June 3, 2011
--Libya
People get elected to Congress, and it seems to me that if the House has passed a resolution to "scold" President Obama about Libya, it's so that the Reps. can say "Look, voters, I'm against WAR. President Obama is pro-war; he won the Nobel Peace Prize and everything, and look at him putting American tax dollars, soldiers and machinery into a war that's none of our business."
Also; how strongly did the White House "object" to that vote? Really; the White House isn't looking for a way out of supporting democratization processes in other countries that will allow the White House to blame "The Republicans" in situations such as "The Republican-controlled House" for abandoning the process and giving more of the burden to other countries that aren't as powerful as the United States and that are trying to help establish democracy in places that obviously want it?
--Most people don't like child molesters
I noticed that the harassment of me that was being conducted in person got immediately worse, more ferocious with more incidents, during the weeks when people might have thought that I was in support of pedophilia. I didn't know what was causing the increase, but I did notice that as soon as I realized that I had made confusing statements due to lack of information and started clarifying my thoughts on the pedophilia issue, the harassment went back to what are now I guess normal levels, or less.
Although I can hardly appreciate the form that the harassment took, it was heartening in its own way to get a confirmation of the fact that most people REALLY don't like child molesters.
--One of the reasons that I make as many errors as I do
I really hate dealing with these issues. For example, I hate looking at the pictures and articles and other publications and situations that are in support of pedophilia. I hate thinking about it and I hate writing about it. I find the fact that there are people who support those things infuriating, depressing and horrifying. I only pay attention to it and write about it because I think that I should, because I think that those things are bad and that exposing them is one way to help end them.
For me to skip details and not be as thorough as I should be is counterproductive to the goal of having the situation end; it's an emotional response that I don't have under control. There are more things that I'd rather be doing with my time than I could possibly even think of in one day.
--A reason for why things are as bad as they are
It seems to me that one of the reasons that the United States now has an overtly criminal government is that decades have passed during which the majority of Americans hasn't paid any attention to politics or to the decisions that get made for us by the people whom we elect. I certainly fall into that category; I never paid attention to politics until last year, when I was all of a sudden in the middle of it via my tussle with some of the entertainment and media industry.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--The pedophilia-oriented window of the Rite Aid in Montpelier also has a cartoon-type poster of a black boy pouring a bucket of water over a white girl's head.
--The local TJ Maxx has a somewhat graphic, pro-pedophilia display which is unavoidably visible to anyone who walks through the front door. It's graphic given the symbols that have been used for the issue by the pro-pedophilia people, and in some instances it's actually graphic or at least very suggestive.
@4:14 p.m.
--Vermont State Government supports harassment/executions in Iran
Yesterday, I took a look at a Sunoco station's signs. Sunoco is the official fuel of Nascar.
On the gas pumps, there are signs that say "Pickups Rock. They Also Roll. Buckle Up! Arrive Alive. Click it or ticket. Vermont Governor's Highway Safety." There'a picture of a red truck that's been in a crash; it's upside down with its windows broken.
At the bottom of the tall sign that displays the prices for gas, there was a banner that said "Free Fuel 5,000," with "Free Fuel" in yellow and the "5,000" in red. There's a picture (not a photograph, but not a cartoon) of a red convertible with a man driving and a woman in the passenger seat. The words below the convertible say "GET THE DECAL. GET SPOTTED. WIN."
As I was standing by the sign taking notes, a guy with a Sunoco hat on walked out of the store and pushed the "Free Fuel" sign back up the pole so that it would be more visible from the street.
There was also a sign on the same pole that said "Fuel Advantage Accepted Here. Price Chopper."
In front of one of the gas pumps, there was another "Fuel Advantage" sign with a picture (photo) of a guy next to the caption "How Low Can You Go?"
In light of everything that's happened over the past year, it seemed a pertinent question. How much worse can things get?
This is all I have time to write for now.
Copyright L. Kochman June 3, 2011 @5:05 p.m.
--More safety/disrespect issues at the shelter
When I got back to the shelter yesterday, the same two guys were the same problem. One of them, who frequently wears a "Muck Boot" long-sleeved t-shirt and who also was the one who wore the "Fishing" shirt the day after I wrote about how I didn't want to be provoked into hitting anyone, stood right behind me and said loudly to the other men "They had a girl on the team."
Maybe a half hour later, he was in the kitchen with the same minister who's on the board of directors who had said "I found the cheese" that I had documented some days ago. The male resident told the guy "I cleaned up mud today."
Later that night, when I was taking a shower in the upstairs bathroom, I heard loud, repetitive, male coughing outside the bathroom door. When I left the bathroom about 20 minutes later, the same guy was sitting in the chair that's just off to the side of the bathroom.
