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Like
wolves among sheep,
America
's Plutocracy preys on the weaker and less fortunate members of society.
Since
America
's founding, they have leveraged their economic power to dominate the
government and the media, the vehicles through which they advance their
avaricious agenda. In early American history, they employed an
imperialistic foreign policy to ensure the expansion of US
boundaries and interests. Along the way, they virtually annihilated the Native
American population. Once they had attained as much of the North
American continent as they were able, they used "Manifest
Destiny" and the "Communist threat" as rationalizations
to invade other nations (i.e., The Philippines) support ruthless
dictators in other nations (Augusto Pinochet in Chile) who have
tortured and killed millions. Recently, legislation favoring
corporations over workers and consumers has sharply diminished the
power of labor unions and opportunities for small entrepreneurs, while
historically, corporations have maimed and killed their employees and
their customers with hazardous working conditions and unsafe products.
The wealthy elite class has dominated American politics via
dynasties like the Bush clan and the Kennedy family. The predominance of
regressive over progressive taxes has virtually guaranteed that the
majority of
America
's riches remains in the hands of the Plutocrats. Throughout
American history, the Plutocracy has severely victimized black
Americans, through enslavement and through ongoing gross social
injustices. Latin American immigrants face open discrimination for their
language and cultural differences while armed vigilantes calling
themselves "Minute Men" now patrol the US-Mexican border.
Other racial minorities, some religious groups, Gays and the disabled
also face discrimination and suppression of rights at the hands of the
white, "straight", "Christian" Plutocracy dominating
the government and media in the
United States
.
Suffering
in silence
Overshadowed
and often forgotten is the plight of yet another minority group which
has suffered tremendously at the hands of the ruling elite. The
"Land of the Free" has not been particularly kind to the
mentally ill. People with mental disorders have faced many forms of
abuse and discrimination before and since our founders penned the
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Most
early colonists in
America
viewed the mentally ill as demon-possessed. Mental illness was
considered to be a weakness of the spirit. Some thought the mentally ill
were "magically" influenced by the moon, hence the term
"lunacy". Acting on the primal emotions that drive most
bigotry, early Americans banished "lunatics" from the
community for life by confining them under deplorable conditions.
Viewing people with mental illnesses as sub-human animals, their
"keepers" had few reservations about abusing them
physically and mentally, "straight-jacketing" them, and
keeping them shackled almost all of their lives. Early treatments to
"cure" the mentally ill involved such enlightened methods as dunking
them in ice until they slipped from consciousness, inducing
vomiting and "bleeding" patients. Draining the "bad
blood" from the patient often killed the patient or left them
incapacitated for life.
In
the early 19th Century,
Europe
introduced more humane ways of dealing with those with mental illness. Patients
in asylums (early mental hospitals) were viewed and treated as human
beings. Facilities offering comfortable beds, artwork, landscaping,
recreational activities and opportunities to work replaced the
brutal conditions of the asylums' predecessors. Unfortunately, this ray
of sun for those with mental illness was short-lived in the
United States
. After the Civil War,
America
's state institutions were flooded with veterans suffering from what we
know today as post traumatic stress disorder. Crushing
over-population led to the return of ice baths and shackles, and
the experimental use of opium as a drug treatment.
For
a brief period in the late 19th Century, there was a vastly
increased number of asylums and markedly improved care in the
US
. Unfortunately, asylums and institutions accepted virtually anyone, and
many people abused the ease of entry as a means to get free food and
shelter. This caused the asylum populations to sky-rocket beyond
capacity. This renewed
crisis of over-crowding was also exacerbated by people and communities
institutionalizing their "unwanted". Once again, barbarism
returned as shock baths and electro-convulsive therapy became the
treatments of choice.
Horror
masquerading as healing
In
1935, Antonio Moniz spawned one of the most savage, inhumane
"medical procedures" in human history. He performed a
type of psychosurgery which involved removing a portion of the frontal
lobe of a patient's brain in an attempt to rid them of unwanted
anxieties, neuroses, or psychoses. This notorious procedure, known as
the lobotomy, usually resulted in impairment of the patient's sex
drive, spontaneity, impulse control, and problem-solving capacity,
leaving them a mere shadow of their former selves. Despite the
high risks and extremely disturbing after-effects associated with the
treatment, the
US
medical profession raced to embrace the lobotomy as a technique to treat
patients with serious illnesses.
