(AFTER WALL STREET) OCCUPY NEXT

Ellis Henican's...

OCCUPY NEXT?

1. Bourbon Street
2. Sesame Street
3. Easy Street
4. Dream Street
5. Lover’s Lane

http://henican.com/2011/10/16/the-theme-from-wall-street/

WRITE TO HENICAN

Crazy...Crazy for Talk Radio

"Research has found that a diagnosis of major mental illness alone is not a predictor of violence. The severity of a person’s illness, their past history of violence, substance abuse and criminality are the more important concerns, yet the crime is often linked to the diagnosis of mental illness itself. " *

OK...I'm right on board with saying that this Arizona shooter has to be "crazy"...

BUT now radio/tv talkers (is this an attempt by the radio hosts being accused of the violence inciting rhetoric to shift focus off of themselves?) are blaming the senseless massacre on "Us". 

Everyone. You, me, teachers, neighbors, strangers... We all should have seen the guy was crazy and...what?...made a citizen's commitment to a mental institution? 

Let's be real, if we start willy-nilly locking up every guy with extreme political leanings, uncommon reading habits (Mein Kampf, Communist Manifesto) or who's been described (as this killer was) as a “political radical” a “loner” and “obsessed with the 2012 prophecies"...well, we might as well start putting a trace on the radio phone lines and send out the Talk Radio Police to lock 'em all up. 

(...we obviously CAN NOT predict this behavior based on eccentric or bizarre behavior alone)

 A Media Guide for Reporting on Mental Illness

is available at http://www.mentalhealthreporting.org/

* http://www.dshs.wa.gov/pdf/dbhr/mh/MHMediaBriefinghandout08022010.pdf

CEASE FIRE!

On October 30^th, Jon Stewart led the Rally to Restore Sanity – poking fun at, and shining a spotlight on, the hyped up hysteria of the far right and far left media

On December 20^th, we had the launch of No Labels - asking our leaders to put political partisanship aside and do what is best for America.

On January 8, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik made a statement attributing the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others to heated political discourse.

It seems obvious that we have reached a time in this country where the pendulum is about to swing back from extreme and volatile partisan opinion to a time of more open discussion.

Don’t you think that it’s time to capitalize on the recent headlines trumpeting compromises in Washington?

I'm saying it is time for the media to get in line with what Americans want.  
A Cease-Fire.