Mason County Commissioner Jerry Lingle (who has a hearing problem when it comes to listening to constituents) justly criticized the practice of jailing our mentally ill because of the lack of local constructive alternatives. Now saddled by a Prosecutor who sees himself as the Rudy Giuliani of Mason County, the community can ill afford to ignore this bedsore afflicting its backside.
Jerry Lingle has proposed yet another tax increase for local businesses to shoulder, a 1/10% sales tax increase. Expenditures for a study of the proposal passed easily as Commissioner Linda Ring-Erickson nodded her assent.
At first glance, compassion wells up when witnessing the travails of our ailing neighbors. But Wait!…is this tax increase truly advisable in a business environment where ever more local shops are closing their doors forever? Can those remaining shoulder ever increasing tax burdens? Will this simply discourage shopping locally? Will consumers continue to look to the internet and nearby communities as alternatives to a locally induced poor shopping experience? Most importantly of all, does this proposal lend itself to the ongoing abuse and fraud perpetrated by public leaches and welfare queens feigning disability or an incapacity to support themselves? And will this tax cure a single mentally ill patient? Moreover, why should those with one ailment be more entitled to County subsidized health care than another?
If mental illness were a contagious ‘social disease’ (some would argue it is!), then the logic of passing out whatever curative aids are at hand at public expense along with the condoms and flu shots is understandable. Otherwise, why not subsidize all health care necessities for County residents? Is diabetes, cancer, or a heart condition somehow less deserving? It’s not like our jail doesn’t exacerbate or provide inadequate care for those conditions! Judges have one alternative for defendants at their disposal NOW: They can order home detention…the advantage being area businesses/consumers wouldn’t be footing the bill! Mason County doesn’t have the resources to serve as a substitute for Washington State’s failing Basic Health Care plan. If this argument is unpersuasive, then why is Mason General Hospital such a mess?–would you want YOUR loved ones undergoing a critical operation there?? We can’t afford it–so STOP asking!
Planned assaults on mountain peaks, livestock, and mailboxes?
Chinese Visa Application w/Mental Illness as listed disqualifying factor
Visas are required of foreign nationals visiting Shanghai…even those fraudulently receiving Social Security Disability (a program soon to go broke) on the pretext of being mentally so severely afflicted as to preclude gainful employment. So is the Chinese government admitting mentally ill tourists or is the Social Security Disability program a patsy? And why should Mason County go down the same path, enabling this kind of fraud, when even the federal Social Security Disability system and Washington State’s Basic Health Insurance program are collapsing under the weight of applications? The material question is simple enough: Were you lying then?…or are you lying now? When filling out the Social Security Disability application form (and periodic updates), you WANTED them to believe the responses?…just like you wanted the Chinese Consulate/Embassy Visa Officer to believe them?…and for Uncle Sam (when issuing the monthly stipend) to believe you now? And as an expert on such nuances as eligibility for cash benefits under Social Security’s Disability program, our naive elected officials should take a fraudster’s advice on expanding the opportunities for miscreants to defraud the health care/social safety net systems?
Consider The Following
An 8-11-11 article (HEALTH TAX PRESENTATIONS APPROACH by Natalie Johnson) appearing in the Shelton-Mason County Journal contained the following excerpt:
The mason County Dept. of Health announced the formation of a community task force to determine whether the county should adopt a 1/10% mental health sales tax.
The tax would fund mental health programs in the county.
…
The task force includes citizens from throughout the county, including Commissioner Jerry Lingle, Douglas Sayan, SHAWNIE WHELAN, Tom Davis, Jeannie Gruber, Tom Haugen, Kim Klint, Debra Nielsen, Laura Porter and Patti Sells.
Given that Shawnie Whelan/Vedder receives (at 40+ years of age) lifetime SS Disability payments supposedly because she is so mentally ill (schizo-affective disorder) that she can’t possibly find gainful employment, work, or support herself, isn’t selecting her to serve on an advisory committee a bit like turning the asylum over to the inmates? Moreover, this self serving posture is a transparently obnoxious fraud! Anyone who is even faintly acquainted with Ms. Vedder/Whelan KNOWS she is a local homeowner, w/over ~$4,000+ in savings, capable married mother raising 2 minor children who engages in photojournalism, community activism, perennial TESC classes, vacations in Shanghai, multiple legal actions as a pro se litigant, carefully planned assaults on mountain peaks as well as (strongly suspected) livestock and at least one mailbox (pictures & circumstances can be found on this site). She purchases expensive camera gear for herself and daughter, 4×4 vehicles for her mountain treks, tickets for foreign vacations, a home in the local community, and college classes in photograpy, etc. for herself. Is this an example of the kind of *NEED* demanding a 1/10% sales tax increase on all Mason County businesses/consumers?
Why would the community or local businesses want to ante up for those who engaged in this kind of waste, fraud, & abuse (including due process, perjured testimony)? The Social Security system is already on the Congressional chopping block due, at least in part, to massive instances of waste, fraud, and abuse which no entitlement system can long endure. Now Mason County wants to follow down the same path?
