However, in a country that values Capitalism, prosperity and freedom, it remains to be seen who gets to realize these ideals and who doesn't, namely the poor who are left out of the political process altogether. Those living on the margins can't even vote, because they posses neither a living residence, drivers license (mandatory to have in order to vote in some states), or means to vote by transportation or time off work. How can they be expected to change a system so throughly built against them?

As Katz notes in The Undeserving Poor, "poverty is, in part, a problem of power." (135) It is hard to feel empowered when you struggle to make ends meet, when you're working all hours of the day and night to provide for your family and are still not able feed them, when you've lost your home and have nowhere to go, when you're living on the streets and people look down upon you. Being poor is disempowering and it's hard for an individual or their family to feel as though they can make a difference when they've lost every form of security and support they had relied on.

Many public programs have been put in place as a security buffer for those less fortunate in hard times but many have been taken off the agenda due to budget cuts.

In Sasha Abramsky's chapter The Wrong Side of the Tracks (135-136), during 2012, states were allowed to mandate men and women, claiming unemployment insurance while applying for jobs, to take a drug test in order to access their insurance benefits. Many families seeking to be considered for welfare must pass a series of applications, tests and forms proving by their income and tax level that they deserve help and must go through red-tape bureaucratic measures by city, county, state and federal assistance programs.

Abramsky notes with sarcasm that banks rarely have to go through such red-tape in order to get their bailouts from the government, that people who rely on Medicare and Social Security are not required to piss in a cup, and that conservatives against welfare use much of the so-called Socialist handouts such as Veteran Administration benefits, Medicare and Social Security.

Yes, there are people who cheat the system (just as the banks and billionaires cheated America) but denying help to the many because of a small number of unlawful individuals is both cruel and demeaning. This rhetoric of punishing the poor assumes that all poor people are vagrants looking for hand-outs, yet this is what is commonly heard on most conservative news talk shows, funded by the billionaires who own them, and even in common platform debates with Democrats and Republicans. The sad truth is, what the media says about the poor can affect government action.

Framing the Poor by Max Rose and Frank R. Baumgartner, shows a correlation to how the media perceives poverty versus what the government does about it. Starting with the 1960's when the War on Poverty was put into action through 2008, when the economy took a drastic hit, Rose and Baumgartner follow newspaper stories, presenting statistical models concerning aspects of poverty, government action and spending and conclude that, "The portrayal of the poor as either deserving or lazy drives public policy." (22)

America's optimism and prosperity after World War II, drove the idea that hard work was all one needed to succeed and that all opportunities were available to those who applied themselves to task. Even women were included, as images of Rosie the Riveter brought a new image of can-do attitude for women who found a somewhat broader field of employment available then.

But poverty still loomed in the background of all this celebration with Michael Harrington's book, The Other America, which showed that millions of people suffered and were left out of the so-called optimism of the day. In those times, the poor were to be pitied, to be brought up from their lowly level to an acceptable living standard. They were seen as unwilling victims, not participants in their own misery but as sufferers from external conditions of which they had no control over. Public sympathy overflowed then and the government responded with the War on Poverty. 

Turbulent times however changed this mindset, along with the Vietnam War and thousands of returning wounded veterans, to a more conservative and discriminating view of poor people. The poor became the undeserving lot, those who for too long drained the prosperous economy of America, and became the unwanted population with their breeding and propagation of loose morals and kin. Terms such as, "lazy", "dysfunctional", "dependent" and the ever-popular "welfare queen" were the new descriptions of the poor. The poor became a separate race (in more ways than one with regard to racial discrimination) and were not worthy of the middle-class America that was seen as the ultimate picture of conformity with the suburban house, family wagon filled with 2.5 children and dog. Government views followed suit and began to limit assistance and proceeded to re-vamp former welfare measures, such as the welfare reform of 1996. 

The stereotypes of poverty and its causes are still misrepresented today in the media but a surprising group of educated people lending their own conclusions as to what causes poverty has raised the question of whether poverty is in our genes. As Katz points out "neuroscience and epigenetics have fostered the emergence of a new version of poverty as a result of individual biology." (Katz 269) 

For Kids, Self-Control Factors Into Future Success (NPR), explains a study showing that self-control in childhood can make the difference between getting a good job or going to jail in adulthood. Nancy Shute, host of Morning Edition, interviewed Professor Terrie Moffitt of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University, who studied 1,000 young people since birth, and published her study of childhood self-control in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The transcript shows the dialogue between the host and interviewee.

SHUTE: Social scientists say three things matter for success in life: I.Q. family socio-economic status, and self-control. Only one of those things is easy to change, and it's self-control.

Katz debunked the myth that I.Q. matters, noting that race is often a comparison to such tests, including skewed scientific statistics easily manipulated by those with conservative agendas. (Katz 35)

SHUTE: But the children who struggled with self-control had problems as young adults.

Prof. MOFFITT: We found that they were more likely to have a criminal conviction record.

SHUTE: They were also more likely to be poor or to be single parents.

Prof. MOFFITT: And finally, we found that the children with low self-control had great difficulty in their 30s with financial planning.

SHUTE: That means they were more likely to be in debt, have bad credit or have declared [sic] bankruptcy.

Moffitt and Shute's discussion of these problems: single-motherhood, bad financial planning, drug-use, criminal convictions and poverty, as a result of childhood self-control issues puts too much blame on the child and on the parent who must oversee their child's actions to make sure they don't end up a single-mother, on drugs, who spends too much and as a result, becomes poor and in jail. The correlation between a child's self-control and their future adult decision making skills seems a bit contrived, as if a child's destiny were pre-ordained by the choices they made at four-years-old.

