SHOOTINGS: All about mental health

On Jan. 8, 2011, a deranged young man attempted to assassinate a United States Congresswoman from Arizona. He killed or wounded 18 other people including a little girl. A few weeks ago a man in Hayden attacked four people with a hammer, one victim died. What do these events have in common?

Untreated mental illness! For whatever reason, no one did anything until something very bad happened. Each of these tragedies may have been prevented if there had been a fully functional Mental Health Program in place. We used to go out and find such people before something bad happened.

In recent years, "to starve the beast" Mental Health budgets have been cut. The right wants to make "Government" smaller. They forgot what government does. Government isn't some faceless bureaucrat you think is getting more than you. Government is the cop on the corner, the guy fixing the street or putting out the fire or making the water run or teaching your kids or defusing a mental health crisis before anything bad happens.

That is what mental health programs used to do. Now, with ever deepening cuts, public mental health programs are disappearing. Government is shrinking, but was it worth it?

ALBERT L. HALVERSON

Tensed