December 25, 2005

This Is The Great Socialistic System In Canada I Keep Hearing About?

Taking a Long View: The Opposite of Christmas

[UPDATE: I guess the blogosphere is smaller than I realized. Please see Rob Bray's follow-up comments below. As I mentioned in my follow-up comments to Rob, theres obviously no one more qualified to answer this question than the one who's post spawned this post in the first place. Rob is someone who obviously knows a thing or two about these systems given that he works within them. So as I mentioned, again, in my follow-up to Rob, I think we can safely state the case is officially closed. And it looks like I need to do some homework. I did'nt realize we were executing our mentally ill in the U.S. from time to time. Obviously not the kind of "quality" you can take much pride in, now is it.

Thanks again Rob. You're obviously a great example for the rest of us to learn from and follow.]

Most of our court system and our jail system and our social services systems are clogged with mentally ill people. With Peters. We are forced to throw him there, because we cannot care for him, and no one else will. Jail is often the welfare system of last resort.

If I'm not mistaken, Rob, the author of the above linked and quoted blog posting, is Tim Bray's brother (it was through a recent Tim Bray post that I discovered the link to this post.) I can tell you right now (not that I would need to for those keenly aware of Tim and all that he has given of himself to this world) that if Rob is anything like Tim, he's an incredibly talented, loving, and giving individual who care's more about the well being of others than he does of his own. By reading this article I think we can safely state "yeah, he's just like his brother."

But as caring and wonderful of an individual he obviously is, I can't help but read this post, especially the above quoted piece, and question "what's so wonderful about that?" I ask this not as a direct question to Rob. I doubt much Rob would would ever stumble across this post in the first place. Instead I ask it to any residents of Canada who might read this (Kurt?): If this is an accurate portrayal (and I have no reason to believe that its not) of the Canadian socialistic way of handling the mentally ill, what's so wonderful about that?

I don't mean this as a bash Canada kind of question; From what I understand, Canada is a pretty cool place. When I was a kid growing up in Seattle (more properly, Kirkland, Juanita High School, Class of 1990 to be quite specific) we used to go and watch my brother, who at the time was pitching for the Vancouver Canadians, who (again, at that particular time... not sure who they are an affiliate for now but from what I learned recently from a different Tim Bray post, there now a Single A club) were the Triple A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. I loved it! It was a wonderful experience that I would look forward to each and every time.

Even further...

...as both a kid and an adult I would/will visit Whistler/Blackcomb as often as I can. Again, I love it! But I can't help but wonder that as fantastic of a country as Canada undoubtedly is, it definitely seems to have its share of problems, and in this case the problem seems to be a lot worse than what we have here in the states under a capitalistic government. It would seem to me that a government built on socialistic tendencies would create a better system for the mentally ill than simply using the judicial system. But I'm also guessing its a lot more complicated than I'm making it out to be.

I don't mean to come across the wrong way. I'm really just posing a question, not making any sort of accusations. Anybody care to comment?