THERE IS NO CODE INTENDED IN ANYTHING I WRITE, DO OR WEAR TODAY.
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April 9, 2011 @ 10:43 a.m.
When I got to VSH late last November and left a voicemail for the New York Times that I thought it would take me about 6 months to be living an independent life, I wasn't anticipating being harassed at VSH until I left. The harassment at the hospital set me back; it was difficult for me emotionally, and the constant denial of my reports and the increased abuse I got for a while as I continued to make my case that I really was being harassed and not suffering delusions caused by mental illness resulted in my being kept at the hospital at least twice as long as I otherwise would have been there.
I haven't mentioned before that all of the reports I made of being harassed and the fact that I kept to my goal of being treated decently paid off. I left the hospital on terms that I wouldn't even have known to ask for myself but which were the best that could be had. I was released to a shelter instead of being made to live in a group home. I never signed up for disability benefits, which would have required that I sign paperwork falsely telling the government that I have a mental illness that prevents me from working. I'm free to choose my own health care providers, with whom I will most likely get better treatment than I would with a community mental health agency. If you fight for your dignity and your freedom, you have a much better chance of getting those things than if you don't fight for them.
I'm beginning the same process of pursuing the goal of being treated decently at the shelter where I'm staying.
I learned some of what the process involves from mistakes I made in the past in ignoring or underestimating how malicious some people can be for no reason.
A new "Scream" movie is going to be released in theaters soon. I expect that the movie will be full of hateful, disrespectful jokes about me, based on reports that former neighbors of mine must have made to the media or to somebody in the entertainment industry last year.
When I was 31, I thought to myself "I've never been loud during orgasm. I'm over 30 now; I'll try it and see how I feel about it."
It was ok. I didn't notice that it enhanced the experience; at least, for me there was no experience enhancement of any kind. Apparently, it gave some of my new neighbors something to talk about to each other and to the property management company; they never said anything to me about it, not even in a roundabout way so that I could have had a chance to solve the problem, which I would have done immediately if anyone had let me know.
I figured out that I was giving my neighbors more of an earful than they needed when I saw one of them in the hallway and he gave me a very mean smile. I went back to my normal decibel level, and never missed the temporary increase.
The walls were thin in those apartments. I also was the only tenant on that floor who didn't have a heavy, metal seal on the bottom of my front door to keep sound from getting into or out of my apartment. The bottom of my front door didn't touch the floor beneath my front door for several inches all the way across.
I had lived peacefully in that apartment for years before the new people moved in.
Copyright L. Kochman 11:06 a.m.
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April 9, 2011 @ 12:59 p.m.
--The other day, I talked to a retired veteran and I asked him if he thought that military service should be mandatory for everybody after high school. He said that he didn't think that the military was for everyone, but that he thought that everyone should do two years of national service between high school and college, whether it was military service or not. He mentioned Americorps as one example. He said "Think of everything that could be done for the country. People should give back for all that they have just for being citizens here."
--I went to a job fair recently. One of the tables had pamphlets from the state government. I picked up a pamphlet published by the Governor's Commission on Women, which is now the Vermont Commission on Women. Here are some excerpts from the pamphlet called "Sexual Harassment In The Workplace:"
"Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination. Sexual harassment in the workplace involves behavior that may include unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct.
There are two forms of sexual harassment. The first is referred to as quid pro quo ("this for that"). In this type of situation, an employer or a supervisor makes unwanted sexual advances or requires a person to exchange sexual favors for some job benefit (for example, being promoted or hired) or to prevent a negative job-related action (for example, being fired or getting a bad evaluation).
The other form of sexual harassment is referred to as hostile environment. This is when unwanted sexual conduct creates and offensive, uncomfortable, or discriminatory work environment.
To prove a hostile environment case, this type of harassing behavior must be sexual in natoure or directed at only one sex. It must also be frequent or repeated and unwelcome.
Discrimination based on a person's sex may also be considered sexual harassment even if the discrimination is non-sexual in nature. For example, commenting that a person can't do her job because of her sex may be considered sexual harassment.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT IS NOT ABOUT SEX. IT'S ABOUT POWER.