This morning, the same guy was the first person I saw when I walked into the Department of Labor. He was sitting on the steps inside the building, talking on his cellphone.
The other male resident was still carrying the "NAVY" bag yesterday, and also wearing an "Old Navy" shirt.
Tonight, as soon as I got back to the shelter, the assistant director walked right into the office where I was just outside the door and made a comment to the people in the office about something "getting lost in the mud."
It's sickening; it's absolutely sickening how disrespectful and irresponsible the people who run this place are. They really want to encourage men who live here to harass and/or attack me?
The male resident is also wearing his "Muck Boot" shirt tonight.
@ 7:54 p.m.
--More about my grocery store purchases of the other day
I feel as if maybe I need to explain more why what the Price Chopper did was bad when the store stopped stocking the brand of carrots I'd been buying.
There are displays all over that store that are trying to
(same Muck Boot Guy just came in behind me and is coughing repeatedly. He's been so encouraged by staff here, in addition to the big harassers; why wouldn't he think he should do that?)
There are displays all over the Price Chopper which are meant to indicate that I'm a slut.
The Price Chopper stopped stocking the brand of carrot that I was buying, obviously having tracked my purchases and made stocking decisions based on that; that in and of itself is completely unethical.
Nobody should be tracking my food stamps purchases; nobody. However, under the circumstances, I was buying the lesser of two evils out of the 2 brands of ready-to-eat, bagged carrots that were available in the store.
The only brand of ready-to-eat carrots left to me once the Price Chopper had stopped stocking the brand I had been buying was a brand that would send an instant and untrue message to everyone tracking my food stamps purchases that I was interested in someone whom I've rejected over and over again.
I've noticed that when I look as if I might change my mind about someone, I get called a slut by all the harassers. I'm never going to change my mind about that guy, and yet what the Price Chopper did with its stocking decision gave me only two choices:
1) Not buy ready-to-eat carrots to go with my hummus and in doing so let the Price Chopper defeat me.
2) Buy the carrots and send a message which I didn't want to send and for which all of the big harassers will harass me.
For anyone who doesn't often eat hummus; a lot of people eat hummus with carrots. In fact, the Price Chopper had at first stocked both brands of carrots on shelves right next to the hummus.
I walk to the store; that's a couple of miles there and a couple of miles back. I don't mind walking; except for harassing signs by some of the businesses and the occasional unpleasant moment when men slow or stop their cars near me or talk to me out of their windows when I'm walking, I like walking. However, whether or not I walk there, I don't want to be abused by the supermarket.
I decided to buy the carrots and to immediately go to the payphone outside of the Price Chopper and leave a voicemail for the New York Times, telling the newspaper what happened. I was really angry when I left that message, but I think that the many points of unfairness, invasiveness and oppression that I described in what had just happened should have been discernible to the newspaper.
One of the reasons I called the NYT that morning was because I knew that I wouldn't be able to get to the Internet in any way until the end of the day. I didn't think that at least telling someone who could get the message across in some form about why I'd made the purchase could wait until the end of the day for my discussion.
The New York Times responded by putting a story called something like "Attack of the Jellyfish" on its front page the next day.
When I saw that, I called them again yesterday and tried again to explain to them that they shouldn't be encouraging human rights abuses, that the oppression of women isn't going to end with women being oppressed but will lead also to an increase in men trying to oppress and dominate each other, and that the fact that my food stamps are being tracked and often publicized with no regard for my privacy was a serious problem and something that shouldn't be happening in a democracy.
I tried to remind the NYT that the media is supposed to serve the public; the purpose of the media is to tell people what's going on, not to oppress them.
The next day, again on its front page, the NYT turned the issue into a personal vendetta between the same guy and me. I had never asked for anyone to turn anything about that man into a personal vendetta, even during the months when I first got out of the hospital and the NYT were mocking him. I will never be interested in him, ever, but my anger about what happened at the Price Chopper wasn't personal to him. It had to do with the Price Chopper forcing me into a situation in which either I had to disrupt what was becoming a healthy food habit for me or send a false message to someone, and no matter what I did, the Price Chopper's "Wet Floor" signs all around a completely dry store and prominent paper towel displays and other harassing displays are still broadcasting the "Lena is a slut message" to everyone who walks into the store.
How is anything that happened at the Price Chopper, or the response of the New York Times to my attempts to protest it, anything but unfair, cruel and wrong?
@8:20 p.m.
--Yet more issues at the Price Chopper
During that same shopping trip, I bought a box of Rice Chex cereal without looking at the back of the package. When I got back to the shelter and looked at the package, I saw that it said "Live in the YES!" on the back in red letters, next to a picture of a little girl and above a picture of honey.
