Properly Subversive: Exactly how many Black people in Marin need mental care?

Properly Subversive/Sherman R. Frederick

With tongue firmly planted in cheek, may I ask how many Black people in Marin are mentally ill? Is it more or less than white people? Where do Hispanics fit into the mental health equity spectrum?

That’s one question that sticks out as Marin County embarks upon a plan to make a plan to save Marin from its racist ways. 

You might think I’m making this up. I am not, dear readers.

Marin now has a “race equity plan.” Or, perhaps I should say it has a plan for making a plan.

Marin County snagged $2.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act – a federal giveaway that is about as foggy as old Foggy Bottom gets. 

Google it. 

Please.

Then you tell me what’s going on. 

Anyway, here in Marin, the county has earmarked this “free” money to jump start a three-pronged equity plan. Somebody in this mysterious process decided that racial equity in Marin means:

1. Better mental health for minorities. (What?)
2. Equal economic opportunity. (Duh.)
3. Better housing in all rich areas of Marin for people who are not white. (Again, what?)

Not that there’s anything wrong with any of that. But we ought to stop pretending that a process that amounts to little more than a $2.5 million dollar group hug will change anything in a measurable way. 

If I’m wrong on this, please tell me how.

Postscript: Why didn’t education make the the list?

LITTERING?

Free speech can upset the fragile psyche, of this there is no doubt. But a society without free speech is far worse. With that introduction, I thought it worthy to pass along to you this dangerous view that appeared on a Marin law enforcement social media page advertising a “coffee with cops” get-together.

“If you’re not going to prosecute people spreading Nazi hate in our community, then what’s the point of having coffee together? I am absolutely disgusted that you won’t prosecute the distribution of Nazi hate speech in our county, saying it isn’t criminal behavior. If you can’t charge them with hate speech, then charge them with 300 counts of littering. At $500 apiece, make them pay $150,000 for their ‘right’ to spread their hate. Please don’t give this anti-Semitic BS a free pass again ….” 

Beware of people with ideas like this unless, of course, you think Russia and other dictatorships are on the better track.

ICYMI

– Alameda County sheriff deputies were hired despite unsatisfactory scores on their psychological exams. 47 deputies, the San Jose Mercury News reported, were ordered to turn in their firearms and to retake the exams. Yikes.

– According to the Brennan Center for Justice, nearly one in three adults in California have a past arrest or conviction on their record. CalMatters.org reports that “while many cases are never prosecuted, in California, these incidents can remain on an individual’s record until they’re 100 years old.”

– If there’s a silver lining to the brutal inflation Americans suffer through right now, it is that next month the federal government will be forced by law to announce a cost of living increase for 2023 for Social Security. It may come in as high as 10%. It won’t be enough to offset inflation. But it is something.

THANK YOU

Two readers took the time to comment on my recent column on the FBI Trump raid. One said I was stuffed fuller than a Christmas turkey, the other gave me a big “atta boy.” I hit the sweet spot on that column.

Another reader sent this nice note last week:

“After reading your commentary in the Novato edition of MARINSCOPE each week, I smile and/or scratch my head and think, “Bravo Sherman!”  You are an outstanding journalist with a brilliant mind, and many of my friends and neighbors agree. Reading your words gives my mind and soul a lift, and also expands and validates my thinking on various issues. I thank you for sharing your talents and refreshingly sane analysis of things. I appreciate your wit as well as the puns and jokes you share (even those that elicit an “Ugh!”). The Novato Advance has never been finer. “

ONE MORE THING

– On my tombstone write: “Not appreciating my puns while I was alive was a grave mistake.”

– I shot a man with a paintball gun just to watch him dye. 

– The difference between a well dressed man on a unicycle and a poorly dressed man on a bicycle is attire.

– The latest statistics released by the Marin County Office of Rapture Equity shows no one from Marin – Black or white – was raptured to heaven on Sept. 25, 2022. Once again, equity achieved.

Until next week avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority.

(“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick for Marinscope Community Newspapers, the “mother ship” of the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. Mr. Frederick is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)