The new buzz these days is mental illness. The not for profits are ready to cash in. They're lining up at the legislatures for money for their cause - and of course they must practice their cause in the schools. The schools are the big money pot. Our school district here in Helena is ready to jump on the suicide bandwagon. Waiting in line is the sex abuse agenda - the local newspaper has already had them on the front page.
Young people are naturally optimistic - they often think of themselves as invincible and take risks to the horror of their parents. Though being young has all its trials it also is a time of carefree fun. The communist left does not believe in carefree fun - everything is serious and if you don't think so you just have your head in the sand!! When I pointed out at a recent school board meeting here that the new experiment in teaching suicide prevention to our 14 year olds might have some downsides as it has had in other states, I was in fact told by our superintendent that I "had my head in the sand".
Even the one advocate for this program - the executive director of NAMI ( National Alliance on Mental Illness), admitted that suicide programs will not prevent suicides from happening. My information is that in some cases suicide prevention programs have CAUSED SUICIDE!! In one case a young girl who was fragile committed the act and her parents felt the school program pushed her over the edge. Think about it - how effective is group counseling practiced by someone who is not a psychologist or a psychiatrist? Even practiced by a true professional the results would be dubious since the provider doesn't even know the students or their families well- if at all.
One board member wanted to know about data and accountability. This is noble, but how do you collect data on something like this? As the counselors there pointed out - privacy rights restrict the hospitals from releasing data on individual suicide attempts.The NAMI director said they would get "state data". This is the new law that allows "researchers" to get data as long as the name is not attached. I think this is wrong- they are practicing this in our schools too- releasing students cume files "without the name". We are all pawns in this data game now. But, that aside, do you really think this "research" outfit will find that their programs and agenda don't work? As I pointed out to the school board, I have never seen this happen in the more than 20 years I have been watching the school district here. Even the DARE program, which was supposed to prevent drugs and has overseen a vast increase in drug usage at school, still rumbles on and expands- they are teaching it all the way down to Kindergarten now!!
What makes people mentally healthy? Perhaps feeling that you belong, perhaps feeling that you belong to a wonderful successful country and that you have hope for your future. When I was young we were taught just that. Today, if you look at the textbooks, children are not taught to believe in their national heroes. They are not taught to respect them and find positive leadership there.They are not taught to find hope in the great things that the people who came before them have achieved. The children are taught that they, the students, are greedy, they use too many resources and deprive the third world. They are taught "social justice", that everyone except the one percent is a victim.
I know of one young man, and there are millions, who was so invested in the leftist causes that he ruined his life. He was married to a wonderful girl but all he could feel was jealousy because she had achieved more than he. He was angry at her parents because they hadn't had some of the troubles his family had had and they had more money. Life was not about what he could achieve, it was about how he was a victim. That is the result of lefty politics. That is the result of all the social justice speeches that bring in the votes for the Democrats. His wife divorced him and he is still alone and without achievement.
The people that started the Communist left movement were not dumb people. They understood psychology and they used it. How easy it was for them to get people to not take responsibility. How easy to get them to blame the capitalist system for their problems. How easy to get them to believe the government should pay their bills. How easy it was to prey on jealousy. How easy it was not to expect the best out of people. How easy it was to break down the American spirit of resilience and purpose. I remember my mother telling me how the nuns taught her that American ends in I can. That's a way of thinking too- but it may not bring in the votes.
Drug usage causes mental illness. How many young people do you know who do Marijauna and still live with their parents or have never met their potential? How many homeless people have drug addiction problems? This all came about in the sixties with the "if it feels good do it" attitude that came out of the Communist left revolution- and still exists today in the legalize drugs crowd.
Mental illness will always be with us but I believe there will be a whole lot less of it when we all "put our heads in the sand" and get back to the rugged individual. When we focus on all the wonderful and positive things in our world and engender the can do spirit instead of the victim hood saga. Tell the children about how Andrew Carnegie, a poor boy from Scotland, built Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. How he gave jobs to poor farmers and took them out of poverty and into the world of success. We can all do these things. Focusing on the negative can bring in money and votes but focusing on the positive will make a healthier and more successful society. By the way, I always wonder, since the left is so focused on "fixing" everything, why don't they focus on "fixing" our national debt? That's something you can really fix- just quit spending!!!
