Published: Sunday, May 24, 2009
GUEST COMMENTARY / BUDGET CUTS
Olympia inflicts misery on people powerless to object
Hank's car was T-boned by a drunk; he's confined to a wheelchair and though he has trouble talking, he's told me of his days as an engineer on the B-1B bomber.
Dave had a stroke; he's aphasic and has trouble walking but he plays the harmonica and chums with his friends.
Gretchen was born with a gross brain deformity and wears diapers 24/7/52; she can hardly walk but she likes to get out of the house.
Mike, who's functional but not enough to live on his own, was born with Down syndrome. Mike is 52 and he lived with his parents until they got too old to care for his daily needs.
We used to shut people like these away in the attic where we let nature take its course. Thanks to such neglect, if not outright abuse, most didn't last long.
Things are different now. Modern medicine means people with catastrophic afflictions live decades beyond what they used to. Moreover, enlightened and humane social norms demand they be accorded the respect and dignity due any human being. But how are they fairing? How is this working out?
A few lucky ones have families with lots of money and can live out their lives at home with full-time caregivers in residence. Everyone else will wind up in group homes: converted single-family dwellings scattered around the state. Those inmates so fortunate as to have insurance money or a lawsuit settlement to go along with state aid, can live in the better places, houses with flowers, lawns and nice minders.
For the people who only have government aid, well, they get to live in a house like the one on a cul-de-sac hereabouts. It's owned by an entrepreneur who, thanks to the fees he collects from the government, gads about in a brand new Porsche while those in his care go around in smelly clothes and sit in wheelchairs fouled with offal. He can do this because there's not enough money in the budget to pay for inspectors to catch him out.
At the bottom of the heap are the warehouses. Old apartment buildings and condos where the windows and doors are always closed and the drapes always drawn. Often, they're manned by workers who speak little or no English. In these sepulchers, the denizens are parked along the walls and, every few hours, monitored to see if they're still alive.
So now, imagine something really bad happened to you and you find yourself confined to one of these homes. In the main, your life will consist of taking lots of naps and watching TV in between (as to whether or not a minder will help you blow you nose when you have a cold, that's another matter).
But up until the Frank Chopp and Lisa Brown legislative show, if you had the strength and will and wits to get out and take in a bit of the world, a small bus would come by every so often and take you to one of the centers for people hobbled by age, disease and disaster. There you would get some one-on-one from a fresh face. There you would find activities to stimulate your ravaged body and put a fresh edge on your mind. The list of things to do in a modern center is endless.
But no more. The state's new austerity budget means a lot of folks like those I've transported are going to take it in the neck. Not only will the quality of their food decline, so will the quality of their care as people like the Porsche-man scrape the bottom of the barrel, looking for ever-cheaper help.
Oh, and those little bus rides? They go away, too.
I guess these poor people are going to be shut away in that attic after all.
What's gone on in Olympia is the deliberate infliction of misery on small, helpless people, powerless to object -- Hank, Dave, Gretchen, Stephen and Mike don't vote, nor do they contribute to re-election campaigns. With no toadies in Olympia, they got the shaft.
I'd like to see House Speaker Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Brown strap themselves into wheelchairs, put on rubber noses and wigs and, incognito, check themselves into a group home. I'd like them to stay there for 30 days and see what they think of their budget cuts then.
Tom LaBelle of Clearview works in the transportation department of a local senior services agency. What he writes here is based on personal observation.
Dave had a stroke; he's aphasic and has trouble walking but he plays the harmonica and chums with his friends.
Gretchen was born with a gross brain deformity and wears diapers 24/7/52; she can hardly walk but she likes to get out of the house.
Mike, who's functional but not enough to live on his own, was born with Down syndrome. Mike is 52 and he lived with his parents until they got too old to care for his daily needs.
We used to shut people like these away in the attic where we let nature take its course. Thanks to such neglect, if not outright abuse, most didn't last long.
Things are different now. Modern medicine means people with catastrophic afflictions live decades beyond what they used to. Moreover, enlightened and humane social norms demand they be accorded the respect and dignity due any human being. But how are they fairing? How is this working out?
A few lucky ones have families with lots of money and can live out their lives at home with full-time caregivers in residence. Everyone else will wind up in group homes: converted single-family dwellings scattered around the state. Those inmates so fortunate as to have insurance money or a lawsuit settlement to go along with state aid, can live in the better places, houses with flowers, lawns and nice minders.
For the people who only have government aid, well, they get to live in a house like the one on a cul-de-sac hereabouts. It's owned by an entrepreneur who, thanks to the fees he collects from the government, gads about in a brand new Porsche while those in his care go around in smelly clothes and sit in wheelchairs fouled with offal. He can do this because there's not enough money in the budget to pay for inspectors to catch him out.
At the bottom of the heap are the warehouses. Old apartment buildings and condos where the windows and doors are always closed and the drapes always drawn. Often, they're manned by workers who speak little or no English. In these sepulchers, the denizens are parked along the walls and, every few hours, monitored to see if they're still alive.
So now, imagine something really bad happened to you and you find yourself confined to one of these homes. In the main, your life will consist of taking lots of naps and watching TV in between (as to whether or not a minder will help you blow you nose when you have a cold, that's another matter).
But up until the Frank Chopp and Lisa Brown legislative show, if you had the strength and will and wits to get out and take in a bit of the world, a small bus would come by every so often and take you to one of the centers for people hobbled by age, disease and disaster. There you would get some one-on-one from a fresh face. There you would find activities to stimulate your ravaged body and put a fresh edge on your mind. The list of things to do in a modern center is endless.
But no more. The state's new austerity budget means a lot of folks like those I've transported are going to take it in the neck. Not only will the quality of their food decline, so will the quality of their care as people like the Porsche-man scrape the bottom of the barrel, looking for ever-cheaper help.
Oh, and those little bus rides? They go away, too.
I guess these poor people are going to be shut away in that attic after all.
What's gone on in Olympia is the deliberate infliction of misery on small, helpless people, powerless to object -- Hank, Dave, Gretchen, Stephen and Mike don't vote, nor do they contribute to re-election campaigns. With no toadies in Olympia, they got the shaft.
I'd like to see House Speaker Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Brown strap themselves into wheelchairs, put on rubber noses and wigs and, incognito, check themselves into a group home. I'd like them to stay there for 30 days and see what they think of their budget cuts then.
Tom LaBelle of Clearview works in the transportation department of a local senior services agency. What he writes here is based on personal observation.
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