May 28, 2011
--More issues at the shelter
(May 29, 2011-- I took out what I first wrote here yesterday, because I can't know what was really going on. I will say that there's no excuse for abusing someone who is dependent on you, especially when it's your job and stated purpose to help people rather than to harm them. @ 6:45 a.m..)
--The night that I wrote about the minister who's on the board of directors for the shelter yelling "I found the cheese!" there was also a "Marines" hat in the office for the first time. It's on display in the office; it's still there.
I have as much right to be there as anybody else does, and I'm not planning to be driven out by the behavior of the management or board of directors. I leave in the morning when I'm supposed to, and I come back on time. I don't leave my dishes in the sink or on the counter for other people to do. I don't leave my things anywhere in the house. I never leave the bathroom in ruins. I'm actively seeking employment. I never start fights with anyone; the only conflict that ever occurs is when I defend myself from being abused there.
Since I'm not planning to be driven out of the shelter, the continuing abuse of me by the staff means that the staff are encouraging the male residents to continue to abuse me and eventually to attack me, either at the shelter or somewhere outside of the shelter.
There's still a lot of coughing going on by some of the male residents; they seem to be competing with each other for who can be the loudest. This morning, one of them pushed the door to the women's dorm open on his way back into the house after the daily Extra Loud Cough Fest in front of our window. He gave a very unconvincing "sorry" after he did it.
The men aren't even supposed to be in the women's dorm at any time, let alone pushing the door open.
Last week, I moved everything I had in the bureau to the bottom two drawers so that the other woman in the room could have the drawers at the top and in the middle of the bureau. She's pregnant, so bending over isn't the easiest thing for her to do. However, the night that I did that for her, which I did happily and without complaint, she put a bunch of stuffed animals on top of her half of the bureau, and put her stuffed animal fish in front of all of the stuffed animals. All I did was ask her if she'd move the fish, and she said that was ok; then she put a bag of cheese snacks in the same place. My objecting to the cheese snacks was what led to me being out of the house for that night. Her husband told the staff volunteer that I threw the bag of chips at her, which I absolutely didn't do.
She keeps both her large backpack and several pairs of shoes on the floor in front of my two drawers. I have to open my drawers around her stuff.
The room now has two completely empty, other bunkbeds. If she wants her backpack with her at all times, she can move to one of those beds.
I wrote a letter to the assistant director about all of this last week. I've since documented his response, in my last few blog pages on Weebly.
--(May 29, 2011: removal of what I wrote here yesterday
I took out what I wrote here because I had written it soon after it happened, and when I thought about it some more, I wasn't sure that I could say that the guy set his dog on me on purpose. You can't always ascertain people's motives from circumstances.
I will say that it's never happened to me before that a dog has surprised me and lunged at me like that, snarling so that anyone within 100 feet could hear it, and me screaming, with the owner not immediately yelling for the dog and then trying to make sure I was ok. In fact, I've never had a dog act like that toward me before. Vermont is full of dogs, and sometimes they get surprised or surprise others, but then there's always the moment of the owner obviously stopping the dog and then apologizing a lot. That moment didn't happen today, and it took more than a few seconds for the dog to go away. Then they drove away without a word; none of that has ever happened to me before.
I would have edited this section sooner, with the extra note, but when I got back to the shelter, there was a box of Cheese Nips sitting on display on the desk in the office, with the manager sitting right there at the desk. At least one male resident started talking about "trout" as soon as I walked in the door. I figured it was better to stay out of the way until I could get a minute to myself; I didn't want to start arguing with anybody here.
It's difficult for me to understand what can make people be that irresponsible.
@2:17 a.m./2:19 a.m., May 29, 2011)
--Priorities
What the President and the other harassers have done, rather than inspire or help people to improve their lives, is to tell them that all they have to do to be good people involved in a good cause is to abuse women and rape children. Since I object to those things, he and the other big harassers have said that abusing me is an especially virtuous thing to do.
Copyright L. Kochman May 28, 2011 @ 2:17 p.m./additions, edits @ 2:22 p.m.
