Keif' Richards
Bluelight Crew
I hate to be un-original. I don´t like just jumping on the bandwagon. I am here in Las Vegas now. All I can say is, what a shit hole. It is truly the worst place in the entire country I have ever been too. I have lived in active warzones with more love and good feelings than this place. Let me just say, I have become a more spiritual person since getting here. This city was essentially founded on the philosophy of extracting as much money as possible from individuals and clouding their minds with pleasure while they do it. I have learned a lot about the cops here as they have become an ever-present facet of my day to day life at the non-profit. Their genesis was to be muscle for the mob and in turn the casinos. They were not designed as a standard, municipal police force. In short, they started corrupt and have only gotten worse.
It is not the dirt, the grime, the heat... this place has no fucking soul. People here are the most inward facing, self-absorbed people I have ever met. This is not a blanket statement. I am speaking to the overall character of this place. The world is crashing down around us and those who still have money to fill up their tank frankly don´t want to be bothered with ¨depressing things; things you can´t change; why would i think about that when the sun is shining?¨ It´s like the same issues we see with our children who don´t know how to read, adults who can´t talk properly to another person, people asking AI what they should say to the girl they like. The kids out here are going to be mindless, useless, drones by the time they reach maturity because they already can´t function as it is and nobody is calling it a state of emergency as they should be.
At Wal Mart, I walk through the aisles and it´s like everyobe has the thousand yard stare on their face of pure confusion. I try to make conversation with the cashier and she literally has a panic attack and has to get someone else. I said ¨Hi, how´s the lines today?¨ to this 20 year old girl and she became so flustered that I was apologizing. People here go further into denial, into their bubbles the worse things get. Everyone is for the war. Everyone loves Trump. Nobody is willing to talk about anything that matters and if you try, they act like you´re just being a bring-down.
Two days ago, ¨The American Reich¨ had a sizable march through a few blocks and I believe they intentionally went by the shelter. We all sat and watched as they went by. They had buttons, bumper stickers and t shirts. The police were marching with them for ¨protection¨ though the rumor is there is heavy cop involvement in these groups. A guy was driving through the parking lot at the supermarket and he had that typical ¨Latino¨ almost mariachi-type music playing loudly. People literally were throing shit at his van and rushing him.
I had been living in a car then moved to a flea-bag weekly hotel. That hotel charges rent, but it has since been ¨taken over¨ by a latino gang and they were terrorizing us for ¨taxes¨ on top of the rent, which basically doubled it. Called police, talked to the office (it´s not a problem as these guys come at night, raid the place and disappear) and nobody will help, so back to the car. It is much cooler now so thankfully that makes it easier. You still get terrorized by security guards. They will wake you up from a dead sleep with sirens and banging on the glass and it is so traumatic it makes it hard to ever sleep again. People are literally trying to survive, still working full time and that is Las Vegas, still no love or kindness, just ¨get the fuck out¨ once your dollar value drops below a certain amount.
Myself and most of my coworkers lost our health insurance recently and most of us can´t afford to get it on the market. We comically make too much money for any assistance at 24/hr. It seems 90% likely that the shelter will close. There are serious concerns abou the far-right element and we know if they really fucked with us we would not have any support. People are just too afraid to keep doing the work as we are now seen as a major part of the probem i,e, we encourage homelessness, addiction and crime through our work.
In other news, 3 pharmacies were out of CLONIDINE this week for days. Yes, Clonidine. It is a medication people can die if they don´t have it. Just another fear. If such a vital medicine can´t be obtained, what is next. Meanwhile, I saw diesel is above 8 this morning. Shit is likely only to get worse. I suggest everyone get some canned food and clean water together just in case. I am not joking about that. As bad as it is, here in Vegas, I think I´m actually ¨Middle - Lower/Middle Class¨. It goes much much lower than this so I thank God I still have what I have.
Times are getting harder. We can´t stop trying to be good people even though times are hard. I have to tell myself this all the time. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life as they can. Love you all.
Ryan
It is not the dirt, the grime, the heat... this place has no fucking soul. People here are the most inward facing, self-absorbed people I have ever met. This is not a blanket statement. I am speaking to the overall character of this place. The world is crashing down around us and those who still have money to fill up their tank frankly don´t want to be bothered with ¨depressing things; things you can´t change; why would i think about that when the sun is shining?¨ It´s like the same issues we see with our children who don´t know how to read, adults who can´t talk properly to another person, people asking AI what they should say to the girl they like. The kids out here are going to be mindless, useless, drones by the time they reach maturity because they already can´t function as it is and nobody is calling it a state of emergency as they should be.
At Wal Mart, I walk through the aisles and it´s like everyobe has the thousand yard stare on their face of pure confusion. I try to make conversation with the cashier and she literally has a panic attack and has to get someone else. I said ¨Hi, how´s the lines today?¨ to this 20 year old girl and she became so flustered that I was apologizing. People here go further into denial, into their bubbles the worse things get. Everyone is for the war. Everyone loves Trump. Nobody is willing to talk about anything that matters and if you try, they act like you´re just being a bring-down.
Two days ago, ¨The American Reich¨ had a sizable march through a few blocks and I believe they intentionally went by the shelter. We all sat and watched as they went by. They had buttons, bumper stickers and t shirts. The police were marching with them for ¨protection¨ though the rumor is there is heavy cop involvement in these groups. A guy was driving through the parking lot at the supermarket and he had that typical ¨Latino¨ almost mariachi-type music playing loudly. People literally were throing shit at his van and rushing him.
I had been living in a car then moved to a flea-bag weekly hotel. That hotel charges rent, but it has since been ¨taken over¨ by a latino gang and they were terrorizing us for ¨taxes¨ on top of the rent, which basically doubled it. Called police, talked to the office (it´s not a problem as these guys come at night, raid the place and disappear) and nobody will help, so back to the car. It is much cooler now so thankfully that makes it easier. You still get terrorized by security guards. They will wake you up from a dead sleep with sirens and banging on the glass and it is so traumatic it makes it hard to ever sleep again. People are literally trying to survive, still working full time and that is Las Vegas, still no love or kindness, just ¨get the fuck out¨ once your dollar value drops below a certain amount.
Myself and most of my coworkers lost our health insurance recently and most of us can´t afford to get it on the market. We comically make too much money for any assistance at 24/hr. It seems 90% likely that the shelter will close. There are serious concerns abou the far-right element and we know if they really fucked with us we would not have any support. People are just too afraid to keep doing the work as we are now seen as a major part of the probem i,e, we encourage homelessness, addiction and crime through our work.
In other news, 3 pharmacies were out of CLONIDINE this week for days. Yes, Clonidine. It is a medication people can die if they don´t have it. Just another fear. If such a vital medicine can´t be obtained, what is next. Meanwhile, I saw diesel is above 8 this morning. Shit is likely only to get worse. I suggest everyone get some canned food and clean water together just in case. I am not joking about that. As bad as it is, here in Vegas, I think I´m actually ¨Middle - Lower/Middle Class¨. It goes much much lower than this so I thank God I still have what I have.
Times are getting harder. We can´t stop trying to be good people even though times are hard. I have to tell myself this all the time. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life as they can. Love you all.
Ryan
