Old-fashioned witch hunt?
By all means, let us prevent people with mental illness from living among us. Let us be satisfied with the rapists, murderers, pedophiles, abusers and habitual criminals who live in our community instead.
This "debate" on whether the mentally ill can live among us is ludicrous at best. One out of every four Americans have a mental illness. Before you call your landlord and tell him you want your mentally ill neighbor removed take a look in your mirror. Anyone can develop a mental illness at any age. Thousands of people in York County are dealing with mental illness themselves or with someone who is close to them. Anyone you meet in daily life could have a mental disorder and you may not know it; yet you have lived successfully along side them all along.
To comment on this letter, click on “Comments” below
Agencies like Bell Socialization have been placing people with mental disorders in the community for decades. Two very unfortunate incidents twice in a matter of months does not negate that hundreds of people with mental health issues have been housed and living in the community for years, without incurring incidents such as the recent ones.
The comment that there is "not enough supervision" in housing is nonsense. No agency or landlord can be responsible for a tenant's personal crisis.No one can ensure that every place or everybody in the world will remain eternally safe. If we got rid of all the neighbors we personally regard as suspicious, scary or odd, who's going to be left on your street? What makes you sure no one thinks you're scary, odd or a potential danger to the neighborhood?
People with mental illness are not inherently dangerous. That is a bigoted, ignorant and stigmatizing myth. Statistics prove most people who do violent acts are not mentally ill.
It is tragic that two people were gripped by suicidal episodes; it is tragic that in doing so they inadvertently endangered others as well as themselves. However, these incidents are considered newsworthy because they are rare, and not a common occurrence. To point a finger at others and declare them unfit to be among us is not only unAmerican, it smacks of an old-fashioned witch hunt.
Mickie R. Singer
Seven Valleys
Mickie I do believe that Bell Socialization needs to review their procedure for placing mentally unstable people in housing. These people do not have all of their capacities in place and there needs to be a special housing for such individuals! In this housing there needs to be workers around to check on the residents! It may be hard to take but I sure would not want my family and I to live in a complex where it is unsafe!