This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Perfect Palo Alto
If for some reason you were to join me in my car, going about my daily errands around Palo Alto, we would in all likelihood pass the intersection of Alma and Charleston, and you might ask me who this guard was at the railroad tracks and why he was there:
"Oh, he's there to make sure high school kids don't jump in front of a train to kill themselves", I would reply. And you, assuming you come from a place that isn't insane, would be puzzled and appalled at my answer.
The thing is, I've gotten used to this lunatic asylum. The overpressured kids in this town, some of whom are expected to somehow Make It Big, can't tolerate the thought of not being one of the 6% that are admitted into, say, Stanford, so they decide to end their lives about 60 years ahead of schedule. I personally think the notion of paying a man to sit, day after day, hour after hour, to guard a fifty foot stretch of track along a 45 mile corridor is preposterous, but I guess the town fathers wanted to show they cared.
The heart of the issue isn't the fact that this one railroad crossing is or isn't guarded by someone. It has to do with what the kids think they have to "achieve" to be worthwhile.
I was reminded of this by the front page story in this morning's Palo Alto Daily Post:
Note the remark in the rightmost column: "The student's death was not connected with the suicide death of an adult man who stepped in front of a Caltrain at Charleston Road on Sunday afternoon." You read that right. The very next day. Oh, and at the exact spot that the gent in the picture above guards..............on weekdays.
Strangeways, here we come.
- advertisements -
Killtruck, cynicalskeptic was talking about neighbors who were "helpful" in helping kids "get ahead" - not neighbors who are helpful by being kind. Of course kind neighbors are terribly important. But he was talking about material success, and what helps there. Go back and reread what he wrote, and what he was aiming at.
Don't forget work. Work builds self worth and a sense of accomplishment. Very valuable life lessons.
Around my house life was simple. You had your chores as a part of contributing to the family. No allowance bullshit. That rainy day movie matinee money was based on performance of your duties and if there were too many reminders to get them done then you were shit out of luck on Saturday.
You want it? You earn it. Simple. Many an hour was spent collecting bottles, running errands, collecting newspapers, mowing lawns and shoveling snow, cleaning out garages and cellars and the real lucky kids got a part time job shoveling horseshit at the training stables which was an obviously steady income.
Maybe most kids parents could afford to give out allowances, maybe some couldn't but it didn't matter because none of the kids I hung around with got them and the few we knew that did were looked down on as being slackers and the kid equivalent of trust fund babies. Girls tried to get a lock on the errand and bottle business for the easy money.
Once I bought a paper route and hit the big time, there were kids that were more likely to kill you for your collection money than they were likely to kill themselves. A big dog was more than a loyal friend and companion, here he would also save you from a mugging.
Work focuses a kids mind outward to setting and accomplishing goals, even if those goals are as mundane as buying a BB gun or a new bike.
One kid we knew worked to save his money to run away from home where his drunken father tended to be free with his fists. This was no planned community suburb but an old school New England town where the solid middle class lived side by side with their less fortunate brethren. Troubled homes had no class barriers here.
And not a single teen suicide. Long before they got to that age the kids had a record of goal setting and a sense of accomplishment in meeting them even though they might be unaware of the fact.
Ask anyone who has been out of work for a long period how they feel.
I'm not saying that work is a universal panacea for teen suicides or any other of the malfunctions we see in kids today but it seems to be a powerful factor that is overlooked.
Nothing new under the sun.
You've heard of "Food Deserts"?
This is a "Love Desert".
Here's their theme song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaNt9-QkiHI
This ain't new. In fact, It's excactly how the narcissists, sociopaths and psyhcopaths that "rule" this society get created.
Every year we have the biggest bumper crop of these "creations" society has even seen...
Societal impact dead ahead.
The primary mistake all people make when dealing with governmnet is to forget that it is always about money, power, and division. ALWAYS.
The reason the guard is there is because there is a money, power, and/or division benefit to the pols, crats, and funcs involved.
Could be an insurance company thing, a "make-work" ploy for building an electorate block (welfare), or a bow to the railroad. Who knows, but we do know it is not "because they care, " or "for the children."
Eventually it will happen that a new set of pols, crats, and/or funcs will want to use the money used to fund the guard in a different scheme, and so they'll pull the guard. Additionally, they'll also try to monetize the situation by instituting stiff fines for minor infraction on or around the tracks, and then they'll substitute a gun and badge thug for the guard. Also, when a student does manage to off himself under a train, they will descend upon the grieving parents for a pound of flesh or two.
The banksters need to repay us.
There is no such thing as a "nanny state." It is a police-state hiding behind lies about good deeds. But then some might be able to envision Mary Poppins running around plundering, tazing, caging, and/or killing people for money.
Why would you want to interfere with somebody's desire to take themselves out of the gene pool?
Maybe they don't want to be in it. It's their choice. Maybe they know something you don't?