What isn't discussed in the interview is how Professor Moffitt reaches her conclusion through a supposed thirty-year-study of these children. But similar studies have been conducted with very little changes in the result and also very little proof that what a child does at four-years-old can affect their living situation at thirty-years-old.

The study, Self-Control And Impulsivity In Children: Multiple Behavioral Measures (Forzano, L. B., et al.), meant to measure impulsivity, self-control and gratification delay in children with a barrage of tests concerning food, is mainly a self-serving test showing no conclusive evidence that the behavior shown by the children at the time leads to bad behavior later in adult life or that these children suffered from the listed consequence of impulsivity such as: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; American Psychiatric Association, 1994), substance abuse, borderline personality disorder and impulse-control disorders such as gambling.

In a previous test by Reynolds and Stark in 1986, 132 children in grades 4-6 were "divided into two groups based on teacher referrals (the referred children were said to lack self-control and behave impulsively)." (Forzano, L. B., et al. 427) This already sets the test up with children perceived as having impulse control problems, rather than doing a blind study which would be more fair. Basically the test consists of an adult presenting a marshmallow to a kid, telling them if they wait a number of minutes and not eat the marshmallow while the adult is gone, they'll get more marshmallows later. A similar test was done with non-humans. Gender, age and time-wait correlation were compared but again, no conclusive results could be made to predict impulsivity in these children or that it would lead to crime, only the conclusion that self-control is greatest in humans, lower in rats, and lowest in pigeons. Given more options and actual control children could have more self-control. It ends with the phrase, "Again, each of these explanations warrants further research." (442)

If it sounds like a re-hash of the eugenics myth, it probably is.

Trying to predict the occurrence of crime committing individuals among children is a strangely Orwellian task and one that hints of the Nazi experiments during WWII when they tried to prove scientifically that Jews were inferior to Germans (Katz 38). Having a pre-ordained prescription for failure and one that is a precursor to poverty is unsettling in the scientific realm which should put more use of its monies to solving the problem of real poverty in America.

What makes a person commit crime is a complicated question, often times though it's tied to poverty and the circumstance by which they live. Looking at the prison systems in this country can tell you a lot about poverty. There are more prisons in this country than colleges or universities.

Sasha Abramsky writes that, "In fact, in most states, it costs about as much money to keep someone in prison for one year as it would cost to send that person to an Ivy League university." (241)

The overcrowding situation in the many prisons we have leads to non-violent incarcerated individuals being let out onto the street when there's no more room for them.

According to Abramsky, America has quintupled its incarcerated population since the early 1970's... and [sic] houses far more nonviolent inmates than any other country on earth... ." (241)

Those former prisoners are left with no job, no housing and no means of changing the situation, other than going to a shelter or living on the street. Many homeless are former incarcerated people who have found it hard to re-enter the society that put them behind bars. 

Abramsky quotes the 2012 Department of Justice finding that, "a spell behind bars can reduce a person's future earnings by 40 percent." (241)

Also, a disproportionate number of incarcerated people are black and hispanic/latino people which puts an added disadvantage on those looking for work based on discrimination and installs a deep sense of mistrust in those former prisoners who know the government system is out to get them, which makes it harder for them to ask for assistance from welfare or other programs.

Discrimination against black and hispanic/latino people is a sad factor of today's poverty, as quoted by Sasha Abramsky in The Nation, "a disproportionate share of the nation’s poor are African-American and Latino. More than a quarter of blacks and Latinos live below the government-defined poverty line (about $11,000 per year for an individual, $23,000 for a family of four), compared with 12 percent of Asian-Americans and slightly less than 10 percent of whites." (12)

These injustices have sparked the uprising of the 99% also known as The Occupy Wall Street protesters, who are still protesting inequality in both income and prejudice in America's streets. But as the media spin has so often shown, what's out of sight is out of mind for most policy makers who are controlling the shots and the conversation has drifted to other subjects, mainly that of the ongoing wars overseas. 

With today's limited economy, marginal job-improvement number and engrossment in the many wars overseas, it remains to be seen how much an issue (or priority) poverty is in the current state of affairs.

President Obama's Address to the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York City, on September 24th, 2014, stated:

America is committed to a development agenda that eradicates extreme poverty by 2030. We will do our part to help people feed themselves, power their economies, and care for their sick. If the world acts together, we can make sure that all of our children enjoy lives of opportunity and dignity.

It's a promising speech and one that holds a lot of optimism for the future but like all public statements, it's a vague and limited framework for government action. If America, the country of greatest prosperity and opportunity in the world, cannot provide for its own citizens in regard to basic living standards of food, shelter and security, how can our country be an example of prosperity and policy to others?

There's still a long way to go before the problems of poverty can be solved but the prejudice against poor people which remains today is a sad reminder of how little we've come to realizing the American Dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, for all our people.

* * *

Works Cited

Abramsky, Sasha. "The Other America 2012. (Cover Story)." Nation 294.20 (2012): 11-18. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.

Abramsky, Sasha. The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives. New York: Nation, 2013. Print.

The Council on Ethics. Recommendation to exclude AngloGold Ashanti Limited from the investment universe of the Government Pension Fund Global. Oslo, Norway. 3-29. Web. 22. Oct. 2014.

Dolan, Kerry A., and Luisa Kroll. "Inside The 2014 Forbes 400: Facts And Figures About America's Wealthiest." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 29 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed. N.p.: Henry Holt, 2001. Print.

