bearmom
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posted on July 22, 2000 08:19:28 PM
I love it!
Maybe it means getting rid of all the 'dirty minded old men'. I could support that-in fact I'll donate my husband! 
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bunnicula
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posted on July 22, 2000 08:47:48 PM
Seems to be interchangeable with Mental Health. Don't know about the bond or the reasons for it. Perhaps something to do with the growing numbers of disturbed individuals roaming the streets of big cities nation wide? IIRC, it was in the 1970s that our own dear governor Reagan began "setting free" the mentally ill...
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stockticker
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posted on July 22, 2000 09:41:24 PM
What an offensive way to word it, implying that the mentally ill are somehow unclean.
Irene
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bunnicula
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posted on July 22, 2000 09:58:04 PM
stockticker:  but looking at it another way, others might find the use of "health" offensive... In these PC days you just can't make people happy no matter *what* word you use. "Hygiene" was probably thought up by some who thought it *less* offensive! People are so busy pussy-footing around these days. My tolerance-level for this sort of thing is diminishing at a rapid rate....
edited to restore a wandering "e" to "Hygiene"
[ edited by bunnicula on Jul 22, 2000 10:00 PM ]
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Linda_K
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posted on July 22, 2000 09:58:10 PM
Irene - Hello
My *guess* would be a bond issued for funds to support the housing the mentally ill were housed in.
In a small town I grew up in, the mental institutions were supported by public funding/bonds rather than government funding that now supports these institutions.
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pareau
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posted on July 22, 2000 10:16:33 PM
"Mental Hygiene" is a term still used in NYS budgets. You can see where our money goes here: http://www.state.ny.us/governor/budget/caplan1/caplan1.htm
- Pareau
Cleaned up the URL, sorry!
[ edited by pareau on Jul 22, 2000 11:15 PM ]
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stockticker
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posted on July 22, 2000 10:25:08 PM
Bunnicula: I agree with you about PC euphemisms. I try to avoid using them. It often seems like tacit admission that there is something "shameful" in the original words which there isn't. (Well, I do admit that I do like the words "vertically challenged" )
Linda: It's been quite a while. Have you been away on vacation?
Irene
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stockticker
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posted on July 22, 2000 10:42:00 PM
Pareau: I see. The "mental hygiene" covers alcoholism and substance abuse as well as mental illness. I still think they could have come up with a less offensive word.
Irene
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kiheicat
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posted on July 22, 2000 11:09:09 PM
I noticed the 'state housing' blurb.. wonder if it has anything to do with mentally ill homeless?
pareau, I couldn't access your link, got a page not found... might just be a glitch, I'll try again later...
edited to add scratch that last comment...I got into the page...
[ edited by kiheicat on Jul 22, 2000 11:10 PM ]
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pareau
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posted on July 22, 2000 11:11:58 PM
They tried, stockticker, but "Department of Dope, Booze, and Nut Jobs" got stuck in the Assembly. Seriously, "Mental Hygiene" is an old, old term, and it means "health," not "cleanliness" in this context. To wit:
hygiene \Hy"gi*ene\, n. [F. hygi[`e]ne. See Hygeia.] That department of sanitary science which treats of the preservation of health, esp. of households and communities; a system of principles or rules designated for the promotion of health.
Call it licorice, but we need it in NYC.
- Pareau
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yorequest
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posted on July 22, 2000 11:23:41 PM
I would have thought Mental hygiene was when you just kept washing your hands over and over and over. 
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sgtmike
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posted on July 22, 2000 11:44:10 PM
Too many are always seeking (forcing) ways to make all as one and indoctrinate (coerce) others to embrace their communal beliefs. The gains in the “bleeding hearts” arena have negativley affected interpretive accuracy and have bastardized the English language.
Regardless of choice of word(s), instead of criticizing the word(s) used, first concentrate on the intent. If the intent is righteous, who has the right to coerce revisions of what someone has said or written?
