Integrity

According to mathematical calculations, our model of society establishes that the reason we have such horrific social problems, like homelessness and a growing army of mentally ill without access to medical care, comes from basic corruption in society.

Let me explain. It's an engineering problem. Take a bridge. What keeps a bridge up? How come it doesn't fall? Simple. It is the structural integrity of the bridge and integrity of the materials making up the bridge that keep it from falling. If the bridge has no integrity, then the bridge will fall. Simple.

Society is made up of relationships between people -- not political, or social, or financial, or religious or psychological or whatever kind of relationship, but a complex set of dynamics and experiences that form relationships. Not relationships with institutions or companies or governments, but relationships between people, pure and simple.

So, if society is made up of relationships between people and those relationships lack integrity, then society collapses, just like a bridge or a building or anything else. We have found that truth and a commitment to truth and reality is the key to solving social problems. If you want to cure a disease, you have to find the cause of it. Otherwise you are just treating the symptoms. If you want to cure a disease; find the cause. Then you can cure the disease.

The political system and inherent philosophy is irrelevant. The amount of money, budget and technology are all irrelevant. You don't even have to go large scale. If the day-to-day interactions and subsequent relationships between people in a society lack integrity, you will have problems all over the place.

The present economic collapse is no exception. It collapsed because our economic system lacks integrity. Any further analysis is just details.

Our health and social systems lack integrity. Just ask anyone working in these systems. Ask a doctor or an experienced social worker. You can even ask a politician. I've talked to a number of them and, so far, they all agree.

The system under which we live is designed to lack integrity. If you fix it up and make it all squeaky clean, it will soon deteriorate. It works with the assumption that people are fundamentally greedy and lazy, that people themselves lack integrity and have even been trained to be that way. It's an incorrect assumption. If it was correct there would be no need for the media and educational promotion of a necessity of acquiring unlimited material wealth for the sake of self indulgence. You gotta train people to lack integrity and keep at it to make a society like the one we have now.

Everything is relationship. Everything is people -- people dealing with people. The fault lies not with any organization, government, whatever. The fault lies with the individuals that make up and work for organizations, governments, whatever.  That's you and me, and in how we deal with others. It is a personal commitment to integrity.

It's called being an adult. Society has to grow up. A commitment to selfish motivations will result in poverty and disease. An immoral society is a diseased society, or soon will be. 

The cure? Easy. Work together. Talk about it. In a depression, people become a heck of a lot more valuable than money. They're printing the stuff like crazy and it won't be worth much very soon anyway. People, on the other hand, now that's a different story.

blah, blah, blah ...

Hi. I am getting interesting emails from different people all over the place. Here is a project for homeless people in New Hampshire. It is run by a professional psychologist named Cindy and it is call the Under the Bridge Project. They have very little to work with but at least it's something. India has at least something. We have a drop-in centre and some beds that are overcrowded. We have no one that I know of who is working with the mentally ill. Here, as in almost all other places, there is no access to medical care for the mentally ill on the street.

Here's something Cindy sent me:

The Under the Bridge Project

Since 1998 The UTB outreach team has attended to the needs of the unsheltered homeless in Manchester. Our volunteers collect usable goods from community resources to redistribute. We also provide advocacy and referrals. We receive help with our goals through community members who respond responsibly to help us address immediate needs and God's Providence.

The Dance of Outreach

Outreach is primarily directed toward finding homeless people who might not use services due to lack of awareness or active avoidance and who would otherwise be ignored or underserved.

Outreach is viewed as a process rather than an outcome, with a focus on establishing rapport and a goal of eventually engaging people in the services they will accept.

Outreach is first and foremost a process of relationship building and that is where the dance begins...

Outreach by peers, meaning "children of God" forgoing the titles or degrees, is an essential connection for the ignored, abused or otherwise sheltered and unsheltered and the formerly homeless.

Outreach connects us to one another, places care and humanity into our own hands and builds community amongst us.

Outreach with our peers is non-judgmental. It builds understanding it values programs that work and steers clear of those that don't. Outreach by peers doesn't waste time. It doesn't pass out bus tickets to other towns and it doesn't let people starve because of their "inappropriate behavior" which may have put them out of shelters, nor do they freeze in bad weather.

Outreach by peers, allows baby steps and coaxes when appropriate the step toward the hospital, the rehab, the shelter, and mental health. It doesn't side step real issues and, can confront when needed

And Outreach is to dance with grace, when the stakes are high as the challenge for all of us.

Bruce We also help plan annual Gimme shelter which is a sleep-out on our state capital- file attached. we work with colleges and churches to raise awareness. we get people experiencing homelessness that we have met to attend and speak and for at least one night thaty have a place to sleep without getting woken up and told to move on or be arrested.

and we annually plan Homeless memorial day vigils as we keep track of street deaths and help community grieve as other families would.

. there is awesome national group website where you can get lots of ideas.

nationalhomeless.org

peace, gotta work the streets as you know its getting cold and need to stock up folks with blankets and coats

cindy

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"... everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence." Mourning Dove (Christine Quintasket), Salish.