Letter to the editor: End inconsistent and discriminatory treatment of brain disorders

In this Jan. 3, 2024, file photo, the State House is seen at dawn in Augusta. Credit: Robert F. Bukaty / AP

Originally published on BangorDailyNews.com
By NSSC member Joe H. Pickering

The BDN editorial board’s last sentence in the recent editorial about the Lewiston commission report, especially the last three words, is the most important: “… individual failures were enabled by systematic failures that demand action.” Yes! But the commission’s scope has a specific mission. So, let’s demand broader more comprehensive action from our federal and state officials! 

Maine, and frankly America, needs a combined approach to “gun control” and more effective federal and state laws promoting better health care as a powerful combination. Our nation fails to draw these interconnections. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said health care was our greatest injustice. Maine leaders must save lives with federal and state legislation that promotes treatment before tragedy rather than expressions of regrets and trips to the funeral later. Maine’s motto is to lead!

Our Maine congressional delegation hasn’t sponsored or co-sponsored federal legislation to end the institution for mental diseases exclusion law created in 1965! Why? It may have contributed in part to many of the mass murders. People who have brain disorders like schizophrenia are 16 times more likely to be shot by the police even though they are often the victims rather than the perpetrators of gun violence. People who commit suicide most often do it by gun.

For the rest of the letter in its original post, follow this link.