Corporate American Made Me Homeless!
(Tentative Title)

A book by David M. Boje, Ph.D., Ernest Ramey, and John Sassak

October 20, 2016; revised November 1, 2016

Table of Contents
PREFACE: How Corporate America Made Many of Us Homeless                                                                      2
Chapter 1: Veterans Theater For Social Change Founded in the Eye of Storm                                11
Chapter 2: Ernest and Oak Street Veteran Homeless Telling Stories of the Dust Devil         22
Chapter 3: James and Founding of Camp Hope in the Cyclone of Death                                              22
Chapter 4: Veterans Theater and the Spice Whirlpool                                                                                            23
Chapter 5: Veterans Theater for Social Change First Play is at Center for Performing Arts 23
Chapter 6: Veterans Theater’s Second Play is at Good Samaritan                                                               23
Chapter 7: Veterans Village at the Rio Grande Theater                                                                                        24
Chapter 8: The Spice Sting YouTube                                                                                                                                         28
Chapter 9: Veterans Theater at the Social Work Conference                                                                          29
Chapter 9: Spice Head Falls Out, the Film                                                                                                                          29
Chapter 10: Veterans Ecological Village and City Council                                                                                 29
Chapter 11: Veterans Village and the University                                                                                                         29
Chapter 12:  Veterans Theater Play about Labels                                                                                                         31

 

PREFACE: How Corporate America Made Many of Us Homeless

 

Corporate America has create a tornado of homelessness. It’s mobile destructive vortex of violently rotating addiction forces that have touched down in Las Cruces, New Mexico. It is funnel-shaped, advancing beneath the national storm system characterized by violence, poverty, and devastating economic turbulence.

Corporate America has created downward Spiral, a Tornado sucking the life out veteran homeless, and every other kind of homeless. Source for image. This is an Archimedean Spiral, with a continuous whorl, American Corporations moving the homeless down toward the abyss, in every decreasing distance between homelessness and the poverty center, down into one or another addiction.  

It was not always so. I was born a baby boomer, a product of GI’s coming home after WWII. My dad, Daniel Quentin Boje came home from the Pacific war, met my mother Lorane, and the rest is history. He was recalled to the Navy and went off to the Korean War.

Corporations at that time paid a fair wage to veterans, and wanted to fund the GI Bill to pay for veterans to get a home, attend college, and handle medical problems from military service. Today, corporations want to break unions, not pay their fair share of taxes, and skip out on social and economic responsibilities to their country.

 

My name is David Boje. I am a Vietnam Veteran 1969-1970. I was homeless for a couple months after my divorce, and bankruptcy. I had decided to quit drinking, so that wine glass on the marble top in the photo is not mine. Really!  With my x-moving to New York, taking our three children inh her,  brand new car, I had to have an emergency garage sale, sell it all, to pay the bills, and moved into public housing, in a spare room, in Nickerson Gardens, in South Central Los Angeles.  Like millions of other veterans before me, I joined the ranks of the homeless. I kept my job at Loyola Marymount University, and managed to keep paying my alimony payments. Miss a mortgage or rent payment or two, and you too will be homeless in America.

Now I am a Regents professor at New Mexico State University. I took the downward spiral, and before hitting bottom, after destroying my first marriage, I quit drinking, quit coffee, and quit smoking everything. Why blame the corporations? They have destroyed the American Dream, but still hold out the Horatio Alger myth: anyone in America can work hard and become a millionaire, like Walt Disney or Donald Trump. The truth is, we are no longer a mobile society. The 1% billionaires own half the wealth of the world. 50% of people on the planet live on less that $2.50 a day. American corporation once upon a time, after WWII, invested in the human potential of their workers. After the 1973 oil crisis, and NAFTA, then WTO, American corporations just sent the manufacturing jobs overseas, and the great service industry was supposed to provide employment. What Corporate America failed to tell everyone is that these service jobs did not pay very much.

Now I teach systems theory and socially responsible capitalism. Systems are designed perfectly to get the results they get. And we are part of those capitalist systems, the upward and the downward spirals of corporate life beckon, call to us.

You might wonder why I direct plays. The plays we put on are how Veterans Theater, a troop of veterans, and homeless becomes an economically sustainable business we call MICRO-ENTERPRISE. It’s how we put out this Message to you the public: NM’s system of VA and Mental health care is, and the SPICE INDUSTRY is perfectly designed to get the results it gets!  Therefore-à we must change the system! There is a way out, and its called SOW AND REAP!

 

THE SEVEN HABITS OF THE DOUBLE SPIRAL: 7 UPWARD or & DOWNWARD.

When homeless enter the downward spiral of poverty, drugs and alcohol may not be part of the equation. But the spiral of addiction beckons, attracts, and seduces the homeless, just like everyone one else, rich or poor. It can be alcohol, meth, crack, Spice, pain meds, and so on. At first the addiction is a means of escape from poverty.  When meds are too expensive, Spice, Meth, Crack, Heroine — can seem to be the perfect solution to the daily grind. The problem is the whorl of the spiral gets tighter, more constricting, and moves faster and faster the deeper the homeless addict is drawn downward towards the abyss. 

Spice make the shy person aggressive. Alcohol can give the shy person courage to socialize, to put themselves out there.  The problem is as the spiral constricts, and draws the person downward into its grip, health and well being suffer.  By the time the homeless realize the risks, the trap is set, the speed of the desert is gripping them tighter and tighter, and moving them faster and faster.

Deep in the downward spiral, the homeless, under addictive forces, cannot see daylight, or sky. Life possibilities to escape, deteriorate, close off. Life becomes unbearable so using more frequently, becomes the only way out. But that way, draws the homeless downward, further into addiction. There is no more escape, the angle of whorl descent is too fast to reverse course.

The downward spiral of addiction has an opposing upward spiral of recovery. The choice point is always there: take the upward path or descend into the downward one.

Its a basic principle of life. Sow and Reap the upward spiral or Sow and Reap the downward spiral.

HOW TO SOW AND REAP LEADERSHIP IN YOUR LIVING STORY LIFE - D. M. Boje October 14, 2016
Sow a thought, reap an action
Sow an action, reap a habit
Sow a habit, reap a character
Sow a character, reap a destiny
Sow a destiny, reap leadership in your living story life

First we will explore the 7 Habits of Addictive Leadership, then the upward habits.

THE SEVEN HABITS OF THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL OF ADDICTION

Whorl 1 - entering the downward spiral: Homeless is introduced to alcohol and drugs, and encouraged to experiment by peers. They are pulled, and maybe pushed into experimenting. What’s the fuss? Give it a try. Some people like a little Spice in their life. Family and friends may not notice you have entered the first whorl of downward spiral. It is easiest to take an upsurge spiral path up and out of the downward spiral.  Upon entering, most become skeptical there is any real danger. ‘Hey, I don’t think the downward spiral exists.’ Others see the writing on the whorl, what Dante said, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!”

Whorl 2 - taking the downturn: Finding escape, the homeless wants to escape again, and continues using, now and again.  They become regular users, enjoying every puff, snort, and chug. Side effects begin to happen now and again. Running out of money, loss of job, family members begin to shun and want their distance. Poor decisions are made, such as taking more hits, hanging with the wrong sort of folk. The homeless addict can still care for themselves, well almost. On this whorl, the person may or may not, have drive to succeed, to live the American Dream. Feeling kind of high, they can almost touch it.  Control the narrative: tell everyone, ‘hey I’m just relaxing, blowing off steam, join me?’  Tell yourself, “I’m a functioning drunk, take it or leave it, or I only use after work.’