One silver thread, as a public safety and compassion issue, in this dark cloud might consist of using the information gained through the program by law enforcement to ensure the mentally ill (e.g. Ms. Vedder) do NOT possess firearms! The severely mentally ill should not possess firearms, serve on juries, or be giving advice to our elected officials. If the severity of their mental illness warrants lifetime disability payments because their judgment is so impaired they can’t be expected to do so much as wash cars/dishes or flip burgers, then they’re too impaired to be counseling elected officials. The fact at least one has been selected to do so calls into question whether Mr. Jerry Lingle, or whoever accepted her for the advisory committee, is out of touch with what goes on in this community.
If we can’t keep the inmates in the asylum, we should at least object to their running it! Ms. Vedder can’t have it both ways: Either she’s too mentally ill to work and have her judgment trusted, OR her judgment and abilities are credible, hence she’s as able to work as the next poor schmuck who struggles to pay their taxes and keep the lights on. i.e. Was she lying to the Social Security administration by feigning disability so severe to prevent gainful employment due to impaired judgment associated with schizo-affective disorder, or is she lying to officials/sponsors/judges NOW by pretending to be rational, capable, competent, coherent, and credible? Failing a finding of such credibility, why should the business community support a proposal orchestrated by such scofflaws?
Officer Krupke [Lingle], you’re really a square;
These kooks don’t need a judge, they needs an analyst’s care!
It’s just their neurosis that oughta be curbed.
They’re psychologic’ly disturbed!
ACTION
We’re disturbed!
KOOKS:
We’re disturbed, we’re disturbed,
We’re the most disturbed,
Like we’re psychologic’ly disturbed.
DIESEL: (Spoken, as Judge) In the opinion on this court, this kook is depraved on account she ain’t had a normal home.
ACTION: (Spoken) Hey, I’m depraved on account I’m deprived.
DIESEL: So take her to a headshrinker.
ACTION (Sings)
My father is a bastard,
My ma’s an S.O.B.
My grandpa’s always plastered,
My grandma pushes tea.
My sister wears a mustache,
My brother wears a dress.
Goodness gracious, that’s why I’m a mess!
A-RAB: (As Psychiatrist) Yes!
Officer Krupke, you’re really a slob.
This girl don’t need a doctor, just a good honest job.
Society’s played her a terrible trick,
And sociologic’ly she’s sick!
ACTION
I am sick!
ALL
We are sick, we are sick,
We are sick, sick, sick,
Like we’re sociologically sick!
A-RAB: In my opinion, this kook don’t need to have her head shrunk at all. Juvenile/Adult delinquency is purely a social disease!
ACTION: Hey, I got a social disease!
A-RAB: So take her to a social worker!
ACTION
Dear kindly social worker,
They say go earn a buck.
Like be a soda jerker,
Which means like be a schmuck.
It’s not I’m anti-social,
I’m only anti-work.
Gloryosky! That’s why I’m berserk!
BABY JOHN: (As Female Social Worker)
Eek!
Officer Krupke, you’ve done it again.
This woman don’t need a job, she needs a year in the pen.
It ain’t just a question of misunderstood;
Deep down inside her, she’s no good!
ACTION
I’m no good!
ALL
We’re no good, we’re no good!
We’re no earthly good,
Like the best of us is no damn good!
DIESEL (As Judge)
The trouble is she’s crazy.
Officer Krupke [Lingle], you’ve done it again…these kooks don’t need a job…they BELONG IN THE PEN!” –w/apologies to West Side Story–
Perhaps the extent/seriousness of the harm done to the community by welfare and Social Security Disability cheats who feel entitled to steal scarce tax dollars they don’t deserve (or need) because they have the capacity to work can best be summed up in the words of Duanne Morton of Shelton who wrote a letter to the editor of The Journal published on 8-25-11. It reads as follows:
OUT OF WORK and NEED HELP
I am 46 years old. I have lived and worked on my own since I was 16 years old. I was taught at an early age what it was like to work. I was a logger for seven years and an auto mechanic for 10 years. I recently lost my job and am looking hard for another one with no success yet. I have had no income whatsoever for three months now. I know when you quit or lose your job you have to wait five weeks to get anything. I have no problem with that, but three months? My mother has been making my car and insurance payment and paying for my gas so that I can look for work.
I recently went to the emergency room because I have back pain and it was the only way I could get looked at. That’s what they did, was look at me, and wrote a prescription for pain and tell me I need to see a doctor. I have no insurance, let alone money, so I went to DSHS to see if I could get some medical to have my back checked. I was told that because I was physically able to work they couldn’t help me.
Unemployment won’t give me my unemployment. I have nothing but my mother and I shouldn’t have to depend on her after thirty years. She has her own bills and used to live alone, but she’s all I have. I cannot get help from anybody.
People on welfare live all around me and they live better than most people that work. I don’t understand. Please help. –Duanne Morton, Shelton–
Well, Duanne, I certainly grasp how you feel, and you’re right. People (like the mentally ill woman on SS Disability, but ABLE to work, described in the above article) ARE living better than you–even vacationing in Shanghai, taking photography & art classes at TESC every quarter, purchasing expensive camera gear for herself and daughters, buying a house and 4×4 jeeps to haul herself w/camping gear to mountain trail heads where her many assaults on mountain peaks are launched. So what to do?…follow suit: Act crazy! If you can convince a head doctor you’re loopy (possibly driving backwards around their clinic like the woman referenced) you may be rewarded with lifetime disability payments at taxpayer expense (SS Disability) with no requirement to work at all while you plan your next trip abroad. In America, everybody cheats to the best of their ability. Hey!…is this a great country or what??