[Xmca-l] Re: Nakesha

Sun Mar 4 10:38:06 PST 2018

Hello kind regardees (never mind to the unkind regardees),

Helena is right about the narrative that the article makes, and I thought I would hold back commenting to allow others a way in, but yeah, that's absolutely correct.

Speaking with the homeless, and people I know who work in the social services world everyday fighting the struggle to help these vulnerable folks, I conclude the problem doesn't just stem from lack of resources to provide safety to women (and also to men, but differently) who are vulnerable. It also has to do with our lack of sensibility for this problem. We are not perceiving it from the POV of the homeless AT ALL.

Nakesha survived BECAUSE she was highly educated, and using that educated mind, she learned how to survive on the streets. It's a more than a little perverse. She was likely able to illustrate by speaking for herself that she was not threatening and meant no one harm. In the TV interview highlighted in the article, she says she did not go to shelters because it is not safe. I'm sure she says that for a reason. Imagine that rather than go to a shelter, instead to choose to sit on a grate in the middle of NYC in winter time and that being the better choice.

That is a point I think the article doesn't make clearly.

Would you want to be sequestered with unstable individuals, likely substance abusers, untreated mentally ill people suffering all levels of confusion, or a closed space in proximity to communicable diseases and unwashed distressed bodies? If you wouldn't do it as a housed person, would you do it as a homeless person, when you are distressed and pulled around by fate, because of so few viable choices? It's so offensive to say it was her choice to be homeless when the only choices are a dangerous shelter or a sidewalk, or even others "taking over" her agency and telling her how to respond to the rupture of homelessness.

Additionally, not everyone who is homeless is a substance abuser and it seems that was true for Nakesha. But the programs that are offered to these hurting people offer a one-size-fits-all solution that will not work for every person. It's madness to think that that would be the case. This is where the Foucauldian notion of docile bodies fits so well. Who wants to be or have a docile body??

Perhaps she did not agree with a being forced into a pharmaceutical model for treating her illness. Which is her right. Maybe that is because her freedom had already been compromised in so many ways that the last thing she would want to do is also swallow a pill against her will to lose a grip on her own mind, even if a distressed on, is still all hers.

Some of these social workers are very behaviorist (I say that in the worst way) treating these harmed people like they are animals to be trained and brought under control with tough love, as if they are criminals. (And actually I'm not sure it works on bona fide criminals, but OK). We don't really distinguish in this country between the homeless or even the poor, and criminals because we project the same sort of moral underpinnings to those individuals.

What is beautiful about the story of Nakesha's life was it heralded a life of freedom and dignity in the diminishing space of her every day existence. Like valuing the library. She was living a life of the mind! It sounds preposterous, but I ask myself if after a time on the streets, the humiliation of being homeless wears off and one just does what needs doing, one day at a time, one hour at a time. The kindness shown to her from IMMIGRANTS are also very touching.

Though, this stain of homelessness didn't wear off with the people she used to know, and it's likely difficult to accept help from those people as it becomes a lasting brand in the relationship ("I knew you when you were down and out"). People can be quite cruel about thinking they are helping, when it's more about keeping score for one's ego to be considered a charitable person, than actually providing meaningful help to someone in need.

At some point, it's probably just too painful to see one's own life objectively, which perpetuates more mental illness, it's a downward spiral that constrains making good decisions. Nakesha was holding on to her freedom, and that shows how much freedom and dignity is an intrinsic trait of being human. There is nothing bourgeois in the homeless experience. One doesn't try to keep up with the Joneses, or look at the labels of clothing.There does seem to be an aesthetic to homelessness: I'll call it patchy-serendipitous-functionalism.

What else can we glean from the article? Helena points out that at the time of death Nakesha weighed over 250 pounds! It was likely she could only eat what she could find, rather than what was nutritious to her. We also know that having a bad diet can cause mental illness, just try living a day on soda and candy for a day and see how you feel the next day!

So, in my opinion, what is mandatory for helping the homeless is to ensure that they eat properly and are well nourished. That's first and foremost. Acupuncture is a fantastic alternative to SSRI's and other psychotropics. A lot could be healed in a body flayed by homelessness, just through diet and even homeopathic herbs, all natural, low-risk substances that human bodies have evolved upon for millions of years, with knowledge passed down from the ancients through experience and observation. Leave the pharmaceuticals for the very stubborn cases for the extremely vulnerable who cannot advocate at all for themselves, after these attempts prove ineffective. (And even then the most skilled practitioners should be the only people helping those folks). The human body is a tremendously marvelous system that heals itself, and this is what we should *let happen*.

But we don't.

Then we blame the homeless for not being sensible!! Who is it who is sensible? It takes an enormous amount of wit and vigilance to survive those circumstances. It's all about the senses.

Additionally, one of the most important missing ingredients that the homeless require is LOVE. They are ignored and treated quite cruelly by our society. They want to be happy and enjoy kindness and the nourishment of friendship like anyone.

Lastly, I know it as a little paltry of an effort, but I started this petition on Move-on.org. I basically set up a proposition very much influenced by my experience in cultural historical activity discourse.

If you are in California, please consider signing my petition!

<https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stronger-laws-to-prevent-1>

<https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stronger-laws-to-arrest?source=c.em&r_by=653432>https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stronger-laws-to-arrest?source=c.em&r_by=653432

If you are in the US, feel free to take the language of my petition and create one for your state.

Thanks for listening.

Kind regards,

Annalisa

Please also see this tweet I found, for some inspiration too! These are real superheroes!

https://twitter.com/iamhoneydill/status/969607836249481216/photo/1