I remind my students that medieval European cities were filthy places. People emptied their chamber pots from the second story to the street, which was often littered with animal carcasses. Fortunately, most cities limited where tanneries and slaughterhouses could operate.
9/12/17 Fox News:
San Diego has begun sanitary street washing efforts after county officials demanded the city act on a plan to address the “fecally contaminated environment” downtown. The city and county have been wrestling with a way to address an ongoing hepatitis A outbreak that has been linked to at least 15 deaths and 400 hospitalizations.
On Monday, crews began the effort by spraying down East Village sidewalks with a bleach solution. San Diego mayoral spokeswoman Craig Gustafson said the cleanings are scheduled to occur three times a week, every other week, according to CBS8.
Contrary to the ACLU's fantasy that mentally ill people living rough on the streets are not the government's proper concern, it appears it really is.
I feel so sorry for the lack of care our mentally ill people receive. I'm old, and remember when every town had an insane asylum. That isn't a perfect answer to the problem, but at least most of the mentally ill had a warm, dry, clean place to stay, and were fed.
ReplyDeleteWere there some abuses? Of course, we're not angels; but it worked much better than our present "system" of neglect. Ironically, as an actor I played in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. That book and play probably did more harm than anything else, and helped cause the closing of most asylums. My view is far different now than it was when I was young myself.
Sadly, most of the inmates of those asylums were not simply rebellious or misunderstood loners; they were actually ill. When forced to take their medications, many were restored to sanity; but if they don't take them, or well-meaning people tell them it's their "right" to be as crazy as they want- then the results aren't good. We have really let those people down.