-Ism
When push comes to shove all the struggles that harm America can actually be boiled down to a single issue, and that issue is mental health. Either your mental state effects your well-being first and you struggle or you face struggles completely out of your control and that deteriorates your mental health. This is connected to every part of life. The brain is the most vital part of the body there is no life without the brain. Yet time and time again the issue is ignored, glossed over, misrepresented, or dismissed outright. The police violence while blacks are twice as likely to be killed by police a severely untreated mentally ill individual is 16 times likely to be killed by police. Our prisons and jails are the largest mental health care facilities in the country at the same time being the completely wrong ones to be in that position. There’s almost no mental health help or improvements that occur in jail, or while homeless or while dealing with deep poverty or addiction or neglect and abuse. With the covid crisis, the eviction crisis, the housing crisis, health care crisis, poverty crisis, the inequality crisis it all turns into one giant country wide mental health crisis. Yet it’s never a major talking point, never a political platform. It seems only to be discussed in passing and a small part of something more politically motivating. The war on drugs turned people who’s only crime was self medicating when there were really no other option into criminals. One of the reasons I think that there’s very little being done about the issue is the language. Mental health doesn’t have an -ism. Sexism, racism, socialism, liberalism, feminism elitism, classism these are all strong words a label you can fight against, or lead the march on. You’re either for or against. Mental health doesn’t have a buzz word. A clear label you can just throw out and everyone somewhat understands what that’s supposed to mean. There’s no real poster child, hell even movement leaders. When brought up it’s experts say or medical professionals say. Yes major stars are often connected with certain issues but that’s usually only after there’s an issue or death. That lack of an -ism I think puts this gigantic and very much maligned, marginalized population at a disadvantage. Also the words that are used to describe people with mental problems are always negative. Crazy, psycho, loony, messed up and so on yet we use these all the time to describe those with different ideologies then ourselves. Right wingers are crazy, the Dems are nuts, these terms are used as insults at every turn. It’s just a unfair and biased as using sex as a insult, or the N-word. The carelessness and the callousness to which these labels are used leave lingering and long lasting damage on the people that actually face mental challenges. We need someone or something to lead the way to real positive change, this is something that literally effects every person in the country at some point. This us the elephant in the room and its going to trample everything and everyone if not addressed and addressed soon. The mental health system needs to be rebuilt for the ground up and mental health care needs to be addressed and provided from birth to grave. We’re missing a great opportunity to actually do something feasible and not too over the top to really accomplish. We can not truly believe that we can effectively handle the issues faced by our country and really over come them without making mental health a top priority and treating it like the major issue it is in our society. Improving the mental health of our very much divided and hurting country is the definite first step in the right direction, because where the head goes the body follows and there are too many heads in dark places right now.