ANY OF THE FOLLOWING MAY BE CONSIDERED SEXUAL HARASSMENT OR MAY BE EVIDENCE OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT:
--Gestures and non-verbal communications such as leering, hooting, sucking, lip-smacking, whistling and animal noises, and sexually explicit gestures
--More subtle sexual activities or communications such as insisting or requesting that workers wear revealing clothes, unwelcome pressure for dates, inappropriate gifts such as lingerie, the use of sexual innuendo, comments about people's bodies or physcial appearance, "accidentally" brushing sexual parts of the body, leaning over and invading a person's space, sexist and insulting graffiti, sexist jokes and cartoons, and displaying pornography or nude or semi-nude pictures in the workplace
--Negative activities designed to make a group unwelcome in the workplace such as sabotaging a person's work, demanding comments such as "Hey, baby, give me a smile," hostile put-downs, exaggerated and mocking "courtesy" and public humiliation
IT'S A FACT: BOTH MEN AND WOMEN MAY BE VICTIMS AND HARASSERS.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM:
Companies lose millions of dollars because of lawsuits and lost productivity every year due to sexual harassment. Victims of sexual harassment report physical and mental health problems and long-term career damage.
IT'S A FACT: SEXUAL HARASSMENT CAN OCCUR IN SITUATIONS WHERE ONE PERSON HAS AUTHORITY OVER ANOTHER, OR BETWEEN PEERS."
It can be extrapoloated from these excerpts that the behavior described constitutes sexual harassment in situations besides work. Also, if you use your job in order to harass others, including customers, clients, patrons or patients, it follows that you are guilty of harassment even if the people whom you harass aren't your employees or co-workers.
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April 9, 2011 @ 1:16 p.m.
It's been difficult for me to understand why anyone in a democratic country such as the U.S. is supposed to be can support the deaths or continued detainment of the prisoners in Iran. It's finally occurred to me that perhaps people who have enjoyed the freedoms and privileges of having been born and lived all of their lives in democratic countries have no idea what it's like to live in a country which is essentially run by a dictator.
Dictators put people in prison for no reason. If those actions meet with scrutiny and criticism by other countries or organizations that are concerned about human rights, the dictators tell lies about why the prisoners are in jail. It has nothing to do with justice. It has nothing to do with anything except a government displaying inordinate power over its citizens, which is exactly the kind of thing that democracy was created to prevent.
Anyone who supports the deaths or continued detainment of the prisoners in Iran whom Amnesty International has said should be let go is supporting human rights violations, and is supporting fascism.
Copyright L. Kochman, April 9, 2011 @ 1:21 p.m.
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April 9, 2011 @ 10:43 a.m.
When I got to VSH late last November and left a voicemail for the New York Times that I thought it would take me about 6 months to be living an independent life, I wasn't anticipating being harassed at VSH until I left. The harassment at the hospital set me back; it was difficult for me emotionally, and the constant denial of my reports and the increased abuse I got for a while as I continued to make my case that I really was being harassed and not suffering delusions caused by mental illness resulted in my being kept at the hospital at least twice as long as I otherwise would have been there.
I haven't mentioned before that all of the reports I made of being harassed and the fact that I kept to my goal of being treated decently paid off. I left the hospital on terms that I wouldn't even have known to ask for myself but which were the best that could be had. I was released to a shelter instead of being made to live in a group home. I never signed up for disability benefits, which would have required that I sign paperwork falsely telling the government that I have a mental illness that prevents me from working. I'm free to choose my own health care providers, with whom I will most likely get better treatment than I would with a community mental health agency. If you fight for your dignity and your freedom, you have a much better chance of getting those things than if you don't fight for them.
I'm beginning the same process of pursuing the goal of being treated decently at the shelter where I'm staying.
I learned some of what the process involves from mistakes I made in the past in ignoring or underestimating how malicious some people can be for no reason.
A new "Scream" movie is going to be released in theaters soon. I expect that the movie will be full of hateful, disrespectful jokes about me, based on reports that former neighbors of mine must have made to the media or to somebody in the entertainment industry last year.
When I was 31, I thought to myself "I've never been loud during orgasm. I'm over 30 now; I'll try it and see how I feel about it."
It was ok. I didn't notice that it enhanced the experience; at least, for me there was no experience enhancement of any kind. Apparently, it gave some of my new neighbors something to talk about to each other and to the property management company; they never said anything to me about it, not even in a roundabout way so that I could have had a chance to solve the problem, which I would have done immediately if anyone had let me know.
I figured out that I was giving my neighbors more of an earful than they needed when I saw one of them in the hallway and he gave me a very mean smile. I went back to my normal decibel level, and never missed the temporary increase.
