Charity To Strangers Is A Sign You Should Be Institutionalized?
A man is detained for psychiatric attention after being kind to strangers in meaningful ways -- giving them money, and not just a dollar.
M. Caulfield posts at exposingthetruth:
Officials in Halifax, Canada, have detained a man because he had been giving away money to strangers. Richard Wright had been vacationing in the city and decided to spend some of his time giving away various amounts of money to strangers on the street. When they would thank him, he would often tell them to instead "thank God," and his daughter Chelsey claims that he was simply attempting to do good for the world.One women who was a recipient of the Wright's act of kindness, named Cathy, called his act a blessing, one that was able to help her get by until the end of the month. Cathy is on disability and had been running low on money for rent and food for the month. Wright surprisingly gave her $50, which she said she used to buy groceries with. Bill MacNamara and June Bond were having coffee on their porch early in the morning when Wright pulled up in front of their home, he walked up to them and handed them over $100
Following the detainment of her father, Chelsey took to Facebook to defend him and insist that the accusations insinuating that her father has some mental impairment are falsely ludicrous. She affirmed that she strongly believes he does not suffer from any mental issues. Mental health authorities have since detained and admitted him at a local psychiatric ward in Halifax.
It is also claimed that Wright would talk the recipients of his charitable acts about Nikola Tesla and the suppression of his research on free energy. A Facebook group has since been established by numerous members in support of Wright, named #OpFreeRichardWright
So, the message is, you can give money away -- thousands of dollars or more -- as long as you do it through some foundation to nameless, faceless people. If you simply look at people and see they're in need and give them some money, well, you must be nuts.
And no, even if he talked about Tesla and all, this is not a sign he is nuts. If we institutionalized everybody with an attachment to a theory, or theories we find nutty, a good number of the CNN commentators speculating on the Malaysia plane would be strapped to a bed right now.
Two posts from the "Halifax" link above. The first:
Anavrin • 10 days ago
I'm so glad this got reported on. I actually posted on FB yesterday after having the pleasure of meeting this gentleman myself. I had just got off work down on Barrington street and was having a smoke in a parking killing time waiting for my bus. The man was dressed in a wool/red plaid jacket with patched jeans and was sporting a salt and pepper beard with thick sun glasses. When he first walked up to me he was asking how my day and life in general was. I thought he was going to ask for a smoke so I got my pack ready. Instead he was just talking about how life will get better and started mentioning how 46% of the worlds wealth was owned by the 1% who want to rule the world. But he reassured me everything would be okay and a movement was coming to take back the wealth and give it to the people. He even talked about Nikola Tesla and how he was working on free energy but was silenced by those who wanted financial control. Then he said he had a message from God and handled me a brown piece of paper. I thought it would be some sort of religious pamphlet I've gotten from random people before but to my surprise it was a folder $100 bill! I was shocked and actually told him I couldn't take his money. He refused to take it back and said if I didn't need it to give it to someone who did. We spoke a short bit more before slowly walking away. I was still stunned and didn't know what exactly to say except 'If there were more people like you, then everyone could have hope for humanity'.He really made my day and I'm elated this wasn't an isolated incident. Thank you sir, your are beyond words. I have been paying forward your message even if it was personalized for me and just so you know, I bought my gf and I pizza that night and did a Tim's run for my co-workers the next day. I plan to give the rest to the next person I see in need and carry on your message. Thank you so much.
PS: I hope your leg feels better.
The second -- apparently from his daughter:
Chelsey • 5 days ago
Hi everybody, my dad was stopped by the RCMP on his way from home to Charlottetown on Thursday. He was arrested and brought to a confinement area at the QEH hospital in Charlottetown.He was stripped of all his belongings an locked in a small concrete room with a tiny window and a camera inside. He was left there for 8 hours with only 2 pieces of white bread to eat, and he was forced against his will to swallow 2 small white pills. The people there would not tell him what medication he was taking.
When he asked the guard if he could use the phone he was ignored and because frustrated because he was worried about Ashley and I, since he is our soul provider. The workers there did not care whatsoever about me or Ashley, we could have been home with no heat/food but they didn't care. They would not let him contact us.
My dad was also worried about the cats going without food, an the pipes freeing once he was informed that he would be detained for 3 days. At this point he was told to sit down and shut up or he would get a needle. He was then transferred upstairs to a small room and the next day that he would be detained for another 28 more days.
He has now been there for four days and after repeated requests for the toxicology report on the forced medications and a copy of the Mental Health Act, he has still nott received the information. They simply do not care what he says or how he feels. He was not even informed of his right by the police or hospital. He is only allowed out of his room for 30 minutes, this is so unfair.
