I look forward to what you are going to say because I am so sick of people who are inflicting harm on people claiming that they are doing it because of fear. So many of us have experienced assault and other forms of violence and we’re not dong this. We may also be the people more subject to assault. And we’re not doing this. And yes, with PTSD you can find that you have to overcome fear. You have to face life, if you can. Life has dangers. But the thing you don’t suddenly start believing from this is that you count and everyone else does not. And that the crucial part of the equation, not fear.
One thing people often say at this point is, "Well, you know, lots of homeless people (a) want to be homeless (b) are scammers and drive BMWs (c) are on drugs (d) are mentally ill."
You'd think they'd go on to announce some kind of interest in doing something about a through d. But they don't. Unless it's to put them all in jail.
The way we arrange blame is our society is interesting. If a number of men were convicted of crimes and went to a prison block, from which one of them emerged dead, we would blame the killers. We wouldn't care a whole lot about the dead person, but we would blame the people who killed them. Criminals are killers after all.
But 20-30 people walk onto a train car, and one comes out in a body bag ... and it's his fault? People couldn't resist killing him? People on their way to or from work?
I'd be afraid to ride that car. Because of the killer. He would be unlikely to kill me. But apparently it would take little for him to kill someone else.
Another really great article, thank you for that!! All of this holds true for women as well. We are beaten, raped, and killed so often that it doesn’t even break into the news. According to Emory University a woman is beaten every 9 seconds in the US. We live with a constant drumbeat of fear from very young ages, with all of society (and our own experiences with gendered violence) making sure we all know that we are never safe unless a man is with us. But our fear equally doesn’t matter. When we end up killing abusers or men who make us afraid with good reason we get put in jail. Not to mention what’s been unleashed on us politically since Roe fell and how we get talked about in the process - or how we might feel now knowing we might have to die to pregnancy complications for no reason at all other than someone else’s evil “religion”. We aren’t people, either.
Well said. It is very sad that both the NY governor and NYC mayor were slow to condemn the killing. As a society, we need to care for the Jordan Neely's and other children who need help.
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I look forward to what you are going to say because I am so sick of people who are inflicting harm on people claiming that they are doing it because of fear. So many of us have experienced assault and other forms of violence and we’re not dong this. We may also be the people more subject to assault. And we’re not doing this. And yes, with PTSD you can find that you have to overcome fear. You have to face life, if you can. Life has dangers. But the thing you don’t suddenly start believing from this is that you count and everyone else does not. And that the crucial part of the equation, not fear.
"people who have been excluded from our society represent our collective failure, not their personal one"
This is an excellent way to summarise what's going wrong with modern countries.
There are points in my life where shear dumb luck meant that I got a job rather than being homeless. Others got the bad luck.
One thing people often say at this point is, "Well, you know, lots of homeless people (a) want to be homeless (b) are scammers and drive BMWs (c) are on drugs (d) are mentally ill."
You'd think they'd go on to announce some kind of interest in doing something about a through d. But they don't. Unless it's to put them all in jail.
The way we arrange blame is our society is interesting. If a number of men were convicted of crimes and went to a prison block, from which one of them emerged dead, we would blame the killers. We wouldn't care a whole lot about the dead person, but we would blame the people who killed them. Criminals are killers after all.
But 20-30 people walk onto a train car, and one comes out in a body bag ... and it's his fault? People couldn't resist killing him? People on their way to or from work?
I'd be afraid to ride that car. Because of the killer. He would be unlikely to kill me. But apparently it would take little for him to kill someone else.
Another really great article, thank you for that!! All of this holds true for women as well. We are beaten, raped, and killed so often that it doesn’t even break into the news. According to Emory University a woman is beaten every 9 seconds in the US. We live with a constant drumbeat of fear from very young ages, with all of society (and our own experiences with gendered violence) making sure we all know that we are never safe unless a man is with us. But our fear equally doesn’t matter. When we end up killing abusers or men who make us afraid with good reason we get put in jail. Not to mention what’s been unleashed on us politically since Roe fell and how we get talked about in the process - or how we might feel now knowing we might have to die to pregnancy complications for no reason at all other than someone else’s evil “religion”. We aren’t people, either.
o substack moderators deliver me to nowhere xoxo
Well said. It is very sad that both the NY governor and NYC mayor were slow to condemn the killing. As a society, we need to care for the Jordan Neely's and other children who need help.
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After you've clicked on the email link bringing u here after you've paid the author
For an entire year of his authorship
Then Substack asks u to re-enter yer 2-faced credentials authorized (ostensibly) by some 3-rd party plug-in that we all glossed over clicking on the submission submit to their terms button yay