As I sat in the waiting room of the oncology clinic today with Kathy somewhere in the depths of the next test, the live news feed came through the tele: mass murderer James Holmes makes his first court appearance. There he is, the clownishly appearing dazed suspect. If he is the one, and they are pretty sure it is so, he waltzed into a movie theater full of people excited to watch the new Batman film. What they got instead was a coward shooting fish in a barrel. When the smoke cleared they apprehended the psuedo-Ninja and took him into custody.
I’m trying to get my head around his head – an impossible thing to do, really – and attempt to comprehend such an act, which is of course, incomprehensible. But as I do so the people steadily wander through for testing or treatment or comfort. Doctors and staff are doing everything humanly possible to save life, protect the dignity of life, give people a fighting chance. The people who are waiting would do almost anything to live or to help their loved ones live.
And just a couple of states away the angel of death cut down the corn with his scythe. The pursuit of death, the pursuit of life, all in the same world, same time.
Where is hope? Where is justice? Where is inhumanity?
Right here, right here.
vitalwholeness 
And the co-creation continues–God wraps his love around us and gives us the capacity to receive and give comfort, to see heroism in the small things, to transcend the evil, the horror and the fear–whether in the oncology center or the terror-filled theater. He is there in it all, trying to love us closer, always.
Almost every time we have one of these horrendous massacres, some family or friend looks back and suggests there were some pretty obvious clues of mental illness. In this case, the accused’s mother did not seem surprised that her son was the suspect. Now there are questions about his psychiatrist, whether she should have reported him as a threat to himself or society.
There has been much discussion on television about mental illness as a defense for this massacre. Legally, it may not be a defense for him; but there is no doubt he is mentally ill. People who are mentally healthy do not murder masses of people.
We have an educational void when it come to mental illness. Budget cuts have reduced mental health care to putting out fires. Many people only see mental illness as someone’s meanness or obnoxiousness. Unless you’ve studied it or lived with someone with mental illness, you may not recognize the signs of pain or distress; and why would you?
I would like to see more education, perhaps as early as middle school. I’d like to see more compassion early on that might alleviate the misunderstandings and, sometimes bullying, that push the mentally ill to a higher level of dysfunction, or even violence.
NAMI is an organization that educates and supports families of the mentally ill. Just recently, I’ve heard high praise for this group.
Our state mental health department could help educate, except they are often the first department to receive budget cuts.
As we go into election season, we might want to question candidates about their positions on mental health care and education.