Ehrenreich, Barbara. Bait and Switch: The (futile) Pursuit of the American Dream. New York: Metropolitan, 2005. Print.

For Kids, Self-Control Factors into Future Success. Washington, D.C.: National Public Radio, 2011. ProQuest. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.

Forzano, L. B., et al. "Self-Control And Impulsivity In Children: Multiple Behavioral Measures." Psychological Record 61.3 (2011): 425-448. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.

Glazer, Sarah. "Wealth and Inequality." CQ Researcher 18 Apr. 2014: 337-60. Web. 15 Oct. 2014.

Hagopian, Kip, and Lee E. Ohanian. "The Mismeasure Of Inequality." Policy Review 174 (2012): 3-19. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.

Katz, Michael B. The Undeserving Poor: America's Enduring Confrontation with Poverty. Second ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.

Larkin, James. Personal interview. 28. Oct. 2014.

Litchfield, Julie A. "Inequality: Methods and Tools." (1999) The World Bank Group. Web. 22 Oct. 2014. .

"Remarks by President Obama in Address to the United Nations General Assembly." The White House. The White House, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2014. .

Rose, Max, and Frank R. Baumgartner. "Framing The Poor: Media Coverage And U.S. Poverty Policy, 1960-2008." Policy Studies Journal 41.1 (2013): 22-53. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.

Scanlan, Stephen J. "Mined" For Its Citizens? Poverty, Opportunity Structure, And Appalachian Soldier Deaths In The Iraq War." Journal Of Appalachian Studies 20.1 (2014): 43-67. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.

Treadgold, Tim. "John Paulson Pays A High Price For His Adventure in South African Gold." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 16 Sept. 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014. .

* * *

Author’s Note:

This was a school paper I did at Diablo Valley College for English. My topic was poverty and over the course of this assignment I learned a lot which enforced my belief that poverty in this country (USA is counted as one of the richest countries in the world), is morally, financially and inexcusably wrong. 

Any errors in this writing are mine… except for the stupid formatting that isn’t my fault but rather the result of blogger’s inept pasting method. 

UPDATE: March 22nd, 2015

UPDATE: March 22nd, 2015

I am writing this in hopes that the truth will be known. I am risking my reputation, my employment, my freedom of speech and possibly my life in order to tell the truth. Let it be known that I am fighting for my life but it has become difficult due to the actions of others. This is my personal account of what has happened to me and what I am fighting for.

* * *

"You'd have to be mental to get help from the Mental health system. There's nothing healthy about it." - E.B.

The purpose of the mental system is to destroy the individual. The autonomy, purpose and self-respect is removed while fear, dependence and a sense of failure is put in its place. Through automatic labels, medication and degrading comments from the doctors, nurses and staff -- the individual is worn down, disgraced and eventually erased.

No more can the individual expect to live as a productive person in society, for once they are labeled as "mentally ill" this hideous slur will plague them for the rest of their lives. They can no longer be able to consider themselves of having any value, once told that they are incompetent; that their only hope of surviving is to become helpless, at the mercy of others through the: welfare system, residential group homes, and corrupt medical system.

No more can they expect to earn a decent living for themselves when the only job offered to them (once they are "mentally ill") is cleaning toilets or mopping floors -- often in the same facility that victimized them.

I know this for a fact, because this happened to me... as it has happened to many others.

It does not matter under which circumstance the individual (now considered a "patient"), entered into the facility -- falsely misled into believing they would receive help or a "diagnosis".

It does not matter that the person was previously under duress though harassment, threats of rape, previous attempted assaults and was not able to ask for help from the police, family or friends.

It does not matter if the person seeking much needed help is also suffering from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) -- none of these circumstances matter to the mental system staff; doctors who are eager to prescribe pills or complacent nurses, who are all waiting to get paid by the person's private insurance.

It is interesting to note these so-called professionals aren't so eager to help the non-insured, under-insured or "welfare insured" (medicaid, medical, etc.).

In fact I personally witnessed someone in the "psych ward", being cast out, into the street, with hardly a second thought for their well-being. This individual had been previously living in a group home for most of their life, had never had a chance for independence while suffering from their affliction, and was forced to rely on the mental system that in turn betrayed them.

But much more eager were these mental professionals when dealing with a person who had private insurance (such as myself); as I was forced against my will to stay for an entire week with no regard to my rights as a patient or my rights as a human being. With no knowledge of what would happen to me, under total regulation of the system and ultimately treated like a prisoner -- with no hope for escape.

Only the threat of a lawyer was my ultimate escape -- as I had no family member to rescue me from this situation.

The guilty, once brought before the law will cower and flee or else they will make excuses and protect themselves however they can.

So the doctor did, and the nurses and staff, when I pointed the finger at them. They can easily say that I am insane, but I know the truth. What they did to me was inhumane -- you wouldn't wish this but on your worst enemy.

I realized they had turned me into the enemy -- against myself. They used my own writings against me, knowing this was the only thing that mattered to me; they used this as a "symptom" against me.

No more could I hope for a normal life -- they did all they could to tell me how incompetent, helpless and worthless I was.

"You should be on welfare. You need to be in a group home. You need an older man, preferably a doctor, who understands your "symptoms". You're Autistic. You have Aspergers."

This is what the nurse, doctor and social worker said to me while I was in the hospital.

If only I had known the lies of the perpetrators beforehand. If only I hadn't trusted them, or the system or even my own family member they had thoroughly tricked -- I could've avoided all of this. I could've had a "normal life".

