In 1970 I was working the night shift at a state institution in New Hampshire. I lived alone in a cottage in the White Mountains, and even though it was a long drive home and I often sang and hyperventilated to stay awake, I was relieved to have this time as a transition from what went on during my night.
One spring morning when I opened the door to my porch and walked in, there was a drifter ‘bad person’ waiting for me. I am not going to go into what happened, but as a result I had to leave New Hampshire, be transported to Boston, where the Beth Israel Hospital became my home off and on for a year.
I’m sharing this for one reason.
When I looked into the eyes of the drifter, I knew that there was nothing that I could do that was going to ‘turn him off’ from his plan…or obsession…or deranged mindset. What was fascinating at the time, is that I was working in an institution to eliminate these people from being out and about, but many of ‘my people’ didn’t belong where they were. They had been deposited, abandoned, locked up for being different, or deaf, or brutalized.
We have been out of whack with the mentally ill for a long long time, maybe forever. I receive many calls now from people who are being affected by this and/or are terrified for their families. We need to focus and be supremely mindful of who is and who isn’t a danger to society and work together….EVERYONE….on figuring this out and not just talk about it. We need to be intensely focused on protecting ALL…and this means those that are judged, labelled and dismissed, as well as from those that are threatening.