[Vision2020] How Many More Jared Loughners? America's Mental Health Crisis

[Ted Moffett]

It depends on how you define "right" and "left" as political
ideologies, regarding the rhetoric involved.  We hear over and over
from republican or Tea Party followers that Obama is a "socialist" but
I think this is a gross oversimplification and exageration.

The manner in which Obama is often labeled a "socialist" is an example
of extreme unthinking rhetoric.  Political ideology has shifted in the
US so that centrist moderate positions have become categorized as
"left-wing" or "socialist," while what are extreme libertarian
positions (attacks on public and higher education, for example) are
often defended as though they represent mom, apple pie and the flag.

A strong socialist would advocate nationalizing the oil,
telecommunications, airlines, auto industries and so forth.  Obama is
not a socialist.  Castro is a socialist, and to include Obama with
Castro as "socialists" is mindless mud slinging.  Nor would I describe
him as a "leftist," if by this term is meant excessive government
programs for a social safety net (health care) or excessive
progressive taxation to address economic inequalities.

As if the super rich in the US are threatened with having their wealth
massively seized by the "socialist" taxation policies of Obama?  Look
at the facts presented here:
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

Compared to the political/economic ideology of many democracies, Obama
is a centrist.  Most democracies have some form of universal health
care, but this does not make them "socialist" nations.  These
democracies still have large private sector capitalist enterprizes,
and a class of super rich individuals who have thus benefited.

Obama is a centrist, but he might appear as a socialist or leftist in
reference to an extreme libertarian political perspective, that
advocates dismantling public education, social security, medicare,
progressive taxation, and regulation of business and economic sectors.
 In fact, many Tea Party followers are more to the extreme "right"
(libertarian) when compared to most democracies then Obama is shifted
to the "left."

As far as violent rhetoric, the following survey lends credence to the
claim that Tea Party rhetoric is in fact more associated with
legitimizing violence, specifically agains the government, then is the
rhetoric coming from most moderate republicans and democrats:

[Vision2020] Tea Party Views on Violence Compared to Other Political Ideologies

http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/2011-January/074110.html

April 14, 2010 6:30 PM

Tea Party Supporters: Who They Are and What They Believe

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20002529-503544.html

>From website above:

"Twenty-four percent of Tea Party supporters say it is sometimes
justified to take violent action against the government. That compares
to 16 percent of Americans overall who say violence against the
government is sometimes justified."
------------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett

On 1/26/11, lfalen <lfalen at turbonet.com> wrote:
> Nick
> I agree with you that we should take care of the mentally ill and the
> disabled. I just wish  that you could find it in your heart to be a little
> more even handed in parcelling out blame. As the Michael O'Neal article
> points out, the rhetoric coming from the left is every bit as violent if not
> more so than that from the right. I personally think violent video games, TV
> and rap music have more of an impact that that of politicians. I have seen
> research reports that say these things have no effect. I think something is
> wrong with their research. A constant bombardment of these things can not
> help but deaden the senses. Particularly for the mentally unstable.
> Roger
> -----Original message-----
> From: nickgier at roadrunner.com
> Date: Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:21:38 -0800
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: [Vision2020] How Many More Jared Loughners? America's Mental Health
> Crisis
>
>> Dear Visionaries:
>>
>> Below is my radio commentary/column for this week.  The full version is
>> attached.
>>
>> Nick
>>
>> HOW MANY MORE JARED LOUGHNERS? AMERICA’S MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS
>>
>> Jared Loughner, the gunman who killed six and wounded 14 at a Tucson
>> Safeway, has all the symptoms of someone who is mentally ill.  Even though
>> anti-government rhetoric was found in his writings, many people want us to
>> believe that Loughner’s actions are exclusively those of a deranged mind.
>>
>> In a heart-wrenching letter in the Daily News, a father wrote about his
>> autistic son, who listens to Rush Limbaugh every day and sends frightening
>> e-mails to his father. He confesses that he “can easily see how Eric might
>> decide to make himself instantly famous with the aid of a gun.  Violent
>> rhetoric can indeed have violent consequences.
>>
>> Mental health professionals are reminding us that not all those who have a
>> mental disorder are violent individuals.  In fact, the mentally ill are
>> more often the targets of abuse not perpetrators.  It is estimated that
>> only 40,000 of 4 million mentally ill Americans can be considered violent.
>>
>>
>> Loughner should have been referred to a mental health clinic, but he most
>> likely would not have received treatment.  In his own Pima County 45
>> percent of those in mental health programs were disenrolled in 2009
>> because of budget cuts.
>>
>> A 2007 study in the British medical journal The Lancet estimated that 67
>> percent of Americans with mental disorders do not receive any treatment
>> (vol. 370: 878-89).  As with other social and health statistics—such a
>> teen births and infant mortality—U.S. mental health care compares with
>> Third World countries.
>>
>> Fox News’ psychiatrist Keith Ablow states that “in most states, the mental
>> health care delivery systems have been gutted by disproportionate cuts
>> that leave them reeling, understaffed and unreliable.”
>>
>> Ablow also blames private health insurers “who routinely deny
>> comprehensive services (like hospitalization) to people, even if they are
>> psychotic and drug addicted and even if they have expressed very serious
>> thoughts of violence.” But Ablow and his friend Glenn Beck condemn the
>> civilized world’s socialized medicine that offers much better mental
>> health coverage.
>>
>> Republicans now control the House and the most state legislatures ever,
>> and they will make sure that economic inequality increases and funding for
>> social and health programs decreases.
>>
>> The GOP mantra of “No New Taxes” will prevent the implementation of the
>> New Freedom Commission on Mental Health’s recommendations. Set up in 2002
>> by then President George W. Bush, the commissioners bemoaned the collapse
>> of the nation’s mental health services and proposed increased federal
>> funding in this area.
>>
>> The advocacy group America Mental Health makes a strong pitch to the
>> nation’s business leaders by reminding them that “untreated and mistreated
>> mental illness costs the United States $150 billion in lost productivity
>> each year, and U.S. businesses foot up to $44 billion of this bill.”
>>
>> American Mental Health proposes that “many considerations—ranging from
>> social justice to economic self-interest—make it imperative that the
>> federal government assume a major, focused, coordinated role in mental
>> health policy, a role both different and larger than it currently plays.”
>>
>> In his state of the state address Idaho Governor “Butch” Otter encouraged
>> families to gather around the kitchen table to solve their problems rather
>> than relying on “soul-crushing” state and federal programs to help them.
>>
>> Even the strongest families are helpless in the face of the challenges
>> posed by the Jared Loughners of the nation. Even the wisest fathers and
>> mothers on limited Idaho budgets must admit that government subsidized
>> mental health is the only way their troubled children are going to get the
>> help they need.
>>
>> Gov. Otter is not calling for cuts in Health and Welfare in his FY12
>> budget, but the department has suffered a 21 percent reduction over the
>> past three years.  In mental health alone 49 positions have been
>> eliminated in the adult and youth divisions.  In 2009 a Pocatello man, who
>> had been removed from a mental health program, shot and wounded a man near
>> his home.
>>
>> When I travel to India it is depressing to see so many beggars on the
>> streets and so many people that are obviously mentally ill.  The US
>> Conference of Mayors estimates that 40 percent of America’s 1.6 million
>> homeless people are mentally ill.  This is a national disgrace and an
>> international embarrassment.
>>
>> No amount of Otter “table talk” is going to solve these basic social and
>> psychological problems. Far too many souls have already been crushed and
>> fallen through the huge holes in America’s social safety net.
>>
>> Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.
>>
>>
>
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