A friend just wrote (reposted with permission)
I am still upset about the Arizona shootings. First of all, and this is going to sound a little crazy, I feel very sorry for Jared Lee Loughner. Now, I absolutely deplore what he did, however, due to my own experiences with depression and bi-polar disorder, I can sympathize with what it feels like to have your very own mind seem to turn against you. I can understand helplessness and hopelessness and confusion and even a little bit of insanity. I certainly have never been violent towards other people and I am thankful for that, yet, I just feel so badly for this very, very sick young man. To be so young and to have your whole life ahead of you, to have a healthy body, to be intelligent, and yet to be tortured by demons in your own mind is truly tragic. I wish that he had had enough awareness that something was very wrong with him and he sought help. Maybe he did and did not get it. I wish his parents had got help for him. Maybe they tried. That young man's life is wasted along God given human potential will amount to nothing. His life is, for all practical purposes over, along with the people he killed, especially that sweet 9 year old girl. Their families are devastated and the poor congresswoman may never be the person she was before. People are talking, just talking about gun control. Or more accurately, machine gun bullet control---or whatever the call those multiple round clips he used. I wish we could have mental health treatment on demand. A tall order I know as getting "regular" health care is difficult for millions. I wish people would look at mental illness with compassion and offer help to those of us who suffer in silence and our families. People only pay attention when someone does something violent to others. I feel that if just a few of the Jared Lee Loughner's of the would can be prevented it would be an amazing thing.
