Community | January 12, 2011 | 20 comments

MADNESS in Arizona

source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/sblow/stories/011211dnme...

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remanns
The real issue of the Arizona tragedy : mental illness.

- Arizona tragedy arose from mental illness, not political incivility -


I think we can all agree that more civility in politics would be a good thing.

But it would also be nice if the tragic shootings in Arizona prompted a discussion of the real issue at hand, not a wild goose chase about ugly politics.

Mental illness – that's the thing we ought to be talking about, plain and simple.

Jared Loughner rattled on in gibberish about words, the meaning of words, the meaninglessness of words, words, words.

The 22-year-old dropped out of community college after frightening classmates with his hostile, rambling outbursts. He was told he couldn't return without assurances from mental-health professionals that he wasn't dangerous.

And we're harping at each other about civility in politics?

Sometimes I wonder about our own collective mental health. We would rather not deal with reality.

If Loughner is simply another young man with mental illness, well then, that doesn't leave us much room to scold each other over incivility or gun laws or whatever.

Or does it?

It may not be nearly as much fun, but this tragedy offers plenty of opportunity to talk about mental illness and the shabby way our society deals with it.

For the record, Dr. James Baker said neither political civility nor talk radio nor Sarah Palin came to his mind when he heard news about the shooter.

"I said to myself, ‘I'll bet it turns out that he has mental health problems.' "

MORE,....at
LINK - - -
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/localnews/columnists/sblow/storie...

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20 comments // MADNESS in Arizona

  • sugarlilly
  • remanns
    • +2
      remanns  

    • Society owes it to,....SOCIETY,....to be more attentive,....to have more safeguards,...CARE. This is a self inflicted wound.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
    • +1
      remanns  
    • Image

    • 2 bits more -
      Documents detail Ariz. suspect's college outbursts

      By MICHAEL R. BLOOD

      TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- For four years, Jared Loughner was an unremarkable college student, commuting to classes near his home where he studied yoga and algebra, business management and poetry.

      But last year, his classroom conduct began to change. In February, Loughner stunned a teacher by talking about blowing up babies, a bizarre outburst that marked the start of a rapid unraveling for the 22-year old, who is accused of slaying six people and wounding 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

      After his first flare-up, campus police decided not to intervene.

      "I suggested they keep an eye on him," an officer wrote.

      -Loughner's on-campus behavior grew increasingly erratic, menacing, even delusional. Fifty-one pages of police reports released Wednesday provided a chilling portrait of Loughner's last school year, which ended in September when he was judged mentally unhinged and suspended by Pima Community College.
      ---------------------------------

      and
      "He very slowly began telling me in a low and mumbled voice that under the Constitution, which had been written on the wall for all to see, he had the right to his 'freedom of thought' and whatever he thought in his head he could also put on paper. ... His teacher 'must be required to accept it' as a passing grade," the officer wrote.

      "It was clear he was unable to fully understand his actions."

      The school reports provide the most detailed accounts so far of Loughner's troubles at the college, and he is depicted at times as "creepy," "very hostile" and "having difficulty understanding what he had done wrong in the classroom." School officials have not said if the reports were shared with any authorities beyond campus.

      During his first outburst, in a poetry class, he made comments about abortion, wars and killing people, then asked: "Why don't we just strap bombs to babies?"

      LINK - -
      http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CONGRESSWOMAN_SHOT?SITE=KLIF&SECTI...

    • 1 year ago
  • ThatCrazyLibertarian
  • remanns
    • +2
      remanns  
    • ThatCrazyLibertarian:

      yep. We really don't want to spend the funds to deal,...really, with the mentally ill.

      We just have to sweep them under the carpet,.... and if they make lumps,....we STOMP on the carpet. Kind of hard on the carpet.

    • 1 year ago
  • pjacobs51
    • +2
      pjacobs51  

    • "I've been mad for fucking years, absolutely years, been
      over the edge for yonks, been working me buns off for bands..."

      "I've always been mad, I know I've been mad, like the
      most of us...very hard to explain why you're mad, even
      if you're not mad..."

      ~ Floyd

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
    • +1
      remanns  
    • pjacobs51:

      I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
      dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,
      Angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection
      to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,

      ~Ginsberg

      +^d

    • 1 year ago
  • ThatCrazyLibertarian
  • pjacobs51
  • pjacobs51
    • +2
      pjacobs51  
    • ThatCrazyLibertarian:

      I'm closer to the Golden Dawn
      Immersed in Crowley's uniform
      Of imagery
      I'm living in a silent film
      Portraying
      Himmler's sacred realm
      Of dream reality
      I'm frightened by the total goal
      Drawing to the ragged hole
      And I ain't got the power anymore
      No I ain't got the power anymore

      I'm the twisted name
      on Garbo's eyes
      Living proof of
      Churchill's lies
      I'm destiny
      I'm torn between the light and dark
      Where others see their targets
      Divine symmetry
      Should I kiss the viper's fang
      Or herald loud
      the death of Man
      I'm sinking in the quicksand
      of my thought
      And I ain't got the power anymore

      Don't believe in yourself
      Don't deceive with belief
      Knowledge comes with death's release

      ~ Bowie

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • remanns
  • remanns
  • pjacobs51
  • ThatCrazyLibertarian
  • remanns
  • Proud_Progressive
  • remanns
  • bundlebear
  • remanns
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