Lynn Stuter -- Why are We Tolerating this Madness?

WHY ARE WE TOLERATING THIS MADNESS?

By Lynn Stuter

February 19, 2008

NewsWithViews.com

Once again Americans sit transfixed in front of televisions, soaking up the images of violence emanating from Northern Illinois University. Six are dead including the shooter � a 27 year old man; a former student at NIU who, like so many before him, was a �nice young man� who had gone off his meds and started acting erratic.

The talking heads are at it again. News anchor after news anchor, rehash after rehash, focuses on guns on campus; talking head after talking head makes the preposterous and unsubstantiated claim that more guns means more violence.

The American people sit in front of their television sets and gobble it up like the latest tasty creation in candy, marketed with the promise of keeping the consumer thin.

That such might not be the truth goes right over the heads of people who want to believe, wholeheartedly, that their government would never lie to them, much less those nice people who deliver what little real news doesn�t end up on the editing room floor before the daily news airs.

There is one commonality in all of these shootings that, while mentioned, is lost in the subterfuge focusing on guns.

Not long ago, a young man was arrested in the parking lot of a high school in Coeur d�Alene, Idaho. On the front seat of his car was found a loaded shotgun; three other high-powered rifles were found in the trunk; the result of a burglary at his uncles� home the night before in which the young man was suspect.

What was to come out in the days following this incident was that the young man had recently been on mind-altering anti-depressants.

Here we go again. Kip Kinkel, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, the Virginia Tech shooter, all on mind-altering prescription anti-depressants, as was the Northern Illinois University shooter; as have been a long list of shooters who have killed a multitude of others before killing themselves or surrendering as authorities converged.

How many of these shootings have to happen before the people rise up and demand accountability for young people being put on these mind-altering drugs? How many more people have to die before we finally say �enough is enough�?

In the case of the young man in Coeur d�Alene, he had recently been diagnosed with �social anxiety� and �depression�. Where have we heard those terms used repeatedly before? Does TeenScreen come to mind? Was TeenScreen or a similar pre-approved suicide �prevention� program, backed by a pharmaceutical industry that stands to profit, responsible for the family physician prescribing anti-depressants to this young man, the most current prior to this incident being Prozac?

And why are our elected officials, at every level, ignoring the growing body of evidence that links anti-depressant prescription drugs, of all types, to young people who then lose their minds and take the lives of countless others before surrendering or taking their own life?

When I heard about the young man in Coeur d�Alene having been on prescription anti-depressants, I sent the television reporter the following e-mail.

As more and more of these �incidents� occur, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: the connection between these incidents and kids being put on anti-depressants. Your mention of that, during your piece � last night, caught my attention.

There is a reason for the black box warning on anti-depressants: they can cause suicide ideation in young people; they can cause violence in young people; they SHOULD NOT be prescribed to young people under ANY circumstance. But they are being prescribed.

The reaction of [the perpetrator�s] friend during your interview is common: they (the perpetrator) would not hurt anyone. And that would be true IF kids like [the perpetrator] were in their right mind. But they are not in their right mind when on these mind-altering anti-depressants that are being increasing prescribed for teens when prescribing them to teens is dangerous.

The link between school shooters and anti-depressants is one that can no longer be denied. And why parents aren�t hearing about it is because it is being carefully ignored. Three of the most famous school shooters, known to have been on mind-altering anti-depressants, were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (Columbine, CO) and Kip Kinkel (Springfield, OR).

And children are being shoved on these mind-altering anti-depressants by schools who do not want to deal with the problems education reform is causing among young people; and by parents who truly believe the schools are looking out for their child�s best interests instead of thinking for themselves and realizing that drugs aren�t the answer. That is the bottom line.

And many of the referrals to doctors who prescribe the drugs are coming out of the schools via �suicide prevention� screening such as is the focus of TeenScreen. This screening is neither valid nor reliable and is the product of the pharmaceutical industry that stands to gain, monetarily, from the drugs prescribed.

What is being done is nothing short of medical malpractice. And what is happening, as a result, is more and more cases like [this one].

I�m sure the reader will be surprised to learn that on a subject this crucial to the well-being of our society, there was absolutely no follow-up. The reporter didn�t even respond. The silence was deafening. That gives some idea of the lengths to which the news media is going to ignore what has become so obvious to so many.

We ask why? We get no answers.

Why, one has to ask, when the anti-depressants are ever present in the background, is the focus always on �the guns?�

It becomes obvious that, in lieu of looking at the entire scope of the problem, the Hegelian Dialectic is in practice here. While claiming to want to address the problem, the focus is shifted away from the mind-altering prescription drugs that are causing young people to lose their minds, to the guns young people are using to kill others and themselves while out of their minds.

It becomes obvious, in this, that the mind-altering prescription drugs are not being addressed because they serve the purpose of causing the problem for which the ultimate solution, the wanted solution, is the revocation of the Second Amendment: the right of every citizen to keep and bear arms. Bluntly speaking, the lives lost due to these mind-altering prescription drugs is a price willingly paid if the ultimate solution achieved is gun control to the point of gun confiscation and only the government having guns.

Further evidence of this lies in the oft repeated mantra that more guns equals more violence. What rubbish! Good fences make good neighbors and an armed society is also a polite society. If even one of the students in that lecture hall had had the means of defense, lives could have been saved.

But just as the media is carefully avoiding a significant causal factor in these acts of violence against society, so does the media carefully avoid the countless instances in which guns have saved lives instead of taking them; when an individual, acting in defense of self and others, has saved lives because he or she had a gun and the knowledge and means to use it against the intended criminal conduct of another.

Our elected officials have demonstrated a willingness to ignore the havoc prescription anti-depressants are causing among young people and the havoc resulting on American society, in general. Is their willingness due to their being obliged to the very pharmaceutical companies who are making millions off the prescriptions written for the anti-depressants given to young people? Or is their willingness due to their unspoken desire to see gun control the likes of which would make Hitler proud?

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One thing is for certain: people who own guns cannot be coerced; cannot be forced to subjugate to the elitist mentality that the government knows best. And when people cannot be coerced into subservience, the government cannot effectively pursue an agenda counter to the best interests of the people.

Quite obviously, the answer, in the government�s eyes, is to use any and all means necessary to get rid of the guns. And the illicit drugging of young people with anti-depressants, such that they lose their minds and going on killing sprees, certainly accomplishes the hysteria wanted and needed to galvanize people behind the call for greater gun control if not an outright ban altogether.

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Activist and researcher, Stuter has spent the last fifteen years researching systems theory and systems philosophy with a particular emphasis on education as it pertains to achieving the sustainable global environment. She home schooled two daughters. She has worked with legislators, both state and federal, on issues pertaining to systems governance, the sustainable global environment and education reform. She networks nationwide with other researchers and a growing body of citizens concerned with the transformation of our nation from a Constitutional Republic to a participatory democracy. She has traveled the United States and lived overseas.

Web site: www.learn-usa.com

E-Mail: lmstuter@learn-usa.com�

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