Institutional Lunacy

We used to put lunatics in mental institutions—now we have institutionally-approved lunacy. I mean deeply crazy people who get public airspace and can influence social policy. Like the Orange County lawyer who got enough people to sign the petition that gay people should be shot in the head. People, I’m not making this up. I was certain this was a news item in The Onion, but this really made it to Sacramento and will take taxpaper’s money to pay officials to have to deal with it.

As reported by The Advocate:

“Attorney Matthew McLaughlin filed the paperwork to launch a ballot initiative called the Sodomite Suppression Act, which would mandate execution by ‘bullets to the head or any other convenient method’ for ‘any person who willingly touches another person of the same gender for purposes of sexual gratification.’ McLaughlin’s rationale, as explained in the proposition, is that it is better for ‘sodomites’ to die ‘rather than that all of us should be killed by God’s just wrath against us for the folly of tolerating wickedness in our midst.’ ”

So this is someone who passed the bar exam? And is an approved practicing lawyer? Then there was the recent mandate that officials working in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection cannot use the terms “climate change” or “global warming.” I repeat: That’s inside the DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION! Then there were the Republican Senators who stated that homosexuality is responsible for the murder of millions of unborn babies.

It goes on. But my point here is not that some people are deeply disturbed or just plain insane. It’s that they have the floor. They’re given media time, TV time, time in the halls of political decision-making. How did this come to be?

These people need help. They really are certifiably crazy, some huge part of their heart missing or their brain malfunctioning. I would feel compassion for them if they didn’t have so much power to wreak havoc in the lives of others and destroy the fabric of anything that passes for a healthy community. Instead of giving them a soapbox to stand on, we should be gathering a support team to help them restore some sense of sanity and balance. I volunteer to teach music classes with them where they have to play and create music with the people they fear until they find the common core of humanity they so habitually avoid.

But if none of this works, I suppose I can just sign the proposition to shoot them in the head.