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Community Corner

Toxic Rhetoric or Failed Mental Health System?

Hate speech not to blame for Tucson tragedy; lack of psychiatric care is

Are right-wing maniacs to blame for the Tucson tragedy in which Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Az) was shot outside a Safeway during a meeting with her constituents?

That's what left-wing maniacs claim.

Late last week, Bethlehem Patch published a  about a small group outside State Rep. Joe Brennan's office, carrying "Stop the Toxic Rhetoric" and "Hate Speech is Violence" signs.

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They continued their mission at Bethlehem's Town Hall Tuesday night, where they will stand "in support of Bethlehem City Council members and against right-wing disruptions of their meetings."

Instead of trying to score political points, wouldn't it make more sense to target the real problem - the shortcomings of our mental health care system?

Last week, these activists were largely ignored by the public. It was still morning rush hour, and late drivers were probably more worried about toxic rhetoric from their bosses.

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But the media was there in force. Besides Patch, WFMZ-TV69 and The Bethlehem Press were on hand, snapping pictures. As a bottom-feeding blogger, I felt an obligation to be there, too.

After all, toxic rhetoric is my bread and butter.

These demonstrators were all very nice maniacs. Protester Gloria McVeigh, a former information officer in Lehigh County, chastised me for not wearing gloves on such a blustery morning. But she's unwilling to concede that all of us - lefties, centrists and righties - should try to be more civil.

"That's absurd," is her short answer. 

"The GOP won last fall's election by pandering to the right-wing maniacs, proven by their reading the US Constitution because they promised their voters they would. It takes a tragedy like Arizona to make the public understand how dangerous demagogues like FOX news, Glenn Beck and the others can be to our democracy."

I see.

Isn't this toxic rhetoric, too? Not according to the New York Times' Paul Krugman, who declares ex cathedra that "it’s coming, overwhelmingly, from the right." 

Conservative Sarah Palin, for example, is condemned by liberal pundits because she placed crosshairs over Congresswoman Giffords' district. Now the DNC used kinder, gentler bullseyes as part of their "behind enemy lines" effort in 2006, but that was different.

Then there's tea party darling Sharron Angle's reference to "Second Amendment remedies" against a tyrannical government. That's"provocative fan-flaming." But when Democrat Paul Kanjorski, an ex-Congressman from nearby Nanticoke, actually suggests that a Republican candidate be put up against a wall and shot, only a "fruitcake" would take him seriously.

I see. I guess a toxic homophobic comment is just dandy, so long as it comes from a Democrat.

Toxic rhetoric is something of an American tradition going all the way back to the Presidential election of 1828, when we apparently elected that murdering bigamist, Andrew Jackson, over pimp John Quincy Adams. We especially like primates, having elected men whose detractors compared to gorillas (Abraham Lincoln) chimps (George Bush) and monkeys (Barack Obama).

Our First Amendment exists precisely to protect that kind of offensive speech. The last thing Bethlehem City Council or any other governmental body needs is protection from the public they serve, whether they are leftist or right-wing maniacs.

The real lesson from the Tucson tragedy, in which a 9 year-old girl was senselessly murdered, is that our mental health care system is broken. Nationwide, there are 95 percent less hospital beds for the mentally ill than in 1955. When Allentown State Hospital closed its doors for the last time at the end of 2010, it was the third state mental health hospital to close since 2006. Approximately eighty of these former patients are now in group homes scattered all over the Lehigh Valley.

Because it's so difficult to commit a mentally ill person, both in Pennsylvania and Arizona, many of the severely ill receive no treatment at all, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center. Instead of a hospital, you'll find them in a prison or homeless, walking the streets of Allentown, Bethlehem or Easton, looking for a handout.

Instead of focusing on toxic rhetoric, we need to examine or commitment and other mental health care laws so that people like Jared Lee Loughner can get the help they need before they hurt someone.

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