Is The U.S. Becoming A Sick Nation? …The Perception Out There

US President Barack Obama

IS the United States of America (USA) a sick nation? This question has been lingering on my mind since the 1990s and I arrived at this perception after observing some of the tragic incidents that have been happening in that country over the years.

In 1989, a very close friend of mine decided to relocate to the US, after all the advice from family and friends have fallen on deaf ears.

My friend arrived in New York and decided to call his mother to announce his safe arrival. Since he didn't know his way around and that day being his first day in the US, he entered a telephone booth near his hotel to make the call.

My friend was still on the phone to his mother when somebody mistook him for somebody and shot him. His mother, who was over10, 000 kilo meters away in Ghana, heard her son scream for help. Can anyone imagine what this woman went through? Hearing your son at the other end of the line, screaming for help and there was nothing she could do. Very traumatic indeed, isn't it?

This incident and the frequent mass killings in American society have reinforced my perception that Americans are becoming sick people.

Since last Friday, December 14, 2012 when Adam Lanza killed his mother and 26 others including 20 children, the tragedy has ignited the debate on firearms laws in a country whose constitution not only guarantees the ownership of guns but affirms it.

By Monday, the debate on control of firearms was raging, whilst the influential National Rifle Association (NRA), which for years has opposed any laws on guns in the United States remained silent since the Newtown shooting. Some prominent members of the Association, including Senator Joe Manchin and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have however, called for fresh debate on firearms laws to prevent any such mass killing in future.

A heartbroken US President Barack Obama, at a memorial service said emphatically “we can't tolerate this anymore”.

Mr. Obama in his emotional speech assured Americans he would use all the powers at his disposal to try to break the pattern of mass killings in the US.

But seriously and honestly speaking, are gun laws the only solution to the mass killings that is gradually becoming the order of the day in the United States of America?

While Mr. Obama and his colleague politicians are thinking about stricter gun control laws, mothers across the length and breadth of the United States are also terrified of their children and are looking at another aspect of the debate which is the mental health of American youth.

Any observer of these mass killings would agree with these American mothers who seem to agree with me that America is becoming a sick society and want the authorities to take a critical look at the mental health of American society, especially the youth.

Liza Long, a mother of three, based in Boise, who is being terrorised frequently by her 13 year old son, writing about the New Town tragedy said, she appreciate the talk about gun laws but it was time to talk about mental illness.

Lisa said she now lives in fear of her son and when she asked her son's social worker about her options, after she reported her son to the authorities, she was told the only thing she could do was to get her son charged with a crime and sent to jail. “That is the only way you are ever going to get anything done. No one will pay attention to your son unless you got him charged and sent to prison”, she was told.

Lisa does not believe her son should be sent to jail, but it seems the only solution available now in the United States is by throwing mental ill people into prison on some flimsy excuse so they can get treatment.

Writing in the “Evening Standard” of Tuesday, December 18, 2012 Bonnie Greer, who hails from Illinois said, “the largest public mental health facility is the Cook County jail where most American mental health patients who need treatment, would have to encounter the criminal justice system in order to have any hope of being diagnosed and treated”.

Mr. Greer wrote, “poverty, lack of access to health facilities, the increasingly real experience provided by violent games and easy access to guns all create the diabolical brew that much of the United States culture has become”.

He said, “the inability and unwillingness of various administrations to see the synergy between a decent education for all, health care for all, jobs and a level of respect granted to all citizens has made America a “them and us” society”.

Finishing his letter, Mr. Greer said, “Barack Obama will act within the limited parameters of his office. But now it may be too late to change”.

According to Human Rights Watch, the number of mentally ill inmates in U.S. prisons quadrupled from 2000 to 2006, and it continues to rise — in fact, the rate of inmate mental illness is five times greater (56 percent) than in the non-incarcerated population.

With state-run treatment centers and hospitals shuttered, prison is now the last resort for the mentally ill.

No one wants a 13-year old boy sent to jail but it seem Lisa and the American society, with the stigma on mental illness and America's broken healthcare system, does not have any alternative.

Many Americans would agree with President Obama that something urgent must be done to curtail these mass killing sprees, they also thinks the time has come for a meaningful, nation-wide debate on mental illness among American youth.

This is why I strongly believe for the American society to heal itself of these frequent killing sprees in public places, the authorities should not only look at how to control the use of guns but should also look at the mental health situation of the American people, especially the Youth.

Kojo Egyiri
e-mail – [email protected]