tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595517.post111214456164135103..comments2023-07-19T09:45:46.715-05:00Comments on NoFo: The woman on the trainJakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00185984468611879364noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595517.post-1112370120388584332005-04-01T09:42:00.000-06:002005-04-01T09:42:00.000-06:00I read the comment before you deleted it. I don't...I read the comment before you deleted it. I don't like to call people names so I won't. I won't call him an imbecile.<BR/><BR/>I recently witnessed a woman being attacked on the tube in London by some random guy (wrote about it <A HREF="http://everythingisnotreal.blogspot.com/2005/03/ok.html" REL="nofollow">here</A>) and nobody, including myself, did anything. I felt really impotent at the time and ashamed of myself afterwards.<BR/><BR/>I think that until the powers that be offer more overall assistance, in whatever form that takes for whatever cause, it is up to us to help each other out. But it's hard and it's complicated. Fear is often at the heart of it. I know that's what I felt.Christopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09851327988709997417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595517.post-1112294114842618482005-03-31T12:35:00.000-06:002005-03-31T12:35:00.000-06:00I have removed a comment from this page because it...I have removed a comment from this page because it was in direct violation of this blog’s mission statement: to exist solely for my own amusement. (And to give me the occasional opportunity to write about interesting things that happen to me or to lash out at rude people, gay bashers and crack whores.)<BR/><BR/>My blog not a forum for strangers to zero in on minor elements from my posts, misinterpret them to further political agendas and/or call me names at the expense of the bigger pictures I was writing about. <BR/><BR/>(Come to think of it, my blog is not a forum for strangers to call me names in ANY context. So you name-callers can just fuck off. ’Cause you’re all stupid-heads.)<BR/><BR/>And I refuse to let my comments pages devolve into point-by-excruciating-point he-said-she-said exegeses. Nobody comes here to read research papers. And glazed-over eyes have never been an indication of amusement for me <I>or</I> any of the kinds of people I assume read this thing.<BR/><BR/>I went through similar crap when people erupted so violently over my liposuction posts. I tried to accommodate people’s opinions and let them have their say, but when they proved to be incapable of being civil about it, I eventually realized IT’S MY BLOG, DAMNIT. And I’m doing this for FUN. My own fun. <BR/><BR/>If you like it, great! Pull up a chair and sit a spell. <BR/><BR/>If you don’t, go find someone else to bother.Jakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00185984468611879364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595517.post-1112256831004445882005-03-31T02:13:00.000-06:002005-03-31T02:13:00.000-06:00I do wonder why we all freeze when strangers like ...I do wonder why we all freeze when strangers like her need help. I remember and old and very drunk man falling on the stairs of a subway station. All the people in the station were looking at him as blood was covering his face but no one was moving one finger. Someone finally did when he after a second fall. And I also remember seeing a man beating some woman (his wife I think) on the street and no one doing anything about it, although many probably wanted to help. I guess sometimes we worry to much about being misinterpreted if we interfere. <BR/><BR/>But I think it is normal to sometimes feel angry is such situations. Anger towards the people getting themselves in that situation, society, the current government or towards ourselves. I think it is mostly because none of the previously mentioned targets does anything to end it.Alinahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10715176905499669530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595517.post-1112254166907285442005-03-31T01:29:00.000-06:002005-03-31T01:29:00.000-06:00Incredible story, Jake... and thank you for the re...Incredible story, Jake... and thank you for the rebuttal to Mr. Workaholic... You make the right points and said exactly the things I feel about the situation. If our government would spend one iota of money on the real problems in society that they spend on that poor woman in Florida who just needs to die in peace and let her pain end once and for all, there might be some help for people like that woman. <BR/><BR/>I think I would have been as frozen as you were in the same situation. But at least you were able to recount the experience... and thank you for doing so.Rick Aiellohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17638849935882447342noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595517.post-1112244943629113852005-03-30T22:55:00.001-06:002005-03-30T22:55:00.001-06:00Powerful comment on the deep frustrations of a rea...Powerful comment on the deep frustrations of a reasonable person's encounter with the deeply illogical world of the alcoholic...<BR/>Some might look askance at the idea of being angry at one who is ill, and clearly others question whether society has any responsibility for those who suffer from this disease.<BR/>What I so appreciate about your honest naming of your feelings is that it so parallels the feelings of those who deal with alcoholics on a daily basis--anger that the person has allowed the disease to so negatively dominate their environment, and frustration with a government that seemingly abandons the field of care for the sufferers of this disease.NotShyChiRevhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02677873486408213750noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595517.post-1112244925825434332005-03-30T22:55:00.000-06:002005-03-30T22:55:00.000-06:00Our government is throwing obscene amounts of mone...Our government is throwing obscene amounts of money and time into a media-manipulating effort to "save" one woman who has been all but clinically dead for 15 years -- curiously eclipsing both the decision-making rights it grants her husband in the bond of marriage it fights so hard to keep "sacred" AND her state's right to be the ultimate decision-maker in the issue, which it defends as the final authority in so many other social conflicts. <BR/><BR/>I have seen no effort even remotely equaling this cost and news-cycle-friendly moral urgency to combat homelessness, poverty, mental illness, illiteracy, alcoholism, drug abuse, the rampant marketing of controlled substances and/or the grossly inadequate state of our social services.<BR/><BR/>I said nothing about holding hands. I just called into question the motives of a government that claims to be obsessed with the "sanctity of life" but shows no interest in improving the quality of the lives of people who have a fighting chance -- even the unfortunate people you dismiss as "slobs" and "bitches." <BR/><BR/>Terri Schiavo put herself in a vegetative state through her own bulimia. And over the last 15 years she's cost our government probably billions of dollars in medical bills, legal fees and misdirected resources. There's no telling what all that time, energy and money could have accomplished in a fight to eradicate the forces that destroy the lives of the legitimately living through no fault of their own.<BR/><BR/>Fucked up and distorted? I'd use those words to describe your self-righteous anger and your oversimplistic arguments.Jakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00185984468611879364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595517.post-1112227664476892362005-03-30T18:07:00.000-06:002005-03-30T18:07:00.000-06:00So well written...I saw it all happen perfectly as...So well written...I saw it all happen perfectly as I was reading (especially since that's my train stop). That is going to be one hell of a hangover.portuguesa novahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03664291195500818577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595517.post-1112210820381361062005-03-30T13:27:00.000-06:002005-03-30T13:27:00.000-06:00Very moving post, Jake.Very moving post, Jake.dantallionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13018930605323027237noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5595517.post-1112164492611424592005-03-30T00:34:00.000-06:002005-03-30T00:34:00.000-06:00Wow Jake, that really touched me. Incredible story...Wow Jake, that really touched me. Incredible story. Shakes me alert as someone who does not drink because the Dr. has me on Prozac. I'm really touched you told this story. <BR/><BR/>-ToddAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com