So, now we have a paid public servant fat ass donut eating chunkster who has a government job, benefits, pension and gets to give tickets to people trying to kill themselves?
What....the.....fuck....
Because people can become suicidal due to bad brain chemistry usually triggered by stress.
These people are NOT rational and are clearly not acting in their own best interest, so mercy in
the form of intervention is called for.
Yup. Need to intervene in their lives for their own good. Get 'em on some SSRIs, but don't fix what's really wrong with their lives, if that's even possible. Save 'em from offing themselves so that they can steal a relative's gun and go shoot up a school and then off themselves. Great plan.
They are employed by a private security firm. I have read that the pay is $9/hour and bathroom breaks are rare and dependent on the kindness of nearby business owners. These are poor people hired by the wealthy for low pay to take care of their screwed-up kids (whom I do feel sorry for).
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2014/12/23/donations-pour-in-to-thank...
It would be fun to clone Hitler and let a thousand of them loose on Palo Alto
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AnpTWKKWQ1o
$271 fine for passing the gate without the guard's permission? Kinda of a strange number....
Yeah, I know.
Fining someone who was just about to kill themselves seems like a great suicide prevention plan.
Don't drive through East Palo Alto. Got my only traffic ticket while driving through. The police department is there to manage the wealth transfer process.
Yes, because when you add in federal, state and local taxes, coupled with surcharges and fees, it rounds to an even $10,000 fine. Simply, really. They don't want to scare people off by posting the gross fee.
Wonder if the job comes with retirement benefits?
The job is part of the OC lifeguard union. Gets about $200K a year, I would estimate. /sarc off.
Maybe they should hire the "Duderino" or Billy Joel to speak at that school.
We wuz having this very same conversin too-day. The place is a goddamned bubble of freakish proportions. If I grew up in this neighborhood, I'd get high and break shit because it's so fucking horrible here....
The Google campus is just about a mile down that road, are you sure this isn't a byproduct of the vortex of evil found ther?
Dat guard guy look like a terriss to me.
try South Korea, where student suicides(from pressures to succeed) have been the norm for many years
obviously that gent needs to be working 24/7, and on public holdiays too
or maybe the town fathers can ask Foxconn in China for some anti-suicide nets, they have some experience in that department
It's insane at how much pressure many Asian kids are under.... one of my sons' roommates is Korean - has been at boarding school for ... well forever... rarely sees family and while now at a toptier school is now fored to take time off for mandatory military service.
Have seen the same pressured insanity in others. My kids have taken various summer classes in a G&T program because they wanted to - subjects that interest them (one class - 3 weeks). It was a good experience for them - in marked contrast to public schools where 'being smart' is clearly NOT 'cool'. I vividly remember one of the roommates - wasn't even sure what class he'd been signed up for (his parents chose it - they dropped him and ran). My kids LIKED he whole experience and made lots of friends. The Asian kids tended to be signed up for math and science classes - by their parents - and spent all their time studying. The other kids actually had fun. My kids enjoyed the experience and remain good friends with those they met there. Seems like most of the Asian kids 'endured' it.
You could always become creative like this guy:
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/crime/convicted-naples-fraudster-arrested-again-on-similar-charges_83407138
There's a future out there if you have the moxie!
We are truely the land of fruits and nuts.
And raw milking your honey boo boos.
something like that
Palo Alto is ground zero for the Chosenitis Parasitis. From University Avenue you can hear that great sucking sound of wealth and resources flowing in from every part of the planet. Those people know no shame.
At least you’re not paying for a guard on each side of the tracks.. yet.
How do you know these aren't human sacrifices to prevent the onslaught of the nailgun avenger? It's just so hard to tell who the nailgun avenger will pounce upon next...
Who cares about Palo Alto?
Who cares about your trailer park?
Who cares about your trailer park?
It is not the people in Palo Alto whom care about anyone else, excepting that for the elite. That is a certainty. That is why their children are killing themselves. The parents and the Palo Alto community are to blame.
And you are an example of that certainty as your post reveals so wonderfully clear...
But it is all good. The Day of Reckoning approaches.
There is another fact which you may want to consider as that it may, or may not, be associated as correlation is not, by any means, necessarily causation.
Palo Alto is not fireproof or bombproof
Keep inciting atomicwasted. You just keep on inciting... Good work.
I'm sure anyone still using the iPhone 5 is the subject of terrible cyber-bullying.
My trailer park is better than your trailer park.
There is hope. Those kids can always join the military and kill some men, women, and children that are just trying to defend their homeland from foreign invaders. This may delay suicide by a couple years, not to mention the 10% discount at Home Depot.
Who knows? If they kill enough, there may even be a book or movie deal and good times at NFL games with hedge fund managers.
Is 1628 the magic number? I gotta know...I gotta know.
That way they can feign remorse while bragging about the body count...
Makes for a great book and TeeVee time too.
moved