Video of the Day: Golden State Warrior coach yesterday following the shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Orchid of the Day and Quotes of the Day: Poems from Amanda Gorman following the shooting in Uvalde.
It takes a monster to kill children. But to watch monsters kill children again and again and do nothing isn’t just insanity—it’s inhumanity.
Schools scared to death. The truth is, one education under desks, Stooped low from bullets; That plunge when we ask Where our children Shall live & how & if
What might we be if only we tried? What might we become if only we’d listen?
Onion of the Day: The 50 Republican Senators who refuse to address an issue that 88% of the U.S citizens’ support.
I usually write my blog in the evening after I have settled down. Not today. I am writing this morning at 8:30 because I am pissed off. The above video of Golden State Warrior coach Steve Kerr summarizes my feeling perfectly. I cannot believe that the Republican senators continue to sit on gun legislation requiring background checks on sales of all weapons. How many more children need to die before they say enough is enough?
Eighty eight percent of those surveyed in the US, including 85% of gun owners, favor universal background checks on sales of all weapons. Yet there is literally a zero percent chance that 10 Republican senators will vote to approve background checks on sales of all weapons. Let me repeat. There is zero percent chance that 10 Republican senators will vote to approve background checks on the sale of all weapons. Think about that. What more will it take to get 10 Republican senators to care? Why doesn’t Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer show some leadership by keeping the senate in session until background checks are passed? What is he afraid of?
Maybe those 50 Republican Senators should sit down and talk to families who have lost a family member to a mass shooting and find out how those families are never the same. As victims, Leah and I would gladly sit down with all 50 of the Republican senators to let them know what it is like to have a family member taken away in a mass shooting. We are still feeling the impact 47 years later. God forbid one of the 50 Republican senators feels the same pain Leah and her family has felt for 47 years. God forbid one of their grandchildren doesn’t come home from school one day.
With over 398 million guns in civilians’ hands in the United States, background checks alone and bans on the sale of assault rifles alone will not provide any immediate relief. We must also address our broken mental health system.
Currently, there are not enough trained mental health professionals, especially psychiatrist and psychologist to meet the needs and demands. While the psychiatrist shortage is nationwide, the situation in Michigan is even more acute. The state had 1,180 active psychiatrists in 2018, or 11.84 practitioners per 100,000 residents, which is below the national average, according to a December 2018 analysis by University of Michigan researchers. Of which, less than 50% accept Medicaid patients. These numbers have only gotten worse since the covid-19 pandemic, which has had a devastating impact on our MH professionals.
Based on personal experience, there is a 60-90 lead time to schedule an appointment with a mental health provider at the two major health systems in Ann Arbor, including U of M’s depression center. Furthermore, the patient needs to complete a 7–9-page online history prior to an appointment being scheduled. Think about that. A person who is having serious MH health issues must fill out a 9-page document before they can even be scheduled for an appointment 90 days later. If the person cannot wait that long, they are told to contact their primary care provider or go to the ER. Going to the ER is a waste of time unless you are suicidal. Even then, they are just going to give you some drug to calm you down and then ask you to schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist or your primary care doctor.
It will take a few days to get an appointment with your primary care doctor. IF you are lucky, the primary care doctor may have experience in dealing with mild to moderate mental health issues, but it will not be enough for your needs, so they will refer you to a social worker, psychologist, or psychiatrist, all of whom will take their time getting back to you.
Things are further complicated if the patient has Medicaid. Recent estimates indicate less than 50% of licensed psychiatrist in Michigan do not accept Medicaid patients. Of those who accept Medicaid patients, many of them limit the number of patients they will accept.
As a country, we need to decide what we are going to do about the ease of access to guns for people with mental health issues. Or we can do what we currently are doing, which is nothing, and the outcome is known.
Here is what is known if we do nothing.
- More and more people will die, including school age children, in mass shootings.
- The number of young people going into teaching will continue to decline, thus making the current teacher and substitute teacher shortage even more acute.
- The number of people going into mental health professions will continue to decline. Only those who have great insurance coverage or are willing to pay out of pocket will have access to services.
- The number of people willing to become sports officials will continue to decline as less people want to get involved in a profession where violence is increasing. It is only a matter of time before a sports official is murdered because of a call he or she made.
- After every mass shooting the stock prices for gun manufacturers will increase because history shows us that following every mass shooting there is an increase in gun sales because people are concerned that eventually something will be done to limit gun sales. Think about it, gun sales increase every time there is a mass shooting.
- The country will become desensitized to mass shooting like the way we are currently desensitized to Covid-19 deaths.
- The trend will continue that it will be easier in some states to purchase a gun than it will be to vote.
Elections matter. It is time that we elect legislators who have had enough and are willing to address the above mental health and gun control issues. An immediate important step is to pass required background checks on all gun sales.
Pray for peace and tolerance. What are you doing to stop the violence? Get vaccinated and get your booster.
Tom thank you so much. Heartbreaking and pathetic
Deb,
I am at my wits end with this. Every time it happens, it brings back the horror Leah and I faced 47 years ago. I don’t wish it on anyone, but sometimes I think the only way they are going to wake-up is if it happens to one of their family members. Maybe then they will understand. The passion that Golden State head coach Steve Kerr showed in the video is because his father was assassinated when his father was the president of American University in Beirut. Steve Kerr knows the pain of losing a loved one to gun violence.