Recycling The Mentally Ill

Written by Virginia Bola, PsyD


Continued from page 1

It is now estimated thatrepparttar penal system isrepparttar 125957 largest provider of mental health services inrepparttar 125958 nation. Apart from those Institutions designed for those who have been legally determined to be "criminally insane,"repparttar 125959 system houses mentally ill individuals who may make up a third or more ofrepparttar 125960 total prison population.

Building more prisons and hiring more guards is politically positive: voters want to keep their communities clean and safe and willingly pay forrepparttar 125961 fight against crime. Whilerepparttar 125962 murderers and rapists are held up as examples of those who need to be contained at all costs,repparttar 125963 fact remains that a majority ofrepparttar 125964 enormous and growing prison population are serving their time for drug-related activities or victimless crimes.

The mentally ill have finally been fully recycled. They are still invisible but instead of vegetating in State Mental Wards, they are caught within a system which robs them of their dignity, provides less than optimal treatment, and costs far more torepparttar 125965 taxpayers than would well-organized and efficiently run hospitals and clinics.

This is progress?

Dr. Bola operated a rehabilitation company, developing innovative job search techniques for disabled workers, for 20 years. A licensed clinical psychologist, she directed vocational programs for the mentally ill, served as a Vocational Expert in administrative and civil court, and pioneered vocational testimony in Workers' Compensation. Author of The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, she can be found at: http://www.virginiabola.com


Voting Pro-Environment is Good For Jobs, Health, and Security

Written by Mark Jeantheau


Continued from page 1

ENVIRONMENTAL VOTING CAN MEAN MORE JOBS

Mature industries do not typically create large numbers of new jobs. Industries based on oil, gas, and coal--the "business-as-usual industries" inrepparttar energy sector--are certainly not going to bolster our sagging job numbers, given that they're caught betweenrepparttar 125956 twin hammers of dwindling fossil-fuel supplies and anti-pollution pressures.

But there is a good solution. According to analyses by The Apollo Alliance, embarking on an ambitious program to develop renewable energy will allow us to create three million new, high quality jobs, free ourselves from imported oil, and clean uprepparttar 125957 environment. That certainly sounds a lot better than no new jobs and lots more black smoke inrepparttar 125958 sky.

TOOLS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL VOTING

So, are you convinced that voting green also supports many of our other primary goals atrepparttar 125959 ballot box? If so,repparttar 125960 best way to decide which candidate isrepparttar 125961 most supportive of our environment is NOT to listen to what they say, but instead to look at their voting records. A good way to do that for national candidates is to reviewrepparttar 125962 information at Project Vote Smart ( http://www.vote-smart.org/ ), which is an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to providing facts onrepparttar 125963 voting records of candidates forrepparttar 125964 US congress and other federal offices. They cover all issues, not justrepparttar 125965 environment.

While Project Vote Smart is an incredible resource, if your main goal is to zero in on candidates' environmental records, you can do this more easily by lettingrepparttar 125966 League of Conservation Voters (LCV) be your guide. LCV's National Environmental Scorecard ( http://www.lcv.org/scorecard/scorecardmain.cfm ) analyzes and rates candidates' environmental voting records. If you want to keep it reeeaaaally simple,repparttar 125967 Scorecard has a single percentage number for each candidate to summarize how oftenrepparttar 125968 candidate supportedrepparttar 125969 "environmental position." The higherrepparttar 125970 number,repparttar 125971 greenerrepparttar 125972 candidate. And byrepparttar 125973 way, LCV is a non-partisan organization--they endorse donkeys, elephants, and political animals of other stripes too.

Even thoughrepparttar 125974 environment may not come up much in debates and TV ads, it is our air, our water, and our land. Keeping it clean is an important issue in its own right, but it plays a part in almost all other issues too. Vote green!

See Article at http://www.grinningplanet.com/vote/

*************** © 2004 by http://www.GrinningPlanet.com You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long asrepparttar 125975 bylines are included. Must be published complete with no changes. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

Mark is a writer, financial analyst, web developer, environmentalist, and, as necessary, chef and janitor. Grinning Planet is an expression of Mark's enthusiasm for all things humorous and green, as well as a psychotic desire to work himself half-to-death. Hobbies include health foods, music, getting frustrated over politics, and occasionally lecturing theTV set on how uncreative it is.


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