But sometimes suffering brings knowledge and upon my escape from that system, I fled. I entered into a quest for learning, to grow and empower myself, to repair what was forcibly taken from me and become a truly enlightened individual.

I see the truth now and will work to prevent this crime from happening to other people. But it is hard, it is very hard. The mental system is a very complex prison, guarded by the prestige of doctors and their false credentials under the guise of healer while underneath they wear the hood of the executioner.

Anyone who dares to take away your Freedom in order to "help you" or "protect you" --

Anyone who does this "for your own good" -- 

is a traitor.

Anyone who tells you that you are unworthy, not fit for society or deemed unsuitable for employment has an agenda. That agenda serves only them and the system built around it.

Anyone who would seek to make you helpless to them and their system -- is a criminal, under the law and under God.

God gave us free will. We have that responsibility to use it wisely. Those who try to take it away, only mean us harm.

* * *

As of yet, I am investigating and making records of the Patients' Rights Violation they committed against me. Welfare and Institutions Code Section 5325, ensures rights of those admitted in such facilities. It remains to be seen how this will be resolved and what the result will be. Retaliation against patients seeking their rights is prohibited -- yet I will face retaliation from them and from society for speaking the truth. I will continue to speak the truth until it is heard and recognized, so help me God.

The ordinary response to atrocities is to banish them from consciousness. Certain violations of the social compact are too terrible to utter aloud: this is the meaning of the word unspeakable.

Remembering and telling the truth about terrible events are prerequisites both for the restoration of the social order and for the healing of the individual victims.

Those who attempt to describe the atrocities that they have witnessed also risk their own credibility. To speak publicly about one's knowledge of atrocities is to invite the stigma that attaches to victims.

J. L. Herman, Trauma and recovery (New York: Basic Books, 1992).

Suicide

Suicide.

Look it up on Google and you'll get the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (that's Lifeline not hotline). I don't know if it works or not since I didn't bother calling it.

There will be a list of links, telling you what to do if you or someone you know is "in danger of killing or harming themselves" and most likely those sites will tell you to dial 9-1-1 or seek a medical professional immediately, in which case, say goodbye to your life, you'll be locked up and stigmatized forever.

Try looking up Suicide Groups and you'll find help for survivors of suicide, or rather family and friends left behind from those who've committed suicide, since it's now too late to help those who are dead. I'm guessing those who are dead now didn't bother to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or 9-1-1 or seek professional medical help so they could get locked up.

I tried looking up a suicide group in my area but was very disappointed. Most links are out of date or based out of the U.S.. Other places offer suicide groups conveniently located right inside a medical facility, in case a person in those support groups loses their shit, they can easily transport them and lock them up, no problem.

So I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that a lot of people will tell you, "Get Help!" but they won't help you (at least they don't want to do it), and those that claim they want to help you end up harming you in the long run: after they've locked you up, deemed you unfit for society, put it on your permanent record that you're a danger to society, labeled you with all kinds of stupid psychological mumbo jumbo from their DSM whatever version is available, then put you deep into debt with hospital bills, endless psychological tests, etc., and if you ever manage to recover from that without losing your marbles and live A NORMAL LIFE!... well, I guess you weren't that suicidal to begin with.

The people that really need help don't get it and when they try, it's useless. By that time it's too late. The damage is done. All that's left is those suicide support groups for the families... those too self-absorbed or oblivious to understand why their family member killed themselves.

Yeah, I had a really shitty day today, caused by other people who shouldn’t have treated me like shit. All I wanted to do was perform normal daily routines of living: go to the bank, get some books from the library. That was it. Was I allowed to do this? No.

I went to the bank, was denied entry by some witless security guard who mumbled something at me, claiming the bank was closed for some reason when it was not (Bank of America will lose my money now). I left, absolutely perturbed and disgruntled at the stupid bank which refused my $80 I was going to deposit there.

Next I went to the library, and when I told them I didn't have a library card there 'cause I just moved they treated me like I was some foreign terrorist out to rob them of all their books. They demanded my address be properly labeled on my driver's license (which is from another city, where I used to live) and another form of I.D., preferably a utility bill, proving that I can pay my bills. WHAT THE HELL?! I walked out and said I was going to Barnes & Noble instead. I can see why our libraries are failing.

On my way to Barnes & Noble I got into an accident. I fear my car is totaled. Now I have no transportation, no way to get to work or school without using public transportation (which employers will use against you to NOT HIRE YOU). So, in one day I've lost most of my life already. Yeah, it was a pretty shitty day and it's getting worse along the way.

You think I'm going to bother to call some bullshit number and listen to some college dipshit pretend to care about me and my problems? I don't think so. I'm not going to any hospital or care facility either.

So much for getting help.

I didn’t Vote today

On the news the poll results are coming in already, from the east coast, where the polling places have closed. I should be interested in the results but I’m not. I couldn’t care less.

I know how important it is to make your voice heard. I know many women fought hard and long to get a chance to be recognized as a voting citizen in this country. Women were the primary instigators for many of the positive changes in this country such as: abolition of slavery, children and worker’s rights, women’s rights, unions and medical care.

When I used to be a Democrat, I voted for President Obama and rejoiced at his election. Then more wars were started after he was given the Nobel Peace Prize. Now I know better. Politics is filled with corruption. I’ve become embittered and cynical of “Change”.

