No doubt most of you have been entrenched in the news about
Sandy Hook Elementary and Adam Lanza. The case brings out a lot of anger and
sorrow—and rightfully so. This is a situation where we have babies (yes, babies) between the ages of six and
seven being slaughtered. Twenty of them lost their lives and we cannot nor must
we ever forget that.
I want to talk about some things on the blog today because
there have been some chats in newsrooms across the country that have put me on
edge. They pertain to mental health issues which already carry the heavy cross
of stigma.
We know two things: Adam Lanza was either mentally ill or
evil. There is a difference between the two and let’s not forget it. Now,
people have been batting around the idea of him having a personality disorder,
Asperger’s, or autism. I hate to burst your bubble, media, but none of those
conditions can fairly be held accountable for the actions of Lanza in that elementary school.
I recently saw a post on Facebook with Lanza’s picture. The
caption below read: “Like” this if you think he should burn in Hell. We’re seeing
the fallout of a serious act of carnage and reacting viscerally. I don’t want
to think of Adam Lanza in Hell because I don’t want to think of anyone in Hell.
Lanza was once someone’s baby, someone’s son, and someone’s brother. But before
you go accusing me of having “sympathy for the devil”, let me get to my main
point.
My main point concerns a national dialogue that is beginning
to spin out of control. People are wondering how we prevent tragedies like this
and in the interim of their attention spans they are playing judge and jury
with what should be done with the mentally ill.
Just yesterday I saw a psychiatrist being interviewed. He
was proposing ideas such as vigilance and monitoring suspicious behavior and
actively reporting it to authorities. He listed things such as isolation, not
being present in public situations, being shy, being aloof, and being pensive
and inward looking. None of these things are mental illnesses. In fact, there
are “normal” adults who prefer to spend a night at home, who get uncomfortable
around other human beings, and accidentally say embarrassing things. Are these
people, too, mentally ill? And exactly to whom are we going to report their
behavior? The police? Or even worse: the government?
How short are our
memories? Do we not remember the massive stone buildings which now stand empty
and silent that used to house people suffering from various ailments which one
could conveniently slap the label of “mental illness” onto with the right
degree? Have we forgotten the institutions, the suffering, and the permanently
silencing of the “undesirables” by locking them up and throwing away the key?
Do we really want to go back down that road again?
My point is this: We had better think hard and we had better
make darn sure that we know what we are doing as a society. If acting
inappropriately can land you in a new institution then so can speaking
inappropriately. Doesn’t that stand to reason? It’s an all too convenient way
to do away with people that become obstacles in our daily lives. But is it
right? Is this still going to be the land of the free twenty years or so down
the line? This is just some food for thought.
