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Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

seattletimes.com

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Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#121

Post by mindgam3 »

jawns wrote: post #85

Former editor here. This is a really interesting story, but if I were Greenstone's editor I would feel really conflicted about running it. There's the elephant in the room -- mental health. What did the reporter get on record? "She did not want to discuss mental health but feels it should be treated more seriously in Washington." Then there's her family. What did the reporter get on record? "Her immediate family in t…

The elephant in the room isn’t “mental health” - it’s severe developmental trauma. As described in the article:

“Twigg was still a child when she became homeless.

A prodigy in academics and athletics, she started at UW at the age of 14... At this time, she was living in Seattle in a basement with her mother and sister.

Twigg’s sister says their mom kicked Twigg out; Twigg remembers being offered the option to leave and taking it. She was a few months from turning 16.”

I’m sorry, I don’t need to “weave a tale” about anything other than the fact that this person has been subject to abuse since childhood. And yeah, of course her family doesn’t want to talk. Nobody wants to talk about abuse in the family.

If anything is missing, it’s our collective blind spot where we can read a story like this and make it about “mental health”. Until we get better as a society about recognizing clear signs of abuse, we won’t make a dent in these kinds of problems.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#122

Post by objectivetruth »

exabrial wrote: post #117
jniedrauer wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An entire generation has been romanticized that if you "do what you love" you'll end up a billionaire. The complete opposite is true. The implication that flipping burgers will make you a billionaire is patently absurd. You should never feel ashamed about your work, but menial work in $current_year actually leads to poverty and hunger because it doesn't pay a living wage. An "entire generation" doesn't have illusio…

That's a ridiculous exaggeration of my words. Flipping burgers will put a roof over your head, buy you some food, and give you a small amount of savings. From there you move up. Better education, better job, more savings.

Only a very small set of people are able to convert a $10/hour job into savings (minimum wage in many places is even less). Presumes you live in a state with subsidized medical care, presumes you have no kids, presumes you have no unexpected expenses like a blown engine or broken axle.

Read Ehrenreich or any of the modern authors on poverty to realize that it's not just a matter of "Well, $10 an hour times 180 hours a month is $1800 and the median rent is $900, ergo everyone is fine!"

Yes, it IS possible, but the goal of society is to make it easier for everyone not just the luckiest and most badass 5%.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#124

Post by magic_beans »

tw1010 wrote: post #12

"She took a break at age 26, and that year she grew an entire inch" What's that again? I've never heard of anyone growing after the age of 18.

> I've never heard of anyone growing after the age of 18.

Just because you haven't heard of something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#125

Post by sjg007 »

maxxxxx wrote: post #82
sjg007 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The obvious is that she should be a coach for the Olympic cycling teams.

Unfortunately not many athletes make good coaches.

I mean, I use the term "coach" loosely... It is in US cycling's interest for this women to not be homeless.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#126

Post by DoreenMichele »

jawns wrote: post #85

Former editor here. This is a really interesting story, but if I were Greenstone's editor I would feel really conflicted about running it. There's the elephant in the room -- mental health. What did the reporter get on record? "She did not want to discuss mental health but feels it should be treated more seriously in Washington." Then there's her family. What did the reporter get on record? "Her immediate family in t…

The article does detail a history of a head injury that required stitches.

Most homeless people have either medical or mental health issues. The older I get, the more convinced I am that those two things are not so neatly separated.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#127

Post by DanBC »

e12e wrote: post #102
jniedrauer wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that posting suicide hotline numbers seems like the right thing to do, but it's generally not helpful. People who call these numbers run the real risk of being detained against their will for extended periods of time while running up large hospital bills, when they just needed someone to talk to. Then there's the lack of statistical evidence that suicide hotline numbers actually prevent suicides in the long ru…

> lack of statistical evidence that suicide hotline numbers actually prevent suicides in the long run. I'm not sure if you say what you mean; but that's not really their purpose as I understand it? Prevent a suicide today, open the door to treatment tomorrow - vs failing to prevent a suicide today, and there being no option for treatment tomorrow?

