At times I like and choose to highlight short advocacy pieces that are opinion pieces written regionally that are so eloquent I feel they are worth sharing. They also serve as crystal clear reminders that mental health reform issues are really quite universal in our country.
One such piece was just published in The Buffalo News just today, August 30, 2017, still during the continuing agonizing events of Hurricane Harvey down in Houston Texas. This is a Wednesday as I write this and it has been raining in the Houston now for 5=6 days straight with over 50 inches all told having fallen in many areas, covering now up to 50 counties. It is dawning upon all of us, and without a doubt that domestically this may be not only one of the “defining issues” of the Trump Presidency but likely one of the “dominating” social issues of his tenure. The initial help efforts have been monumentally large, fast in onset and heartening to all who witness the “citizen” led and self-initiated efforts portrayed on the news outlets.
The infrastructure costs and time to repair will be higher than anything this nation has ever seen and will clearly take years. This is an incredibly sobering realization for this country which is many ways been spared because of its temperate climate the magnitude of many natural disasters that seem to inflict cruel pain and hardship on poorer regions of the world such as Bangladesh’s almost annual massive floods, displacing up to a million people during its monsoon season. I mention this because it is also happening there this very week also.
But there is another thread that I wish to emphasize in this post as no doubt many other citizen writers/bloggers and most of the national media will discuss and likely also argue over for a few weeks. That is the national physical infrastructure that has been neglected and minimally maintained in most parts of the country for a number of years if not decades. Urban plumbing, water systems, waste treatment capabilities and plants, water resources, roads, highways, airports, and bridges have come to be on the minds of governments at local, state and national levels.
The Mental Health Reform Blog 