Whorl 3 - downward into dependency:  On this whorl, there is object dependency on alcohol or drug of choice. Without the hit, none can cope, cannot get through the day, or the night. There is physical not just emotional dependency on the drug. The outcome on this whorl is depression, a loss of mental health has set in. No more American Dream, who cares anyway, take the escape pill. Now the self-talk, and the rationalization to others goes like this: “I have my good days and my bad days, like everyone else.”

Whorl 4 - downward into tolerance for more: With more use, a tolerance level builds up, and it takes more of the drug to find the same level of escape.  To stop on this whorl, means pain from withdrawal effects.  The organs are beginning to show wear and tear. Continued use will ravage them. Relationships by the 4th Whorl, are deteriorating, the addict is very needy, and quite deceptive, manipulative, a taker more than a giver. Best to kick the addict relative to the curb. They may be some self-reflection about direction of the spiral: “things seem to get a little worse, month by month, day by day.”

Whorl 5 - downward past the point of no return. Too painful are the withdrawal pains. An addict on the downward spiral on this whirl, will do anything, lie to anybody, steal anything and everything.  Stable employment, at anything more than day labor, and or being paid pittance under the table (off the box) is all there is. A life of crime or head to the detox center is the choice. Maybe, for you getting caught in a felony, is a call to action, to get into a program, take it serious, and get out of the downward spiral, whorl by whorl, go up and out. There is self-awareness, that life has spun into a descent, and is increasingly out of peronsal control.

Whorl 6 - downward into the living nightmare, the walking dead, zombie land, the abyss, until the person hits bottom, almost find death, and death keeps knocking on the door.  This is the low point of life, drained of self-respect, and no way out. Hopelessness and helplessness, follow the routine of the shelter. Then banned from the mission or shelter, head out to camp under the bridge, in a pipe, or dig a cave.  Denial is a daily companion: what it’s not me, its them. Those rotten scoundrels in Washington D.C., the system is stacked against me. What choice do I have? There is realization that in every area of your life, there is decline, a downward spiral is quite real here and now.

Whorl 7: HIT ROCK BOTTOM - either take an upswing whorl, claw your way up whirl by whirl, or you are dead, the abyss will take you to the other side. Realization sets in: life is never going to get better, unless some ‘real’ changes are made. Unwilling to lose more health, have less friends, less family answering their calls.  Its the final turn around point, Hey, if its tooo much trouble, just surrender to the abyss.

THE UPWARD SPIRAL IS INSIDE THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL

It is also about SOW AND REAP. But instead of dumb thoughts you wow intelligent thoughts.
HOW TO SOW AND REAP LEADERSHIP IN YOUR LIVING STORY LIFE - D. M. Boje October 14, 2016
Sow a thought, reap an action
Sow an action, reap a habit
Sow a habit, reap a character
Sow a character, reap a destiny
Sow a destiny, reap leadership in your living story life

Make a leap from a downward whorl to an upswing whorl in the upward spiral leading to freedom from addiction, back to life.

THE SEVEN HABITS OF UPWARD SPIRAL OUT OF THE ABYSS OF ADDICTION

Whorl 1 - the first upsurge to Recovery: Homeless addicts, you can begin a way out in many ways: Housing first, does not deal with the drug or alcohol addiction. The pusher still knock on the door, live in the apartment next door, deliver to the one above you. in this whorl, one can deny the problem. Have a social security check, a HUD voucher, a VA housing benefit, Just budget rent first, then keep using.

Whorl 2 - take the upswing, make a decision to not live in dependency:  say no to the pusher.

Whorl 3 - investigate your recovery options: join an AA meeting, go to church or synagogue, Why not try it?

Whorl 4 - Actually to to a meeting: take the first step, then another step. Maybe give a testimony, go to another meeting instead of hanging with the same crowd of users.

Whorl 5 - Withdrawal is painful: can you stand the pain? A detox center is a way to get care while you withdraw. No pain, no gain. One day at a time. These are you self-talk ways to program the mind, from thought to action.

Whorl 6 - Made it through withdrawals: Maybe the body organs still collapsing. Perhaps one of the Spice hits, messed up brain circuits, forever. Perhaps, as a felon, getting a job, even sober and clean, is not that easy. Maybe you are now a senior citizen, and parking carts at Wal-Mart is all that is available. Can you deal with it without taking the downward whorl?

Whorl 7 - CLIMB OUT, ENTER THE OUTTER RING OF JOY: The upward whorl, moves slower, with more degrees of freedom. You have found your new routine, and learned to care again, and to find joy, day by day. Maintain the path, since once an addict, always have to keep working the program. Find serenity, and hopefulness. Serve others. Keep hope alive. Be at peace, and help others to find it. Hope and Peace are the only way to keep out of the downward spiral.

Our Health Care system is on a downward spiral. The VA is on a downward spiral. You are two missed paydays away from homelessness in America. The downward spiral beckons. It calls your name.

 

Our VA Health Care System is perfectly designed to get the Results it gets”
The VA report card for El Paso. THE ABSOLUTELY worst VA hospital in the USA IS EL PASO with a score of 53, and ‘F’ Grade. Albuquerque has better score out of 100, but it has one of the longest wait times in the USA
FACT: HUD estimates 49,933 veterans are homeless on any given night” (But, this does not count the hidden homeless veterans couch surfing, living out of cars, etc.)
Another 1.5 million veterans are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing
Fact: 70% homeless veterans have substance abuse problems
Fact: 51% of homeless veterans have disabilities
Fact: 50% homeless veterans have serious mental illness issues, but don’t go to VA for service
Fact: 3.5 Million Homeless total in USA.
Fact: over 45% of homeless have a job(s) while homeless. Often the homeless jobs pay less than living wage.
Fact: Most Americans are one to two missed paychecks away from homelessness themselves.

 

VETERANS THEATER presents 10 Facts about HOMELESS VETERANS

 

1.  Fact: VA programs will reach slightly more than 40% of America’s homeless veterans (National Coalition for Homeless Veterans).

2.  Fact: HUD estimates 49,933 veterans are homeless on any given night” (But, this does not count the hidden homeless veterans couch surfing, ling out of cars, etc.); Fact: 23% are military veterans are homeless, and that means closer to
805,000 rather than the HUD estimate.[1]

 

3.  Fact: Hidden Homeless: Another 1. 5 million other veterans are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.[2]

4.  Fact: Homeless veterans are more likely to die on the streets than non-veterans.[3]

5.  Fact: 70% have substance abuse problems

 

6.  Fact: 51% of individual homeless veterans have disabilities

 

7.  Fact: 50% have serious mental illness

 

8.  Fact: 50% of all homeless veterans are Vietnam Era

 

9.  Fact: 50% are age 51 or older, compared to 19% non-veterans; 9% are between the ages of 18 and 30, and 41% are between the ages of 31 and 50

10. Fact: 92% are male; 8% being female

 

Veterans and Theater is education and outreach by the veterans and/or homeless. Veterans Theater is part of a 501 (c) 3 non­profit corporation whose mission is,  Making Space for Veterans Stories. We are using theater skits to showcase the 'Living Story Web' of veterans and/or homeless own lived experience here and now of oppression in sub-minimum wage economies, in stereotypes by dominant culture. Veteran
Theater includes our writing of books (e.g. Tent City Solutions), helping other veterans and homeless to write books focused on restorying their experiences.  It includes going to work with other shelters (& tent cities) to establish democratic dialogue, and respect for the living stories of veterans and/or homeless.More information on VETERANS THEATER and what you can do http://veteranstheater.com

