The Terrible Thing in Arizona and Why the Media Is Missing the Point

This is a powerful post. The words on display here need to be read by these news reporters and journalists. I've been lucky enough to work with people I have educated about my mental illness so it works in my favor. But that's just me. The stigma will reign over all until someone, someone powerful, erases it completely. I hope this happens within my lifetime so I can give a standing ovation and yell in victory!

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I agree with Katherine and Heather. Posts which seek to lay blame on either political party move the discourse away from where it needs to be... on the paucity of mental health detection and treatment services available and the continuing stigma associated with accessing such services. Instead of more commercials about Prozac, we need more public understanding and education of how and why such illnesses develop and what we can do... which is thankfully plenty!

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Finally-some basic common-heartfelt sense. Yes mental illness needs to be recognized-it effects so many people. And yet people want to act like it doesn't exist or its a choice. Its not a choice-trust me no one would want to live with mental illness. So thank-you Kathrine...I hope people listen.

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Yes I agree mental illness is rampant, with multiple causes, especially in our younger population, with research and resources either severely lacking or nonexistent for this group. A lot of this has to do with government apathy {too busy spreading Democracy}, indifference and our societal emphasis on individualism {greed}, resulting in shame, stigma and alienation within families and communities as a whole. All of this is an undeniable reality and needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. Over time this situation will only get worse as younger individuals seek relief through self medication with the use of psychotic inducing substances like Marijuana ,Meta Amphetamines {speed} Crack Cocaine and other exotic concoctions legal and illegal. None of this however is directly responsible for the killing of seven people and the wounding of several others in Arizona last week. Mentally ill people as was pointed out in an earlier commentary rarely commit mayhem or at least no more than the population in general. This tragedy happened because a mentally ill deeply troubled individual could go to a store and purchase guns and ammunition that is manufactured with the specific intent to kill and maim fellow law abiding, unsuspecting humans beings. America wake up, a Tombstone mentality is appropriate for the Arizona of Wyatt Earp and Billy The Kid, not a sophisticated and complex, multicultural, interdependent society of the post industrial 21 century. Notice the gun manufacturers don't even get a mention in being in anyway responsible for this horrible act , like they had nothing to do with these killings, who are these people, where are these weapons for killing people being produced , who is behind the gun manufacturing business? These are the questions and issues that need to be asked and exposed. Otherwise this avoidable tragedy will repeat itself over and over in our cities and towns all over the USA. Why is it in this great country , that every time some mentally disturbed individual shoots multiple people with a weapon designed to kill people, our first reaction is to diddle with the effect and not the cause.Notice the politicians { Rep King N.Y} are only concerned about their own safety in coming up with solutions where your safety and mine is secondary and incidental.Help is however on the way in the form of a raising of social and political consciousness that will come about through real education and awareness and interaction with other complex and sophisticated systems of government. Societies where concern for the economic and spiritual well being of the citizens has precedence over perpetual wars and accumulating resources and wealth in the hands of the Corporate Military/Wall Street Complex. This is the same ownership class that currently owns you , your country and all the weapons being produced everyday right here in the land of the free and the home of the naive.Weapons that are being used to kill people in Baghdad, Kabul,Lahore, Gaza, Beirut,Belfast,London,Paris, Algiers,Congo, Cape Town, Nigeria, Kampala, Sudan and yes less we forget Tuscon Arizona . The sale of.weapons for killing people is the most most lucrative and profitable businesses on the planet second only to Hedge Funds, CDO's and Currency Trading. Take Oakland California for example where in some Ghettos you can buy AK 47's ,Uzzis, high powered rifles, night scopes, amour piercing ammunition on the side of the Street but you could not find a meaningful school text book , a newspaper , or a copy of Mother Jones, The Guardian Newspaper or Das Kapital to save your life. Neighborhoods where they think, Leon Trotsky is an anti diarrheal medicine and Norm Chomsky is a Martial Arts/ Sushi Bar in San Francisco and Vladimir Lenin was John Lennon's older mentally delusional brother .Wake up America the Russians are coming, again, and this time they will be armed with solutions in the form of an evolved Political Consciousness. A consciousness where religion will be illegal, sex will no longer be a sin and violence, avarice ,hubris and greed are punishable by death. Viola.
Tony Angelo

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This article makes some very good points like the fact that our mental health system needs help. However, it misses something very important. If someone is a psychopath, which is not a mental illness but rather a personality disorder, no amount of medication or therapy are going to cure them. I am mentally ill and I'm tired of being put in the same group as people who commit violent crimes. The thought that the next time I'm hospitalized I may be sharing a room with a violent offender because he had a good lawyer makes me cringe. Mental illness does not excuse violence and neither is it a reason for it.

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I realize that there are people that are mentally ill, but there are people out there that are just evil and evil can't be cured.

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