Here is the sad story of Joe Murphy. He used to be a #1 pick in the NHL draft. He made millions playing hockey. These days he is homeless and living on the street. He is also crazier than a shit house rat.
Joe has options. The NHL players association has offered help. There is medical insurance. The writer offers no insight as to financial resources Joe might have. Chances are he pissed all those millions away. However, Joe is so crazy he could have money squirreled away that he has forgotten about or just won’t access.
Joe knows help is available. He rejects it. Living on the street in a drug induced fog is the lifestyle he has adopted. He apparently is happy with his choice.
I am not sure what the object of the story is. Joe didn’t fall through the cracks, he jumped. He is where he wants to be. But, he’s crazy!
Let’s take a trip in the “wayback” machine. Up until the early seventies people like Joe could be institutionalized. Friends and family had the option of convincing a judge that Joe was incapable of caring for himself. Institutionalization probably wasn’t a walk in a park. I suspect it beat eating out of garbage cans, sleeping in flower beds and shitting on the street. But that’s just me.
Liberals decided that the mental health system in place was barbaric. Rather than fix it, they eliminated it. Mental institutions closed and wackos were released wholesale. New wackos never made it into the system because there wasn’t one.
In the next flash of liberal brilliance, it was decided that wackos should be able to determine their own fate. This means that a judge, in a criminal court, could rule that a wacko was not criminally responsible, due to mental disease or defect. Across the hall, a civil court judge could rule the same wacko was perfectly capable of making decisions and even overruling medical decisions regarding his mental health.
It is ironic that the opinion of a Psychiatrist educated at Harvard and licensed by the state carries no more weight than that of a guy that eats out of garbage cans and shits in the street.
Homelessness is not a crisis, it is a lifestyle.