The walls were thin in those apartments. I also was the only tenant on that floor who didn't have a heavy, metal seal on the bottom of my front door to keep sound from getting into or out of my apartment. The bottom of my front door didn't touch the floor beneath my front door for several inches all the way across.
I had lived peacefully in that apartment for years before the new people moved in.
Copyright L. Kochman 11:06 a.m.
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April 9, 2011 @ 12:59 p.m.
--The other day, I talked to a retired veteran and I asked him if he thought that military service should be mandatory for everybody after high school. He said that he didn't think that the military was for everyone, but that he thought that everyone should do two years of national service between high school and college, whether it was military service or not. He mentioned Americorps as one example. He said "Think of everything that could be done for the country. People should give back for all that they have just for being citizens here."
--I went to a job fair recently. One of the tables had pamphlets from the state government. I picked up a pamphlet published by the Governor's Commission on Women, which is now the Vermont Commission on Women. Here are some excerpts from the pamphlet called "Sexual Harassment In The Workplace:"
"Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination. Sexual harassment in the workplace involves behavior that may include unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct.
There are two forms of sexual harassment. The first is referred to as quid pro quo ("this for that"). In this type of situation, an employer or a supervisor makes unwanted sexual advances or requires a person to exchange sexual favors for some job benefit (for example, being promoted or hired) or to prevent a negative job-related action (for example, being fired or getting a bad evaluation).
The other form of sexual harassment is referred to as hostile environment. This is when unwanted sexual conduct creates and offensive, uncomfortable, or discriminatory work environment.
To prove a hostile environment case, this type of harassing behavior must be sexual in natoure or directed at only one sex. It must also be frequent or repeated and unwelcome.
Discrimination based on a person's sex may also be considered sexual harassment even if the discrimination is non-sexual in nature. For example, commenting that a person can't do her job because of her sex may be considered sexual harassment.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT IS NOT ABOUT SEX. IT'S ABOUT POWER.
ANY OF THE FOLLOWING MAY BE CONSIDERED SEXUAL HARASSMENT OR MAY BE EVIDENCE OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT:
--Gestures and non-verbal communications such as leering, hooting, sucking, lip-smacking, whistling and animal noises, and sexually explicit gestures
--More subtle sexual activities or communications such as insisting or requesting that workers wear revealing clothes, unwelcome pressure for dates, inappropriate gifts such as lingerie, the use of sexual innuendo, comments about people's bodies or physcial appearance, "accidentally" brushing sexual parts of the body, leaning over and invading a person's space, sexist and insulting graffiti, sexist jokes and cartoons, and displaying pornography or nude or semi-nude pictures in the workplace
--Negative activities designed to make a group unwelcome in the workplace such as sabotaging a person's work, demanding comments such as "Hey, baby, give me a smile," hostile put-downs, exaggerated and mocking "courtesy" and public humiliation
IT'S A FACT: BOTH MEN AND WOMEN MAY BE VICTIMS AND HARASSERS.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM:
Companies lose millions of dollars because of lawsuits and lost productivity every year due to sexual harassment. Victims of sexual harassment report physical and mental health problems and long-term career damage.
IT'S A FACT: SEXUAL HARASSMENT CAN OCCUR IN SITUATIONS WHERE ONE PERSON HAS AUTHORITY OVER ANOTHER, OR BETWEEN PEERS."
It can be extrapoloated from these excerpts that the behavior described constitutes sexual harassment in situations besides work. Also, if you use your job in order to harass others, including customers, clients, patrons or patients, it follows that you are guilty of harassment even if the people whom you harass aren't your employees or co-workers.
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April 9, 2011 @ 1:16 p.m.
It's been difficult for me to understand why anyone in a democratic country such as the U.S. is supposed to be can support the deaths or continued detainment of the prisoners in Iran. It's finally occurred to me that perhaps people who have enjoyed the freedoms and privileges of having been born and lived all of their lives in democratic countries have no idea what it's like to live in a country which is essentially run by a dictator.
Dictators put people in prison for no reason. If those actions meet with scrutiny and criticism by other countries or organizations that are concerned about human rights, the dictators tell lies about why the prisoners are in jail. It has nothing to do with justice. It has nothing to do with anything except a government displaying inordinate power over its citizens, which is exactly the kind of thing that democracy was created to prevent.
Anyone who supports the deaths or continued detainment of the prisoners in Iran whom Amnesty International has said should be let go is supporting human rights violations, and is supporting fascism.
Copyright L. Kochman, April 9, 2011 @ 1:21 p.m.