They only lack the light to show them the way. By the time you read this, it may no longer make a difference. That's how fast things change, or dissolve, during the wrap-up session of the Kansas Legislature. It is just a matter of whether voters will pick up the phone, or fire up the e-mail, and demand their elected representatives do their constituents the honor of thinking of us as responsible, humane people who know the state has responsibilities to meet and bills to pay. We have programs in this state that hire people to take care of the developmentally disabled, the severely retarded, the victims of head injuries and the like.
Any civilized society does.
The goal is to make such human beings as independent, functional and happy as possible. Properly done, it not only reduces human suffering but saves the taxpayers a few bucks in the long run by helping people who otherwise would be institutionalized to live on their own, improving their level of functioning instead of wasting away, even becoming taxpaying citizens. But those agencies are underfunded. The stress of providing these services is substantial for the few individuals saintly enough to do it, and their pay is so low that most cannot justify doing it for very long. Staff shortages and turnover all but knock the legs out from under these programs, and leave many on waiting lists so long that, when they do get services, they are so far behind that much of the opportunity for rehabilitation has been lost forever.