September 28, 2011
3. Newblog2011: 09/28/11 "Fat:" Boston Public Health Commission ads
For the first time, but more than once in the past week, I’ve seen Boston Public Health Commission ads on the sides of public busses that say “Don’t Get Smacked By Fat.” There have a been a couple of pictures that go with the ads, always of a person with something that looks like a piece of disembodied fat hitting him or her on the side of the face.
When I’ve reported that my responses to people harassing me in person are less than perfect, and have documented what those responses were, I’m sincere when I’ve said that I’m not happy that I’ve responded in the less-than-polite ways that I have. I don’t want to call people cruel names about things in their lives that probably already make them unhappy and that take a lot of effort to fix. The emotional overload from the unfairness, the offensiveness, and the danger of the situation that is causing the harassment to happen has driven me to respond in cruel ways more than once.
It’s frustrating and frightening that my polite responses don’t always work, and haven’t made the situation end. Even if the same person doesn’t continue to harass me, other people whom I see around and other strangers do.
When I’ve said that the overall situation is bringing out the worst in people, I’m not only talking about the worst getting brought out in people who then harass me, I’m talking about myself, also, and the responses that I make, at times, under duress. In addition to being harassed and slandered, having my privacy invaded and my life threatened as a matter of continual policy by the harassing conglomerate, which would be a stressful thing for anyone to know was going on all the time, whether or not she was directly dealing with it at any particular time, I get accosted by harassment, in person, many times a day, and also at night, by total strangers and also by people whom I live with or am supposed to be getting helped by. If this continues for another few months, it will be 2 years that what I’ve just described has been going on, and that’s just the sexual harassment toward me personally and doesn’t include the other things I was being bullied about by some of the same people before the harassment turned sexual, such as being Jewish and having a psychiatric history.
It still surprises me how many total strangers and even people with whom I frequently interact and to whom I always try to be nice are willing to add their bullying to someone’s burden who not only has never done anything to them but who has already been getting bullied by a lot of other people for a long time. I almost added “for no good reason” in the previous sentence, and then I didn’t, because there’s never a good reason to bully anyone. If someone has done something wrong, then the person can attempt to make restitution or can be disciplined in some legitimate and finite way, by the proper parties, for his or her refusal to make restitution. Anything else is both inappropriate and, in my case, has been entirely excessive for entirely too long.
I don’t think that the Boston Public Health Commission should be making a joke out of the fact that I was arrested for assault last November, and I don’t think that the Commission should be taunting anyone about being fat. The city and state government here has contributed substantially to the conditions that led to my being bullied here in the first place; all that government is doing now is bullying the people whom it first encouraged to bully me.
It’s the equivalent of taking two animals who are smaller than you are, riling them up, and trying to get them to fight each other for your amusement. I don’t want to be treated that way, and I don’t want a government that thinks that it can or should treat people that way.
There’s only one legitimate description for what anyone who works in government is supposed to be doing, and that’s Helping People.
Copyright, with noted exceptions, L. Kochman, September 28, 2011 @ 1:12 p.m./addition @ 1:15 p.m./addition @ 1:17 p.m./addition @ 1:18 p.m.
3. Newblog2011: 09/28/11 "Fat:" Boston Public Health Commission ads
For the first time, but more than once in the past week, I’ve seen Boston Public Health Commission ads on the sides of public busses that say “Don’t Get Smacked By Fat.” There have a been a couple of pictures that go with the ads, always of a person with something that looks like a piece of disembodied fat hitting him or her on the side of the face.
When I’ve reported that my responses to people harassing me in person are less than perfect, and have documented what those responses were, I’m sincere when I’ve said that I’m not happy that I’ve responded in the less-than-polite ways that I have. I don’t want to call people cruel names about things in their lives that probably already make them unhappy and that take a lot of effort to fix. The emotional overload from the unfairness, the offensiveness, and the danger of the situation that is causing the harassment to happen has driven me to respond in cruel ways more than once.
It’s frustrating and frightening that my polite responses don’t always work, and haven’t made the situation end. Even if the same person doesn’t continue to harass me, other people whom I see around and other strangers do.
When I’ve said that the overall situation is bringing out the worst in people, I’m not only talking about the worst getting brought out in people who then harass me, I’m talking about myself, also, and the responses that I make, at times, under duress. In addition to being harassed and slandered, having my privacy invaded and my life threatened as a matter of continual policy by the harassing conglomerate, which would be a stressful thing for anyone to know was going on all the time, whether or not she was directly dealing with it at any particular time, I get accosted by harassment, in person, many times a day, and also at night, by total strangers and also by people whom I live with or am supposed to be getting helped by. If this continues for another few months, it will be 2 years that what I’ve just described has been going on, and that’s just the sexual harassment toward me personally and doesn’t include the other things I was being bullied about by some of the same people before the harassment turned sexual, such as being Jewish and having a psychiatric history.
It still surprises me how many total strangers and even people with whom I frequently interact and to whom I always try to be nice are willing to add their bullying to someone’s burden who not only has never done anything to them but who has already been getting bullied by a lot of other people for a long time. I almost added “for no good reason” in the previous sentence, and then I didn’t, because there’s never a good reason to bully anyone. If someone has done something wrong, then the person can attempt to make restitution or can be disciplined in some legitimate and finite way, by the proper parties, for his or her refusal to make restitution. Anything else is both inappropriate and, in my case, has been entirely excessive for entirely too long.
I don’t think that the Boston Public Health Commission should be making a joke out of the fact that I was arrested for assault last November, and I don’t think that the Commission should be taunting anyone about being fat. The city and state government here has contributed substantially to the conditions that led to my being bullied here in the first place; all that government is doing now is bullying the people whom it first encouraged to bully me.
It’s the equivalent of taking two animals who are smaller than you are, riling them up, and trying to get them to fight each other for your amusement. I don’t want to be treated that way, and I don’t want a government that thinks that it can or should treat people that way.
There’s only one legitimate description for what anyone who works in government is supposed to be doing, and that’s Helping People.
Copyright, with noted exceptions, L. Kochman, September 28, 2011 @ 1:12 p.m./addition @ 1:15 p.m./addition @ 1:17 p.m./addition @ 1:18 p.m.