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Monday, July 27, 1998

" no mental patients " -Weston

A few weeks ago I sent out a letter titled " Word Cops Strike

    Again ! " . I was amazed to learn from a letter writer that the term

    " mental patient " was now as unspeakable as the N-word in the

    politically correct psychiatric establishment.

        Living with a mentally ill brother ( lithium dependent ) I was

    bemused by this comment: " There are no mental patients in mental

    hospitals ". Yes, I reflected, and THAT is just the problem.

       It seems that we have overcome the stereotype of " mental patient "

    to such a degree that our so called mental health system does not

    even see them. And therefore does not even treat them !

         Today I read this about Capitol killer  Russell Eugene Weston :

       " ..diagnosed in his late 20s as a paranoid ( schizophrenic)..he

    received no regular treatment or medication over the last two decades. "

       His now distraught family does did not know what do about him.

       After hearing the significant details of the shooting of the

    Capitol police officers, Chestnut and Gibson ( black and white, RIP ),

    I said to myself : " It is a mentally ill man who they will say 'fell

    through the cracks ' "

          In this tragic case our health care system is responsible for

    the killings , the nightmare in the very halls of the United States

    Congress .

         Let me hear conservatives recommend the death penalty for an

    utterly deranged man !

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Ron