There's not much evidence that suicide hotlines prevent a death by suicide today thus opening the door to treatment tomorrow.

There's even a suggestion that suicide helplines might normalise suicide, or make it more real. https://twitter.com/ProfLAppleby/status/1110821429443026946

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#128

Post by exabrial »

jniedrauer wrote: post #120
exabrial wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a ridiculous exaggeration of my words. Flipping burgers will put a roof over your head, buy you some food, and give you a small amount of savings. From there you move up. Better education, better job, more savings.

You said (paraphrased) "doing what you love will not make you a billionaire. The opposite is true. You should go flip burgers." This can either mean "doing what you love will make you poor. And also you should flip burgers" or "doing things you don't like will make you a billionaire." It's possible I misunderstood what you were saying, but whichever point you were trying to make, it's a patronizing extension of the t…

That's still an extreme exaggeration of my words. Your argument is pointless.

> they haven't paid anything close to a living wage in a very long time

That is definitely not true. One can eat a grocery store for a few bucks a week. You can rent a place for $250-$500/mo in the vast majority of cities in the country, excluding the cities where millennials are flocking to; take Topeka, Kansas, or Fayetteville, Arkansas, or any number of small cities scattered across the USA.

Like I said in my initial comment, it's totally possible to pull yourself out of the situation, but one must forgo the flashy lifestyle of living in Seattle and the like.

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#129

Post by stevenwoo »

koonsolo wrote: post #101

As a European, it always baffles me how normal it is in US to be homeless. Seems like it can happen to anyone during their life. A bit of bad luck and you're on the street. In Europe, there are so many safety nets that nobody should end up homeless. Some still do, but it's really a tiny minority compared to US. This is also one of the most surprising things I saw, the first time I went to the US: so many homeless peo…

I do not know for certain, but it may be that homeless are easier to see in the USA (I have seen people living in tents/on sidewalk in sleeping bags on/under the onramp to the freeway in San Francisco/San Jose/San Diego which is still shocking), but the stats don't make the USA much worse than the UK/France/Germany/Netherlands from a quick sampling of western European nations. Of course how it's defined and how the stats were gathered are all important, but I've seen UK homelessness/rough sleeping discussed on the front page of the UK edition of The Guardian.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeless_...

Re: Olympic medal-winning cyclist Rebecca Twigg is homeless in Seattle

#130

Post by stevenwoo »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #11
doe88 wrote: post #3

I'm feeling for her. Finding the right work is never easy but it seems reconversion after pro-sport can be really tricky, especially for these sports where it's hard to earn enough to make a living. From all the examples I read through the years I got the impression that the least disrupting kind of reconversion in these cases is have the luck to find a way to somehow stay in your sport, trainer, or work in the feder…

>and of course I think it's even more difficult when you're a woman. // Would you mind explaining why? I'd imagine how difficult it is to move to the coaching/administration level was more a function of the particular sport? Are you thinking just about differences in the level of funding?

Only in the past year has it become mandatory for women at an elite level of cycling to be paid a salary and it's less than beginning male pros who are just starting out. Probably less than a dozen women make over five figures a year. 95% of the advertising money in cycling is generated from the men's Tour de France. The organization that runs the Tour de France and a few other races, these are mostly for men with sometimes a day or two set aside for women's races. All the money gets generated by the men's events, gets poured back into creating men's events. For a different type of story, we could look at women's tennis. The cigarette brand Virginia Slims became the sponsor, the sport was televised, and the women started earning ballpark what the men were at least in prize money back in the 70's. It helped that there were few women at the top of tennis and they organized together. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Slims_Circuit There are a few superstars in cycling but the farm system or whatever you want to call it is full of potential riders to replace the current ones so it's too easy to get strike breakers if cyclists tried to do the same thing.
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