To this:
"The Shame of the City?
Yes, it all our fault that a former gymnast and high school beauty decided to ruin her life with drugs. Shame on us.
Posted on 01/09/2005 2:27:50 PM PST by nickcarraway
Rita Grant has a new life.
A year ago, the former homecoming queen and gymnastics whiz was shivering through foggy nights on San Francisco sidewalks, panhandling streams of traffic and shooting up with dirty heroin needles on a downtown median dubbed Homeless Island for the dozen or so down-and-outers -- like Rita -- who lived there..
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Which is it?
Ah, but was she an Honor Student?
To this:
"The Shame of the City?
Yes, it all our fault that a former gymnast and high school beauty decided to ruin her life with drugs. Shame on us.
Someone remind me why we're supposed to feel sympathy for people who screw up their own lives, by their own voluntary actions.
Oh, thank goodness, we law-abiding, self-sufficient types are paying for this idiot's stupid choice in life.
Am I supposed to feel bad for this woman? She brought misery upon herself. I love how the article blames everyone else, BUT HER for HER drug use.
She should take responsibility for her own actions. That's an important part of any RECOVERY.
Shame of the city? SHAME on her.
My sympathy goes elsewhere.
Oh, thank goodness, we law-abiding, self-sufficient types are paying for this idiot's stupid choice in life.
I know, I know, but believe you me, it's so much cheaper than having her cycled through the emergency rooms on a regular basis. You should pull up the previous article in the series. Of her fellow panhandlers profiled on "Homeless Island" (a notorious traffic island in SF) she is the only one to have gotten this far. The others did have a few brief reunions with family and clean time, but they all walked away from it. The article did mention Rita was one of several children of an unmarried mother but in the end, no one forces you to get hooked on booze or heroin.
Where in this article did it say this. Did you even read the damn article. She takes full responsibilty for everything in her life. For people who call themselves "CHRISTIANS" some of you are just bastards, and I have no problem saying it.
I'm glad she got her life together for a while. I wouldn't expect her to keep it that way.
She doesn't take responsibililty? Where in this article does it state she doesn't take responsibility? WHERE? I don't know what story you people are reading.
Unlike, maybe Terry Schiavo, who may or may not have taken too many laxatives and diaretics (and yes, that was the diagnosis of her illness). I dare you to fine one person on this board who want to deny her any help to keep her "alive." And the quotes are on purpose. A woman is basically dying and in her dying days she finds redemption in family and friends and all you people do is scorn and mock her. I am appalled and embarrassed for you and hope you never have the pain of caring for a relative with addictions and problems. Shame on all of you.
I didn't read it that way. Seems to me she pretty much blamed herself:
"I started doing drugs because it was the '60s, and everybody was partying. I chose the wrong guys, and never stuck to anything." "I started surfing and hanging out with the beach crowd," Grant said. She was homecoming queen in 1968 of Eau Gallie High School, and popular, but by graduation, "I got into totally the wrong crowd.
She should take responsibility for her own actions. That's an important part of any RECOVERY.
Again, it appears you need to re-read the article.
My sympathy goes elsewhere.
No problem. They are your sympathies and may go wherever they feel. Just pray the horrors of addiction is never visited on someone you care about. Drug addiction is not isolated to the "blue" regions like SanFran or to only liberals. There are plenty of righteous conservatives on this forum who have dealt (or are still dealing) with the ravages of addiction.
>>we take care of them because God wants us to. But if your not into God, try its the right thing to do and never shit on a fellow human. Do you understand that?<<
Saddam appreciates your line of thinking. How about helping those who are worth helping so you don't waste your resources on garbage?
I agree. We are commanded to love one another.
I have a relative just like her. She is forty years old, looks sixty-five years old with no teeth, and acts like she is fifteen. I have lost count of the times she has been rescued, rehabilitated, gotten religion, and turned her life around. She is currently on probation in two or three states. She always ends up going back to the drugs and abusive men.
BINGO.
"I mean, how can you care about yourself when you're convinced nobody else really gives a damn about you?
TRANSLATION: No body loves me anymore so I'm off to shoot the needles.
"Tommy was so sweet, and I was in love with him because he was always there for me," Grant said. "But everything was about drugs -- getting them, using them, wanting them."
BREAKDOWN: She was emotionally dependent on a druggie. But it's not her fault because he was so nice to her.
The only people in this story who are worth feeling sorry for are the poor children she abandoned to do drugs.
