When will they learn - you just can't help some people?

Richard Antwine, 49 years old, committed suicide last November in Dallas. Reporter Kim Horner and the do-gooders of the city say this is evidence that we must do more to help the homeless. But let's look at Richard and the services he was offered.


The reporter admits that the taxpayers spend millions each year in sheltering, incarcerating and treating the mentally ill. Richard was a crack cocaine and alcohol abuser. Miss Horner excuses this as a "common way of trying to relieve the symptoms of depression." Hmmmm - could it be that she has the cause and effect backward?

Anyway, Richard was jailed in 2009 for missing a meeting with his parole officer -- his lawyer says it was because he was in Terrell State Hospital at the time. He was released after a month in jail. Antwine insisted he wanted to do the right things, but he violated parole again by giving a false address and using drugs, and he was jailed again in July 2009.

When he was released in April 2010, he was sent to a halfway house. He stayed out past curfew in July, violating the terms of his parole, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He disappeared from the halfway house after picking up his disability check. Yes, hardworking taxpayer, we bought drugs and alcohol for Richard while he was violating his parole.

The claim is that we failed this man, yet the mental health clinic that would serve his needs has no record of him seeking help. That's probably because the clinic was housed in the same building as his parole officer -- someone he surely did not want to run into.

It seems this man was offered everything he needed -- psychiatric help, a place to stay, money to live on. Neither you nor I nor the system failed this man. Some people just can't be helped.

"Shut out by the revolving door." The Dallas Morning News; November 23, 2010; p. 1A.