December 21, 2012
Senators Klobuchar & Franken,
I have contacted you in past on issues I feel are critically
important, but don’t receive enough support.
I have been very grateful and encouraged to have received your attention
and support on prior occasions (specifically, the legislation that requires
drug companies to continue to make life-saving drugs like methotrexate
regardless to profits).
Today, I write you as a parent and citizen of this nation in
mourning. I don’t know anyone in
Newtown, CT personally, yet my heart aches, as we all do for those children lost
in this senseless tragedy. It seems as
if our nation is no longer safe.
Churches, malls, movie theatres, schools are all targets. It’s an important time to discuss assault
weapons, and gun control. I support
these efforts and it’s an important step.
But, I believe that we are not looking at the whole picture. The danger exists when we continue to ignore
that the combination of guns and mental illness don’t have disastrous
consequences.
When we chalk up violent behavior to a single event (i.e. ‘they
just snapped’) that caused an individual to murder innocent children we are all
giving ourselves the excuse to not address the real problem. We, as a nation of parents, grandparents,
aunts, uncles, and friends, must recognize that mental illness exists, just as
heart disease. We must ask for, and
back, funding for programs that allow these individuals to be treated with
dignity and respect. Gun control is an
important part of the problem, but only part of it. Happy, healthy individuals don’t pick up
automatic weapons and walk into crowded movie theaters, malls and elementary
schools.
I ask you in the coming weeks and months to consider the
state of mental health in our country and in our state. Minnesota has in the past been more
aggressive in proactive with delivering good mental health care, yet even we
are considering cutting back on programs like the Minnesota Extended Treatment
Outcomes (METO) program. Lack of funding
for staff training led to many giving up on the program, a program that many
felt years ago the answer to our concerns around mental health care.
I am not so idealistic that I think that this will solve the
problem. But, these 20 children and 6 adults
deserve to not die in vain. An open
dialogue about difficult topics removes the power it has over us. 
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