"They Left Me to Rot"

How callously dismissive the authorities are being toward what many
here would consider tragically common. Two men snap and go on a
shooting spree (which may posters here have warned for years would
continue). Rodriguez was divorced, last employed making submarine
sandwiches and claiming bankruptcy. Hasan was faced with deployment to
Afghanistan. The “newsreels” also showed the plight of


“When one reporter asked Rodriguez why he did it, he said, "Because
they left me to rot," as reported by the AP… Renato Gonzalez, a
manager at the firm said, "I know that we was not very happy with the
layoff. He took a little worse than most people."..”
http://www.examiner.com/x-19663-LA-Legal-Examiner~y2009m11d6-Orlando-shooti
ng-suspect-Jason-Rodriguez-They-left-me-to-rot

“..He was by turns caring and contentious, a man quick to say "I am
blessed" in casual greeting yet one who seemed to stew in discontent
that he could not always keep to himself…”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g8-DEMtAE9q4i4ySQ0eV_qZef
mRQD9BQJ3HG0

Yet with these and more horrific stories making the news, seemingly
bereft of any notion that perpetrators are themselves victims.
President Obama went on television, to give voice to a nation in greef
and with regard to the Hasan case and over concerns of Arabs in the
military stated, “"We don't know all of the answers yet. I would
caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all of the facts"
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/07/2736187.htm

As I was rummaging through the vast amount of news articles for
another heart-wrenching story about a man living out of his van which
was televised on CNN Headline news, my attention was captured by yet
another holocaust story. This time it’s a report indicating a higher
than normal cancer risk by survivors.

“..Crumbs and decomposed food sickened Betty Potash Gold and her
family members, causing diarrhea and bloody vomiting, as they hid from
the Nazis.
Although Gold lived through extreme hunger, mental duress and near-
death experiences during the Holocaust, she and other survivors face
another peril decades after the war.
"Jewish survivors of World War II who were potentially exposed to
the Holocaust were at a higher risk for cancer occurrence later on in
life than those not exposed," concluded a study published in the
November issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Intense calorie deprivation, such as what Gold experienced, has long-
term effects on survivors, said Dr. Micha Barchana, one of the study
authors….”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/11/06/holocaust.survivor.cancer/index.html

Given the current state of the economy and the rampant volume of
people’s suffering while the authorities seem reluctant to examine or
acknowledge what average people are gong through, we still have time
and resources to reminisce about the suffering of one group of people
during the second world war. In the case above, the JNCI may have a
diversity issue to consider.

Men have been complaining in near silence for over a decade about
their plight in Family Court and dealing with economic hardships
brought on by continuous boom and bust cycles. From their perspective
these tragic stories can’t be surprising. In fact, this author is
surprised there are so few tragedies given the extent of the burden
and placed us coupled with the lack of understanding or willingness to
address the problems. It is certainly enough to make men question the
nature of their current reality and wonder if they’ve been in the
words of Rodriguez, “left to rot”.

Where seemingly ever other group in this society have experienced
significant change in the past century, it appears men are still
cannon fodder.

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