Now I’m decline to state. I don’t believe in party politics. I believe real change comes from people, not political groups or bureaucracy filled with the corruption of lobbyists and private corporations. You won’t see real change in politics or the White House, which is too entrenched in the pentagon and other bad influences.

The 99% are fighting for economic equality while the 1% still control over 50% of the wealth in this country. Prejudice remains with a black president. Women are still violated in this country. Not much has changed.

As for me, I’ve never felt less empowered in my entire life.

Since my life has taken a bad turn I don’t feel the need to participate in the same society that has rejected me. I don’t feel like taking part in any of their lies.

In order for “voting” to work, you must be recognized as a citizen and I’m not recognized as anything. I don’t have my own house nor have I lived in a residence for over 7 years. I don’t make enough money to pay taxes, so I’m not even one of those “Tax Paying Citizens” that the Republicans value so much.

My future is uncertain. How can I be expected to participate in public citizenship and make decisions for the city, state and federal causes when I can’t even control my own life?

This is the real question that bothers me.

For the first time in my life I’ve realized I can no longer predict what will happen to me or how I can control my life, especially when outside factors play such a big part in destroying my destiny. I am resentful of society and their lies, their false expectations of how to fit in and be a “citizen”. Not to mention a “human being”.

Is it any wonder I don’t feel like voting?

Standing Out in Left Field

I always hated baseball. They always put me out in left field. I would stand outside, away from the other players watching the game, excluded from the action going on--the fast-paced pitches and hits, base stealing and low balls. 

Out in left field I had to stay off my boredom while trying to keep my mind “in the game”. Sometimes, no ball would come my way for the entire game. 

This is how I feel about school, my job and my life….

I would stand out in the field, even though I could bat, pitch and run fast. For some reason I was always put outside the game. I wasn’t allowed to walk out, ‘cause I was still playing and that wouldn’t be “team work”. Only once in a while a ball would come my way and it was my only chance to be noticed (if I screwed up, everyone would blame me, even if someone else fumbled the ball). Once I threw the ball though, no one paid any more attention to me. I was forgotten.

The batters or pitchers would be celebrated, ‘cause they were popular, more loud, chewed tobacco and spit. They would throw fits if they didn’t get their way but they were still heroes. 

Out in left field, I am nobody….

No matter how hard I tried, I was picked last for the team. I wasn’t the one who stood out; I was never the hero.

If I walk out of the game, I will be blamed for not being a “team player”. I will miss the rare ball that comes my way and be blamed for not passing the ball to another. If I walk out I can never re-join the team but I lose nothing if I leave and I gain nothing if I stay. 

I hate baseball. I like to swim and bike and do other things.

Baseball isn’t for me. I don’t need to play baseball.  

Why I’ll never ask for “Help” ever again...

I just wanted to post something and get this off my back.

I’ve been through a lot (which is why I haven’t posted) but I feel this is important enough to post. This account is meant to be objective, and does not truly describe all the horror I had to endure and the resulting trauma it produced in me.

***

I had been through something terrible a couple of months ago…

Due to harassment from a terrible roommate who tricked me into signing a lease with a bad property management company who in turn harassed me, I was driven to a state of panic and severe depression.

I was facing homelessness because of them and was forced into a bad situation with the roommate and property manager where they tried to charge me over $7,000 in a scam. The roommate and property management company continued to harass me and my family for money. I was advised against seeking legal help by the property management company and had no attorney to protect me.

Because I couldn’t get the help I needed at the time, I had resorted to an act of desperation which put my physical and mental health in jeopardy. I did not have a good support system of people to help me through my personal crisis, along with an unresponsive and uncaring legal and police system and due to the harassment I was going through, I felt there was no way out but the alternative…

I had done harm to myself and was shortly admitted thereafter.

However, my experience with the mental health system and its efforts to rob myself and everyone who goes into it of their money and dignity has taught me to never ask for help again.

Due to the laws now, if a person states that they’re feeling “suicidal” they must be reported and therefore treated as criminals, put into a system in which they have no control and helpless to stop any abuse or mistreatment upon their person.

I had entered into the mental health system with the belief that I would receive the help I so desperately needed. However, this did not happen, I did not receive proper care or guidance and was threatened against my will to submit to a system that was meant to entrap me and rob me of any free-will or human rights.

After my incident in which I attempted to endanger myself, I voluntarily checked into a county behavioral health center for observation to state that I "was not going to harm myself or others". It was a dismal place full of bureaucracy, needless forms to be filled out and no trained staff, only 'orderlies' who are charged with admitting you, going through your bags and filing paperwork.

I had to stay the night, sleep in a bed that resembled a prisoner's bed, with no extra clothes or even a toothbrush. There was no one to talk to either. I had to ask one of the orderlies if there was a therapist I could talk to. When someone finally came to 'check-up' on me, I was informed that this person was not a therapist and that they couldn't really help me.

The next morning, I felt a panic attack again but there was no one for me to talk to. I was not given any medication and had barely eaten the previous evening (due to my Celiac disease). I tried to write down on a piece of paper how I felt but when I approached the desk, no one paid any attention to me. I left the paper on the desk with no one acknowledging me. Later, a very rude nurse barged into my room asking me, "What's your problem?". I didn't respond to her rude inquiry and instead left the building at which point I was locked out and could not get back in.

This did not reassure me that I would get help.

A few days later, at the urging of a family member, I returned to the behavioral health center and had to recount exactly why I was "depressed" and "panicked". When I was asked if I felt "suicidal", I answered truthfully at the time, that yes, I was overwhelmed due to the harassment I suffered and depression that resulted after.

