We don't need to "toughen up"

From the New York Times:

On December 12, 2005, a second female student complained to the police about an instant message Mr. Cho sent to her by computer. The police then spoke with Mr. Cho and asked him to have no further contact with the student. The police said the message was not threatening, and the student characterized it as "annoying."

We don't need to Toughen Up.
We don't need to ignore even "annoying" emails, let alone sadistic threatening blog posts!

No, I think we need to Wisen Up.
To Listen Up.
To Keep our ears to the ground.
To Speak Up.
But not Toughen Up.
And definitely not to Shut Up.
New York times on VA shooter Cho Seung-Hui

I had a big talk with a friend who is a Libertarian gun freak last night.
(exaggeration. by the same token he could call me a flaming liberal hippie)

He said that "theoretically" he thinks its a good idea for students to be able to carry concealed weapons on campus.

Bullshit. What we need is more attention. More prevention.

What this young man needed was someone to to pay attention to his crazy behavior and get him somewhere where he would not become a danger to others. And maybe even help him out of his misery. What this young man (to say nothing of his victims) did not need is laws which make it easy to get guns.

Routine psych testing for gun owners might have made a big difference here.

Not that it would have necessarily caught him. But statistically I bet it would make an improvement as opposed to introducing a bunch more guns onto college campuses, which to me seems like a very dangerous experiment.

In general paying more attention to mental health, and listening more to people around us in trouble would make a bigger difference.

In a crisis you can turn to more escalation, more violence, or to healing and growth.

The Libertarian "myth" of the guy on his property with his gun, free to  do wherever he wants has done us damage. Freedom needs community to flourish. Freedom needs responsibility to others, connection to others. No person is an island.

I have worked in a mental health field. No one wants to end up like this.
How do the mentally ill fit into the "libertarian ideal?" Some of them need restriction of their freedom at times. That restriction actually helps them by providing outer control to replace inner controls which don't work right.

We threw the mentally ill out on the streets in the Reagan days. We pretended that the problem would go away if we ignored it.

Well it won't. And arming more students is not the solution.

And lest you think is a question of "A few bad eggs", let me just say that I met plenty of people when I was working in that field who had professional careers, families, were "normal" for quite a portion of their lives, and then some big problem in life, like drugs, financial ruin, losing a mate, etc, put them over the edge.

There but for the grace of God, or Fate, or Allah, or the Flying Spagetti Monster, do we all go. Who knows, one day I might end up psychotic and crazed and full of violent rage?... and if that happens, I sure hope someone pays attention to my mad ravings, and stops me before I buy a gun.