JULY 24, 2026 VENDOR VOICES GROUNDCOVER NEWS The stranger we despise and a mirror most people want to break It is no exaggeration that the past several years have been pretty exceptional in a lot of ways, and not what people would consider to be good. Along with the declining state of the world — the stagnation of people’s situations, the extreme continuation of “the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer” — it is also getting stranger. Perhaps you could say it is growing unrecognizable. The comfort and familiarity that allowed us to still exist in it to some degree, despite its flaws and challenges, are now dissolving. The life we knew seems to be fading and being replaced with something else. And it is not a change for the better. The air is thick with apprehension these days. What is also apparent is the lack of any action being taken to address whatever the hell is going on. And if anything is being done at all it often feels like the most unhealthy option possible for society’s stability. Stability is a pretty inaccurate word and they often react by finding ways to lash out and impose the pressures they are feeling onto others. So as expected with all the insanity going on, everybody is pretty much at each other's throats. It also bothers me how most JAMES MANNING Groundcover vendor No. 16 when applied to American society. At most times the atmosphere seems more chaotic and unpredictable than anything else. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m absolutely correct to assume that, like myself, everybody in recent years has been going about their lives in a state of perpetual frustration, along with the cost of forfeiting everything this country was intended to stand for. Being in a constant state of unknowing and discontent wears people down Hit and run accident on Main Street ROBERTO ISLA CABALLERO Groundcover contributor On April 14, 2026, Main and Washington Streets were closed. I was crossing at that intersection and was hit by someone riding an electric scooter. The person on the scooter did not stop after hitting me and I was on the ground. Someone near me must have called 911 to help because shortly after the accident an ambulance showed up. The medics lifted me into the ambulance and took me to the hospital. At the hospital I found out my leg was broken in three parts. I had surgery where doctors put in steel rods. I was on medication to help with the pain. I stayed in the hospital for 10 days then was sent to a rehabilitation home for one month to recover. Since rehab I have been staying in different hotels thanks to the coordination by Washtenaw County Community Mental Health’s PATH Street Outreach team and Shelter Association of Washtenaw County Recouperative Care staff. I have worked many years selling Groundcover News. I quit and lost my job. I do not know what I am going to do next. In the past year when police received a complaint about me sleeping outside on my street corner in downtown Ann Arbor, I was sent to the county jail twice. I was outside because I have been trespassed from the shelter before and I do not always want to stay at the shelter. Last year I was talking with a lawyer and I told her to call ICE to pick me up because I no longer wanted to stay here and continue living outside. I have been sleeping outside for a long time. Somebody hit and hurt me and now I am using an electric wheelchair to get around. Is this the American Dream? Anyone who knows or has any information about what happened that day, please keep in mind that a miserable person almost executed a 67-year-old human being who uses a walker — and now an electric wheelchair. Images pictured above and to the right. Left: Caballero sits in his walker on Main and Washingon St. after surgery. Right: X-ray of Caballero's injured leg with three steel rods. MEDICATION from page 12 I kept going to the emergency room in 1996. Wendy Dolin is still alive and actively leading the MISSD Foundation. She’s a clinical social worker and family therapist based out of the Chicago area. She has a podcast called Akathisia Stories available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and Sound Cloud. There is also a MISSD website. I’ve often heard it said, “Why don’t mentally ill people just take their medication?” I hope this article makes you realize the answer isn’t always simple. Psychiatric meds have both very powerful effects and side effects. I see a nurse practitioner at CMH to go over these and sometimes adjust doses of my meds. Plus I can text her at any time and she gets back to me the next business day. Like I said, Wendy Dolin and I are not anti-medication. Quite the opposite. I’m extremely grateful for CMH and my medication. What I’m advocating for is for people to be careful, especially when starting a new drug or changing their dose, and for the medical profession to inform people more fully about the drugs they are prescribing. people will attack any available and convenient target instead of the ones truly responsible for the situation. Therefore the less fortunate, who face the harshest repercussions of the times, are also heavily targeted. And, despite having nothing to do with people's problems, they are scapegoated and that is good enough justification to persecute them. Stereotyping is a very common tool that nearly everybody applies to the individuals around them. This is likely due to our innate need for order, for categorization. However what we do or how we act in our perceptions is a critical gradient that permits coexistence or, ironically, produces chaos. Unfortunately many people choose to act out negatively regardless of how destructive it could potentially be. I have often felt this is driven by pride, or more precisely, a threat to their pride. Think about it — you feel someone is inferior but if you take time to meet them and get to know them, there is the chance that reality will contradict your assessment. That can definitely be taken as a threat and when threatened we go on the offensive and attack. And not because you were threatened by a lesser person, but instead by a mirror. Mirrors show us our incorrectness and perhaps other shortcomings. And we want to break them. All this doesn’t provide much help with the conflicted society we live in. However, it is something to be aware of, and understanding of what is taking place helps us to see how the situation will unfold. That could be enough to permit our survival, if not the critical factor in it. And for the time being it is going to have to be enough. 13
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