-=> 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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