Submitted by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Last night I had a situation that I found to be quite disappointing. Just after seven o’clock in the evening, I thought I would have dinner at a restaurant on the other side of town and drove over there to dine out. Along the way, I needed to merge onto a major interstate freeway in the metro area having four lanes and busy traffic. As I drove along in the outside lane, it was after dark at the time, I saw a man walking along the hard shoulder of the roadway. I worried that a drunk might veer off the travelled portion and hit him so I pulled over to offer him a ride. Thus began a conversation that really shows how we can often allow people to be put at risk because the county does not want to offer them a modicum of accommodation.
After I picked him up, the gentleman walking around the roadway told me that he had just been released from the county jail after serving time for driving while license suspended. He did not have someone to pick him up from jail so he had no other option but to walk back home. He lived twenty five miles from the jail. The only way he could get home, since he had no money with him, was to walk along a busy interstate freeway.
We previously wrote about the virtual debt peonage and endless circle of jail and further increases of fines with suspended drivers in an article HERE.
It would have taken him until after six in the morning to walk that far. So rather than drive him to the next exit to find another ride I just drove him home.
He was 57 years old, unemployed and had no family available to drive him. He had no other choice than to walk. I asked him if the jail offered him a bus ticket or some other accommodation to allow him to return home after release. He said the jail used to give bus tickets to people in his situation but stopped doing that several years ago.
We had a good visit with each other, but the entire time we were together I could not help but wonder why the county has a system as such that a person of little means is forced to walk twenty five miles home because no effort was made to arrange for his journey. The risk this man faced from being hit by a drunk driver, stopped by the state patrol for being a pedestrian on a limited access freeway, or simply collapsing from exhaustion is certainly not something that we should accept nor something a person released from custody should endure.
I recognize that the sheriff’s office is not a taxi service and has no obligation to provide transport for released inmates after their term has expired, but couldn’t the county at least take a few more steps to ensure that someone can either pick up the inmate or try to prevent a situation where a fifty seven year old does not have to walk twenty five miles to get home?
Is this too much to ask?
By Darren Smith
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
No doubt about that, RTC.
The Wichita Eagle has an op-ed by a prof of political science who points out that the real voting fraud is being perpetrated across the country by these voting laws.
http://www.kansas.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article2642003.html
DavidM: Do I detect some humanity in your comment at 8:11?
Here’s a better link:
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s4/sh/3cb91ef2-08a5-4de7-817f-7070c00c4c00/5bde347f5c02fb5b92b2dfa334d4044c
markkernes:
It’s well-known in Republican circles this is a partisan strategy to shoehorn minorities out of the process. Here’s a scholarly article on the topic showing the pattern of voting restrictions in Red States. It’s un-American but when has that ever stopped the Neo-confederates.
https://www.evernote.com/shard/s4/sh/3cb91ef2-08a5-4de7-817f-7070c00c4c00/5bde347f5c02fb5b92b2dfa334d4044c/res/31259a9c-3c84-4c1f-908b-021435a178ea/_PPS_PPS11_04_S1537592713002843a.pdf
mespo – and wasn’t it the Democratic Party that was the mainstay of the Confederates?
Paul – Please, I know you can do better than drag out the old canard about the Democratic Party and the Confederates. You certainly know about the Civil Rights Movement, the Southern Strategy, and the total flip flop of the parties. So, if you’re mentioning the Democrats and the Confederacy, you’re referring to the modern day Republicans. Conversely, that makes Lincoln a Democrat, because I know that many current Republicans would hate some of his viewpoints.
maxcat – mespo lofted up a big softball and it was just waiting to be hit. 🙂
Paul – That’s like hitting a watermelon!!!!!!
I still like the idea of technology like retinal scans that replace photo ID. But I’m a nerd.
Karen S: Actually, retinal scans as ID are a damned good idea—and after all, it won’t be long before all that NSA spying produces a library of such scans, so why not put them to good use?
And, my own struggles in the past are why I am so passionate now about improving nutrition for the poor. When I struggled to make ends meet, I mostly ate processed food. Many do. I love programs like EBT being accepted at farmers markets, free classes on planting a victory garden, and anything that helps the poor eat whole, natural foods.
Olly, no, stop, I can’t start laughing now. Ebola is not going to come here. You need direct contact. It was a video.
Paul – haha! I’m never getting rid of that image now!
AA, NA, CA, or whateverA can’t help anyone against their will. They’ve got to want to do it. Perhaps listening to the other stories at a meeting can give someone that little push they need, though. I went to a funeral years ago for a man who had been an AA sponsor. He’d wrecked his liver drinking, and was considered terminal, but AA saved his life, and boy did he pay it forward. There was a line of people waiting to speak about how he threw them a lifeline during their recovery. He really made a difference in so many peoples’ lives. He lived over 20 more years after becoming sober. His life was a gift.
And there’s not been a smidgen of corruption at the IRS either.
Olly: Well, considering that one of the JOBS of the IRS is to investigate organizations that CLAIM to be non-partisan in order to obtain tax-exempt status but which in reality are VERY partisan to the point of funding candidates and weighing in on issues that the regulations say they can’t weigh in on as long as they’re tax-exempt, no, the “IRS scandal” is just another example of Republican horseshit.
markkernes – actually I found it very interesting that the tax organization that Elaine linked to, do NOT list the names of its major donors, all of whom are listed as individuals. One generous individual gave 250k to the organization. It is hard to tell how neutral an organization is that hides it major donors yet still claims neutrality.
markkernes:
Why yes, yes I have worked 3 jobs to make ends meet.