By now you are probably wondering why he was detained in the first place.. it is because he had some extra money so he decided to share it around with some homeless and needy people in Halifax and Dartmouth. He did nothing illegal, he was simply helping some people out. Since when did being a nice person make you end up in th hospital? They think he is sick and has mental issues.. but I know he does not. He plans to hopefully attain legal help tomorrow. We are keeping our fingers crossed.
My dad is honestly a great guy.. he has always been good to people, and he simply just wanted to help people out. Any support any of you can offer would be greatly appreciated. He is being held at the QEH hospital Unit 9, the number there is (902) 894-0223, he would appreciate your support at this time. Thank you all so much. Visiting hours are MON-FRI 4:30 - 8:30 ; SAT-SUN 11:30 - 8:30.
News stories on this here. One odd bit from a HuffPo Canada piece from 3/26:
Wright's mother agreed that he does not have a history of mental illness, but also said he was not arrested and is not being held against his will, CTV reported.
A Nat Post piece by Tristin Hopper from March 24 had this:
In a Monday afternoon statement, the agency said that nobody can be committed involuntarily unless two physicians deem the person to be "of harm to themselves or others.""We appreciate the seriousness of this situation and the impact on our patient and their family," said Pam Trainor, executive director of Mental Health for Health P.E.I.
She added, "it is important for the public to understand that patients are admitted to our hospitals, programs and/or health-care services because they can benefit from the care that we provide."
Well, maybe because they've decided the person can "benefit" from their care.
About his giving, as I have written and talked about on my radio show with various guests -- Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky, who's done a good bit of the research, and Dr. Elizabeth Dunn -- doing kind acts for others is a way to meaningfully increase your happiness.
If I won the lottery tomorrow, as I told a friend recently, I would give money to FIRE and the Institute for Justice and look out amongst my friends, see who's struggling, and give each a bunch of money so they would maybe have the time and backing to get on their feet. And I'd live in a place where I could have some guest houses on the property so friends could come visit and stay for a month or more without our annoying the hell out of each other. (Kind of artists' residences, since most of my friends are either writers or do something creative.)
Am I nuts or something?
Obviously the government sees him as a threat. What could be threatening about his behavior? Is it because he is demonstrating the value of private charity over government dependence?
Cousin Dave at March 28, 2014 6:12 AM
Cousin Dave seems to have nailed it. Otherwise, why would the government, or anyone else for that matter, get involved?
Flynne at March 28, 2014 6:29 AM
a good number of the CNN commentators speculating on the Malaysia plane should be strapped to a bed right now
FIFY. You're welcome.
Wut?
I R A Darth Aggie at March 28, 2014 6:32 AM
and give each a bunch of money
In the US, by law and/or IRS rule, you can at most give people $14,000 or so - it varies from year to year. Oh, you can give them more, but once you cross that threshold, they become liable for a gift tax at the lovely rate of 55%.
Ask the people whom Ophrah gifted cars to how that worked out...so just hand them cash under the table.
I R A Darth Aggie at March 28, 2014 6:38 AM
If the story really is "as presented", then it is outrageous. A few weeks ago, I bought a needy woman $200 worth of groceries, and I think I am quite sane.
However... I have the feeling that there is more to this story. Someone filed a complaint with the police. Who knows - perhaps a family member worried that he had emptied the family bank account?
a_random_guy at March 28, 2014 7:27 AM
Of course you're nuts, that's why we love you. Being nuts comes inherently with intelligence and the accompanying realization that we're jolly well fucked.
Kindness, absent some apparent form of rational self-interest, has just become so rare that it's no wonder it appears pathological to these people.
ValiantBlue at March 28, 2014 12:00 PM
Being nuts comes inherently with intelligence and the accompanying realization that we're jolly well fucked.
I think I'll accept that as a compliment too please, because apparently I'm insane. I've been known to carry packaged snacks, and handmade mini-plushies to distribute to hungry people and frightened children. I have a medical kit on me at any given time to help someone who is injured. Other signs of madness include rescuing abused and neglected animals, being a safehouse for DV victims, and putting others before self.
Fun fact: Most of the things I just mentioned are against the law or can get me arrested. I've already been threatened with arrest for having an open kitchen to the local homeless camp and taking them homemade food. I was threatened with arrest for offering my bathroom to them and cutting their hair and doing the women's nails so that they could go about their day as normally as possible.
Let's not get started with the road-side shakedown and friend and I got for passing out condoms and other relevant toiletries in a known homeless camp where several of the adults have diseases.
All of these things were clearly "an attempt to exploit and endanger vulnerable people". This world is going to hell, but I'll try to comfort as many I can before we get there.
bellflower at March 28, 2014 1:03 PM
It's lawyer time.
It's important to note that the system now has a vested interest in detaining him. If they merely let him go, that would constitute an admission he never should have been held in the first place.