At that point, the woman in charge threatened me with a 5150 (forced hospitalization, usually reserved for very violent offenders and patients). She threatened to send me to Sacramento, away from my family or anything I knew.

I said I didn't want a 5150 and asked if there were any alternatives.

She told me I had to admit myself to a local facility and started telling my family member that it was the only chance for me. She stopped talking to me after that and treated me like an idiot who couldn't make any decisions for myself.

I had to sign a bunch of papers that I didn't have a chance to read and quickly make arrangements to go into the hospital immediately or else I would be forced with a 5150. I had to sign all my arrangements to the family member, including financial arrangements and basically my whole life that I had controlled up to that point.

I am not familiar with this mental health system, I did not understand why they could order a 5150 on me because I was suffering from panic attacks. All I needed was a therapist and possibly some xanax. I was not provided with any alternatives besides the threat of a 5150.

I was later admitted to the hospital.

No one told me what to expect. I was only told by the county behavioral health woman that this would be the quickest way to diagnosis of my "condition". I had never been hospitalized in my entire life before this and had never experienced suicidal thoughts or self-harm before. I was never on any medications for mental health or emotional health. I did not think I needed to be in the hospital that long.

It turned out they would force me, against my will, to stay there an entire week.

I was assigned to a doctor who immediately put me on an anti-psychotic (which they give to everyone admitted regardless of their mental health history or current state of mind). I was told this was voluntary, that I could refuse this medication. However, when I later tried to refuse it, they told me I would be forced with a 5150 if I did not comply.

The doctor who was assigned to me would continue to tell me to take multiple medications that I had never heard of, other anti-psychotic drugs that I didn't need and tranquilizers that were unnecessary. He was not a psychologist but a psychiatrist, a person who often prescribes medication without knowing anything about a patient's therapy needs. I was never given a therapist, psychologist, or even a counselor.

Numerous social workers were in charge of "helping" me or rather, they dealt with my case. However, they did not talk with the doctor and most of the time didn't know what was going on between the doctor and the nurses in the facility. Every time I asked, "When am I getting out of here?" They didn't know anything. When I asked them, "What did the doctor say?" They had no idea.

The nurses themselves were equally clueless and often times had conflicting information between what the doctor ordered and what was on their computer screen. Most of the nurses had just come out of junior college and were in no way properly trained to handle anyone who would be regarded "mentally ill" or "dangerous". They would gossip in their offices within earshot of the patients and didn't care about their jobs much. In a hospital system that barely pays above minimum wage, many of them were over-worked and underpaid.

The only good thing I could say about this particular hospital was that they had good food, provided for my dietary needs and had many activities that were guided by other healthcare personnel. Unfortunately, many of the "classes" and sessions we were required to go to were canceled because not enough people went to them, so I was not able to join these until later.

As for my rights, many were violated. When I signed a paper admitting myself to the hospital I remember checking a box saying I didn't want to be photographed. But later a nurse took my picture, telling me that all the patients had to be photographed. They paid no attention to the forms.

I was not allowed visitors except the one family member and due to the Privacy Act laws, none of my friends or other family members were told I was in the hospital or could contact me. I learned later, one of my other friends tried to get me out of the hospital but were denied any access because of this mis-used law.

I wasn't even allowed to receive phone calls. What happened was this: we were allowed phones to call during certain times but when a call came through, no one answered it. Not the nurses, no one. If someone called and asked to see Miss Jane Doe, the nurses wouldn't tell them anything unless that caller had a specific number ID to contact the patient with. So many patients weren't getting calls from loved ones that they should have gotten.

I was never told when I would get out of the hospital. Due to the severity of my panic and the resulting mis-treatment I suffered in the facility, I stopped talking. I would not respond. The county behavioral health people were called and made matters worse by threatening to 5150 me again. They were dead set on shutting me up in a facility away from my family where I had no control. Some of the nurses were against this, knowing that I was not violent and that I wanted treatment, I wanted help. But I came very close to being shut up, permanently, forever with no way out. Not even my family member knew how to prevent this from happening. Eventually, the 5150 order was rescinded but it was still on their logs that it had been ordered.

I knew then that I was not going to get the help I needed and that I had been tricked by one of the county workers, into taking my medication and doing whatever "had to be done" in order to get help. I never got the help I needed. Things got worse.

The doctor kept prescribing more pills I didn't want to take. I suffered side effects from the pills. The nurses were disrespectful. On top of that more patients were brought in, almost overloading the staff. I could sense trouble ahead. I was told by the doctor to just "stick it out". He never told me when I would leave.

Because of the resulting outburst I had, when I hadn't responded, it gave the doctor an excuse to keep me. That and my insurance was footing the bill. The doctor would get paid no matter what while I had to suffer and stay in there for an unknown length of time.

After a week, I told my family member to get me out and that nothing more could be done for me. I was already taking the meds, I had gone to all the classes and done what they told me to. But in the end, they wouldn't let me leave.

Several patients who had been admitted the same time I was, had already been sent home. Besides another patient, I was the only one still there. I could not figure out why they were keeping me. I was starting to get upset and angry. No one was telling me anything. I wrote my name on a board in order to speak with a social worker to figure out what was going on. Nobody came to talk to me.

I got upset and tried to escape out of the hospital. They threatened to restrain me and 5150 me. My family member came, only to be talked out of taking me home by the doctor. I was too upset to talk with my family member. I knew I wasn't going to get out. All they cared about was that the damn door didn't have a camera and that had allowed me to get close to the door in order to escape. No one cared about me.

