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Contrast

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Clarissa

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This is my native city of Kharkiv after 14 months of heavy bombing by Russia. It’s right next to the border, so it suffers badly. Every day. It’s hit every single day. But look at how clean and nice everything is. 40% of the pre-war population has come back. People are living their lives.

Can anybody explain to me why there isn’t now and never was anything here like miles of Philadelphia or LA-style homeless encampments filled with addled, dehumanized people? I simply can’t comprehend what extraordinary hardship befell the residents of Seattle or San Francisco that Ukrainians haven’t experienced. I don’t think there’s an excuse at this point. Bad politicians, hard lives. We’ve heard all that but it’s no excuse.

4 responses to “Contrast”

  1. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “why there isn’t… miles of … homeless encampments filled with addled, dehumanized people?”

    The words “predatory elites” come to mind… immiseration on a grand scale, extremely nasty forms of human exploitation poorly disguised by ‘progressive’ slogans. I don’t think it’s elite failure (beyond moral failure).

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  2. methylethyl Avatar
    methylethyl

    What do they do with the mentally ill in Ukraine?

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Insane asylums.

      But these American homeless aren’t really mentally ill. They are addicts. Opioids and meth are causing this. The belief in the magic pill that should bring endless happiness is causing this.

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      1. methylethyl Avatar
        methylethyl

        From what I’ve seen… some of both, here. Probably more of the drugs than the crazy, but given enough drugs, they become crazy.

        Good to know somebody still has asylums. I did for a while know someone from eastern europe who had paranoid schizophrenia. She’d made a couple of long visits back to the home country to get treatment in a residential facility. I always wondered if that was primarily because it’s better to be treated by people who speak your language, affordability, or if the mental health care available there was just better on all counts.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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