--Libya
People get elected to Congress, and it seems to me that if the House has passed a resolution to "scold" President Obama about Libya, it's so that the Reps. can say "Look, voters, I'm against WAR. President Obama is pro-war; he won the Nobel Peace Prize and everything, and look at him putting American tax dollars, soldiers and machinery into a war that's none of our business."
Also; how strongly did the White House "object" to that vote? Really; the White House isn't looking for a way out of supporting democratization processes in other countries that will allow the White House to blame "The Republicans" in situations such as "The Republican-controlled House" for abandoning the process and giving more of the burden to other countries that aren't as powerful as the United States and that are trying to help establish democracy in places that obviously want it?
--Most people don't like child molesters
I noticed that the harassment of me that was being conducted in person got immediately worse, more ferocious with more incidents, during the weeks when people might have thought that I was in support of pedophilia. I didn't know what was causing the increase, but I did notice that as soon as I realized that I had made confusing statements due to lack of information and started clarifying my thoughts on the pedophilia issue, the harassment went back to what are now I guess normal levels, or less.
Although I can hardly appreciate the form that the harassment took, it was heartening in its own way to get a confirmation of the fact that most people REALLY don't like child molesters.
--One of the reasons that I make as many errors as I do
I really hate dealing with these issues. For example, I hate looking at the pictures and articles and other publications and situations that are in support of pedophilia. I hate thinking about it and I hate writing about it. I find the fact that there are people who support those things infuriating, depressing and horrifying. I only pay attention to it and write about it because I think that I should, because I think that those things are bad and that exposing them is one way to help end them.
For me to skip details and not be as thorough as I should be is counterproductive to the goal of having the situation end; it's an emotional response that I don't have under control. There are more things that I'd rather be doing with my time than I could possibly even think of in one day.
--A reason for why things are as bad as they are
It seems to me that one of the reasons that the United States now has an overtly criminal government is that decades have passed during which the majority of Americans hasn't paid any attention to politics or to the decisions that get made for us by the people whom we elect. I certainly fall into that category; I never paid attention to politics until last year, when I was all of a sudden in the middle of it via my tussle with some of the entertainment and media industry.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--The pedophilia-oriented window of the Rite Aid in Montpelier also has a cartoon-type poster of a black boy pouring a bucket of water over a white girl's head.
--The local TJ Maxx has a somewhat graphic, pro-pedophilia display which is unavoidably visible to anyone who walks through the front door. It's graphic given the symbols that have been used for the issue by the pro-pedophilia people, and in some instances it's actually graphic or at least very suggestive.
@4:14 p.m.
--Vermont State Government supports harassment/executions in Iran
Yesterday, I took a look at a Sunoco station's signs. Sunoco is the official fuel of Nascar.
On the gas pumps, there are signs that say "Pickups Rock. They Also Roll. Buckle Up! Arrive Alive. Click it or ticket. Vermont Governor's Highway Safety." There'a picture of a red truck that's been in a crash; it's upside down with its windows broken.
At the bottom of the tall sign that displays the prices for gas, there was a banner that said "Free Fuel 5,000," with "Free Fuel" in yellow and the "5,000" in red. There's a picture (not a photograph, but not a cartoon) of a red convertible with a man driving and a woman in the passenger seat. The words below the convertible say "GET THE DECAL. GET SPOTTED. WIN."
As I was standing by the sign taking notes, a guy with a Sunoco hat on walked out of the store and pushed the "Free Fuel" sign back up the pole so that it would be more visible from the street.
There was also a sign on the same pole that said "Fuel Advantage Accepted Here. Price Chopper."
In front of one of the gas pumps, there was another "Fuel Advantage" sign with a picture (photo) of a guy next to the caption "How Low Can You Go?"
In light of everything that's happened over the past year, it seemed a pertinent question. How much worse can things get?
This is all I have time to write for now.
Copyright L. Kochman June 3, 2011 @5:05 p.m.
--More safety/disrespect issues at the shelter
When I got back to the shelter yesterday, the same two guys were the same problem. One of them, who frequently wears a "Muck Boot" long-sleeved t-shirt and who also was the one who wore the "Fishing" shirt the day after I wrote about how I didn't want to be provoked into hitting anyone, stood right behind me and said loudly to the other men "They had a girl on the team."
Maybe a half hour later, he was in the kitchen with the same minister who's on the board of directors who had said "I found the cheese" that I had documented some days ago. The male resident told the guy "I cleaned up mud today."
Later that night, when I was taking a shower in the upstairs bathroom, I heard loud, repetitive, male coughing outside the bathroom door. When I left the bathroom about 20 minutes later, the same guy was sitting in the chair that's just off to the side of the bathroom.
