Quote:
Originally Posted by TLAM Strike
That quote was from the notes Dr. Heatly made of that session before the murders, typewritten and dated March 29, 1966.
You can read them in their entirety here:
http://alt.cimedia.com/statesman/spe...an/heatley.pdf
There is a real difference between listening to heavy metal or playing Doom and what Whitman said. He admitted to hitting his wife, thinking about killing people and would exhibit mood swings mid sentence. Mass-murderer or not that is at least a man who needs help. All he got was "make an appointment", that is a failure right there.
Well the VA has recently put a huge emphasis on mental health. Every time you call them you get reminded that if you are feeling like you might hurt yourself or someone else to talk to them. They bombard you with pamphlets, gun locks and refrigerator magnets:
You are right about cutbacks. The VA tends to have a budget to do this since Vets have some clout with the politicians. Students (which Whitman was one after all) don't have that kind of clout, they don't have much of a lobby. Students at all levels are not getting any health education not just mental. Students provide an interesting case for the government, you can force them to do stuff (really ask any kid if he wants to go to school), but there is very little in requirements to learn about their mental health. When I went though school we learned the whole score of black history about three times, about how to put a rubber on our junk five or six times (once was in a into to business vocational class... seriously), but never that if we are thinking about hurting someone to go talk to a professional. |
Good points, and I'm glad to see the VA is doing something about it, but there definitely needs to be some sort of similar service for students, however the trouble is when things like this are implemented they do tend to go over the top, so it'd probably end up with every student getting a psyche evaluation before morning assembly. However, something does need to be done about it, in a sensible manner, instead of this crazed knee-jerk responses that seem to be in vogue on both sides at the moment.
In regards to Whitman, that's a good point, and well put and I concede that the system certainly did fail him, although I honestly think that there are other Whitmans out there who slip through the system because the warning flags don't trigger correctly, however in terms of Veterans, I'm glad to see that there is a stronger focus on it which probably explains why we haven't had a modern Whitman for a while, despite the occasional shoot-outs at bases which are harder to stop because it's inner service and as a part of the service looking towards a counsellor would be looked down upon by both fellow servicemen and many higher ups because of the ethos that you've got to 'man up and put up' that has remained within the service over the years, which to some extent is true but then you've got those who can't do that but are still good soldiers and it all falls apart a little.
Students, on the other hand, yes, they are much less monitored, and I can see that your sexual health classes are not that dissimilar to ours, and yet it does sod all to stop teenage pregnancies
but if a similar sort of energy could be put into helping troubled people in a time which is extremely difficult for people who do not fit into a specific frame in school and suffer because of it.
Reminds me of the song done by P.O.D called 'Youth of the Nation', listening to it makes you think and fear for the youth of today and tomorrow.