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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (203528)	4/21/2007 12:28:22 AM
From: Thomas A Watson	Respond to of 793883

dr sanity has a very good discussion on the Virginia Tech tragedy. And I think in this case Charles Krauthammer clearly characterizes the issue. Charles Krauthammer offers an explanation of why: If we are going to look for a political issue here, the more relevant is not gun control but psychosis control. We decided a half a century ago that our more eccentric and, indeed, crazy fellow citizens would not be easily locked up in asylums. It was a very humane decision, but with the inevitable consequence that some who really need protection and quarantine are allowed to roam the streets freely.... In a previous age, such a troubled soul might have found himself at the state mental hospital rather than a state university. But in a trade-off that a decent and tolerant society makes with open eyes, we allow freedom from straitjackets to those on the psychic edge, knowing that such tolerance runs very rare but very terrible risk. And Dr Sanity comments. In other words, the society--our society--made a choice to optimize freedom; and one of the consequences of that choice is that there are Cho Seung Huis out there whose untreated disorders might result in future tragedies. Fortunately, not very many schizophrenics--paranoid or other types--actually commit violence of this type. In fact, schizophrenic and the mentally ill in general do not commit violence more frequently than the general population. In point of fact, they are the victims of violence far more often than the general population. drsanity.blogspot.com