SABREOCRACY.NET (formerly SIVACRACY.NET)

My dear friend Kim Hewitt wrote this and sent it to me this morning:

I want to extend my sympathy to forgotten victims of the VA Tech tragedy: Cho Seung-hui and his family.

Almost ten years ago to the day my brother committed suicide. Ravaged by mental illness, he was unable to make good decisions about his healthcare. Geographically distant from his family, evicted, homeless, unable to obtain appropriate care in a hospital emergency room or community clinic, possibly paranoid, possibly psychotic, he lost touch and disappeared in the city of Portland, Oregon. Months later he killed himself in a public place in an extremely violent manner.

At the time, my one comfort was that he had not hurt anyone but himself. The loss of my only brother, an intelligent, talented musician, was devastating, but I wasn’t able to bear the thought that in the tangled depths of his mental illness that he may have inflicted harm on others. I can’t imagine the grief of Cho Seung-hui’s family.

Our communities are failing to deal with mental illness. We are failing the families of those who suffer mental illness and we are failing to face what is increasingly becoming a public health problem. Every city in America has mentally ill homeless people wandering the streets – visible, but virtually ignored. Every town in America has trouble providing services to those who suffer mental illness and their families. It is a complex problem. We can’t ignore this problem any more. Incidents like the VA Tech shootings are not typical – thankfully most mentally ill people are not violent. But there is a deep terror that settles in when one sees a loved one fall through the cracks of society, sinking deeper and deeper into an unknown world. The answers aren’t easy or obvious, but it is obvious that mental illness is terrorizing families and communities all over the country. When are we going to take this problem seriously?