Dr.
Walter Freeman invented and popularized the Tran orbital lobotomy, which
involved placing an ice pick just above the patient's tear duct, driving
it into the frontal lobe with a rubber mallet, and wiggling it around to
decimate the frontal lobe of the brain. Hailed as inexpensive, simple
and non-invasive, US care-givers performed over 40,000 lobotomies
between 1936 and 1950. Freeman traversed the country (in his van which
he called his "lobotomobile") shamelessly touting his
procedure. His advocacy for the "ice pick lobotomy" as a
"cure all" even led to its use to manage misbehavior in
children. Rosemary Kennedy represents a classic high profile case of the
abuse of this twisted form of treatment. Her father, Joe Kennedy,
patriarch of the Kennedy clan, authorized a lobotomy for his 23 year old
daughter in 1941 to "cure" her mild mental problems. The ice
pick lobotomy left her profoundly retarded. For the innovation of this
human butchery, Moniz won a Nobel Prize in 1949. Family members of
lobotomy victims have lobbied the Nobel Foundation to revoke his award,
but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Not
without hope
Fortunately
for the seriously mentally ill, in 1952 the medical community introduced
a drug called Thorazine, which alleviated serious symptoms such as
delusions and hallucinations. While it was later discovered that
Thorazine had significant side effects, it did enable seriously
debilitated patients to gain a reasonable capacity to function on their
own, and more importantly, opened the door to the field of
psychopharmacology. Thorazine was the first of many psychotropic
medicines which have greatly enhanced the lives of the mentally ill. New
hope had dawned for those with mental illness to gain dignity, rights, and
involvement in the community. Perhaps equally as significant was the
fact that lobotomies were reduced to an ugly stain on the pages of human
history.
Equally
as fortunate for the mentally ill is that advocacy for their cause does
exist. Clifford Beers, a Yale graduate from
Connecticut
, was institutionalized in 1900. In 1908, he wrote his autobiography
called A Mind That Found Itself
in which he exposed the abusive and incompetent nature of health care
for the mentally ill. His work spawned a movement on behalf of the
mentally ill to improve attitudes about mental illness and its victims,
to improve care for the mentally ill, and to promote mental hygiene and
health. By the mid Twentieth Century, a national organization known as
the National Mental Health Association had grown into a powerful force
for educating the public and advocating Congress on behalf of the
mentally ill. In 1953, they created a symbol of hope and affirmation for
those suffering from mental illness by casting a bell from metal
restraints that had been used in psychiatric institutions across the
country.
The
bell's inscription reads:
"Cast
from shackles which bound them, this bell shall ring out hope for the
mentally ill and victory over mental illness."
With
a strong advocacy group, psychotropic medications to alleviate severe
symptoms, the end of the lobotomy, and the end of the use of other
barbaric tactics like shackling, the mentally ill had overcome many
obstacles to their dignity and equality. However, new ones were quick to
emerge.
Darkness
abates, but deep shadows remain
Exercising
misguided intentions, President Kennedy signed the Community Mental
Health Centers Act in 1963. His stated purpose was to integrate
institutionalized individuals back into the population. From that day
until 1980 when the law expired, the population in the nation's mental
health institutions dropped by 70%. With inadequate numbers of community
mental health centers, psychiatrists, and therapists to help the newly
released mentally ill individuals integrate into the community, many of
them wound up living on the street or in prisons.
"Increasingly,
individuals with mental illnesses are left to fend for themselves on the
streets, where they victimize others or, more frequently, are victimized
themselves. Eventually, many wind up in prison, where the likelihood of
treatment is nearly as remote."
---Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the Congressional Record, July 12,
1999
In
2003, Human Rights Watch issued a study that showed that jails and
prisons house three times as many mentally ill people as do psychiatric
institutions. People with mental illnesses are 64% more likely to get
arrested than those who are mentally healthy. The
Los Angeles
County
jail system and
Rikers
Island
act as the two largest inpatient institutions for the psychiatric
patients in
America
, housing 3,400 and 3,000 respectively. The Justice Department itself
has acknowledged that 16% of American jail and prison inmates (283,000)
suffer from a serious mental illness. Sadly, the mentally ill residing
in the penal system are often brutally abused by other inmates while
their severe psychological maladies go virtually unattended. Perhaps
Kennedy's move to de-institutionalize was not so altruistic after all.
Now that prisons house more mentally ill than psychiatric institutions,
the Plutocratic American government stands to profit from
institutionalizing them. The prison industrial complex provides
ridiculously cheap labor to major corporations, work for architectural
firms and contractors to build new prisons, profits for suppliers
of inmate necessities, and enables the existence of large corporations
(i.e. CCA and Wackenhut) which governments contract for prison
administration. Prevention and treatment of mental illness cost money,
but it is imperative that a strong, enlightened and compassionate
society absorb that cost rather than punishing those with an affliction
and profiting from their suffering.
Of
the 3.5 million homeless in
America
, an estimated 25% are mentally ill. Some need to be institutionalized.
Others simply need community mental health centers to provide them with
the necessary tools for coping. Some estimates show that 93% of the
875,000 mentally ill homeless could live independently and respectably
if they had the proper government assistance. Instead, many are living
under bridges and eating from garbage dumpsters in the world's
wealthiest nation. A government that spends $500 billion each year
building armies and weapons (half of the military expenditures of the
entire planet), and chooses not to increase funding which would provide
a roof, food, and some human dignity to almost a million of its people
reflects how morally bankrupt America's Plutocrats truly are.
Ignorance,
fear, and bigotry fuel a struggle for equality
Discrimination
is another bleak reality which the mentally ill face living in
this "beacon of liberty" to the rest of the world. Insurance
companies are the first in line to serve inequitable treatment to those
with mental illness. Many insurance plans place restrictions on mental
health benefits that do not exist with respect to physical maladies. For
example, private insurers generally allot a limited number of days per
year for inpatient mental health services while allowing virtually
unlimited inpatient days for general health problems. Because mental
illness often interferes with a person's capacity to work, many of the
mentally ill are uninsured. Medicaid, the government stop gap for the
uninsured, will not pay for stays in state psychiatric hospitals,
motivating states to deny patients the institutional care they
need. Since Medicaid was originated in 1965, the population of
inpatients in state psychiatric hospitals diminished from 500,000
to 60,000 in 1999. If you remain unconvinced that insurance companies
discriminate against people with mental conditions, consider the fact
that under our current system, 66% of people with a diagnosable mental
disorder do not get treatment, while only 5% of those with a serious
disorder receive adequate treatment. Ultimately, a society is
only as strong as its weakest members, and it is obvious that
America
is doing very little to strengthen the mentally ill.
Despite
the fact that 25% of American families are affected by mental illness,
and in a given year estimates show that about 20% of Americans over 18
are diagnosed with a mental illness, shameful social stigmas still dog
the mentally ill. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which became law
in the early 1990's, has done little to improve the quality of life for
the mentally ill, who qualify for protection under this federal law.
Employers are often unwilling to hire or train the mentally ill due to
stereotypes that they are incapable or dangerous. Ignoring federal
mandates to tend to the employment needs of the mentally ill, state
agencies have all but ignored them. Surveys indicate that the general
public considers the mentally ill to be the least desirable segment of
the disabled community, rating them below people with mental retardation
and substance abuse problems. While statistics indicate that very few
suffering from mental illness are violent, the media perpetuates the
myth in the public mind that the mentally ill are dangerous by placing
glaring spot-lights on those few who are (i.e. John Hinckley, Jr.)
It would seem that American attitudes toward the mentally ill have not
evolved all that much over the years. Much like the prejudice that
exists against blacks and other minorities, bias against those with
mental disorders become more covert because it is no longer
"politically correct". Since bigotry and cowardice often go
hand in hand, most of the grossly intolerant have gone undercover. While
the bigotry may be hidden, it remains a powerful obstacle to
individuals with mental illness.