--More issues at the shelter
(May 29, 2011-- I took out what I first wrote here yesterday, because I can't know what was really going on. I will say that there's no excuse for abusing someone who is dependent on you, especially when it's your job and stated purpose to help people rather than to harm them. @ 6:45 a.m..)
--The night that I wrote about the minister who's on the board of directors for the shelter yelling "I found the cheese!" there was also a "Marines" hat in the office for the first time. It's on display in the office; it's still there.
I have as much right to be there as anybody else does, and I'm not planning to be driven out by the behavior of the management or board of directors. I leave in the morning when I'm supposed to, and I come back on time. I don't leave my dishes in the sink or on the counter for other people to do. I don't leave my things anywhere in the house. I never leave the bathroom in ruins. I'm actively seeking employment. I never start fights with anyone; the only conflict that ever occurs is when I defend myself from being abused there.
Since I'm not planning to be driven out of the shelter, the continuing abuse of me by the staff means that the staff are encouraging the male residents to continue to abuse me and eventually to attack me, either at the shelter or somewhere outside of the shelter.
There's still a lot of coughing going on by some of the male residents; they seem to be competing with each other for who can be the loudest. This morning, one of them pushed the door to the women's dorm open on his way back into the house after the daily Extra Loud Cough Fest in front of our window. He gave a very unconvincing "sorry" after he did it.
The men aren't even supposed to be in the women's dorm at any time, let alone pushing the door open.
Last week, I moved everything I had in the bureau to the bottom two drawers so that the other woman in the room could have the drawers at the top and in the middle of the bureau. She's pregnant, so bending over isn't the easiest thing for her to do. However, the night that I did that for her, which I did happily and without complaint, she put a bunch of stuffed animals on top of her half of the bureau, and put her stuffed animal fish in front of all of the stuffed animals. All I did was ask her if she'd move the fish, and she said that was ok; then she put a bag of cheese snacks in the same place. My objecting to the cheese snacks was what led to me being out of the house for that night. Her husband told the staff volunteer that I threw the bag of chips at her, which I absolutely didn't do.
She keeps both her large backpack and several pairs of shoes on the floor in front of my two drawers. I have to open my drawers around her stuff.
The room now has two completely empty, other bunkbeds. If she wants her backpack with her at all times, she can move to one of those beds.
I wrote a letter to the assistant director about all of this last week. I've since documented his response, in my last few blog pages on Weebly.
--(May 29, 2011: removal of what I wrote here yesterday
I took out what I wrote here because I had written it soon after it happened, and when I thought about it some more, I wasn't sure that I could say that the guy set his dog on me on purpose. You can't always ascertain people's motives from circumstances.
I will say that it's never happened to me before that a dog has surprised me and lunged at me like that, snarling so that anyone within 100 feet could hear it, and me screaming, with the owner not immediately yelling for the dog and then trying to make sure I was ok. In fact, I've never had a dog act like that toward me before. Vermont is full of dogs, and sometimes they get surprised or surprise others, but then there's always the moment of the owner obviously stopping the dog and then apologizing a lot. That moment didn't happen today, and it took more than a few seconds for the dog to go away. Then they drove away without a word; none of that has ever happened to me before.
I would have edited this section sooner, with the extra note, but when I got back to the shelter, there was a box of Cheese Nips sitting on display on the desk in the office, with the manager sitting right there at the desk. At least one male resident started talking about "trout" as soon as I walked in the door. I figured it was better to stay out of the way until I could get a minute to myself; I didn't want to start arguing with anybody here.
It's difficult for me to understand what can make people be that irresponsible.
@2:17 a.m./2:19 a.m., May 29, 2011)
--Priorities
What the President and the other harassers have done, rather than inspire or help people to improve their lives, is to tell them that all they have to do to be good people involved in a good cause is to abuse women and rape children. Since I object to those things, he and the other big harassers have said that abusing me is an especially virtuous thing to do.
Copyright L. Kochman May 28, 2011 @ 2:17 p.m./additions, edits @ 2:22 p.m.