Pleasing Satan
There are social deviants, the psychopaths living within society, and the mentally health-afflicted who circulate and form part of the population of any country. All of whom while representing a relatively small proportion of any given society, present as a distinct problem to those larger members of a society who live normal, law-abiding lives. And since virtually anyone could be in any of those disturbed and disturbing categories at various levels of dysfunction, we hardly know how to defend ourselves against their predations upon us.
And it's just as well that within general society we don't become fixated on that problem. Very few people bother giving a second thought to the fact that society generally is afflicted with those unwilling or incapable of living alongside one another without impinging on the human rights of the majority. We are aware that there is a fringe group of people who present as the homeless among us. Many of these people are in the dreadful category of the truly unfortunate; there because of mental illness or they are alcohol- or drug-afflicted.
They are a nuisance to general society, but also a symptom of our unwillingness to treat their problems as our problems. For a society that overlooks the needs of those whose own abilities to cope with life has eluded them, also eludes a collective, enlightened responsibility. But it isn't always easy to deal with peoples' mental-health needs. They must themselves be willing to be open to treatment. And treatment is not always successful in stilling the demons that haunt the mentally ill.
A sad example is that of a young man, Trevor Lapierre, who stabbed a 74-year-old grandfather to death, delivering 45 stabs to the elderly man who was delivering Christmas cards in his Kitchener, Ontario neighbourhood. The now-24-year-old stands accused of second-degree murder carrying an automatic life sentence. He had informed police that he had walked around the neighbourhood looking for a victim, to "please Satan."
He had also assaulted another neighbourhood man who was shovelling snow in his driveway, two days later. He pleaded guilty to both incidents, and his lawyer described him as an intelligent, troubled man whose history of mental illness had not been properly diagnosed. The elderly man whom he had stabbed in the face, arms and hands on December 15, 2007, had been preparing to celebrate a 50th wedding anniversary with his wife.
Beverly Brown and Hunter Brown had been married since shortly after they met at church when she was 19. They had purchased travel tickets to Jamaica to include their entire family as an anniversary celebration. Mrs. Brown cannot bear to expunge her husband's voice on their answering machine, nor to sleep in the bed they shared, nor to remove his clothing still hanging in their bedroom closet.
And it's just as well that within general society we don't become fixated on that problem. Very few people bother giving a second thought to the fact that society generally is afflicted with those unwilling or incapable of living alongside one another without impinging on the human rights of the majority. We are aware that there is a fringe group of people who present as the homeless among us. Many of these people are in the dreadful category of the truly unfortunate; there because of mental illness or they are alcohol- or drug-afflicted.
They are a nuisance to general society, but also a symptom of our unwillingness to treat their problems as our problems. For a society that overlooks the needs of those whose own abilities to cope with life has eluded them, also eludes a collective, enlightened responsibility. But it isn't always easy to deal with peoples' mental-health needs. They must themselves be willing to be open to treatment. And treatment is not always successful in stilling the demons that haunt the mentally ill.
A sad example is that of a young man, Trevor Lapierre, who stabbed a 74-year-old grandfather to death, delivering 45 stabs to the elderly man who was delivering Christmas cards in his Kitchener, Ontario neighbourhood. The now-24-year-old stands accused of second-degree murder carrying an automatic life sentence. He had informed police that he had walked around the neighbourhood looking for a victim, to "please Satan."
He had also assaulted another neighbourhood man who was shovelling snow in his driveway, two days later. He pleaded guilty to both incidents, and his lawyer described him as an intelligent, troubled man whose history of mental illness had not been properly diagnosed. The elderly man whom he had stabbed in the face, arms and hands on December 15, 2007, had been preparing to celebrate a 50th wedding anniversary with his wife.
Beverly Brown and Hunter Brown had been married since shortly after they met at church when she was 19. They had purchased travel tickets to Jamaica to include their entire family as an anniversary celebration. Mrs. Brown cannot bear to expunge her husband's voice on their answering machine, nor to sleep in the bed they shared, nor to remove his clothing still hanging in their bedroom closet.
Labels: Health, Human Relations, Justice
posted by Pieface @ 6:18 PM
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