Chapter 1: Veterans Theater For Social Change Founded in the Eye of Storm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Today's America the game is rigged. The American Federal system is totaly corrupt and Our country has been sold out. The Homeless are Pioneers that for a multitude of reasons have chosen to check out of the game and go it on their own. You have seen the Homeless in their natural habitat, and  sometimes Your territory might overlap with theirs. That is usually when the trouble starts. Society rewards You for Your faithful servitude. The amount of Government credit that You earn is based on Your education and other factors. One of the rewards that You enjoy is to live in a Home that You think that You Own. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Your Corperate Masters are the ones who own Your Home, and they will do with it what they please. Chances are good that You will live out Your life and enjor Your priviledges without ever having to learn the hard lesson that the the people who own Your Home, have a good name, and posess real resources, do not care about You or Your family. If you are reading this book, You are probably not a  Rothchild or a Rockefeller. 110,000 Japanese Americans in good standing were once as sure of their rights as You are, until the US Government enterred them in camps when America entered the Second Great War. As I write these words I reside in a City whose mayor is a descendant of those same Japanese Americans that were robbed of their freedoms and the Homes that they thought that they owned. As I write these words my Home State of North Carolina recovers from the flooding caused by hurricane Mathew. Ownership means little when Your home is under water. You attended a good college where you were programmed to fit into the Corperate Plan. Right now You are of value to the Corperate structure, and You are busy climbing the corperate Ladder into the gilded cage That Your Master allows You, but surely You know that if the society breaks down or the Your career field dries up, You will be left out in the cold. Even if everything stays on track there are other things that can wreck Your Life. The Planet reingns supreme, and even the Lords of the game can lose it all when Mother Nature cancels their Lease. You go about Your life in Your daily trance, working and  driving the most expensive Symbol of Your Priveledge that You can afford, or finance. You talk on Your Dope Phone Seven and drink Your ten dollar coffees from Star Bucks, and You are sure that Your life and security is good. Lets hope that You never find out how fragile  Your situation really is and how hard the real world can be. You may have a belief that You are somehow better than those wretched tresspassers who wonder into Your Town, and make such a nuisence of themselves. Will your  bubble bust and one day find Yourself competing for space and resources on the mean streets of Your home town? Will those Homeless people that You drove past, now share their resources with You. Will they help You as You go through the difficult process of orientation to the Craft of subsisting without the money and status that the Corperation once allowd You. You will be learning while You are Scrounging and the price can easily be Your life. I am a US Army Veteran, and a Veteran of the streets. I made my home in the land of LESS for six years or so. When I say that I hope that You never have to live Homeless, it is because I have been there and done that, I know how hard that transition can be. If You ever find Yourself a Refugee, remember that You will be the new kid on the block and may find Yourself at the mercy of the Homeless population that You once pitied. You will be a freshman all over again, and it only takes three small letters to change Freshman into Fresh meat. Nothing brings the predators like fresh meat. Predators like to EAT. Hopefully if that was to happen to you, You would find some generous Homeless person to help You learn the ins and outs of the streets. The value of having a partner that You can trust and who will guard your back is truly borne out in situations like war and homelessness. The Homeless people that were such a problem before will now be Your greatest asset, there truly is safety in numbers. That is called a Reframe and if You ever experience homelessness many of the things in Your life will get a new frame. People skills and bonding go along way when You are sqatting behind the building where you used to work. The Homeless that are camping out this very night are ahead of You in the game of living and subsisting in one of the harshests realities known to Man. Your ability to make friends and cooperate may be the only thing that keeps You alive. I am Empathetic to Your delima and do sincerely hope that You never have to face the reality that Your Corperate Masters are not Empathetic and will discard You like so much trash the minute that You become a liability. As You read this these words those same Masters that run Your life scheme and plan to cheat You of Your retirement funds. The reason that they are Your Masters is that they plan well. Right now the rich global elitests are building their redoubts in safe places where they will ride out the storm while You get to know the Neighborhood and try Your hand at being Homeless and Destitute. Do You really think that You will have a seat on the last Jet to safety, Those wealthy miscreants employ private armies which are staffed by the best retired  Special Forces that our military can produce, who will treat You in a manner that You in Your current life cannot fathom. The Authoritian Gang that You call the Police work for the Incorperated Cities that You will beg in, and will obey their corperate masters and roughly move You along when the true crisis is in effect. In truth the only thing that can save You from being Homeless is the Resources that You now have and how well You plan and prepare for the day that You are forced off Your land, or the the trucks stop bringing the food to the stores where You hunt Your daily meals. Government issued bank notes are only of value as long as Someone honors and redeems the note. It is an interesting statement about the value of the American Dollar that American warships have to carry Gold Bullion to buy fuel in when they pull into foreign ports to resupply. Will You one day stand clutching a handfull of worthless cotten threads that was woven by the Federal Reserve and addorned with a dead president and the symbol of Tyranny that is on the back of every worthless American dollar, begging to trade your sack cloth for something of real value. One sandwich can be very valuable when sandwiches are in short supply. Even Gold and Silver can lose their shine when there is a shortage of food. You cannot eat the worthless cloth that You carry in Your wallet, Or hoard in the Banks that launder the drug proceeds from the crack cocaine and the heorine that Your corperate Masters sell to Your children. Have You given any thought to the corelation of the war  in Afghanistan and the current heoirine epidemic on the streets of America? Just Google 'Chinese Opium Wars and Colonial Subjegation'. The same Colonial masters that conquered India and then flooded China with opium are busy doing it again. Right now American Boots are on the ground guarding the Poppie fields in Afghanistan so that Your Corperate Masters can enslave another generation with the drugs that they went to War to control. Every year that America has occupied Afghanistan has seen record crops come out of the poppie fields in the Helmand province. It is a well known proven fact that the CIA introduced Crack Cocaine into the black neighborhoods in California, was that an experiment or is it part of a larger plan?
Addiction is an equal opportunity enslaver of the Homefull and the Homeless, and addicts fit right into the Corperate structure. The Pharmacuetical Industrial Complex is now making money on the Narcan that every policeman now carries in major cities across america so that they can revive the Addicts that OD so that they can go on turning tricks as they serve their addiction and their corperate Masters. Addicts are just as valuable or more so than the position that You now are so happy to inhabit. You may support the Corperation but addicts and the drug trade that they feed truly enriches the Corperate Elitest. Drugs and crime keep the Police in a job, and keeps the Legislature busy passing laws to fill the Prisons. Your current privelidged status will not protect You from the Global elitest plan to enslave whole populations in the prison of drug addiction, that can and will lead You to a real brick and mortor Prison where You will serve the Prison Industrial Complex after having been brought under the continuation of slavery that was written into the 13th ammendment to the Constituion of Our Great Nation. This can happen to You if You are stupid enough to experiment with the controlled substances that are sold on the street corners and in the Doctors offices of these great United States of America. The majority of the heroine addicts today got there start on the road to perdition with a prescription that they got from their Primary Care Physician. So what kind of Person are You? Are You Empathetic to the Homeless, or do You roam the streets at night looking for a Bum to set on fire. If this Book is about the Homeless, why am I talking about You. The fact is that If You are not a smart multi millonair that has planned well, You could very well find Yourself  Homeless. The truth is that You are Homeless now, You just don't know it. You skill set and the time that you spend at work is what is keeping You safe. Most Americans today are only a couple of checks away from the Streets. If You think that You own a home, be sure to pay the Town Masters that have Incoperated every inch of this Nation and are the actual owners of Your home the Yearly rent that they call taxes. If You do not pay them they will sieze Your property. These so called leaders will say anything to hold on to their power and position because they are just like You. The only people on the planet with any real security are the rich elitest and the elected officials that have sold their soul and earned a place in the Perverted new civilization that the globalists dream about. So Your local officials are small players in the big game. You may