Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Background Checks

[Sarah Lesher (sarah.lesher]

Folks, you've missed my point.

Which was that you can pull up data on criminal background, from a bar
fight to homicide.

But the brain disorders that at least one-in-four of us suffer from are
more likely than criminal behavior to end up causing problems in a
community, no matter how much compassion you may have for the suffering of
the affected person. And that at some point the community reaches its
limits, so perhaps that issue needs to be discussed in advance.  As in how
long a community can support someone with increasing dementia. As in a
family where dementia becomes more than a partner or children can deal
with. Or a family where a perfectly wonderful child suddenly as a teen
becomes a catatonic schizophrenic who burns the house down.

This is from my non-trivial experience living in shared group houses with
several hundred different housemates.  Admittedly sharing a house is a lot
more intimate than all but the coziest cohousing.  I'm also speaking from
close association with families where the issues above have happened.

We have a great dearth of support systems in this super-individualistic
government-intervention-fearing country.  A public radio podcast, alas I've
forgotten which one, had two segments recently on why
Scandinavian socialism can't be transplanted onto American individualism,
even though that might help many of our problems.

I'm just trying to encourage consideration of and discussion about the
brain disorders that are likely in some form in all of us.  A single letter
change in DNA has been found in people with certain seizure disorders but
also in people with depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, etc.  The
changed DNA leads to a changed membrane protein that changes the timing of
nerve signals.  Not good for communication between nerve cells.  But
nowadays (vs. historically) we regard seizure disorders with a lot less
apprehension than we do, say, schizophrenia.

I'm simply suggesting a broader consideration of issues that can cause
problems in a community, rather than focusing just on criminals including
child molestors, rapists (yes that happened to me), etc. I did have one
housemate who exposed himself in a university library, and another who was
a peeping tom.  Both deserved compassionate help, not jail. (Not so sure
about my rapist.)

I'm not suggesting cohousing should push for a huge invasion of privacy.

I am cringing at Amazon's latest automated Whole Foods, where cameras watch
your every move to (1) gather data to better market to you (2) charge you
later for what you leave in your basket -- Whoopee! No checkout lines.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/technology/whole-foods-amazon-automation.html
 Of course I know NYT has a paywall, but I can't attach the article.

On Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 12:49 PM Bonnie Fergusson via Cohousing-L <
cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> The thing is Cohousing is a neighborhood, and just like any neighborhood
> is likely to have some folks on medications.  That doesn’t need to be
> screened, in my opinion.  I doubt the effectiveness of any screening method
> you could come up with anyway.  Respond to peoples actual behaviors, not
> your fears.Bonnie FergussonSwans Market CohousingOakland, CA
>
>
> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad
>
>
> On Monday, February 28, 2022, 9:38 AM, T G <triciamill9 [at] gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Wow, this all sounds like a huge invasion of privacy. Let's post everyone's
> > medications, what they are for, and what happens if they go off them?
> Does
> > being a part of a cohousing community mean your privacy is gone? AND like
> > someone else stated, most people are abused by someone they trust who
> > hasn't been caught yet. I would be warry of some of the cohousing
> marketing
> > talking about how great a place it is to raise children because they can
> any screenin
> > trust all of their neighbors. I have seen some of that and it isg
> > worriesome. Just because you know everyone, doesn't mean you should
> giveess of
> > your children a false sense of security that they can blindly trust
> (priest
> > abuse is a good example given here). It might be a great place to raise
> > children for many other reasons, but be cautious of this as an example.
> > Everyone has skeleton's in their closet. You can't know them all and most
> > likely a background check won't find them. How many women have been
> abused
> > by a spouse only to have people say "we had no idea he was abusive!"? I
> > have known people in my life that I would never have guessed were abusive
> > to their loved ones or others.
> >
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