[at-l] Glad this guy is not a hiker - gun story <WAY OT>

[stephensadams at hotmail.com (Steve Adams)]

Skylander,

Reference your post, dated 9-10-04.

?I have worked with the homeless for many years.  ...  (T)here are homeless 
individuals who have been offered assistance but who refuse that aid.  We 
all choose to be where we are.  If we do not study in school or drop out 
then we do not (I know that there are exceptions) succeed in life.  There 
are those who are  poor because they have not prepared themselves to be 
wealthy.?

I think you?ve incorporated a logical fallacy.  I?ve forgotten the term to 
describe this but I?ll try an imperfect analogy.  You look at a tree and 
notice some tips of the branches are splendid, some average, and some need 
to be pruned so badly you wonder how they became that way.  When you follow 
the tips back, you observe they all lead to the same trunk.  You have 
deduced, in your post, the tips chose their ultimate condition.  We can only 
wonder how they became that way.  We lack knowledge of so many unknown 
variables we can?t deduce their specific results.

If you were only given a view of the trunk and its branches, you would not 
be able to predict the specific different tips which will result.

?We all choose to be where we are.?

This is, of course, true in some sense, but not all.  Some people are 
afforded many more choices than others.

If we do not study in school or drop out then we do not ... succeed in 
life.?

Some arrive with intellectual deficiencies which make study too difficult.  
Others lack sufficient vision to delay their gratification.  They simply get 
what they can, when it?s available.

?(I)f a survey was done among those who have worked for success then it 
would turn out that their efforts toward success were rewarded.?

You have presumed that all ?those who have worked for success? actually 
became ?successful.?  (Let?s set aside artfully re-defining different types 
of success and feelings of success, lest the term becomes unmanageable and 
meaningless.)  I don?t think your conclusion can be applied widely.

I suspect the following is a more accurate statement - - If a survey was 
conducted among those who believe they have succeeded, it would turn out 
their efforts were rewarded.  There are many reasons such a result is 
predictable.  Only one supports your conclusion.

I am not denying some homeless people exist who, for lack of a better term 
are ?worthless,? but I am reluctant to dismiss many of the homeless that 
way.

Let?s not forget, "The Great Communicator" reduced taxes by changing the 
standards for access to mental health providers.  Former beneficiaries, and 
people who would qualify under the former standards, are on the street now.  
Many are unable to cope effectively within our society.  That?s why they 
received treatment.

Do I believe you have every reason to be frustrated?  Absolutely.  And, 
thanks for doing a thankless job.  Resist letting it get you down.

Steve

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