-=> Ardith Hinton wrote to James Bradley <=-

 AH> Hi yet again, James!  This is the last installment in the current

Yup... Still here, just too busy. 


 AH>           Yes, I think a sense of humour is a very valuable asset even
 AH> if those around you find it incomprehensible.  Your feeling of
 AH> being at a loss for words when somebody wishes you a
 AH> "speedy recovery" also reminds me of another.  Years ago I

Just yesterday, a Vietnamese ESL girl noticed my lazy leg and asked, "Can see
doctor about????" "It was a doctor the *did* it," was the only reply that came
out of my lips.

 AH> read an account by the father of a young child with Down's
 AH> syndrome.  One day a neighbour dropped by & exclaimed "You
 AH> let him walk on the chesterfield??" (We know people like
 AH> that.  I reckon many others in this echo probably do too.)
 AH> The father could have patiently informed her that the PT
 AH> had advised the family to encourage the child to walk on
 AH> various surfaces to improve his balance etc., and that he
 AH> attached a higher priority to his son's needs than to the
 AH> condition of the chesterfield... but this woman doesn't
 AH> sound like the type of person who would be able to grasp
 AH> the concept.  He could have told her to MYOB, but he may
 AH> have wanted to maintain an approximation of peaceful
 AH> coexistence with her.  His response was "Thank God he can
 AH> walk!"  IMHO he put it in a nutshell there.  ;-)

LOL! He hit that nail on the head, and drove it home in one blow. If convention
says "No shoes on the sofa," the greater good begs "You can stand over there if
it bothers you so much." The father you read about kept much more decorum than
I would have likely mustered.

 AH> [re Gacy]
 AH>  The serial killer?  JFTR, I had to google his
 AH>  name....  :-)

 JB>  You didn't *have* to, JFTR. 

 AH>           Oops.  Good point!  I chose to use my preferred
 AH> learning style.  Even if somebody holds a gun to one's
 AH> head, one has choices... [grin].

There's *always* choices. 0-8*


 AH>  And you wonder how he got that way... I can relate.

 JB>  "Ow... I didn't know *that* crack was in the pavement.
 JB>  How might we fill it, so it never opens up again?"


 AH>           I once read about a guy in the States who asked for the death
 AH> penalty because his "illness" had no "cure".  He was a
 AH> violent rapist who seemed unable to control his behaviour
 AH> despite his remorse.  As a parent I'm tempted to throw the
 AH> book at such people... I want them to be where they can't
 AH> do the same thing ever again... OTOH as an individual who

A Clockwork Orange raises some questions. To bring it a little closer to home -
Robert Picton. "What the????" I *guess* I can sympathize with an individual
(You can sense I'm sitting on my fingers to keep from typing my mind? |-) who
wants to put an end to his tyranny - it's a big step to admit how depraved one
is, where 'Bob' did nothing wrong in his assesment  - but there is just a
quagmire of questions that will likely never be answered. (sic.)

 AH> often falls between the cracks I wonder if we as a society
 AH> have failed to meet their needs.  Some people who are
 AH> abused the way Gacy was resolve that the cycle of abuse
 AH> will end with them & manage to turn their lives around...
 AH> others don't.  We still have a lot to learn....  :-(

And *who* has the stomach for those grisly results? Every day, victims vow to
do better and succeed. I like to think there are *far* more of those, than
"people" of privilege who go wrong. Warehousing the later in "con-college"
rarely teaches them the right subjects, and while capital punishment provides
immediate gratification, it doesn't seem to stem the flow. 

A former sysop suggested a "Clockwork" solution where the incarcerated be
intensely examined psychologically to look for what went wrong. It seems like
as good an option as we have the more I think about it. Altruistic perhaps, but
what else can we do? It's a *little* encouraging to know how physical maladies
in the brain can explain some of these desperadoes. 



... James
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