Cannot help

 <sigh>

UPDATE: The individual in question below was taken into custody by the Ashburn Police Department on Monday afternoon. Charged with a minor offense. She had a warm place to sleep and food.

Rolled into work a few minutes after 6. Across the street, she was standing, rocking back and forth. She likely slept there in that small, unheated space.

The space holds a kiosk for people to pay their power bill. That's it. No heat, that I know of. Might be heated. May have AC because this is S. Georgia. Summer temps and electronics do not pair well.

She had to be — no she did not. If the owner arrived before she left, she'd get arrested again.

Then she'd have a warm place to stay and food, for at least as long as she stayed in jail. She is a regular at the Iron Bar hotel.

WHAT WAS COMING

Knowing what was coming, I opened the door, stepped in and locked it behind me.

Yep. 30 minutes later, the door rattled. She was trying to get in.

The crew arrived. Left door unlocked.

She came back. Mumbling incoherently. Obviously wanting something, anything. She'd take it and trade it to someone for money to buy lottery tickets, cigarettes and whatever else struck her as necessary at that moment.

In that moment, I remembered why my desk is behind a wall, away from public view, for those times when people come into the building. At least I get a second or so to react, if needed, before they make it around the counter and back to me.

I ain't paranoid. I have proof. Tangible proof. Come by. I'll show you the bullet holes.

Anyway, the door was locked after she left. She came back a few moments ago. Door still locked.

A LIFE OF FREEDOM

A brief story -

Yakutsk, Russia, is supposed to be one of the coldest cities on earth. Temps regularly hit -50 C. If you wanna believe Google, that's -58 F. You can freeze to death quite quickly.

Yakutsk has homeless people. One gent there has lived homeless there for 20 years. He does not want a home. He prefers his life of ultimate freedom. Wow.

Yes, it is freedom. No taxes, no job, no expectations.

She has the same freedom. She refuses to cooperate with people who try to help. People have gotten her an apartment, a room, etc. Never stays long. Either leaves or gets kicked out. The kicking is far more likely.

MENTAL HEALTH

She probably has mental health issues. I cannot state this for certain. Other people have told me she does.

I hear people yelling, "We need to do more for people with mental health issues."

How? What? When? Where? People like her refuse any and all help. Will. Not. Take. It. Handouts of cash, drugs, food, booze, gladly accepted.

Years ago, we dealt with these people by putting them in "mental institutions." That is now cruel and inhumane. Sometimes, I agree. Sometimes, I disagree. Some people need to be removed from the public.

Is she one? I am not sure. As best I know, she's never harmed anyone. She has yelled at people, including me. Could she harm someone? Sure. We all have that potential.

Potential is not reality. If we lock up people because "they might," then we should all be behind bars.

Anyway, how can you help someone who just walks away every time?

SHE BE SWINGING

She can be rational. She can be as irrational as a toddler denied a cookie. There is no telling who you'll get when you encounter her. Those swings are massive.

According to her, I am either her pastor, a racist, a handout provider or something else found within her personal universe.

Yeah.

I do my best to avoid her, as I did this morning. No good comes of the times we interact.

CANNOT HELP

I cannot help. I do not know how to help.

I am not sure I want to know how to help. It may take too much. It may take something I am not willing to give.

At least for a while, I am pretty much a prisoner in my office. I can leave, maybe. Walk, yes. Drive? No. If I get into the truck, I am genuinely concerned she will stand behind it so I cannot back out. If she does that, then the local constabulary has to be called in. I do not want to do that, even though it means she'd have food and a place at least for a few days.

I am at a loss.

If you have suggestions, I'm listening.

Rose colored glasses

This one is gonna offend a LOT more people than usual. A very few won't be offended. Very. Few.

This is a-poke-you-in-the-eye-with-a-sharp-stick rant. We are slaying sacred cows. We are taking the meat and burning it away on piles of rainforest timber.

On with the show, eh?

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

Ooooh. Big word. Fancy word. Try another - delusional. Again? Homo non clara mente cogitare.

Bah. Make this simple.

Human. 

We - that is you, me, that guy who just ducked around the corner so you won't see him staring at you and everyone you know - we are all afflicted with this disorder to some degree or another.

We mentally ingest what we want and consign the rest to a hazardous-waste dump.

