Inclusiveness is All

I'm not trying to "make sense" out of what happened at Virginia Tech, that would be pointless as there is no sense to it. If you are trying to make sense out of it, please stop before your head explodes.

Despite all efforts by some quarters to lay the blame on any single or even group of items there is not a simple one-size-fits-all answer.

Would lack of access to firearms have prevented this? Not likely, this guy was determined to go out with a bang, minus firearms he'd have used a bomb or some other method. Ask my better half who had the privilege of assisting with "cleanup" after an employee decided to take out his supervisor and a few others with a backhoe.

Would more professional intervention have prevented this? Maybe. Truth is, once upon a time when it was easier to treat the mentally ill involuntarily we did what we usually do.....abused the system. People were subjected to all manner of horrors in the name of "treatment". Too often the people receiving said treatment weren't even mentally ill or were not in any way potentially dangerous, just people someone wanted out of the way for whatever reason. Inevitably laws were changed to make it nearly impossible to treat a person against their will, they almost have to commit a serious crime before they can be court ordered.

Based on the information coming out it seems at least some staff at Virginia Tech went above and beyond in trying to reach this student and in trying to protect others from him. That is actually the only thing I find surprising and speaks to the level of professionalism amongst the teaching staff there. They were obviously fighting a losing battle with a system not equipped to deal with people like Cho Seung-Hui but they recognized the potential danger and did everything within their power to prevent a tragedy, that's more than could be said of most institutions. Hats off to the professors who put themselves out there.

The truth is there are always going to be damaged people among us. The last 20 years have seen great strides in our knowledge, understanding and treatment of mental disorders but the sad fact is only a minute number of the people suffering from mental illness ever reap the benefits of the best possible treatment. The funding simply does not exist and our laws are so outdated we only treat those who have already managed to come into contact with our legal system. Even assuming a person is fortunate enough to belong to a family that is knowledgeable enough to recognise a problem their odds of being able to obtain better than substandard treatment for the afflicted person are slim to none.

Decades of cuts to mental health spending and the outsourcing of treatment to for-profit corporate entities have left us with a system that closes the barn door after the horses have already escaped. Toss in the usually extremely poor job law enforcement does when coming into contact with the mentally ill, the general level of and acceptance of violence in our culture, social stigma, and our cultural hatefulness in general.....recipe for tragedies like this one.

"Kinder and gentler" nation has become a cliche but it's way past time we pulled it back out and "un-cliched" it because until we start living it we can expect to see more tragedies like this one and most likely with increasing frequency. Two decades in forensic mental health and I can break it down for you this easily: more than half of our troubles are directly caused by the fact that people treat each other badly.

Start today. Quit expecting "the government" to solve all of our problems, we are the government and we are part of the problem. Pay attention to the people who are around you, especially the ones who've probably only been "background noise" to you. Treat people with equal courtesy whether they are dressed in an expensive suit or dirty rags and pushing a shopping cart. Courtesy and thoughtfulness don't stop at your social circle. It won't cure all of our social problems but it would make for a damned fine start.