Salvaging What Is Left Of America. Step 6. Solving The Homeless Problem.

Strange as it may seem to the younger generation, when I was growing up in rural Northern California and attending college and medical school in the bay area and Los Angeles there was no homeless on the streets of America. Now they are everywhere. What happened? First, just who are the homeless? Approximately, 70 percent, give or take, are mentally disturbed individuals who are incapable of taking care of themselves (nut-jobs if you will) and around 30 percents are criminals who are attempting to evade the law. I thing we can agree that all of them, the criminals as well as the mentally ill, should be off the streets. In the good old days, when I was growing up in the greatest nation the world has ever known, there were no homeless because society locked up the bad guys and institutionalized those who were so mentally ill that they could not care for themselves. At that time, before the socialists took over, California had two large mental institutions Norwalk in the south (Los Angeles) and Napa State Hospital in the north. When I was rotating through Norwalk in 1962, during my third year psychiatry rotation, each of these institutions housed about 10,000 to 12,000 individuals. Let me tell you, these people were "nuttier than a fruit cake" as my mother used to say, and none of them could have managed on their own outside the institutions where they were confined (cared for). So what when so wrong? Just how did we get in our present predicament where our streets are literally crawling with the mentally ill? Well, the answer is quite simple, as so often is the case, government run amuck. It all began with Governor Brown Senior (Pat Brown) and was finalized during the first tern of Governor Regan. Let me tell you, this was not Governor Regan's finest hour! The psychiatrists convinced Brown and Regan that, because of the increased effectiveness of the newest psychiatric medications, most if not all, of the mentally ill housed in our large mental institutions could be managed as outpatients. At the time, I recall thinking that this was one of the most insane ideas I had ever heard of. In any case, I think Regan became convinced that the state of California could save a lot on money if we could just get the crazes out of the mental institutions and so he went along with the fool-hardy plan. Over the next 10 to 20 years the gates were opened and our streets were flooded with the mentally incompetent. I will not dwell further on the results of this ridiculous effort to save money because the results are obvious for all to see. So how do we solve the problem? First, the criminal element should be sought out and incarcerated. Don't tell me that this will be too expensive, the price we are paying in human misery by leaving them on the streets of California is far more costly. Second, we must reopen the mental institutions that were used, in the pre-Regan era, to house those who were, for whatever reason, mentally incompetent. While it is true, that some of these people could be managed as outpatients, if given the proper supervision, most will have to be permanently confined to a mental institution for their own good as well as for society as a whole. We have dug ourselves a very deep hole, with respect to the homeless problem, and reestablishing the mental institutions necessary to solve this dilemma, will be costly, of that there can be no doubt. However, a civilized nation does not allow criminals to roam its streets and the insane live in tents under its freeways eating dog food. Taking the necessary steps to free our streets of the homeless should be given one of our highest priorities. But first we have to recognize the challenge and realize that it is manmade and solvable. If we have the willingness to acknowledge our past mistakes and take appropriate measures to rectify them we can solve this problem. However, I'm not going to hold my breath until this happens. Today's quiz: how can you tell if you are gardening the organic way? A) my plants look green and healthy. B) There are composting earthworms in the soil. C) the stuff I grow tastes good. D) It's really impossible to tell, that's why I buy fruits and vegetables that are labeled organic.