I've seen many posts since yesterday full of grief, shock, and horror at the tragedy in Newtown. I've also seen quite a few that: advocate for changes in gun control; advocate for massive improvements in our mental health system; and shout that we must not politicize this tragedy.
I know we must deal first with the pain, sorrow, and fear that the massacre in Newtown brings to all of us. But I also know that gun control and our inadequate mental health system have already been politicized, and they are not working.
On the first issue, gun lobbies and activists fight to preserve "Second Amendment Rights," while resisting legislation to ensure regulation of arms that will help keep better track of who has weapons and for what purposes. My friends who own guns may disagree with me, but for a long time now, access has been far too easy to weapons that are not primarily designed for personal protection or sport shooting, nor are these consistent with the Second Amendment wording.
David Henson has written a powerful blog about the first issue.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/davidhenson/2012/12/when-the-second-amendment-enables-terrorism-why-killing-children-isnt-a-well-regulated-militia/
I want to address the second issue from my own experience of the inadequate mental health system in the United States. I have dealt for many years with depression, eating disorder, and PTSD related to clergy incest. I was fortunate to have insurance when insurers had far less control over the goals and process of seeking health. I was fortunate to find many different kinds of resources to aid in my healing, although it often took a lot of energy for the financial and logistical tasks that made that process possible. I was motivated by a deep conviction that it had to be possible to get to the point where I was not only able to function at work, but where the pain of the past did not color every aspect of my life. And most of the time, that is now the case: the pain of the past has less and less power over how I live in the present and look to the future. But as I look back over the past 30+ years, I can see how my issues and behaviors negatively affected my ability to work, to communicate with others, to take care of myself. I can see moments in my past when it would not have taken much to make me violent. I can also see how the healing I have experienced makes me more able to be present with others, to work, and to live into my gifts and joys with freedom that I never could have envisioned.
Access to quality, affordable care for mental illness is far too restricted to those who have health insurance, flexibility to attend appointments, and time to do the inner work that effective therapy requires. There is not enough help available for those who don't have insurance, whose jobs don't leave any time (or energy) for dealing with the issues that are keeping them from living in best and healthiest way they can. In poor homes and communities, survival is often the only goal for which people have energy. It can also be very difficult for people with insurance to get authorization for enough therapy to address their issues in a way that does more than ensure that they become functional enough to carry out their responsibilities with minimum damage to others or themselves. Healing is a slow process, and cannot be mandated to occur in 4, 10, 20 sessions. It is worth every effort, however. It
Here is a stark picture of the state of the mental health system in our country:
http://www.nami.org/gtsTemplate09.cfm?Section=Findings&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=75174
There is also so much stigma around admitting that we have issues that are getting in the way, that we need help, that we can't make the pain go away without support and guidance. There is so much denia (internal and external)l that anything is wrong, even when every day is a struggle to live with the pain, keep it at bay, or numb it with addictive substances or behaviors. There are so many attitudes that say, "it's not my problem, 'those people are just nuts and I/we can't do anything about it." There are many ways that keeping people trapped in their issues serves the economic powers-that-be.
I challenge us to recognize that it is a problem for every one of us, not just when someone "snaps" or meticulously plans a devastating crime or chews off the face of a homeless person. As a nation, these are symptoms of our own ill health, and all of us bear responsibility for contributing to the process of becoming whole and healthy and loving. That includes those of us who don't or no longer have issues that prevent us from being our best selves. Recognizing this as a national problem and working together toward effective reform is very necessary. I challenge us to hold a vision for all individuals and our nation of individual, local, regional, and national wholeness that is emotional, spiritual and achievable.
Prayer has been crucial to my own healing process, and I believe it is an important component for our becoming whole and authentic to become all that God is creating us to be. But my prayers for us as we deal with the aftermath of the tragedy at Newtown are stirring me to act and to call for action. I don't know yet what that will look like in the days to come, but today I am acting by writing this blog.
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