Are you still trying to come up with reasons why the poor shouldn’t have to have photo ID?
Good luck explaining that philosophy to anywhere else that requires photo ID. 🙂
Is there any evidence to prove this highway hiker really was just released from jail, lived where he said he was going, actually had a license or even a car. How do we know this guy hadn’t perfected his sorry story as a means to travel from A to B?
That being said, I believe Darren’s humane gesture is commendable regardless of what the true circumstances were that put that man on the side of the road.
Here’s an example. In Kansas, you can get your birth certificate for free to get your free voter ID.
At some point, the argument becomes that certain politicians and movements just don’t want people to have to prove their identity. Because the cost of IDs have been waived, the cost of supporting documents have been waived. If the argument just persists that it’s still racist to have to prove your identity, when every financial burden has been removed and there are helpers to guide people through the process, the reasoning is that they want groups to vote who are not valid.
http://www.kdheks.gov/vital/birth_cert_voter_ID_guidance.htm
Karen S: So I’m guessing that you’ve never had to work two or three jobs over the course of a week, every week, leaving you maybe three or four hours to get some sleep, and in general keeping you from being able to get to whatever agency is issuing the “free” IDs during the hours they’re open.
The simple fact is, there has been virtually NO in-person voter fraud in ANY election ANYWHERE in the country for at least the past decade. The ENTIRE reason for all these voter ID laws is to prevent some American citizens from being able to exercise their right to vote—a right they have under the Constitution whether or not they carry some state-approved ID card.
chestercat:
You make a good point, that getting the supporting documents to obtain a free ID can add cost.
I support programs that can help the poor get IDs. There are programs in place, and I certainly agree that the cost of obtaining an ID should be free to the poor, in total. There needs to be alternate means to verify identity to obtain those photo IDs when, for example, an elderly person’s birth certificate burned in a vital records office. How many legal citizens have no form of supporting documents required to obtain a free voter ID, and are too poor to get them, AND don’t already have a valid ID? Shouldn’t be too many people, so surely these programs can assist them to get their documents in order.
Again, people need ID to function in society. So helping people get those IDs to vote will also help them in other areas where ID is required. Win/Win.
But is it reasonable to have someone say I am a legal citizen, and should not have to prove it in any way? Anyone can get a phone bill. That’s not proof of citizenship. Since illegal aliens voting is already a problem, clearly something needs to be done.
And it’s been rightly pointed out that verifying ID is only one piece of the puzzle in fighting voter fraud. We also need to purge the roles of any “dead” people, or other fraudulent entries. But those attempts are always opposed as racist. It’s tiresome.
Karen S wrote: “Anyone can get a phone bill.”
Uh, hold on there Karen. Not everyone can get a phone bill, or an electric bill, or any bill. Homeless people don’t have bills. Now imagine you trying to help someone get ID. Better yet, go to the downtown area and start asking homeless people if they have ID. When you find one without ID, ask him or her if they would like help getting an ID. If he or she says yes, then start helping. You will find that it is not as easy as you might think.
Is everyone still mad at Paul because he would take the guy to an AA meeting? I assume his hypothetical drop off point would depend on the guy’s reason for getting arrested/drivers license suspended. At least he would pick him up. AA would be of no help if he wasn’t ready, but if addiction WAS his problem, his arrest might have made him ready for help. As has been pointed out, most women can’t do that because of safety issues. In any case, most of us would be hoping he would make whatever changes he needed to have a better life.
But this discussion has made me picture Paul, driving a guy to AA, who was yelling, “No, I told you! My problem is that I have a lead foot! I can’t keep from speeding! That’s why I lost my license, not from a DUI!” And Paul saying, no, it’s AA for you!
Great, now that image is stuck with me. Sorry Paul! 🙂 And it appears you are doomed to be judged for being judgmental.
Darren – that’s kind of you to give the alcoholic a regular ride. It’s hard to watch people self destruct. At least he didn’t drive.
Karen – most alcoholics are in denial. 🙂 You think I am going to believe some lousy story about a lead foot?
david:
I never knew that about the Salvation Army. I’m so disappointed. I wonder if it’s a local, regional, or nationwide problem.
Oh my gosh, WHY are there drive-thru liquor stores ANYWHERE??? Drunk drivers are like an unguided missile on the road surrounded with innocent people in a demented game of Russian roulette. But I have a picture hanging on my wall of an 18 year old that died from a drunk driver, so I’m biased.
DBQ, Stories from uncles and their buddies trace their resentment for being charged for donuts during WW2. That’s verified.
Does anyone else have any stories of the like? I had never heard this before, and never have since.
Re the Red Cross
A business associate of my husband’s was in WWII. The man is now dead. Died at the age of 94 a few years ago. He hated the Red Cross with a passion. At the end of the war when he was in Italy, ( I think) the Red Cross came over and handed out packages for the GIs. Things like candy, food, some clothing. THEN…..they charged them for the packages.
The hate for the Red Cross by our friend was almost visible in steam rising and smoke coming out of his ears. He never forgot and never ever had anything to do with them again. Pity the poor person who tried to solicit a donation from him.
My aunt was burned out of her apartment. She had a place to stay but she left her apartment in jammies, robe and slippers. Everything else was smoke and water damaged and she couldn’t get in her apartment for several days. The Red Cross did right by her.
bettykath wrote: “The Red Cross did right by her.”
To be fair, I have known families who suffered from their house burning down, and the Red Cross was there to pay for their hotel, get them new clothes, etc. But call them up about about homelessness through the head of household losing a job, and they are no help. The Red Cross helps with disaster relief. That is their criterium.