Posted on 04/20/2009 10:07:03 AM PDT by Graybeard58
Ten years ago today, a shocking display of violence erupted in the affluent Denver suburb of Littleton. Two Columbine High School students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, set two powerful bombs to explode in the cafeteria. When the bombs failed to detonate, the two entered the school, heavily armed. They shot and killed a dozen students and a teacher, wounded 23 and finally took their own lives.
Americans have been trying to make sense out of what happened ever since. Sadly, they've had plenty of opportunities. No fewer than 80 such incidents have taken place since April 20, 1999, observes Denver author Dave Cullen, whose new book, "Columbine," examines the shootings and their fallout.
The nation remains poorly equipped to tamp down this hideous trend. Gun-control advocates make the most noise and offer the least helpful solutions: The degree of government intrusion, confiscation and incarceration required to keep guns away from people who want to do harm to others would render America unrecognizable. And the violence would continue. Keep in mind that the heart of the Harris-Klebold plot was not the guns but the propane bombs, which would have killed as many as 500 people instantly. The two teens intended to use their guns to pick off fleeing students and teachers after the explosions.
The point that seems to escape most people is the Columbine plot did not emerge fully formed. According FBI reports cited by Mr. Cullen, such attacks invariably follow an "evolutionary" path, "with signposts along the way." Might it have been possible to stop Harris and Klebold before their plot ever got started, simply by refusing to tolerate behaviors that preceded the massacre — the online rantings, the criminal acts, the bizarre dress and the manufacture of homemade pipe bombs, to name just a few?
In our April 22, 1999 editorial on Columbine, we singled out for praise a school administrator in Greenwich for standing up to students who, in 1997, asserted their "right" to wear vampire garb to school. The administrator, Eileen Petruzillo, said she had authority to require students "to dress within certain guidelines." She understood what many school officials still don't: that peremptorily shutting down extreme behavior can go a long way toward preventing more extreme behavior, up to and including violence.
The day Americans stop talking about chimeras such as gun control, and address the far more pressing problem of excessive tolerance for misbehaviors large and small in the schools, will be the day the frequency and probability of Columbine-style massacres will diminish.
That’s why I have no sympathy for anyone suicidal.
If someone’s willing to murder themselves, it’s no stretch to taking out others.
If each of the killers ate french fries every day - or was known drink lots of sugar laden soft drinks - the MSM and New York Times and Washington Post would NEVER stop talking about it. But antidepressants? Not a peep - to liberals those drugs are like the Bible...sacred.
That's sorta why I brought in the conspiracy connection. I'm not sure I'm there yet, but I've seen plenty to support a conspiracy.
I had a family member get on an SSRI. She was like a Stepford wife. She had no emotion on anything. Wreck the car, oh well, we have insurance. Lose your purse, oh well, I needed a new one anyway. Johnny gets busted for dope, oh well, boys will be boys. It was not human. after about a year, even she noticed it and tried to get off of it. She had GREAT difficulty. Went to the doctor and he said why are you trying to get off? She told him and he said she needed them and that's why she had trouble. To make a long story short after several attempts, she tried cold turkey from a gradual decrease. The weaning off wasn't working. Crying, yelling, leaving home in the middle of the night, all kinds of bizarre behavior and she couldn't get it straight. The doctor kept telling her that is why she shouldn't quit. Her response was she wasn't like this before she started taking the SSRI so something had changed her. When she went cold turkey, she was in bed for 2 weeks. She cried, screamed, laughed, and slept for all but just a few lucid moments. When she was laughing, I asked her "what was so funny?". She said you really DON"T want to know. Then she said if I told you, I'd have to kill you. That was the first time since I knew her I was actually scared of her. She looked possessed by a demon like in the movies. after a couple of weeks she started to become functional again and is now as normal as she can be. ( She did have emotional problems before, but I was never afraid for her).
So you are either an emotional vegetable or a person that is kinda iffy. I don't know which is worse, but I do know that many people get SSRI's for just being temporarily upset at a lack of sleep or other minor complaints, and then you are hooked and can't get off. A neighbor of mine complained about his job and told the doctor he was upset that he missed a promotion. He went on Paxil. After awhile he tried to get off and now all he does is cry, ALL THE TIME. You can't hardly say anything without him starting to cry. Now he's back on and is a robot.
Now knowing all this, think about the government pushing these meds and hiding the addictive effects from even the doctors. Sounds like a prescription to pass whatever the fascist government wants and everybody is happy. I'm not saying it's not a needed med, but I KNOW it is over prescribed and not watched close enough. Just as a ball park guess, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if 60% or more is prescribed for minuscule reasons. For a real emotionally disturbed person, this could be a life changer, but I think we did pretty good before we had SSRI's. It would be easy for an out of control government to just say "Give em Paxil", and they would be forever in debt to the government. Just think about Pelosi saying "Those mean ole Republicans want to cut your meds off!" Revolution and murder would be everywhere.
It IS over perscribed. I don't believe the government is "behind this" but the US is becoming a Brave New World - newer than is comfortable.
Your comments about a "fascist government" aren't that far off the mark. Germans used St John's Wort - a "natural" antidepressant. I've often wondered how Germans could live with themselves emotionally knowing they had created "death factories" - and St. John's Wort is the answer. Being depressed often means we're doing something wrong - it's the body's warning. Depression serves a useful purpose. Think: conscience. And antidepressants - take that edge off. We don't suffer the guilt we should be feeling.
And you're right - sometimes people actually need the help antidepressants offer - but not whole societies. I think of the drug as "sociopath lite"....
Of course there is an answer, those boys were simply bad seed.
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