The government should...

A letter to the editor in today's L.A. Times laments the fact that many young people who show the early signs of mental illness do not receive the attention or the medical help they need to keep them from becoming violent. The author continues with a paragraph that begins, "The government should respond immediately by..."

Now I recognize that the people of our nation could do much more in the early detection and treatment of mental illness, but I do not accept that it is necessarily the responsibility of our national government to provide the resources, or to force people to give treatment.


Over and over again people ask congress to solve problems that it has neither the intelligence, nor the resources, nor the funding to resolve, e.g. "Housing costs too much for young folks to buy their homes, The government should..." or "Health care is so expensive that many cannot afford it, The government should..." or "Corporate executives make too much money, The government should..."

And on it goes, until someone starts to complain that the government is creating a "nanny state." or that it constrains us with "fascist control" of our daily lives.

Too many people want to have the government solve all of our problems for us, as opposed to solving problems ourselves as individuals, as families, or in local communities.

Let's all grow up, stop being lazy, and start handling our own problems.