My family member was told to go home and leave me in the hospital. Now I was livid. I called my other relative and told them all that had happened but I didn't want them driving up because of their precarious health. I called another friend who had tried to help me but they couldn't do anything because they weren't on my Privacy Act list of contacts.

Finally, when the nurses came around to speak to me and said I was going to be in a 5150 hospital I threatened to call an attorney. I had the phone book open on my lap and attempted to dial a number. I started dialing the number when the nurse finally got the discharge papers and let me leave. It turned out the doctor had signed the papers but for some reason wouldn't let me leave.

My family member had to be called back to pick me up but I was so livid, I didn't trust them. After what I had been through, I wouldn't trust anyone ever again.

There was absolutely no reason for me to go through what I did. I was thrown into a system of incompetence and extreme paranoia on the doctor's part. They had degraded me, insulted my intelligence and forced me to comply with their idiotic prescriptions.

In that hospital I had been treated like an imbecile, not allowed to even floss my teeth, forced to wear a prisoner's smock with 24 hour video monitoring in my room, hallways and outside. I was never allowed to leave the building. At night, I was awoken every hour with a flashlight beaming into my face to check that I was still there and not trying to kill myself. I accidentally set off the alarms by raising my hand up to check to see if the air conditioner was on in my room because it was too damn cold. The bathrooms were dirty because the other patients didn't care about cleanliness and they put up stupid signs telling us to clean up after ourselves which turned out to be ridiculous.

Never was I on drugs, been violent, involved in dangerous incidents or dangerous behavior toward others, or committed any crime that would have justified this treatment.

I was lied to, cheated of my money and human rights while they had absolutely no respect for myself or others who were forced to admit themselves. The "Complaint forms" I was given were absolutely useless considering it will be tossed into some file drawer never to be seen again or dismissed because you're mentally ill, nobody will believe you.

Considering that mental health accounts for major unemployment, homelessness and legal problems in that county one would think that the people involved in this system and in charge of treatment would know better but they do not. All they care about is money.

I was charged over $32,000 for my stay at the hospital and that's not including the medical treatment, psychiatric treatment, lab tests from blood draws and other charges. I'm still receiving bills from the hospital and have yet to receive a bill from the county hospital for their charges. Luckily, I have insurance but I still have many thousands to pay out-of-pocket.

I will never again allow myself to be sucked into this system which only uses people and does not hold any hope of cure or treatment for these individuals seeking the only care they may have in their whole lives.

The stigma that surrounds the mentally ill will never go away and to put oneself at risk for this label is a lifelong debilitating curse. I will forever be on the books as "hospitalized" and forever be known that I was "off my meds" because I refused to be put on an anti-psychotic drug that should never have been given to me in the first place.

Due to these risks, I've had to consider whether or not to publish what I had been through. I may risk unemployment, discrimination, further harassment and judgement from people in this society but I think that suffering in silence is worse. I never thought I would suffer what I did from the bad people who put me through living hell and I never thought I would ask for help only to be thrown into a hospital system that sought to keep me there permanently.

I caution anyone else who's going through a similar crisis, and to tell them to avoid getting any medical help in this system. I felt I had no alternative because at the time few of my friends wanted to get involved in my problems, no family member was close enough to help me or understand what I was going through and I was in such a panicked state that I couldn't think straight. I suffered more because I was alone and had no support system.

This is the advice I offer:

• Don't say you're "suicidal". If anyone presses the subject, get an attorney, and avoid getting a 5150 at any cost.
• Make plans: Know who to trust if you are hospitalized and make sure they know what to do, and get an attorney who is a mental health advocate. If you're hospitalized, you'll have no access to your financial records, state of affairs or anything.
• Get an Advocate. Make sure this person is someone you can trust because they'll be in charge of your affairs. No one can give you an Advocate (as I found out unfortunately). This will be someone you've known for many years.
• Seek alternatives: Personal therapists, healers, support, etc. There are alternatives to hospitalization, just remember these people by law are required to report "suicidal" thoughts, so don't tell them you're "suicidal" just explain what you're going through and how they can help.

Also: don't call the suicide hotlines, they don't work. Sorry folks, but these are the least trained individuals and I've had bad experiences both times.

Join a group therapy session but make sure it's independent from any mental health hospital to protect you from being "recruited" into their hospital. Some religious organizations offer therapy groups, including non-denominational ones. Peer support groups are good, where those who've "been there" can share their own experiences.

Some colleges and schools offer therapy groups with confidentiality (remember the "suicide" report law is still in effect with all therapy groups). Local meetings may be listed in the community newspaper or online calendar. Word of mouth from friends and family members can also be helpful and it's how I heard of local groups in my area.

Other advice to know:

• You won't get help. Be prepared for the worst case scenario, many people aren't prepared or equipped to help you through a crisis. If this happens, YOU have to know what to do to HELP YOURSELF. If I had known then what I know now, I wouldn't have made the choice to go through what I did. Information is power and get all the free legal help you can before resorting to a paid attorney.
• Above all: Stay Calm. I know this sounds crazy, but if you're upset and the people against you are not, they'll win. Keep Calm, get an attorney and know the law.

I wish I had known more resources I could've gone to and used but I wasn't provided many choices. There were a couple of free legal help centers and low-cost attorneys for certain situations, but that's all. The county and city services may be different, so make sure you know the laws and rights for each one.

