Welcome to yet another year of people being mowed down by a hail of bullets… schools, grocery stores, public gatherings… everywhere. No one is safe.
Is this a gun problem? Not really. Is it mental illness? Not really. Is it hurt, damaged, pushed-to-the-limit individuals who have lost sight of any other thoughts or solutions? Most definitely. Are schools properly locked and secure? Usually not.
While, by definition, this is not mental “illness”, it is mental instability. People lost in a system that doesn’t care about mental “health”. Our insurances, except for *maybe* medicaid, don’t provide adequate coverage for folks to even get regular talk-therapy. Even my medicare with supplement does a half-assed job of making sure folks have support and coping mechanisms. We need tools for working thru anger and understanding where our feelings are coming from so that we don’t lash out at others.
The United States of America has a mental health and medical care problem. Our government just throws us under the proverbial bus. “Good luck,” they say.
I am a firm believer that everyone needs a confidante who can offer support and tools to manage stress and challenges. Plainly, everybody could use psycho-therapy [talk therapy]. Few people without diagnosable mental illness need medication, but they do need to air their grievances and find healthy ways to work out frustration and anger. Lowering the hammer of government prohibition and restrictions on firearms won’t make a lick of difference in our nation’s problems.
In fact, disarming the citizens only serves to weaken them when facing a tyrannical leadership. We have the second amendment to provide a way to fight back when Uncle Sam oversteps his boundaries. There has not been a moment in my adult life when we haven’t been under the rule of tyranny and terrorism. Just saying…
I lost my psycho-therapist in January. He had to move to another state. We had an arrangement so that I could pay what I could afford. Trust me when I say, most care providers want the money before helping you. I was lucky to have someone work with me for over a decade who cared about my mental health and not the all-mighty dollar.
Now, I am facing losing my psych meds provider because my insurance kicked their office out of network and I cannot afford to pay out of pocket. I guess this office failed to payoff the insurance company… who knows. It is all a money bureaucracy with no interest in human well-being.
I feel like my mental health has been under constant attack in 2022. And I feel that more shootings could be avoided if people, especially young people, are encouraged and supported to seek out therapy. No one should be ashamed to have a therapist. Getting help is the strong, wise course of action.
Don’t doubt that the “-isms” of the world are inherently evil, but not every shooting is about an “-ism”. But every shooting is about a human. And that human probably needed help long before reaching their breaking point. Whether therapy or diversity training, or both, might have stopped some of the recent shootings, we will never know. But wouldn’t it be nice if everyone had the option and freedom to seek out therapy?
As a felon, my right to bear arms and my right to vote have been stripped from me, tho I never used a firearm in an inappropriate way, ever. And I am not allowed into my child’s school because I am on the sex offender registry. But people still fear me. I just don’t comprehend the lack of logic in our criminal justice and health care systems.
Nevertheless, I have had my say. I hope this finds you all well and safely out of public spaces, for the most part. Mahalo.
Yarn Spells 