even share a Homeless camp with the former Mayor of Your town. So why do I believe that the homeless have been cheated and that You are at risk? It is very simple, very little has changed in the World since the end of colonialism. The Colonial Enslavers that ruled the world before have just regrouped for the next act in the history of the world that is playing out even now as we interact. They are using the same tricks and lies that have been working since the first land was conquered and subjegated by these ruthless men. In school when I was a child I was taught that the days of Colonialism was ancient history and now the Earth was only populated by free Men. I do believe that my teachers believed this lie while they were telling it, when I found out the truth it was hard for me to believe it too. Today We live in a wonderful new World that has changed a great deal in my lifetime. When I was a child I never dreamed of Computers cell phones and the internet, that is now common place. Freedom of Speech and the Internet has brought the World together in too many ways to mention. In Todays world the cookie jar is closely monitered. As powerful as America is It's corupt leaders cannot wonder the globe stealing land and enslaving whole populations. So what to do? Lie and Cheat so that then They can steal. We saw that with the now exposed complicity of the US government and Saudi kingdom in the attack on the twin towers in New York. This False Flag and the lies told later empowered the elitest in our government to do what they really wanted to do. Invade Afghanistan and get control of the opium trade. Why are we still there, Bin Laden is dead and Alquaida is on the run. You have to know the truth about drugs and addiction to see the big picture. In the 16th century the British conquered India and set up shop. Imagine being conquered in Your own home, thus making You homeless because your home is no longer Your home. It now belongs to Your new Masters that now control Your land and decide where You live. If You are a good usefull slave You will be favored with priveledges and be allowed to use the Masters property as long as You are in favor and productive. This is where Americans are today they just don't know it. So the British had conquered India, but whats next? It is very expensive to roam the globe conquering and enslaving populations, where do You get the Money to keep going?
The Brits looked around and found the poppies. By the 18th century they were introducing oppium into China and getting them hooked. Drugs are the best thing to sale because once You have a large part of a population hooked on your poison it pretty much sales itself. Drug addiction is not just about destroying lives making people homeless and enriching the Elitest, it also dumbs down and weakens whole populations. In the 18th century there was a great demand for Chinese silk and tea. The wiley Chinese were smart and did not allow the Europeans into China or to influence their society. After the Brits got a cool million Chinamen hooked on their drugs there was a part or Chinese society that was happy to welcome the Invaders.
So now You see what is happening now in the United States, and why I think that one day even You could end up homeless and enslaved. The corrupt US government conspired with Saudi Arabia to attack itself so that it could invade Afghanistan and get hold of all that good Heroine. The reason we went on and invaded Iraq is that conquereing nations is like eating potato chips, You can't just eat one. At the time there were some Americans using the heroine that was being produced in Mexico but it was not enough, and those damn Mexicans were getting all of the money. If American lives are going to be destroyed by addiction it is only right that the corupt American Elitest, and Politicians should get the proceeds that come from that dirty deal. It started in America around the time when we went to war in Viet Nam. The counter culture got started with protesting the war, and the drugs flowed into the country. Drugs did'nt to seem to have been to prominent before that. They were always there, have been growing in nature all along. As long as they are left alone they fulfill whatever purpose nature has for them, and are no threat to the health and happiness of Mankind. It is only when man harvests them, and then refines them, and then delivers the finished product to the targeted population that they become a problem. Also it is an interesting fact that 50% of the homeless veterans in America are Vietnam era Veterans. When I enlisted in the US Army in 1984 I fully expected to at some point during my military service to go to War. That did not happen, all the same I am proud of my military service and would go to war today if called upon. Knowing what I know now that is really quite insane, I'm just a hopeless patriot. Just the kind of guy who enlisted in the Army during the Vietnam war. I wonder how many of those Vietnam Veterans that enlisted would have done so if they would have been told that if they survived the war they would probably be emotionally scarred and have an excelent chance of spending their golden years homeless and despised by the country they fought to defend. Of course most of those Vietnam Veterans were drafted and had little choice in the matter. Now We know what a big lie it was that was told to the American people to get us to go to war. Our corupt government is much worse than the comunist and the United States is the real agressor in the struggle between the great powers of the world. During the cold war from 1960 to 1968 the American Air Force conducted operation Chrome Dome in which B52 Stratofortress strategic bombers armed with thermonuclear weapons were on continuous airborne alert, flying routes to points on the Soviet Union border just in case those damn commies got frisky. Imagine what that cost the taxpayers to pull that off. It doen'nt fit the picture of the lie that was told to me when I was a child attending a Rockefeller school system. Just google Operation Chrome Dome. I like to say that alot don't I? "Just Google". I can't imagine life without my Googler. Imagine having a troublesome neighbor that flies drones all around Your property armed with shotguns ready to shoot You at any given moment. That is not legal for normal citizens even if it was nescacary. If You are a silver tongued Politician that can sell any bill of goods to a gullible public then the sky is the limit. You could even create and arm a Radical Jihadist Army and unleash them on the Middle East and do some real good in the World, Althewhile ringing your hands and decrying the attrocities commited by said Army. American politicians have been lying for a long time. One of the most usefull lies is to always accuse Your opponent of exactly the heinous crime that You are commiting, It still works today. Wow! The lies that American politicians use to screw the public and commit their atrocities have leaked out over the years. Now in the information age with the emergence of the Internet and the Citizen Journalist there is no 50 year soft cushion of time before their lies are exposed. Just Google Hillary Clinton. Well actually Google is not perfect. Microsoft being owned by Bill Gates a well known Eugenicist and Globalist Elite, it is now censoring any of the dirt that is being exsposed about Hillary Clinton during Her bid to be the first woman president of the United States. If You want to find Hillary's lies on the internet You will have to search for that on Yahoo. So brave Americans were drafted or enlisted to fight the great fight and now many of them are living homeless at a time in their lives when the joints get stiff and the soul longs for the comfort and companionship of Family and Country. Sorry sucker get back to Your ditch. You see that all through history The Rich Elitest Leaders of societies have sent the Poor of to fight their Wars of Conquest while they live it up and get richer in the process. In other times in other cultures the old Soldiers that were lucky enough to survive lived out the rest their lives respected and cherished by their countrymen. That is ofcourse if they were the Victors, otherwise they were enslaved by the Enemy that had conquered them. So now are You getting the picture. Corupt Lying Leaders use the unwashed masses to further their evil plans and Steal all of the Money. Strong Military forces are nescacary for these tyrants to do what they do, and they are always from the lower classes. In the Politicians plans it is better that the soldier just expire gracefully in the many conflicts that are waged, that way the government does not have to pay any retirement to them or worry about Veterans Health Care after the war is over. All the crap that You hear coming out of Politicians mouth about taking care of Veterans is just Politicians doing what Elitest have always done throughout history, telling the public anything to keep them on the gravy train. One good thing about being a Homeless Veteran is that they are well trained to live outside in austere conditions and survive. One day years ago the idea struck me one day when I was sitting outside a homeless shelter with no where to go, that living homeless in a homeless camp wasn't much different from the camping out that I did when I was an active duty soldier training for war in my youth, it made a big difference at the time. For me it was a bonus because I never went to war, things were slow at the store when I was doing my service. I was not emotionally scarred by some terrible experience. I am just good old fashioned ornery and dysfuntcional. So I set out on my new mission to improve my life by finding a suitable spot for my camp, and I used those people skills that I talked about earlier to put together a merry band of homeless buddies to live with me in my homeless camp, and for eighteen months we lived together in a man made cave and had some good times. The man made cave was shaped like a quanset hut, and when it was constructed in 1952 it was made to let the water flow under a railroad trestle right on the Camino Real where the Conquistadors and the Spanish priests crossed the Rio Grande on their way north to subjegate the North American continent. Interestingly it is now a favorite crossing place for the illegal aliens to cross on their way north to live the American Dream.  