Knowing the laws concerning mental health is critical to protecting yourself and possibly your loved ones should your rights be violated. The National Alliance on Mental Illness offers a Legal Support and Resources link with information.

www.nami.org National Alliance on Mental Illness

NAMI advocates for access to services, treatment, supports and research and is steadfast in its commitment to raise awareness and build a community for hope for all of those in need.

Do you OM?

After hearing about something called an OM practice, I ended up watching a "How to OM" video about it and didn't know whether I should laugh out loud or just sit there and scratch my head in puzzlement...

First of all, the OM stands for Orgasmic Meditation (copyright by OneTaste) and according to their website:

"Orgasmic Meditation (OM) is a practice in which one partner gently strokes the other partner’s clitoris for 15 minutes."

The video I watched featured a man, Jacqui, and a woman, Elena, demonstrating how this is done--Yes, they actually show all of it.

In the video, the man keeps all his clothes on and the woman undresses to the point of exposing herself below the belt... her "pussy" (their word for vagina, not mine) is then bared and ready for the OM.

It's all very new-agey and almost spiritual-like, as they get ready for this act on their "nest" (a bed of blankets and pillows) and perform this Meditation until the final point, after 15 minutes, where the woman has an orgasm.

The goal is mainly for the woman to achieve orgasm and is not reciprocal, the man doesn't experience anything other than the "amazing golden light and electrical impulses going from her body to my finger and up through my chakras" (which I paraphrased to that extent).

In the "How to OM" video, the woman achieves orgasm and moans, so in effect it does seem to work! As for the explicit nature of the practice, the woman's "pussy" is blurred for the viewers but we get an actual animated and somewhat graphic picture showing how the man should move his finger and conduct this "light-filled" act.

I'm all for men pleasuring women to have orgasm and I'm glad someone out there is actually showing men how to do this.

Though it can be for any gender to perform the website OneTaste focuses primarily on the hetero couple with the end result of the woman having orgasm--so I don't know how this would work for two guys...

However, I must note how ridiculous this is too. For those old enough (and sober enough) to remember the love-filled '60's, this is a flashback to the days when you could go up to someone and say, "Hey, let's make love, not war!" except this time it's, "Hey, I think you're cute, do you want to OM with me?" And as the case with some of those love-filled workshops, they also charge you for the "secret knowledge of the OM"--as much as $250 for some conferences.

Apparently, someone has marketed this "Art of Loving a Woman" into a money-making scheme and I have to note that most people are in it just for sex--never mind the life-affirming light-filled joy you get when fingering a woman--everyone's in it for something else.

I don't ultimately approve of the copyrighted-OneTaste/OM-trademark-protected-"don't you dare steal this from us"-lawyer-guarded-stock-market-valued business...

Here's an example of why, from the OneTaste website:

The Orgasm Barometer

Get your Orgasm Quotient. Discover how to increase it. Live Powered by Orgasm.

Fill out the details and an Orgasm Expert will contact you within 24 hours to help you discover how to increase your Orgasm Quotient!

That's just bad marketing. Telling a woman how much and how many times she should have an orgasm is really none of their business--oh wait, it is now... that's too much.

The truth is you shouldn't have to pay in order to pleasure a woman or be pleasured. If you're comfortable enough with your own body and are comfortable sharing your body and your pleasure with another, all you need is mutual trust, attraction and space of comfort.

Though in this society, that's hard to come by because we are taught to hide our bodies, that our nakedness is shameful and that if we share our pleasure with another without the protection of marriage then we'll be punished in some form for our disobedience.

Plenty of people go on Craig's List to "hook-up", yet how many of them actually make any sort of connection? The goal shouldn't just be sex, pleasure, or orgasm, it should a treasured moment that you can take with you to make you more confident, secure and willing to share yourself without shame--simply for the mutual joy that you both shared together.

If I sound like an enlightened, hippie-sex-loving woman, that's only because I've had to learn this for myself by participating in arenas where I could express myself sensually and sexually without shame with other like-minded individuals.

But few people are as adventurous or self-affirming as I and so must enroll themselves into these cult-like sex conferences veiled in the "self-help" section of rich, and (primarily white) heterosexual society.

That being said, this OM program does have some steps and rules to follow, one of which is: CONSENT. Obviously you can't just go up to a woman and say, "Hey, can I finger... uh, I mean OM you?" Also, it's more than just fingering, according to the video you are supposed to form a bond and intimate connection with your partner before, during and after this act.

Although the goal is to make the woman have an orgasm, that's not your total endgame. After participating in her pleasure you're both supposed to talk about what you got out of it, what you were experiencing during it and probably cuddle afterwards if you want. You're supposed to: COMMUNICATE & CONNECT.

How far you want to take this sexual/spiritual act is up to you. One person quotes from the OneTaste website:

"I feel God in many more places by feeling God in an OM. I notice God when I watch someone reading a book on the bus. I notice God when I see a man playing with his young daughter. I notice God when I am alone and not lonely." 

--Kasia P.

Just think, if everyone participated in this OM practice, how many happy women in the world there would be!

As funny as the OM sounds, I'm glad that this prudish country is finally opening up to the fact that women do in fact feel sexual pleasure and that they have a right to enjoy it, even to invite it, without some horrible harm befalling them.

It's a start to recognizing that women's bodies deserve respect, worship, adoration, intimacy and love through an interesting exercise that teaches (primarily) men what a woman's body looks like, how to describe that lovely body, how to pleasure it and ultimately adore it.

Oh yeah, here's that OM link with all those funny quotes and the "How to OM" video (WARNING--EXPLICIT CONTENT):

http://onetaste.us