Our local news covered this latest shooting on the evening news.
As far as Charles Whitman and the Texas tower shooting, he saw multiple doctors for his anger-and told one that he wanted to shoot people from that very tower. The doctor did nothing, told no one. Whether the mandated reporting was in place in 1966, I have no idea.
The ball was dropped with Whitman; not just with the doctors who medicated him but even those involved with him while he was a Marine. He also left a diary in which, among other things, he wrote that he couldn't stand for his wife and mother to see his failures.
Charles Whitman murdered his wife and his mother before heading to that tower. Shades of Sandy Hook.
Unstable mindsets are obviously an important factor; but the constant spewng out of misinformation and unfounded hatred in the media is pushing some of these disturbed individuals to take matters into their own hands.
We are an exploding population but look at the incremental factor of those numbers compared to the number of shootings.
People get angry; we all get upset over "stuff". But the unstable mind magnifies that "stuff" and seeks relief through violence.
It isn't a cut and dried situation; we cannot just put everyone suffering from mental illness on a shelf with the usual generic label of "mentally ill".
People have stopped listening to each other; we argue and right-fight, we hang onto the words of "those in the know" without investigating facts on our own.
It's easier to listen to the garbage spewed out because it's an outlet for our own misery and unhappiness; we use it to justify as to why we are unhappy instead of taking inventory of our own flaws.
Much easier to sit and listen to somebody else telling us why we should be unhappy, why we should be afraid, why we should hate, why, why, why-letting others run our perceptions of the world and our own lives instead of taking the reins and working out our own ****** by taking responsibility for what we can change and accepting what we cannot change.
Many people are angry for the wrong reasons; and they use anything to justify the anger and to justify why they do what they do.
I agree that mental health care needs a major overhaul; but the stigma of being mentally ill remains today.
We need to be cautious; I don't want to see people being forced to be locked up again when adequate counseling, follow-up, and medications for those conditons that require it can be enough sometimes.
Most of all, we need to be kind to those dealing with some type of mental illness, to be the type of person to listen, just listen to a person hurting mentally, spiritually, physically-all factor one way or another.
The solution is not one-sided; and that is why every single time this happens, we send thoughts and prayers, express our outrage, then move along with our own lives.
"" Compassion is a verb."-Thich Nhat Hanh
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