How do I know that it was built in 1952? Because there was a plaque by the entrance left there by the Army Core of Engineers comemorating the structure. Some of my best memories are from that period in my life. Says alot about me does'nt it? When I say on active duty, active is the key word. If You are an active duty soldier on active duty and are deployed to a war zone then You are a valuable element in the larger plans of the Elitest that have ordered You there. They have an active interest in keeping their Army strong and viable so that their evil plans can be carried out. Once the war is over and the spoils of war divided the soldier is no longer so useful. Even America does,nt go to war enough to need most soldiers twice in their lifetime, and America has fought 20 major wars in it's relatively short existence. If our Homeless American Veterans were still on active duty and had been deployed to the ditches and abandoned lots that they squat in they would be supported by the Army while they were there on deployment. Trucks would regulary roll up with food and whatever the soldier might need to complete the assigned mission or task. When the war is over and the soldier leaves the military He is of no further use to the Warmongering Elitest that sent him to war, in fact He is now a liability. Veterans benefits are a huge drain on society and take away a large part of the Money that the Elitests hope to steal. The US government while good at Lying to it's populace or war profiteering, is not so good at conducting programs that support the aftercare for the public or it's Veterans. We see this in the continueing scandals of the Veterans Administration and the governments ham handed antics in that arena. I wonder if I am on a do not treat list. I could easily die while I wait the three months it takes to get an appointment so that I can see a Doctor at the VA clinic. Even though the story in the media is that that has been fixed. Don't worry though, the administration keeps two lists so that all of those officials at the VA will still get their bonuses. That is what is important in todays America, getting Your bonus, Veterans health care takes a back seat. That is why I am so worried about You. As educated and affluent as You are I know what a big lie You have swallowed, and is centrist in what I want You learn from reading this book. Once You have outlived Your usefullness to the Government and are ready to live out those golden years of retirement You will become a liability. Rich Elitest that seek to amast more money than anybody can spend in a lifetime cannot spare the pocket change it takes to keep You up while You live out the Years after You cease being a productive member of society. That is our reward in America. In other cultures family takes care of it's elderly In America We put them in nursing homes, and that costs the greedy Elitest even more money. Not the Homeless though they just expire in their ditches. The Homeless are very transparent, as a matter of fact that is one of the most troubling parts of Homeless people to the cities that they camp in. They mess up the landscape. Elitest do not like having these poorly dressed people just sitting all around their beautiful cities. Why are they homeless, because they do not have a home. How long will You have a home if Social Security fails or the financial institutions where You hoard all of that retirement money go broke or simply steal Your money. You can't stuff it all in Your mattress. Thats why if You are going to end up homeless it is better to do it when You are young. Being homeless takes alot of work. Your future is in the hands of those corupt leaders and financial instutions, and they do not care about You. When You look upon the Homeless You are looking at a part of Your society. The hard life that they live is a symptom of the bigger disease eating away at our society. The interesting part about Homeless people is that when ask them about their life they will usually tell You that it is good. They know how to appreciate the subltle pleasures in life and They have a freedom that You may never experience since you are still in the system and are too busy to simply do whatever You want to do. Of course the homeless do not get to enjoy all of the good things that You do. They can't afford a car to zip around in or eat at fine restaurants. All of those things that are sold to us on the unrealistic TV shows that we watch. I bet that looms large when You think of all the homeless people huddled in their ditches, NO TV to watch. Oh the Horror of that. Why do I keep talking about ditches. That is because that was a big part of my strategy for being a succesful Homeless person when I was in the land of Less. Camoflage, out of sight out of mind. When I was homeless privacy was very important to me, and at the time I was not proud of the manner in which I lived.
When You are in a ditch You are not easily seen and so You do not attract unwanted attention. Police and other homeless people can be very troublesome when You are relaxing in camp. Privacy and being out of site was always what Iooked for when I was shopping for a new location to make my illegal camp in. Most homeless people want to just be left alone in their solitude. Many have mental illnesses and problems that are very difficult to solve. That is probably why they are homeless. They do not easily fit into the Corperate schemes for populations so they are not in line for the rewards. The beauturific vision of society that the Politicans sale to the public are hard to deliver. Especially when they are saling the land and manufacturing base of the county right out from under the citizens. Their is not enough wealth to go around and any Elitist knows that You have to look out for Number 1. Taking care of the Peace and Prosperity of the American public will always take a back seat to their needs. As easy as I make this sound, understanding the Homeless is anything but easy. When I was homeless I made little effort to understand why I was homeless or what happened to cause the homeless people around me to become homeless. I was to busy hustling to get the things that made my evenings go well. That was why I was a
leader of sorts and attracted a solid group of camp buddies to live with me. Prosperity and a good party always attracts good companions. Among the Homeless
there is a hierarchy and very definite subsets of the subculture. The only requirement nesacary to be classified as homeless is to be a person without a home, and therefore typically living on the streets. So there are people who could be homeless and yet hold a either full time or part time job. This was the class that I was in. I maintained work pretty much the whole time that I was homeless. The reason that I did not quickly find a place to live is that the cost to rent an apartment or house were prohibitive. First months rent last months rent and a security deposit can be a nice chunk of change. I have never been good at saving money. By the time I could afford to rent a place and considered it, I was living comfortably with my friends in the man made cave that I mentioned earlier. I felt a certain loyalty to my friends and could not take them all with me to my new home. My friends and camp mates had stood by me through thick and thin so I could'nt simply to turn my back on them. So right there I have mentioned two characteristics that can define a certain type of person. The ability to secure employment and loyalty to my friends. So being a homeless person with an income I wanted to be around other homeless people who were also productive. My money would not go far if I was having to share with people who had no income of their own. Do not take this as a critisizm of less productive homeless people it is just a fact of life. I also made the effort to bathe on a regular basis and have clean clothes. The sheer effort that took was no small task. I had to juggle work and still be at the mission during the hours that I could get a shower. To wash I had to twice a week go to a laundramat to get my clothes done, no small task. I was never critical of other homeless people who would not or could not maintain those two critical activities of bathing and washing clothes, just that when I chose my companions I looked for friends that also went the extra mile to stay clean. I also did not like to associate with people who were addicted to hard drugs, Cocaine Meth or Heroine. Marijuana and Beer were more acceptable, and then I did not like to be around homeless people that drank too much. The next class of homeless people to mention are the ones that ride trains or constantly move around, due to their transient nature these people also had trouble earning money or staying clean. Now we get into the class of homeless that most people living in a normal home think about when they consider the homeless. The people living on the street that are so hopelessly loss in heavy drug use that they cannot function in society. This class of homeless have hit rock bottom and have just decided to crawl into any space they can find and wait to die. Truly heartbreaking. The next class is the homeless people with Mental Illnesses. They are so dysfunctional so society and family have slowly pulled away from them so they have no choice but to live anywhere that they can. Some of the Mentally Ill would have Social Services working with them so they had some degree of support. So even among the homeless people would gravitate toward a group of people that was like themselves. People that are not homeless will also gravitate toward friends that share their same values and earn about the same amount of money. In Todays economy there are more and more people who although they are emoloyed, still they cannot afford to rent a home. If they are lucky they have family or friends with which they could share a home and therefore afford rent. If not they have to learn to be homeless, and that transition can easily cause the person to lose their job. Some places will fire just because You are homeless. I was reading in the news that in Denver Colorado there is an abundance of work, but they cannot find workers because the jobs pay so little that anybody that takes these jobs, cannot afford to pay rent so pretty soon there will be more homeless people in Denver than people with homes. That is the future for America if the same innept government practices of the last twenty years