During his stay, expect the system to interview him endlessly in order to find something -- anything -- that can be retailed to the media and courts as a pretext.
Said another way, the system will now be protecting the system, a mission it never loses site of for long.
Lastango at March 28, 2014 1:17 PM
YOU, bellflower, are AWESOME.
Flynne at March 28, 2014 1:17 PM
Notice this?
"Instead he was just talking about how life will get better and started mentioning how 46% of the worlds wealth was owned by the 1% who want to rule the world. But he reassured me everything would be okay and a movement was coming to take back the wealth and give it to the people. He even talked about Nikola Tesla and how he was working on free energy but was silenced by those who wanted financial control. Then he said he had a message from God and handled me a brown piece of paper."
Nope. No such thing as "free energy".
Deluded. Whether he's a danger to anyone, including himself, is another matter, but he's not tightly wrapped.
Radwaste at March 28, 2014 1:44 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/03/28/charity_to_stra.html#comment-4437123">comment from RadwasteSounds like "Occupy Wall Street" + religion. Irrational but hardly uncommon.
And a lot of people believe in hoohah -- from homeopathy to 9/11 trutherism.
We don't strap them to beds.
Amy Alkon
at March 28, 2014 2:24 PM
The 1% do not like their agenda being discussed. Nor do they like Tesla's technology being discussed either. Whenever those subjects are discussed, the "discusser" will be silenced one way or another.
SM777 at March 28, 2014 5:43 PM
I do not know his mental state, but this -
"... Nikola Tesla and how he was working on free energy but was silenced by those who wanted financial control."
is very close to true. Tesla showed he could extract power without wires [notably already existing power, sort of like already existing "radio" waves now often called "static"], and had the interest of George Westinghouse. But since he could not figure out how to charge for the power, Westinghouse went elsewhere. Tesla had a similar problem with radio, which Marconi figured out how to make money with (yes, courts eventually accepted that Tesla invented radio and Marconi had stolen it), Tesla was a sort of science and engineering genius, but often useless at business and/or finance.
John A at March 28, 2014 8:19 PM
Well, here are the conspiracy nuts.
One of Tesla's machines was in each WTC tower, weakening it and attracting two jets.
Radwaste at March 28, 2014 9:24 PM
This is a good example of how the press twists facts to make a good story.
Richard Wright was wandering around Halifax in the same grubby clothing for several days giving out money to strangers and telling them his theories about God, energy, and politics. Sometimes he'd give people $100, other times it would be 50 cents. He told them that he was living in the woods. It was the combination of that, his appearance, and his 1%er, Tesla conspiracy, GOD talk that caused people to think he was mentally ill. Basically he came off like the crazy man from central casting. The Halifax police had him evaluated but released him because he hadn't committed any crimes.
It was when he returned home to Charlottesville that the local PD picked him up at the request of 'someone' that his psychological condition be evaluated. That someone was most likely either a family member or the Halifax authorities.
He was evaluated by multiple psychiatrists at a local hospital and placed on a 28 day hold for treatment and further evaluation. But he wasn't confined until after some incident with the other patients. He claims that it's because he told the hospital that he's going to sue them on behalf of all of the patients that have ever stayed their. Whatever the reason, he's now confined to his room.
I don't know if this guy has been unjustly institutionalized, but it's apparent that it's not because he gave strangers money.
Drew at March 29, 2014 11:20 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/03/28/charity_to_stra.html#comment-4439424">comment from DrewI don't find it reasonable for adults to believe in god, homeopathy, or a number of things, but should we really be institutionalizing them for it? Even for a short time? It is too easy for people to be able to call someone nuts. A vengeful ex or other person who has ulterior motives can do this -- and I suspect that when it happens, it often has to do with money.
Amy Alkon
at March 29, 2014 11:45 AM
I don't disagree with you, but I also think there's reason to suspect that there is more going on here than what his teenaged daughter is relating. He may really need some help. It's not unheard of for people to develop acute mental illness later in life. We don't know enough to understand what's really going on.
Drew at March 29, 2014 2:15 PM
Cousin Dave nailed it. Our government takes the Nanny State to a whole new scary level. The NSA takes lessons from our guys.
wtf at March 31, 2014 7:17 AM
I should add, Amy, that this is what I find the most odd...
"In a Monday afternoon statement, the agency said that nobody can be committed involuntarily unless two physicians deem the person to be "of harm to themselves or others."
Exactly. Canada's mental health laws are so stringent that we actually have difficulty getting seriously ill people the health care they need, due solely to the "danger to themselves or others" clause. It is so difficult in Canada to prove this clause we have seriously ill people running around only because the doctors can't agree they pose a threat.
Yet they throw this guy into the loony bin for giving away money?
wtf at March 31, 2014 7:32 AM
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