They Only Get Better One by One

The Buncombe County Commissioners spent a lot of time tonight hearing reports of horrible situations in adult care homes. Shame on me, I didn’t catch the timeframe, if it was shared at all, but the following crimes were committed in Buncombe County adult care homes:

• 6 Simple Assault
• 9 Second Degree Trespass
• 8 Assault on Female
• 6 Resist Public Officer
• 5 Possession of MJ less than ½ ounce
• 4 Disorderly Conduct
• 3 Assault with a Deadly Weapon

One adult care home was particularly troublesome. It housed 300 persons. In 2010, 144 calls for service were made by law enforcement to the facility. In 2011, the number increased to 237. This year, the numbers are burning up the charts already. The home may be shut down, but then the trouble-making, mentally-unwell people will be discharged to live under bridges or make waves somewhere else.

Sheriff Van Duncan nailed the problem, stating that people were being placed in inappropriate care. Just about everybody has heard about the state’s Mental Health Deformation about ten years ago. Some Supreme Court Jesters ruled at the federal level that mental institutions profiled, stigmatized, or otherwise treated as special, people who needed special treatment, and that wasn’t right. So the mentally ill were released in droves to adult care homes, where kids with high school degrees, if even that, looking for cheap rent, would be the caretakers.

Curtis Venable, who holds a lot of titles and often makes a lot of sense on the issue, described the facilities as, “not Aunt Bea taking care of six nice ladies.” Rather, mentally ill, and often criminally violent people come to stay. The average Joe is on fifteen meds. No trained physicians work at the facilities to detect signals for prescription changes.

Mention was also made about the clientele getting into the community, since the facilities cannot hold them prisoners, and breaking into houses and doing other crazy things. A couple residents said were it not for the grace of God, they would have shot the intruders.

Before proceeding, it is important to note citizen Jerry Rice’s observation that this problem is not new. He hoped it wasn’t going to become a Republican/Democrat thing for the election season.

Disgruntling was the emphasis placed on “fiscal responsibility.” The commissioners, as many liberals this particular campaign season, are flinging an occasional conservative term around, hoping their political opponents will lap up the whole pile of vomit because they spot a tiny buzz word somewhere in the mix. The dollars in question were four- and five-digit. This is chickenfeed compared to typical budget items ziplined on the commissioners’ consent agenda.

Pardon the dated colloquialism, but, “Hello?” Isn’t government supposed to be making sure people are secure in their persons and property? Exactly which political ideology has a problem with government spending relatively small amounts of money to protect citizens?

Another complaint was that a large number of the clientele come from outside Buncombe County. They are recruited because facilities are better than average in Buncombe. Sending them back home for political reasons seems a little inhumane.

To solve the problems, government is considering appealing to government. Maybe a letter can be written, or a committee or study group formed. Sorry, y’all. Abstractions don’t solve problems. Abdication to government programs never works – unless a government worker is able to give of himself in the process. I’ve read tons of recovery books in my life, and I’ve never read any story about somebody getting better because of a program. It is always because they find something bigger than self. This often takes the sacrifice of another human, who loves them enough to give of their time, emotions, and energy. We’ve been there, done that on taking money from a begrudging taxpaying public to finance programs that pay bureaucrats to get promoted by increasing the volume of paperwork to justify the hiring of more underlings.

Election Paid with Hidden Money

Tonight at the Buncombe County Commissioners’ meeting, candidate Mike Fryar announced that a cashier’s check was used to pay for the referendum for a quarter-cent sales tax to benefit AB Tech. AB Tech said they were going to pay for the election. Everything may have been above-board, but Fryar was correct in stating that, until more information is forthcoming, the election was paid with “hidden money.”