This morning, the same guy was the first person I saw when I walked into the Department of Labor. He was sitting on the steps inside the building, talking on his cellphone.
The other male resident was still carrying the "NAVY" bag yesterday, and also wearing an "Old Navy" shirt.
Tonight, as soon as I got back to the shelter, the assistant director walked right into the office where I was just outside the door and made a comment to the people in the office about something "getting lost in the mud."
It's sickening; it's absolutely sickening how disrespectful and irresponsible the people who run this place are. They really want to encourage men who live here to harass and/or attack me?
The male resident is also wearing his "Muck Boot" shirt tonight.
@ 7:54 p.m.
--More about my grocery store purchases of the other day
I feel as if maybe I need to explain more why what the Price Chopper did was bad when the store stopped stocking the brand of carrots I'd been buying.
There are displays all over that store that are trying to
(same Muck Boot Guy just came in behind me and is coughing repeatedly. He's been so encouraged by staff here, in addition to the big harassers; why wouldn't he think he should do that?)
There are displays all over the Price Chopper which are meant to indicate that I'm a slut.
The Price Chopper stopped stocking the brand of carrot that I was buying, obviously having tracked my purchases and made stocking decisions based on that; that in and of itself is completely unethical.
Nobody should be tracking my food stamps purchases; nobody. However, under the circumstances, I was buying the lesser of two evils out of the 2 brands of ready-to-eat, bagged carrots that were available in the store.
The only brand of ready-to-eat carrots left to me once the Price Chopper had stopped stocking the brand I had been buying was a brand that would send an instant and untrue message to everyone tracking my food stamps purchases that I was interested in someone whom I've rejected over and over again.
I've noticed that when I look as if I might change my mind about someone, I get called a slut by all the harassers. I'm never going to change my mind about that guy, and yet what the Price Chopper did with its stocking decision gave me only two choices:
1) Not buy ready-to-eat carrots to go with my hummus and in doing so let the Price Chopper defeat me.
2) Buy the carrots and send a message which I didn't want to send and for which all of the big harassers will harass me.
For anyone who doesn't often eat hummus; a lot of people eat hummus with carrots. In fact, the Price Chopper had at first stocked both brands of carrots on shelves right next to the hummus.
I walk to the store; that's a couple of miles there and a couple of miles back. I don't mind walking; except for harassing signs by some of the businesses and the occasional unpleasant moment when men slow or stop their cars near me or talk to me out of their windows when I'm walking, I like walking. However, whether or not I walk there, I don't want to be abused by the supermarket.
I decided to buy the carrots and to immediately go to the payphone outside of the Price Chopper and leave a voicemail for the New York Times, telling the newspaper what happened. I was really angry when I left that message, but I think that the many points of unfairness, invasiveness and oppression that I described in what had just happened should have been discernible to the newspaper.
One of the reasons I called the NYT that morning was because I knew that I wouldn't be able to get to the Internet in any way until the end of the day. I didn't think that at least telling someone who could get the message across in some form about why I'd made the purchase could wait until the end of the day for my discussion.
The New York Times responded by putting a story called something like "Attack of the Jellyfish" on its front page the next day.
When I saw that, I called them again yesterday and tried again to explain to them that they shouldn't be encouraging human rights abuses, that the oppression of women isn't going to end with women being oppressed but will lead also to an increase in men trying to oppress and dominate each other, and that the fact that my food stamps are being tracked and often publicized with no regard for my privacy was a serious problem and something that shouldn't be happening in a democracy.
I tried to remind the NYT that the media is supposed to serve the public; the purpose of the media is to tell people what's going on, not to oppress them.
The next day, again on its front page, the NYT turned the issue into a personal vendetta between the same guy and me. I had never asked for anyone to turn anything about that man into a personal vendetta, even during the months when I first got out of the hospital and the NYT were mocking him. I will never be interested in him, ever, but my anger about what happened at the Price Chopper wasn't personal to him. It had to do with the Price Chopper forcing me into a situation in which either I had to disrupt what was becoming a healthy food habit for me or send a false message to someone, and no matter what I did, the Price Chopper's "Wet Floor" signs all around a completely dry store and prominent paper towel displays and other harassing displays are still broadcasting the "Lena is a slut message" to everyone who walks into the store.
How is anything that happened at the Price Chopper, or the response of the New York Times to my attempts to protest it, anything but unfair, cruel and wrong?
@8:20 p.m.
--Yet more issues at the Price Chopper
During that same shopping trip, I bought a box of Rice Chex cereal without looking at the back of the package. When I got back to the shelter and looked at the package, I saw that it said "Live in the YES!" on the back in red letters, next to a picture of a little girl and above a picture of honey.