The Voices in My Head
I hear voices in my head. I admit it. The voices say things like, “Shouldn’t you pee before leaving the house on a road trip?” Also, “No, not the brown shoe. Look for the other blue shoe.” And, “I wonder if I should eat more bananas?”
I’ve been told that hearing voices is a sure sign of mental disease. Strangely, I have not tried to assault or kill anyone. I mention this because Trump’s recent speech said it wasn’t guns that killed all these people, it was mental illness.
Sometime the voices in my head can get downright violent. “Look at the way that idiot is driving!” Or, “If one more person writes genuine imitation leather, or free gift or growing smaller, I swear I’ll…”
According to the Washington Post, there’s very little relationship between mental illness and violent crime. Certainly, some seriously deranged individual have been responsible for murders but by-and-large, the killings are fueled by hate, racism, or a desire for recognition, not by delusions.
Mind you, it’s my opinion that anyone who picks up a gun with the obvious intent of killing people is dealing with some serious issues, but most of these are not listed in the American Psychiatric Association DSM V.
Sometimes the voices in my head say, “Right. Yes. Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” Then I segue into, “I wonder if maybe shoes kill people? I’ve never heard of a barefooted mass murderer. They all wear shoes, so it must be the shoes. Or maybe the Fruit of the Loom?”
In my more rational moments, the voices in my head say, “By golly! The NRA is right! Guns don’t kill people; bullets kill people!” Bullets issued at the rate of 400 per minute from the barrel of a perfectly legal and available to all semi-automatic rifle or pistol can—and do—kill a lot people. After all, that’s what the guns and the ammo are designed to do.
And if I think a little more, I can come to the conclusion that people who foster hate and racism, cowards who hide behind constitutional amendments, and leaders afraid to protect their constituents and perhaps lose their lucrative jobs, well, they all kill people too, right?
I don’t have to hear voices in my head or be mentally deficient to figure that out.
I’ve been told that hearing voices is a sure sign of mental disease. Strangely, I have not tried to assault or kill anyone. I mention this because Trump’s recent speech said it wasn’t guns that killed all these people, it was mental illness.
Sometime the voices in my head can get downright violent. “Look at the way that idiot is driving!” Or, “If one more person writes genuine imitation leather, or free gift or growing smaller, I swear I’ll…”
According to the Washington Post, there’s very little relationship between mental illness and violent crime. Certainly, some seriously deranged individual have been responsible for murders but by-and-large, the killings are fueled by hate, racism, or a desire for recognition, not by delusions.
Mind you, it’s my opinion that anyone who picks up a gun with the obvious intent of killing people is dealing with some serious issues, but most of these are not listed in the American Psychiatric Association DSM V.
Sometimes the voices in my head say, “Right. Yes. Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” Then I segue into, “I wonder if maybe shoes kill people? I’ve never heard of a barefooted mass murderer. They all wear shoes, so it must be the shoes. Or maybe the Fruit of the Loom?”
In my more rational moments, the voices in my head say, “By golly! The NRA is right! Guns don’t kill people; bullets kill people!” Bullets issued at the rate of 400 per minute from the barrel of a perfectly legal and available to all semi-automatic rifle or pistol can—and do—kill a lot people. After all, that’s what the guns and the ammo are designed to do.
And if I think a little more, I can come to the conclusion that people who foster hate and racism, cowards who hide behind constitutional amendments, and leaders afraid to protect their constituents and perhaps lose their lucrative jobs, well, they all kill people too, right?
I don’t have to hear voices in my head or be mentally deficient to figure that out.
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