Yet Another Sign of Hope in the New Congress

For far more years than I want to admit, I naively scoffed at the term “mental illness,” writing it off to what I considered a largely fictional category of ailments claimed by the weak and self-obsessed, people who needed to just shape up, grow up, get their acts together, and quit their whining. It was the worst kind of bigotry, based on zero knowledge of a subject I all-too-easily dismissed.

Thankfully, age and a handful of encounters with the painfully real causes and consequences of mental and neurological disease combined to open my eyes and forced me to recognize my bias for the fool’s blathering it was.

Now, as the new Congress is set to convene, I am encouraged by the prospect that those who suffer from all such afflictions may finally be treated on par with their physically challenged counterparts.

And thus I hope moderate voices in all corners of the country will join me in encouraging our elected officials to face facts, follow the bold lead of Reps. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) and Jim Ramstad (R-MN), and and do the right thing, approving “mental health parity” legislation.