This diary was published before. I think that it has relevance and should be seen again in view of the recent book by Markos. In fact, I believe that there is the mirror image of the Taliban here in the form of the Christian Right, that has God on it's side and the bible in it's hand.
I spent 20 years of my life working in a special ed program for severely mentally ill children. They were great, rewarding years that I look upon with love and pride. This population was removed from their local districts because they were unmanageable and unable to function in their local school districts.
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These children were tended to by a team of mental health professionals, special ed teachers, assistants and anger management people whose jobs were specifically to de escalate, discuss issues, work with the families of these children and to bring them back to a place that they could function in society. Some of them were very disturbed and violent. Their ages ranged from 4years old to 21 and some of them were there until they aged out.
I was an MSW and my job was to work with these individuals on a one on one basis and with their families.
There was a a point where you would need to decide if they were serious about their violence and usually, they were. The next step was to determine if they could put it all together and actually plan an act of violence that could potentially, harm, maim or even kill someone. Many of them were not able to follow through with their threats to harm because they could not focus long enough to commit the act. Others didn't need that focus because their anger was constantly there and could lash out with anything handy. Some could be reasoned with. Some just used threats to scare their fellow students and never really followed through except with flailing around and yelling strong words and threats.
For all of these "children" there were consequences for their behavior. No they weren't put in a dark box for days without food... they had to answer to their teachers, understand that the things that they did were harmful to others , sometimes they had to go home in a Police Car, which back then was rare and not be allowed back to school until their suspension was over. I was never sure why that was a punishment.
Where I am going here is that looking out at the horizon, there's a growing number of Right Wing nuts, misinformed, the majority of them probably having some form of mental illness that are helped along by much smarter, savvy extremists that have an agenda in mind. They are gathering a group of God Fearing Americans that live by the word and take it literally. With no ability to understand another point of view and egged on by leaders with an anti social personality disorder. If that doesn't sound like the Islamic extremists, show me the difference.
Back at the Day Treatment Program, there would have been consequences.