continue. So among they homeless there a distimct groups of people with varying degrees of functionality. The group that most tugged at my heart strings were the older homeless men whom had worked all of their lives only to retire and not be able to afford a comfortable home to retire too. They could go live in a nursing home or a retirement home but for some reason the ones that I knew preferred to live on the streets. There was two such individuals that were over that age of sixty five. They were helpful in the role of Camp Watcher. They would hang around camp all day and watch our stuff so that the younger men could go to work and not return to camp to find their possesions gone. That is one of the biggest challenges for the homeless is to manage their possesions. It is hard to find and maintain gainful employment if You are hauling a ton of stuff with You when You go for a job interview. Plus one of the quickest way that the homeless are identified as homeless is by the backpack they always carry. I was always careful not to appear homeless because the homeless are one group of society that it is still acceptable to discriminate againt. Only recenently are there orginizations that are emerging with enough influence to stand up for the rights of the homeless. Lets hope that You never have to find out what it means to be Disenfranchised. Among the group of merry homeless men that I lived in the cave with there were distinct roles that we all played. I was the defacto leader mainly because of the orginizational skills that I had learned in the Army and I had a way with people and could solve interpersonel problems with little friction. I was also on the security team and I was handily creative when it came to things like cooking on makeshift stoves that I would piece together from things that I found here and there. Cooking in camp was one thing that I really enjoyed and most days I would bring home some chicken or pork and fry it up. I was also on the security team. Being a lifelong student and practitioner of Karate and an Army Veteran I was a good fighter. Thankfully I was involved in very little violence during my stay at the homeless hotel. Anybody that has succesfully maintained security in any orginization or place will tell You that security is not maintained by the force You have at Your disposal. It is Your ability to clearly comunicate and knowing where to draw the line, and being able to convince people that You will defend Yourself if nescacary. Simply I was good at staring people down, and I never started trouble. As We constantly see in the news these days even legitimate use of force, usually by the Police causes trouble. The members of the group who were not so good at earning money earned their keep by the age old art of cleaning up. Many of the homeless will scatter trash all around their camp because just like anybody living anywhere the things that are hauled home usually come in some kind of packadging that once the comodity has been used or consumed, would need to disposed of. Just like living in a normal home when visitors show they will judge the occupant on how well they maintain their home. When the Police show up at a homeless camp an ordily trash free enviroment will go along way in how the residents of the camp are treated. At heart all people are the same and although we were squatting illegally in our camp if the area was clean and We were courteous we would not be ran out of our camp. That is how We were able to hold Our piece of ground for a year and a half. When the police show up at a homeless camp that has trash and a million empty beer bottles scattered around, then the police will go ballistic. So anthother rule that We had in camp was one that I learned from being a Waitor in nice restaurants. Any good Waitor or Waitress will as they go back and forth from the dining room to the kitchen they will always either be bringing something to the customer or removing something that is done from the table. So every time that one of my team members left camp to go do something they carried trash out to be disposed of, and when they returned they would bring something that we needed in camp. The most important thing to bring back to camp was water. Having no running water in camp it was always in short supply. Let me tell You when You have to haul every drop of water that You use into camp, You learn not to waste it. That is one skill that the general public will soon have to learn, because it is shameful the way we waste water in America today. So with a whole lot of effort me and my friends were able to spend most of our evenings cooking over a couple of beers just like any backyard barbaque that You have ever attended. Those were good times. I read a book one time about anthropology in which some smart guys had studied the relics they dug up around the skeletons of ancient man. In the book it was theorized that when ancient man discovered fire and began to hunt and cook meat it allowed early man the oppertunity to relax and have free time. This combined with the fact that cooking the meat made the food easier to digest so the digestive track got smaller and the brain got larger. Man advanced and began to live in larger groups that evenually turned into cities that has grown into the societies that man inhabits today. All along the way there were challenges and problems that had to be solved for the societies to advance and grow larger. Some things that were problems to be solved in the early cities that emerged can still be relevant in society today. For example going to the bathroom. When man first began to live together in large cities after a while people would begin to get sick and the societies would break down and the people would either all die or be scattered back into tribal bans roaming around. At some point some smart person figured out that if You went to the bathroom to close to Your water supply then it would cause sickness and death. In simple terms You have to be able to properly dispose of Your shit to live a disease free life in a large groups. Let me tell You that properly disposing of fecal matter is one of the big challenges for the homeless today, and it is the most disgusting thing that the public has to deal with the homeless squat around their properties, no pun intended. Walking out Your front door and finding a large pile of shit on Your stoop or in Your yard will not endear You to Your homeless neighbors. Any tolarence that You may have been excercising because You are empathetic to the plight of the homeless will quickly disipate, it is only normal. That was one thing that would get a homeless person quickly kicked out of my camp, and if a home owner has been tolerant and generously allowed a homeless person to live on their land, finding piles of shit around will quickly provoke a call to the police and our homeless friend will be looking for a new place to live. So You see that some challenges that homeless people face are age old. Today society is writ large and We live in the age Specilalization. Being good capitalist in America we do business and live profitable happy lives. Some parts of Our society have gotten out of control though. Just like fecal matter piled up and sickened society, so has the Government. Politicians today have multiplied especially at the highest levels. We elect and employ 535 members of congress today. They have done a great job, a great job of taking care of themselves. They have passed laws giving themselves prosecutorial immunity so that they can trade on the stock market using the insider information that they garner from their access to information at the highest levels of government. That is why most of them enter congress poor and live filthy rich, filthy being the main description of their practices. They have also awarded themselves pensions after only six years of what they call public service. The last Public Servant that actually served the public was probably that guy that the jews nailed to a cross. Lets not forget the top shelf free health care that they have given themselves. Alot is said about the public assistance that some americans need to live better lives that is best known as Welfare. Ending the Congressional Welfare that the Congress has so generously awarded itself would go a long way to paying off Our national debt. The original idea of the citizen servant that would spend time making laws to build a better union has turned into a bunch of Elitest who feel entitled to more every year. All of the cushy benefits that Congress has awarded itself that no other Americans are getting these days is not enough for those greedy Elitest. Now they are piecemiel saling off the country because these so called leaders are coming out of Congress filthy rich Global citizens. Few wealthy poeple feel any loyalty to and given Country because they can afford to live anywhere that they want too. Leaving the now declining United States in the review mirror of the expensive automobiles. Most of our Congressmen leave public service and go straight to work for the Nations that are Americas competiters on the World stage. That is the payment for screwing their fellow Americans that were duped into sending them to congress in the first place. That is why America now has an averge econimic growth rate of two percent per year, while Chinas economy grows at a more robust five to seven percent per year. That is why You may soon get to spend some quality time in a homeless camp in the not so distant future. Unless Americans wake up and take the power back. I think that with the advent of the interactive quality of the internet I think that every politician elected to Congress should have to one day a week set in a special chair that is wired into the wall kind of like the electric chair just not so extreme. Their constituents can log onto a website and express their displeasure by shocking the errant legilator. If he does a good job then he can skip the chair that week. There is no reason to reward them for a job well done because they are very good rewarding themselves and they do reward themselves well regardless of how well they represent the people who helped them win the lottery in the first place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A social worker named Febna approached Boje to teach a class on ‘Storytelling and Healing’ at the Oak Street Homeless Veterans Transition Center. 