A very rare, very few people can overcome this. History has a handful of examples. None of 'em appear in this rambling.

GET TO THE POINT ALREADY

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here's yer point -

We have what we asked for. Well, you did and do. That we don't like it, see the Cognitive Dissonance above. "We" because I got hauled into the mess you made against my will.

What did we (most of you) ask for? 

More government.

What did we (all of us) get? More government.

Me and very, very, very, very few others wanted and tried for something different. We actually tried to get less government, but our voices were shut down, drowned out and crushed beneath the weight and power of what the rest of you demanded.

Mind you, this tiny peer group and I are not excluded from the Cognitive Dissonance. It rages within us. We too idealize a utopia and believe it can happen.

<sigh> It can't. It won't. Keep reading.

NO!

I hear your screams. You did not ask for more government.

Yeah, you did. If you voted, you asked for more government, more than 99% of you voted for more anyway. If you did not vote, you definitely asked for more government. You are part of that 99%.

And, you got it. Jesus, Harold and Joseph, you got it and slammed it down on everyone!

The joy I find in this debacle is that you are in the same grinder as the rest of us. A bunch of you will not admit that. Of course, a bunch of you will insist nothing is wrong while being dissolved in the belly of a sarlac.

LEFT

The left - you have loudly demanded more government as if government will magically (government is magic, or rather sleight of hand) cure all the ills facing us. 

Ooooh, yes you have. The left in this country has ballooned government in lock-step with the right. Look at the voting records. Look at how spending has increased.

A very close friend of mine, call him Mua'Dib, is so vocal about more government, it is one of 3-4 things he talks about. The others are irrelevant.

I have tilted at his windmills for too long. I have told him when you ask for more government, you will get it and not like it. Prophecy fulfilled. Each time I said this in the past, his reply is "You have to be careful who you vote for."

How's that working out, Usul?

See Get To The Point above.

RIGHT

The right - you have loudly demanded more government as if government will magically (government is magic, or rather sleight of hand) cure all the ills facing us.

The right in this country has ballooned government in lock-step with the left. Look at the voting records. Look at how spending has increased. Who did it?

I have a friend on the far right who swears government is the problem and it must be reduced. Call him Gipper. He can talk about 3-4 things, one being government. The others are irrelevant.

His words do not match his actions because he literally demands more government that will get rid of the problems he sees. I have told him that when you ask for more government, you will get it and not like it. Prophecy fulfilled. Each time I said this in the past, his reply is "You have to be careful who you vote for."

How's that working out, Dutch?

WOOPS!

I just read what I wrote. Apologies. I got them reversed. Mua'Dib is on the right and Gipper is on the left.

Um. No. I had it correct the first time.

No, the second time is the proper placement.

Wudja. Hold on. What? Wait. Is this?

Bah. You figure out which one is which. I have something more to say.

ANARCHY

I have a friend who is a total anarchist. He does not want any laws. Call him Sid.

I point out Somalia is a place where anarchy is the order of the day. (See what I did there?) He says no, Somalia is a failed state.

Mr. Vicious, pray tell what is the difference, I ask.

His mouth moves. Sounds come out. He has created his own language, which he and he alone understands. Through this language, I guess he explains why he is correct and I am a buffoon with less understanding than Mike the famous headless chicken. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken

INTRODUCING THE PROBLEM!

Here is the problem. As Pogo said many decades ago, "We have met the enemy and he is us." Nature abhors a Hoov - er, vacuum. Power does the same. Something is going to fill that void.

People.

Humans will either lead or follow. That very, very few I mentioned earlier are willing to just get out of the way. The leaders and followers will not tolerate that so they hunt down the very, very few and kill them.

Yep. Check human history.

People will NOT leave well enough alone. Gotta tell someone else what to do, when to do it, how to do it, where to do it and the reverse, not do it.

Why? Because the dude with the biggest stick said do it or do not do it. Otherwise, get hit with the stick. Sometimes a group of people will rise up and hit the big stick dude. Then, they start telling people the whats, etc., and whatnots, etc.

Again why? Because they said so. Big stick, remember?

People will NOT follow the rules. Check out my FB page for the posts I call, "People who park like hammerhoids." (That is how I want to spell the word and this is my column.) These people just flat out ignore parking lines and parking spaces.