The
mentally ill also find their status as human beings diminished at the
voting booth throughout much of
America
. While each of the 44 states prohibiting the mentally ill from voting
has a different law, most of the prohibitions apply to individuals found
to be "mentally incompetent" and placed under legal
guardianship by the court. Collectively, these oppressive laws affect
1.2 million people. Many state constitutions use such denigrating terms
as "idiots" and "insane" to describe those with
mental illness. In two states,
Massachusetts
and
Minnesota
, all it takes to lose one's right to vote is to be placed under legal
guardianship. With assistance in understanding the issues and balloting
process, many of the "mentally incompetent" could vote.
However, in 88% of the states of our nation, all men are not created
equal. If we are to truly strive to embody the ideals of the two
hallowed documents which forged our nation, we need to allow and empower
the mentally ill to participate in the voting process.
Still
more hindrances to mental wellness
Several
factors coalesce to deter or discourage the mentally ill from seeking
proper treatment. I have already discussed the barriers erected by
social stigma and inadequate insurance coverage. Yet another barrier is
false propaganda perpetrated against therapists, counselors, and
psychiatrists. A myriad of groups, led prominently by the
"Church" of Scientology, decry the mainstream treatment of
mental illness as oppressive, a form of "quackery", abusive,
and deceptive. Their complaints include that the diagnoses that mental
health professionals use are fraudulent labels on existential life
crises or alternate means of interpreting the world and that
psychotropic medications prescribed by psychiatrists are
"toxic" and have long-term detrimental effects on a patient's
well-being. While historically the mental health profession had provided
woefully inadequate and abusive treatment to the mentally ill (i.e.
lobotomies), over the last 30 years, they have evolved into a humane,
effective resource for the mentally ill to alleviate their suffering and
to manage their conditions. Certainly there are unethical individuals
working in the profession (as with any human endeavor), there are
psychotropic drugs developed which have dangerous side effects, and the
pharmaceutical industry is rife with corrupt ties with the Plutocracy
governing the United States, but the negative aspects of the mental
health industry do not negate the fact that many caregivers and
medications provide the tools and relief that the mentally ill need to
find the dignity, peace and capacity to move toward self actualization
which they deserve. The mental health profession is not the only
legitimate means of management and recovery available to the mentally
ill. There is certainly room for them to incorporate self help
activities and twelve step work into their spiritual/intellectual
regimen for management and recovery along with the tools and medication
they receive from mental health professionals. Unfortunately the false
propaganda disseminated by entities like Scientology, a cult based on
the "teachings" of a science fiction writer, deters some of
the mentally ill from seeking help from a professional community made up
of individuals who have spent years studying human behavior, the human
mind, mental illness, therapeutic tools for coping with mental illness,
and psychotropic medications to help alleviate the symptoms of mental
maladies.
Means
to minimize suffering are at hand
Increases
in federal funding to allow for larger monthly stipends
of SSI (the form of social security in place to assist the
disabled) and food stamps (or Vision cards), expanded Medicaid benefits
to include inpatient psychiatric treatment at state facilities, federal
assistance to provide a more comprehensive community mental health
system, less incarceration and more treatment for the mentally ill,
stronger efforts to overcome the efforts of groups like Scientology by
reaching out to the mentally ill to get them to engage with professional
mental health care providers, and stronger enforcement of the ADA
(Americans with Disabilities Act) are necessary steps to integrate the
mentally ill into our society as productive citizens rather than
banishing them to the street or locking them into prisons. As a members
of the human race, are our leaders too blind to see that
diverting a fraction of the obscene amount spent on the military
industrial complex to alleviate the suffering of the mentally ill in our
nation is a moral imperative? It is unlikely that the moral issues
concern them, but pragmatically, ignoring a problem which affects the 53
million Americans who suffer from mental illness (in some form) is bound
to lead to a bitter harvest for the entire nation, including the
Plutocrats, since they depend on their underlings to prop them up by
laboring, paying taxes to feed the military industrial complex, and
fighting their imperialistic wars
Guns
get reloaded while butter gets the axe
Sadly,
the reality is that under Bush's proposed budget for 2006, the mentally
ill will suffer. As they have in many areas, the Plutocrats continue to
turn back the clock on the social reforms of the Twentieth Century.
