Message to America

The terrible truth that no one wants to admit is: for Loughner to have committed the heinous crime he did, required MANY people — friends, family, clergy, co-workers­, & educators — to ignore his rantings & allegiance­s, to overlook him as a risk, and to fail to get him the institutio­nalization he needed.



The painful events of this weekend aren’t really about political vitriol or gun control; they’re about how our culture copes with mental health issues. As I read more about Loughner, it's clear that he was delusional in many, many ways.



Today's environmen­t of harsh rhetoric doesn't help the mentally ill. Easy access to guns doesn't help the mentally ill. And Sarah Palin doesn't help the mentally ill... even if she’s mentally ill herself. But America must learn how to identify and cope with mental illness.



But history has proven that crazy and violent Americans like Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, Theodore Kazinsky, Timothy McVeigh, the Columbine assailants and now this gem of a man demonstrat­e their sicknesses well before they commit their heinous crimes — a trail of evidence suggesting how badly they needed our help before their acts of terrorism.



What makes me so sad isn't just this act of terrorism, but also what it says about us: our culture, our awareness and our priorities­. Every one of us — even in some small way — is responsibl­e for what just happened and what will happen moving forward. We bare more than witness; we bare responsibi­lity.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost