I have to ask, again and again:  Are we our brother’s keeper?  You read repeatedly how state after state is slashing their budget for mental health services.  Sure, states can’t afford to continue to pay for upkeep of their mental health hospitals so many of them are closing.  The services in the communities are often not supported; even services that have proved to be cost effective like peer centers.

People will still suffer.  The jails, not hospitals, now contain the largest population of the mentally ill.  Many are in for minor offenses.  Is that right?  As if the politicians don’t know that?  This population is the most vulnerable.  ER’s are increasingly being filled with those in crisis and it is very difficult to find an appropriate place for them to go.

We will be judged by how we treat the weak and vulnerable.  I will ask the politicians, again, are you your brothers’ keeper?  It costs a lot of money to treat the mentally ill in jail.  The money could be better spent in the community.  The mentally ill do not belong in jail.

People are suffering unnecessarily.  The general public is also complicit in this situation.  There was a reason state hospitals were often in the country.  Out of sight, out of mind although it is true decades ago they were called rest homes.  There were none of the medications available and often all some of the people in crisis needed was some peace and quiet and time to regain their equilibrium.

The public and the politicians need to ask themselves are we our brothers’ keeper?  And support the services that are needed to humanely treat the mentally ill.  By all means the states need to spend their money wisely.  But acting as if the problems will vanish and expecting the jails to treat the mentally ill is not right.

It could be your loved one?  After all, one out of four have been diagnosed mentally ill in their lifetime.  And you would want proper and humane treatment for your loved ones.  Or even you?  So we have to keep asking ourselves (and the politicians) are we our brothers’ keeper?

Relax, you do not have to do it alone!  The whole weight of the world is not on your shoulders.  That is not the way the universe is designed.

Every person has responsibilities and you have to do your part, whatever it is but no one is totally independent.

It is all relative.  Each person is dependent on the other.  The whole world is interdependent on each other for supplying each others’ needs.  You need people to maintain your electricity, your road.

You need farmers to raise your crops, some of which ends up in your local supermarket.  The material for your cell phone had to come from somewhere.  There has to be towers built to transfer the signal.  And that is just the start.  Are you getting the idea?

And some of the people are so disconnected with this.  I had a customer complain once because there were flecks of dirt on her bunch of celery.  Like it was revolutionary for a person to discoverer that food is usually grown in dirt.

We take so many things for granted.  The person who thinks he/she is independent of others is nursing an illusion.  You depend on others for all kinds of services.

There is an upside to this:  you do not have to do it alone.  And that realization can be freeing.  Just do the part you are called to.  Others will do their part in the scheme of things.  And you can relax as a result.