I have a friend whom is blind and refers to his condition as “handicapped” and “blind.” I once asked him about PC descriptions regarding his handicap. He said he considered the PC terms to be insulting. He said he felt the terms were condescending and deprived him of an immediate discernment of his handicap by others e.g., “visually impaired vs. “blind.”
His point was that saying he is blind provides a clear and immediate understanding of the degree of his handicap and (usually) prevents further questions. As for the term “handicapped,” he said he (obviously) has limitations that a person with sight does not. He said the word “impaired” has an “odious” quality he does not like. I haven't quite grasped why the terms are "odious." I guess one would have to be on his side of the fence to understand.
The response that surprised me was when he said that he and many others having handicaps/disabilities know the PC terms are coined by people not having any handicap or disability. I had never considered that possibility.
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bunnicula
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posted on July 22, 2000 11:54:30 PM
One term that annoys the heck out of me for the same reason your blind friend gives is "challenged." To me "challenged" implies that if the person just tries hard enough they will reverse the problem.
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sgtmike
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posted on July 23, 2000 12:09:50 AM
bunnicula
I agree; clarity and preciseness regarding condition.
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Linda_K
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posted on July 23, 2000 12:19:33 AM
Irene - Thanks for asking.
We've had out-of-state company, friends who moved here and needed help getting in and settled, and up until this week beautiful weather that has usually found me either swimming or floating on our beautiful lake. I do run on sentences so well.
Then I've been shopping for clothes for our trip to HI in 2 1/2 weeks. Our son is getting married again (same person - they had a civil ceremony in Japan) and now are planning their 'American wedding' as my new DIL calls it. So I've been busy shopping, making plans etc.
Now we're having severe thunderstorms and lots of rain, so I'm inside again.
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pareau
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posted on July 23, 2000 12:23:34 AM
yorequest, that's Manual hygiene. I'm sure there's a department for that, too, somewhere in NY's bloated bureacracy.
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yorequest
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posted on July 23, 2000 12:26:49 AM
Pareau: 
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bunnicula
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posted on July 23, 2000 12:28:46 AM
Pareau: it probably occupies the offices next to the Ministry of Funny Walks
Which, in these PC-ridden days should probably be called the Ministry for the Ambulatory-Challenged....
[ edited by bunnicula on Jul 23, 2000 12:31 AM ]
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yorequest
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posted on July 23, 2000 12:34:58 AM
So, Stockticker, what do you reckon that dingus is worth in year 2000 prices?
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calamity49
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posted on July 23, 2000 12:40:09 AM
Sarge,
I think maybe your friend feels that he is comfortable in his blindness and someone saying he is impaired infers that he can't take care of business though he can, just in a different way than sighted people.
It would be kind of like having a prosthetic leg. You are accustomed to it and can even run with them now but people with two live legs feel that you are impaired even though you get around just fine. That make any sense?
Calamity
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bunnicula
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posted on July 23, 2000 12:46:37 AM
calamity49: It's probably more a matter of calling a spade a spade. Blind is blind. Fat is fat. Retarded is retarded. Short is short. Things are what they are, and dreaming up fancy names for them won't change that. I've always thought it a bit condescending as well.
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kiheicat
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posted on July 23, 2000 11:12:16 AM
calamity, that makes perfect sense to me. One of my good friends back in California, and actually a former boss, wears a prosthetic leg because she lost one of hers in a motorcycle accident. Well, this gal is a pistol! Great spirit, great energy, and she covers more miles on her legs than the average Joe with 2 good ones does.
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barrybarris
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posted on July 23, 2000 04:15:09 PM
I'm short, fat, bald and from New York. I wonder what the PC term for that would be?
The short and fat might be, vertically and horizontally challenged.... The bald thing might be, pompadour challenged. As for being from New York, It's where an ex-governor of Arkansas ends up..
Barry (mental hygiene improvement bond) Barris
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snowyegret
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posted on July 23, 2000 04:30:26 PM
barry barris:
Ed Koch? or,
follicully challenged? I can never spell that right. Sorry.
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