Boje and Ernest met with Nicole Martinez and one of the board members. They approved the Storytelling Healing class.

I met Ernest Ramey, Dozer Sykes and some other veterans that I will use made-up names to describe.

For ten week, Ph.D. students in Management Department interviewed the formerly homeless veterans.  We taped some of the sessions, after getting Institutional Review Board approval from the university.

It became clear that PTSD does not just occur in the battlefield. It does not just occur in military service.  One of our veteran students and a formerly homeless veteran described losing their wives in terrible auto accidents, and believe me, that will give you PTSD.  Two formerly homes veteran told his story of family abuse, and that gave him PTSD.  In case of Sykes, his father made him eat his dinner in the outhouse, to toughen him up. Jim was raised on a family farm, in poverty conditions.  He had a brutal father. He joined the Army to get away from the brutality. There were several homeless veterans who had combat related PTSD, and TBI.

I tried to interest the doctoral students in using sand tray and restorying processes, but they would have none of it. I decided to wait till the course was over.

I brought in the Sand Trays, and 100 pounds of sand, and the veterans began to do some amazing storytelling.

Chapter 2: Ernest and Oak Street Veteran Homeless Telling Stories of the Dust Devil

 

Chapter 3: James and Founding of Camp Hope in the Cyclone of Death

Chapter 4: Veterans Theater and the Spice Whirlpool

 

James Sassak
is one of the founding fathers of Community of Hope, is the Operations Officer at the camp, and is currently a board member of Veterans Theater.
He moved to Las Cruces in 1986 with his family, fell in love with the city and considers it to be the new Las Vegas (Nevada). in 2011 he became involved with Homeless issues, and was a kingpin in the founding of Community of Hope.

Chapter 5: Veterans Theater for Social Change First Play is at Center for Performing Arts

 

Waiting to Die at the VA
Rehearsals at Oak Street
First Performance at the Center for Performing Arts

Chapter 6: Veterans Theater’s Second Play is at Good Samaritan

We learned Samaritans have their own version of helping the homeless in America. And they wanted stories told their way, not our way.  We were learning an important lesson about doing theater for social change. Keep control of the narrative. Don’t give away storytelling rights. If you tell it their way, you don’t get to tell it your way. We tried to do both, and it worked, sort of.

We learned one of our performers told a lie.  BA, short for ‘Bad Ass’ lied and told the audience she had been an MP in the Army. She then told another lie, that she and her boyfriend had their worldly belonging confiscated at a boarder patrol checkpoint. 

BA and her new boyfriend Kenny were making all kinds of accusations (mostly false) about Camp Hope.

Lesson learned: we have to vet the performers, and their stories.

Camp Hope and Veterans Theater spilt the take. 

Chapter 7: Veterans Village at the Rio Grande Theater

A play about Christmas and Spice. We learned the sound guy would not let the homeless touch the equipment.

MAIN MESSAGE: “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets”.  CAUTION: We will make fun of Las Vegas New Mexico, but keep in mind à Built in 1889, it was originally called the Territorial Insane Asylum and then the New Mexico Hospital for the Insane. Now, it's called the New Mexico Behavior Health Institute”. Only one in the state that provides court-ordered and voluntary treatment for mental illnesses that severely impair functioning
BUT àDemand for mental health FAR outweighs supply, leaving families and our cities good hearted philanthropists to take on the burden – and cost – of providing care, donating food, blankets, clothing (From 2005 to 2010 NM went from serious psych bed shortage (34 beds/100,000 to Critical Bed Shortage (12 beds/ 100,000; NM reduced beds by 60%, 14 beds per 100,000 that existed in 1850 in USA, in NM our Las Vegas Territorial Insane Asylum 1889) . That is not the fault of the Psych Hospital that there are less beds in Las Vegas, that’s legislation. Quarter million people with untreated psychiatric illness roam homeless in USA, OR ARE PLACED in jails and prisons, which now house 10 times as many people with severe mental illness than do our psychiatric hospitals.
New Mexico it’s time for a new PARADIGM! THIS IS A MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM WITH TOO MANY THINGS THAT CAN AND DO --- GO BAD!!!
 
HOW DID THIS SYSTEM GET DESIGNED FOR LOW CAPACITY? In 1955, the BIGGEST SOCIAL EXPERIMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY BEGAN. The mentally ill DEINSTITUTIONALIZED, were given Thomasine, released they hit the streets. In 1994, number of severely mentally ill in institutions had been reduced form 486,620 patients, to 71,619.
But our families and cities cannot handle costs and needs of mentally ill, so VIVA LAS VEGAS: Nurse, Chris Ruge (El Centro Family Health, LV), puts it this way “"We have hundreds if not thousands of people who have been essentially dumped here [LAS VEGAS NMBHI] by cities and counties [ALL OVER NEW MEXICO] and their families at the state hospital," he said. "The message is, whoever sent them doesn't really want them to come back." In our THROW AWAY SOCIETY, Many wind up on the streets, homeless. THEN City of LAS VEGAS, has to either care for the population of homeless mentally ill, or SEND THEM to SOME other CITY, like here LAS CRUCES, and this is what ACT II is about.
NEW MEXICO’s System is perfectly designed to get the results it gets”?
An ‘F’ on the Mental Health System Report Card (2014, Treatment Advocacy Center): F on State Inpatient Commitment; F on Outpatient Commitment;
By 2013, all but five states – Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Tennessee – had enacted laws for ASSISTED OUTPATIENT TREATMENT.
F on Cumulative Quality of Laws Grade (involuntary treatment laws, inpatient commitment laws, state assisted outpatient treatment laws, state’s emergency hospitalization; F on Use of Laws Grade; C on Emergency Evaluation Grade

As: Troy Jones executive director of Las Vegas Institute for Behavioral Health stated:  ONLY WAY "To come into our forensic division -- you would have had to have been charged with a felony, (or) found not competent to stand trial, and be deemed dangerous as per the criminal definition." Those patients include John Hyde. Hyde, who suffered from a mental illness, shot and killed five people in 2005. Two of his victims were Albuquerque police officers. Others, like homeless camper James Boyd, were frequent visitors to the Psych Institute in Las Vegas, but could not meet the strict entrance requirements, and then was shot, as you know. BOTTOM LINE: High standards for involuntary commitment make it difficult for families to get help for loved ones struggling with serious mental illness. OPERATING AT ‘F’ system levels means you must let a loved one spin out of control before securing care, or THE POLICE CAN TAKE THEM there
TEXAS DSIGNS FOR DIFFERENT SYSTEM RESULT: "In Houston, there's a functioning psychiatric emergency room that allows the police to pick up the mentally ill and instead of charging them with something, they are able to bring them to the psychiatric E.R."

