Dear Forum,
One reply so far from my simple email.
When a man stands in court and announces that his name is "Death to traitors, freedom for Britain" to me that is a sign of a sick mind, how did one man fall so far that he decided to take a human life so brutally.
To me this also leads on to the fertile ground for recruiting terrorists, when we marginalise certain groups they will look for an outlet, they will drift towards anyone who they think are on their side, if you feel you have let down by society you then become ideal fodder for indoctrination, Jo Cox's husband is right, we need to seek out what unite's us, not divides us.
I know this issue is a lot bigger than just mental health, but I think it is somewhere where we can start, tell me I am wrong and I will shutup.
Gonnagle.
Gonners,
I know you mean well.
I have a 'sick mind'; I'm mentally ill. I pose no danger to anyone, not even myself.
Treating mental health properly will resolve and prevent untold misery for far, far too many people. It will save lives through suicide prevention. But the number of murders it will prevent are very small.
There will be people killed each week by people who don't like their skin colour, their sexuality, their clothes, because they looked at them funny. The people that punch and kick people to death in our pubs, parks and city centres rarely have a mental illness that accounts for killing. Rather they live with an attitude that difference is wrong and to be despised and eradicated.
I am frightened enough about being open about having mental illness. Snd I shouldn't be any more than someone should be frightened about telling people they have arthritis or a stomach ulcer.
The emphasis on mental illness in this terrible case by the right-wing press is a shameful attempt to deflect from their part in stoking anti immigration feeling in this country. And it is deeply, deeply worrying.