Letters: Mental illness issue not so simple

I just read Rich Lowry’s response to the Connecticut school shooting (Dec. 19). He goes after the mental-illness aspect of this multifaceted problem, partially to try to deflect focus on the gun problem aspect.

Lowry’s concern for the mental-illness aspect is necessary, but he doesn’t carry forward his argument very far. Lowry is a tea-party, anti-government, no-taxes zealot.

What he fails to mention in his column is that holding those views doesn’t realistically match the reality of the mental illness that he mentions. Mental-health treatment for the general public takes money, takes taxes and takes government — local and state — with federal funding. It can only realistically be done by government.

The churches, charities and volunteer medical clinics cannot do the job to the degree of effort necessary to address the problem. You can’t defund the government effort and expect better results. That’s almost like a law of physics in reverse.

So, if Lowry is serious about addressing the real mental-health aspect of this tragedy and the next one to come, he needs to think through his current political ideologue/theology and realize the real-life consequences they carry.

Alex Chapman

lawyer

Ville Platte

Comments

1) Comment by HerbF - 26/12/2012

Mental health deserves attention, but not as a panacea for these incidents. That would pretty much require telepathy, not health care.

2) Comment by DMJ - 26/12/2012

"Since Obamacare is now law, everyone is covered by health insurance." Wrong. The ACA doesn't make anyone get insurance, it merely penalizes them for not buying it while extending Medicaid to those who can't afford it. The ACA will only work if everyone does their part.

3) Comment by nimby? - 26/12/2012

enough funding would prove each and everyone of us has some sort of mental issue . it is a shame that there are those who will use this as an excuse , crutch while so many who are physically , mentally challenged are happily , gainfully employed .

4) Comment by Mildred Citizen - 25/12/2012

Since Obamacare is now law, everyone is covered by health insurance. The mentally ill will have access to treatment. The truth is, most mentally ill will not seek treatment. The tough question is about where do we draw that line that allows government to incarcerate people who have been convicted of no crime yet under the guise of commitment to a mental facility? Recently, the federal and local authorities showed up to escort a decorated Marine to a mental facility for fairly benign posts he made on Facebook. With higher rates of taxation, forced purchases of private products, government takeover of industries, increased government regulation, The Patriot Act, etc - how much more will we allow the government to erode our freedom. At what point is America no longer the land of opportunity and home of the free? You can be sure that none of the founding fathers would recognize the centralized, overtly powerful federal government we have today as being the realization of the ideals they expressed when they helped the birth of this nation in blood and sacrifice to win our freedom from Britain. In fact, the taxes they rebeled against pale in comparison to our modern level of taxation.