Dolorosa & Dolorosa Candles

  John Patrick Bedell ~ May he finally rest in peace.

This week the country experienced  the frightening and tragic events as a gunman attempted to attack the Pentagon.  Sadly two police officers were wounded in the line of duty as they prevented this assault from occurring.  Sadly, too, was the fact that the gunman, John Patrick Bedell, was killed.  While what he was attempting to do was very wrong it is being recognized that this man had a documented history of severe mental illness.  Tragically he was attempting to resolve threats and delusions in his mind.  We should recognize that they were also his reality, however delusion they may have been to society as a whole.  The media is reporting that he had been in and out of institutions and that his family, his mom and dad, had been trying for years to get him the care he needed.  They had even warned law enforcement of his growing dangerous mental state.  

Many are calling for stricter gun control, that someone with mental illness should not have access to guns.  We allow them access to guns but essentially deny them realistic access to care.  

The access to care for the mentally ill is insane.  The system of access has become a complex maze of legal and cost-cutting screenings that makes access the exception rather than the rule.  The practice of the individual having to "want to be helped" as a result of the abuses of conservatorships in decades past has  now placed many individuals in a place of confusion and fear that precludes them finding medical care. It has placed them on the streets, in jails, prisons and...morgues.   This combined with the virtual impossibility of loved ones helping to access care brings the mentally ill to tragic ends.  This legal justification in our country has become a convenient tool of budget triage to essentially deny care and support to individuals and loved ones in need.  It saves millions of dollars of care and programs if the people "don't want to be helped".  A lethal dose of lead is often the most convenient prescription for someone in a psychotic episode.

Our society would be appalled and lawsuits would be flooding the courts (and rightfully so)  if it was required of  someone who was blind and a quadriplegic  to climb flights of stairs and navigate a maze of cubicles to access a system that would help them to  care.  Yet this is the psychological reality for many with mental illness (and their loves ones) to access the system of  care (that even when accessed is under-funded and lacking in programs).  The ability to simply understand, process and work through the often paranoia-fueling road to help is simply beyond the ability of many who struggle with mental illness.  This combined with often long delays in actually reaching help just simply is pushing  them out the doors..into the streets.

What John Patrick Bedell sought to do was very wrong.  It was a wrong his mom and dad sought to prevent as they fought for help for their son.  It was also a wrong that John was unable to perceive.  

The greater wrong is the stigma and prejudice that we as a society embrace to deny care to those who need it.  May the tragic death of John Patrick Bedell  help us confront the darkness and share the light of mercy, healing and hope for all the mentally afflicted.  

John, may you rest in peace.