For much of my wine blog writings, I write over the weekend, honestly.  During the week, I’m too busy living what I’m doing, and taking care of clients’ writing needs. I reserve my weekends for reflection and sharing. This keeps me journaling about being a wine publicist.

There are times when I read something, and I have to immediately react. These are usually the blogs that get me into hot water with people of opposing views. (Whatever…)

As I sit at my computer this Sunday morning, I find myself speechless.

I can’t find a blessed thing to write about that has to do with wine, except perhaps needing a glass at 8:00 a.m., which I won’t have. I know better. It just isn’t appropriate.

And if you were to read my blog this Monday, and it would be all chirpy and fun, you’d be wondering what planet I live on.

Let me tell you what I’ve been doing since last Friday, December 14, besides avoiding the news.

I’m not one of those people who will rush to a train wreck, just to see the devastation. I can easily feel that in my heart. I don’t need the visuals… And I don’t need some idiotic reporter asking, “So, how does that make you feel?” For God’s sake, reporters, how do you feel? Why ask such a stupid question? (Yes, Virginia, there is a stupid question.)

Since last Friday, I’ve been wondering how different America would be had Ronald Regan and his cohorts not opened the flood gates of our healthcare system, to benefit big business….

Trying to make sense of it all, I’ve Googled “Ronald Regan + Mental Health Care,” and the first paper to pop up [link has been removed] was written by Alexandar R Thomas, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University in 1998. I’ve read it over and over again…. Written:

Abstract

Conventional wisdom suggests that the reduction of funding for social welfare policies during the 1980s is the result of a conservative backlash against the welfare state. With such a backlash, it should be expected that changes in the policies toward involuntary commitment of the mentally ill reflect a generally conservative approach to social policy more generally. In this case, however, the complex of social forces that lead to less restrictive guidelines for involuntary commitment are not the result of conservative politics per se, but rather a coalition of fiscal conservatives, law and order Republicans, relatives of mentally ill patients, and the practitioners working with those patients. Combined with a sharp rise in homelessness during the 1980s, Ronald Reagan pursued a policy toward the treatment of mental illness that satisfied special interest groups and the demands of the business community, but failed to address the issue: the treatment of mental illness.

I’ve also asked myself over and over again, what purpose assault weapons serve in the hands of non-military personnel? No one can tell me that they’re for hunting purposes… The only thing one would hunt with one of those weapons is other human beings. They’re not for hunting game or birds. Imagine an assault weapon, while duck hunting? It’s just ridiculous.

So, when are we, the people, going to get a handle on not only mental health care being something that needs a bit more regulation, but also address assault weapons as something our founding fathers could have never seen coming, when they crafted the Second Amendment?

Imagine this: writing the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 15, 1791… yeah… December 15… 221 years ago, shy of one day.

Let’s fast forward to 221 years from now…

Could any of us, in our right minds, even begin to envision what will be needed then for laws of the land?

We need to GET REAL… REAL SOON….

I’m begging President Obama to take this challenge on, of setting a more appropriate stage for now, for our children and our children’s children. If you think your kids are precious, just wait until you have grand children. It’s having kids on steroids, how you will feel about them. This is why it’s mostly older people getting involved in the government (think AARP)… We know how precious our grandchildren are in ways that you, who haven’t had a grandchild yet, can’t imagine… Just as our forefathers couldn’t imagine assault weapons and mentally incompetent people getting those killing machines into their hands.

Dear President Obama, we need you like we’ve never needed a presidential leader before… Great acts need to come from this senseless melee, otherwise, why did it happen?