It Could Have Been Your Son

Well, it's happened again: Some guy has apparently wandered into the middle of an ice-encrusted Susquehanna River. What a nut, eh?

Well, no.

As it turned out, the man (who was rescued by a brave team from the PA State Police and Harrisburg River Rescue) has mental illness. In a time of rapidly diminishing resources for those struggling with mental illness (not to mention the families of those with mental illness), I can understand how this would happen.

What I can't understand is the drumbeat of ignorant comments:

"I for one wish he would have fallen in and just went on down the river. That would be one a**hole less in the world"

"What a waste of taxpayer money in our current economic climate."

[the fine] "ought to be sterilization. We don't want people that dumb reproducing."

Nice.

Seriously, people. This is somebody's son. He could be somebody's brother. He could be somebody's dad or grandfather. He could just as easily be a member of YOUR family. Where is the compassion?

This hits close to home because my son has autism. And it wasn't that long ago that autism was considered a mental illness; some would still say it is a mental illness. And since autism, like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, has its roots in the physiology of the brain, maybe it *is* a mental illness after all.

My point is that this could easily be MY son someday.

And I don't even want to tell you what I'd want to do to all the half-wits who had funny comments about today's ice adventure then.