Despite its inadequacies in some areas, Medicaid is still the
largest source of public funding for the mentally health services. Bush
has proposed $60 billion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years, which would dramatically
reduce access to sorely needed services for the mentally ill. The axe is
set to diminish the budget for the Center for Mental Health Services,
which sponsors PATH (a program providing services to prevent
homelessness amongst the mentally ill) and federal services aiding the
mentally ill in asserting their rights. Programs mandated by the
IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a federal law
requiring states to implement special education services) will be
significantly short-funded.
Chop,
chop, chop...where will the axe fall next?
In
spite of the Plutocratic call to patriotism, funding to the Veterans
Administration will
virtually assure a decline in mental health services provided to
veterans. Assistance to the mentally ill in training for, finding
and maintaining employment will diminish. Funding for housing for the
disabled will be cut in half. While a majority of discrimination
complaints filed with HUD and other fair housing enforcement agencies
are filed by the disabled, the Plutocrats are ready to cut the funding
for fair housing enforcement by 20%. A new federal law (The Mentally Ill
Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act) to provide money to
states to emphasize treatment over incarceration will receive no money
under Bush's proposed budget. (Think IDEA, No Child Left Behind,
rapacious Plutocrats, and appeasement of the masses....then look for a
pattern) The Byrne Discretionary Grants, which provide money to states
for crisis intervention and mental health courts, will become history.
Juvenile justice programs, which can provide early intervention to
prevent the mentally ill from becoming future victims of the prison
industrial complex, will be cut by 46%. While
the mentally ill find themselves staring at an austere federal
assistance package, the plutocrats are increasing military spending and
devoting 30.7% of government spending to the military (this figure
includes military expenditures embedded in the budgets of the
Departments of Justice and Energy and of NASA). Is this what
"compassionate conservatism" looks like?
A
nation in desperate need of soul-searching
As
Matthew Rothschild (the editor of the Progressive) so aptly pointed out,
it is important for vehement critics of
America
's Plutocracy to acknowledge that the
United States
is not responsible for all evil acts of humanity. I agree with him.
I recognize that many other nations and societies throughout
history have committed atrocities and contributed to the darker chapters
of humanity. There are other nations and rulers in the world today
perpetrating crimes against humanity. However, as an American with a
conscience and a powerful desire for the proliferation of human
rights and social justice, I will continue to invest a great deal
of energy into helping to expose the evils perpetrated by our
government, as most of them have been white-washed from mainstream books
and media. The bloated, corrupt government of the United States of
America spends $500 billion per year on its "glorious"
military industrial complex to ensure that it our Plutocratic
rulers maintain their possession of much of the world's wealth and
domination over the world. When they do provide military or financial
aid to other nations, it is with the covert (and sometimes overt)
purpose of furthering the interests of the Plutocrats, and often results
in suffering and death for many (i.e. "collateral damage"
caused by the
US
military operations). Hypocrisy reigns as the world's largest terrorist
state perpetrates imperialistic wars like the one in
Iraq
under the banner of "moral superiority". That same
"moral superiority enslaved a race of people and nearly decimated
the indigenous population of
North America
. The sad part is that
America
could be the moral leader of the world. As a people, Americans need to
find a way to meet our fellow citizens of the Earth as equals and
to channel our vast resources toward bettering humanity and the planet
on which we live. A great place to start would be to ensure the rights,
dignity, and well-being of our own people, including the oft-forgotten
mentally ill.
Jason Miller is a 38 year old
free-lance activist writer with a degree in liberal arts. He is a
husband and a father to three boys. His affiliations include
Amnesty International, the ACLU and the Americans United for Separation
of Church and State. He welcomes responses at willpowerful@hotmail.com
or comments on his blog at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/.
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