Probe this!
Submitted by jessica max on Thu, 05/03/2007 - 11:24pm
So Bush wants to 'probe' into the mentally ill in response to the Virginia Tech shootings. I hope everyone sees this for the rights-violating bullshit that it is. This was my off-the-cuff response in the forums.
Dear President Bush,
I'm so glad to hear that you're concerned about Americans who may consider themselves "mentally unstable". I agree that a cohesive, functioning society is one in which no one feels the need to resort to violence to express their mental state.
To that end, I'm sure you see that this war is really just an expression of the mental illness of the American government. What are the real needs being masked by this "symptom" of violence?
I'm sure that you see also the connection between poverty, oppression and mental health. To that end, ensuring food, shelter and safety for everyone will help eradicate these problems about which you and I are both so concerned. Let's set up more food banks and homeless shelters, as well as clothing barrels on every corner. Let's also work to eradicate oppression, starting with restoring women's right and access to choice, making "education" non-compulsory, and having punishments for hate crimes at least as stringent as the Rockefeller Drug Laws.
Mr. Bush, I'm so glad you share my concern about mental illness in America. I'm elated to see you working for a country that values all of its citizens, and not just corporate wanks.
I close this letter with a smile on my face and a hand over my heart as if saying the pledge.
--Max
P.S. FUCK YOU MOTHERFUCKER! I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!
May I be the first to say
May I be the first to say A-fucking-men. What kills me about this whole issue is that Bush is totally ignoring the fact that the Virginia Tech shooter was being treated by the mental health system with SSRI's which, for all we know, was the cause of the violent outbursts and paranoid thoughts, not his own mental 'disorder.' It is just as likely that the treatment exacerbated his issues. Perhaps if they had treated him as they would like to be treated, with dignity and community support things would have turned out differently.