“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets”: In 2010, secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health, by authority of a Legislative Amendment to the NM Department of Health Act, repealed all requirements for boarding homes to be subject to state licensing or inspections. Homeless and Veterans on strong medications, with severely impaired mental functioning, in need of obvious continued psychiatric & substance abuse care, but without family to sign off, can just release themselves to an UNLICENSED, UNINSPECTED, SOMETIMES PREDATORY BOARD AND CARE cottage industry that has grown up around LAS VEGAS NEW MEXICO.
A PERFECT STORM SYSTEM DESIGN: Institute has a list of 31 boarding houses, to which they release 80 patients a year. The boarding house cottage industry gobbles up most of the former-patient’s Supplemental Security Checks.

Cochise Bayhan, age 56 said to have spent time as a Marine, another says Air Force, and had long-term mental health issues. Prior to admission to the Institute (Sept 19 2013) he was outpatient at Carlsbad mental health service, and a hospital. Department of Health drives them over to LAS VEGAS. Then On Oct 9th 2013 he discharged himself to Denise Encinias’ UNLICENSED UNINSPECTED boarding home in Las Vegas, with no more state oversight for their care.

The same day Alex Montoya age 61, who had late-onset schizophrenia with bipolar disorder also discharged himself to same boarding home in Las Vegas. The family was never called about this discharge plan, and he signed himself out. Family members in fact had tried to complain to DOH about Alex’s placement before, and it just got passed along. Everyone said ‘he is a really nice guy’. He was admitted 19 times to in-patient services at the Institute, and once before had been placed into boarding house care facility in 2009. PERFECTLY DESIGNED REVOLVING DOOR SYSTEM!

PRIVATE CARE SYSTEM: Cochise Bayhan paid $600 a month & Alex Montoya paid $500 a month to live in the same 12 by 32 foot WEATHER KING SHED: “NOT DESIGNED OR SUITABLE FOR HUMAN OCCUPANCY OR HABITATION.” Cost is under $8,000, financed at $395 a month. It had no running water, no toilet, and no electricity, not heat. Could perhaps be called predatory landlord-tenant business.

The Board and Care owners ran an extension cord from their single-wide to the Shack.  The pair watched TV and ate the food provided at the boarding home. But the electric heater was not keeping the Weather King shed warm, so Jose Encinas (husband) installed without permit, a propane heater, and covered the windows with plastic to contain the heat (Oct 20th 2013).
You guessed it the pair of discharged mental patients died of carbon monoxide poisoning (that what the Office of the Medical Investigator concluded). “The night before Alex Montoya and Cochise Bayhan died, Denise Encinias says she gave them their medications at 8:30 p.m. and asked them to put on their pajamas.” Paramedics noticed a strong gas odor, and told everyone at the scene to leave the shed for thir own safety.  A member of Gallinas Volunteer Fire Department responded to the 911 call. He noticed the building was extremely hot. Alex and Cochise had dilated pupils and livor mortis had set in. ““I cry every day,” Denise Encinias said during an interview at her home on Monday. “I did everything for them out of the goodness of my heart.”

Code Enforcement is obviously important. After the deaths, the shed  had 11 gas code violations, such as the LP gas heater being installed without license by the building house owners. There were 16 other building code violations.

A plea agreement was reached Oct 16, 2015 - Four days before they were set to go on trial for the 2013 deaths. Jose will get some where between no time and 10 years in prison, and Denise will serve 5 years probation. As part of the plea agreement, the couple will be prohibited from ever operating a boarding home again, though they will be allowed to continue to care for their special needs daughter.  Keep in mind they were just poor folks trying to make ends meet.

 

“I’ve always said, it’s going to take some deaths before anyone is going to get interested,” Shelia Silverman (director of NMBHI) said.

HOW DO WE CHANGE THIS SYSTEM?

The FINAL INVESTIGATION of BOARDING HOMES presented to the Legislature recommends: “New Mexico needs to more aggressively develop supportive housing for people with chronic and persistent mental illness who will need long term assistance or interim living assistance before they can live more independently. Medicaid and other funding sources should be explored for potential support for this kind of housing.”

Chapter 8: The Spice Sting YouTube

We did our sting, and took the issue to City Council

Spice Head Falls Out:
This act centers on Synthetic marijuana and it’s side effects. The recipe keeps changing, becoming deadly, and people are dying from it. SYSTEM IS PERFECTLY DESIGNED: BUSINESS LICENSING is the SPICE BUSINESS (fake pot) that is responsible for so many over-doses and deaths of our school and college students and our homeless and veterans. Revoke their Business License!

Pictured at right is Ruth Rivas, with a picture of her son Adam, who died from Spice. Ruth and her husband started http://spiceisnotnice.com She has testing kits to help parents test if their kids are using spice

Even kids in middle school now sell and use Spice. Spice is cheaper than actual marijuana, more accessible. Names of ingredients on the package are changed to ones not listed in the law. The sachet packet makes aoubt 8 joints

The Film Spice Buy:
YouTube Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWtF3t1Bgqs
On September 11, 2015, Ernest Ramey (President of Veterans Theater) and myself (Storytelling Researcher) decided to investigate the Spice Trade, here in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  I put on beat up cap, someone had donated to the homeless veterans of America, and set out to buy some Spice from a local business establishment.  This business had been raided just 2 days ago by the Las Cruces Police Department, who is cracking down on the spice trade.

Boje as Professor John William Huffman, professor of organic chemistry (emeritus) Clemson University. Huffman developed the cannabinoid compounds, such as JWH-018 for scientific research. JWH-018 is now banned by the controlled substances act.  Huffman believes the JWH compounds he invented (including JWH-018_ are potentially dangerous. “It doesn’t hit the brain in the same way as marijuana, and that’s why it’s dangerous.”   To get around IRB that would not let him test mice with marijuana, he focused on a drug to target endocannabinoid receptors, to help with HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis.  In 1990s he got a grant from National Institute for Drug Abuse, and his team, in 20 years, developed 450 synthetic cannabinoid compounds to test effect of cannabinoid receptors in the brain.  JWH stands fro John William Huffman.  He published lots of journal articles containing the recipes. Huffman claims any halfway decent undergrad chemistry major can make the JWH compounds, in three easy steps from commercially available materials.  John Huffman admitted that his chemical creations were “never meant for human consumption” and  “have profound psychological effects.” John W. Huffman, JWH, says marijuana should be made legal, because it’s a lot less dangerous than Spice.

Spice is advertised, “NOT INTENDED FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION, to bypass all FDA regulation.  Spice is used to get around the THC drug test

 

 

Chapter 9: Veterans Theater at the Social Work Conference

Chapter 9: Spice Head Falls Out, the Film

Chapter 10: Veterans Ecological Village and City Council

 

Chapter 11: Veterans Village and the University

Takes the performers into an open discussion of visions for the future of homeless veterans and the homeless of Las Cruces. Veterans Theater’s Roundtable will discuss micro-homes, Tiny Homes Eco-Village, and micro-enterprises. We are moving away from the model of dependence, to a model of independence.  Encourages real stories to be shared. We will be passing the Hat.\ Instead of tents in freezing weather, or warehousing people in section 8 housing, it is time Las Cruces move forward with a Village of Tiny homes that is economically and ecologically viable.
Fact: homelessness can end and will end once it is no longer acceptable in our society for another human being to be sleeping outside, in their car, in an abandoned building, or in a tent or dorm shelter. Fact: after World War II, by 1950s homelessness had ended in USA, and in 2015 it’s at 3.5 million US citizens:
  Why? 1976 Federal Government withdrew $$$ from low income housing; Now it is 50% what it was in 1976. For a 2 bedroom dwelling, it takes a HOUSING WAGE of $15.37 an hour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 12:  Veterans Theater Play about Labels