However, I'm so pleased that you have a perfect life, where nobody makes mistakes, falls for the wrong people and has character flaws that take them down bad roads. It must be nice and then so easy for you to look down on others.
"I came here as a slave?"
When did and where did Sheila (The bee bun, camera hog)
say that?
I can't stand that two faced, useless women!
God must really hate Houston, for us, to have her here!
She had 5 kids that she went and left to shoot needles. MY god, I feel bad for her children. I would say what she did was selfish.
I understand that people make mistakes, but leaving 3 of your young children to get a high should not be one of them.
Just damn...
Oh great. My daughter lives a few blocks from there.
*BUMP*!
Of course it was wrong. Who's saying it isn't? You don't get it and you never will. Goodbye.
Dunno if it would help, but she should go around the country as a professional speaker for what happens to you when you do the bad things in life. She might help herself out the hole she's in and do some young adults good besides.
but she should go around the country as a professional speaker for what happens to you when you do the bad things in life.
Not sure she would be an impressive "poster girl" for this task.
No, I don't think that YOU get it.
CLUE! Kids cost money. Don't spread your legs if you cannot afford a kid. Michael Jackson had this much right: "if you can't feed da baby, den don't have de baby!"
Throw drugs in on top of that, and yes, you have homelessness.
Er, explain to my why Christians are supposed to encourage people to do heroin by giving them more money. Jesus taught the scribes and pharisees with "tough love," even kicking their butts physically when He had to. Maybe this woman needed some Christian "tough love" along the way---and maybe she needed to QUIT HAVING KIDS.
I think if you had side by side pictures on a widescreen (or handed out to the kids) of who she was vs. who she became, a few kids might wake up to it.
I know highschoolers think they're immune to everything and that homelessness and wasting away by you're 40 won't happen to them. And I've heard that programs like "Scared Straight" don't work. But I don't see how trying hurts and it can only help.
Mybe I missed it in the article, but didn't she have the kids while she was married?
Either way, to do drugs when kids are involved is irresponsible.
As soon as I read this, I lost interest in this article.
Yes, it is irresponsible. I think the lady in the article realizes that. Like Hildy said, "she's just telling her story". It's great that she has started to turn her life around.
She mentioned that she plans on going to school and becoming a nutritionist. Hopefully she'll be able to do without public assistance soon.
I'd much rather assist her in recovery than keep shoving her cash while she shoves it in her arm (...and I know there are hundreds out there doing just that).
There, but for the Grace of God, go I.
I hardly call that taking full responsibility for anything.
You called?
I have neither the wish, or the power, to "deny" anyone help...so long as this person is not doing it with my money which I am forced, by the government, to give..
There is "genuine charity", which is voluntary. And there is "compulsive charity", which is socialism.
(P.S. And why is the word "alive" in quotes? Is it b/c while she physically exists she is no longer "alive" in the human sense?)
So when Terri Schiavo's money runs out, they should starve her?
Oh, of that I have no doubt. But food for thought: When have you (or I or anyone) has told "our story" to someone else and never slanted it in our favor? Even just a wee bit? And when is the last time you (or I or anyone) has told "our story" and not modified it -- even just a wee bit -- to meet the unspoken expectations of the listener?
You are comparing apples to oranges.
Well, she did choose to marry the guy... who's paying for the result of that decision?
I always figured it was my business to look after myself -- I never counted on "society" "caring" for me as I made one stupid decision after another. I found it very easy to care for myself, especially when I was in hostile situations where people wanted me to fail. I learned at an early age that life does not give you many chances for mistakes. I don't know why some people are so needy -- they "need" drugs, they "need" false friends who will only get them into trouble. I don't understand people who gravitate to things that are clearly not in their survival interest. I have thought that nature "wired" them wrong, and on that account I should feel sorry for them. But I still don't understand what drives some people to create all sorts of trouble for themselves.
I like the people who say "I dont mind assisting her get her life together." Well, I dont mind you assisting her either but I dont want to help her so id prefer my tax dollars not be wasted on her. She is a waste.
What a wonderful article. I can tell by most of the posts everyone has a definite opinion, but I see the glory of the Lord in this woman. We don't know how much she worked before she was a druggie, but her life wasn't always a pit. She now has a second chance to do something. She has HOPE. Hopefully, her children will forgive her and have a relationship with her before she passes away. These people did the same thing Jesus would have done; forgiven her and helped her. She has value to Him, just as we all do. WE should ALL treat her that way.
She's a waste? She's somebody's mother. And that daughter has taken her in. You're below contempt.
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