Some of them would drive through the store if they could get their vehicle down the aisles.

Each time I take a picture, I say, "And you are why we need laws." More & more people are submitting pictures for me to post. Keep it up. Each time I post a submitted picture, I say, "And you (the driver) are why we need laws."

Karl Marx screwed it up. The truth was and is there. His dialectic even calls for a continual rollover and roll over of those in charge. He just put on rose-colored glasses to temper what he wanted to see. 

The truth is, the struggle to rein in government will always be with us.

Why? Because see everything above.

Meanwhile, we have more government.

I hope you are happy because you got what you asked for and it is literally killing us. 

I sure ain't happy about it.

A happy guy

 This morning, 10 Jan. 2026, I rolled outta bed.

"Better check messages. Just in case."

Yep. There it was. Canceled. More than canceled, gone, baby gone.

Cool.

If I had put odds on it the day before, it'd be something like 85-90% exactly what happened. 

She did it before, albeit that other time she was also strung out on 'scripts. This time, sober. At least I think sober. WTH do I know?

"I will not bother you again" were the last words.

Cool. In order to make sure I did not dwell on it, go back to it and etc, I blocked her briefly. Just long enough to erase all the contacts and messages. Then, I unblocked her. Erased the other threads in other places.

Ain't mad. Ain't skeered. Also, ain't got no reason to leave the block in place. She did not engage one of the very few rules that get people blocked. She can contact me again.

85-90% sure she will.

Gonna be a different set of rules when that happens.

And that, luddites and geraniums, will result in another "I will not bother you again" on her part.

Goose said he was sorry. I said no worries. I am a happy guy. Still am. Plan to continue to be.

What happened was a good thing, the best thing in fact.

Mel asked what I was expecting. A discussion about a business decision she was pondering and pizza. Anything else, up to her.

I am a happy guy. If the follow-through occurred, I'd be a happy guy.

Yes, it was expected. I fault no one. It happened. What happened was a good thing, the best thing in fact.

Cool. I am a happy guy.

Going Socratic

 

I have questions. 

I will be attacked for these. Socrates drank hemlock for corrupting the youth of Athens. The vast majority of people do not like having to examine their belief structure. They like it even less when they cannot defend that belief structure.

Ad hominem gets you dropped, block and banned.

You may ask questions. I absolutely WILL answer them to the best of my ability and will back up my answers with facts and evidence, if the question is of that nature. If you ask my opinion, that may or may not require empirical proof.

Where appropriate, I request that you cite your sources. If you do not cite sources, then do not expect much in the way of my answers to your questions. If the question asks your opinion, sources not necessary.

Part 1

Should we charge leaders of other countries with US-specific crimes? Can other countries charge our leaders with their country-specific crimes? If we charge the leaders of other countries with violating US law, who else will be arrested? Vladmir Putin? The midget from N. Korea? Myanmar's leaders? African country leaders? If China decides to come and arrest Trump for violating Chinese law, is this fair?

Part 2

At what point do we as a nation stop controlling what American adults do to themselves? What gives anyone the right to tell an adult he or she may not engage in risky behavior? What else should we ban? How many lives has alcohol ruined v. how many lives has marijuana ruined? What is your acceptable death or ruined life threshold? Do you believe in body autonomy?

Part 3

If we are looking to hold mass killers accountable, when will we hold the US government accountable for the deaths the military has inflicted over the past 20 or so years? What about other countries? Iran, Iraq, Syria? Great Britain? Russia? China?

Part 4

Can you show me anywhere prohibition has actually worked? How did the US experiment with alcohol prohibition work out?

Part 5

"And now the head has been cut off the snake. Let's hope Trump cleans out the cartels for good." Can you show me any place, any time, anywhere in which a power vacuum was not promptly filled? How did the regime change in Afghanistan work?

Part 6

Given the double-talk coming out of Washington, whom should we believe and when? Are we at war with Venezuela or not? Are we there to run the country or not? Are we there to take over the oil fields or not?

Part 7

If we are at war, are you willing to sign up and fight? Are you, if you are a parent, willing to send your children to the fight? If you are not willing to physically join the fight, do you truly support this military effort? If you will not physically fight, how is OK to send someone else to fight?