Having a Mental Illness is Not the Same As Having a Gun

I'm into having a rousing debate about the state of mental health services in America, but the difference between debating guns and debating treatment for the mentally ill is immense. Guns are literally engineered to kill people. Mentally ill people are people -- with hopes, frustrations and needs. Many have been failed by their community, parents and the government. 

I know I shouldn't be shocked that the way Fox News has jumped into the mental health care debate in the wake of the Sandy Hook shootings shows an utter disregard for mentally ill people as people, and instead characterizes them as ticking time bombs waiting to explode and shoot everyone in their vicinity, but it's endlessly frustrating nonetheless.

After shamefully burying the debate over gun control, Fox is now convinced the way to prevent another Sandy Hook is to institutionalize more people with mental illness.  

The tragedy in Connecticut has reopened a difficult debate over whether states should be allowed to involuntarily commit the mentally ill.  

The trend over the decades has been to release mental health patients, with a number of court cases restricting involuntary commitment. Last week’s deadly rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School exposed cracks and inconsistencies within the nation’s mental health system. Many say that until those problems are fixed, it’s only a matter of time before another national nightmare unfolds. 

Ironically, a Connecticut mental health bill calling for changes that could have taken someone like shooter Adam Lanza off the streets was defeated earlier this year in the state legislature. 

Fox News then goes on to talk about how little money is given to states to help people with mental disabilities (most of whom are not psycho killers). But it's because of Fox News's RELENTLESS focus on government-expenditures-as-the-root-of-all-evil that makes it harder for states to pass comprehensive mental health reform in the first place.

The answer is not to commit every bipolar schizophrenic person to a mental hospital. We need more money for social workers, therapists and doctors. We need to provide parents of the mentally-ill with more state support. We need well-run hospitals that can provide better care. We need people who can SPOT mental health problems that may lead to violence. And all of this requires raising taxes -- which is exactly what Fox News has been rallying against.

But now that mental illness is seen as a national security threat, Fox News believes money should be thrown to mental hospitals. It's kind of like, "Oh, now that someone blew up the World Trade Center, everyone who's brown needs to submit to a full body check." GUYS, WHAT THE FUCK.

Let's focus just a BIT on what Lanza was able to get his hands on: a GUN. Crazy people can't kill without a weapon. Demonizing the hundreds of thousands of people with mental illness in America and stoking fears of them rising up and killing everyone is just going to cause more pain for innocent people.  

Want to know why so many people suffer from mental illness? Let's look at our society. Let's look at how alienated our young people feel. It's easy to just say "lock up all the depressed / paranoid / schizophrenic people out there!!!" but much harder to take a broader look at the systemic issues in our society which may have lead to the massacre. 

And while we're doing that, let's get rid of guns for god's sake. 

If someone with a mental illness threatens to hurt themselves or others, mental health professionals should know about it. But let's stop demonizing people with mental disabilities, and making sweeping generalizations about them. The only generalizations we can really make are about guns. They're designed to kill. People are infinitely more complex. As we grapple with the immensity of the shootings, let's not jump to conclusions about the mentally ill. 

Nazis, Wedgies and Waterslides -- My Trip to Tropical Islands

Tropical Islands -- AKA"Europe's largest tropical holiday world!" -- is filled with a myriad of things, including Germany's tallest water slide, hot-air balloons, rides (AKA a slight jostling while seated) tipis, Mayan temples (not real), and clouds (totes not real).

Remember that scene in the Truman Show when Jim Carrey's character opened a small door in a wall painted with clouds? Well, spend a day at Tropical Island and eventually you'll want to pull a Jim Carrey and escape its fake, plastic world, too.

Why did I feel like I was in a Russian commercial for Disneyland? And how many Pina Coladas would I have to drink before it felt fun?

Like most attractions in Germany (even heavily-marketed family-friendly vacation destinations, apparently), Tropical Islands has a bloody history. The area surrounding the park was first used by the Nazis as an airfield, then taken over by the Red Army as a training ground for fighter planes. 10 years after the reunification of Germany, a company called Cargolifter AG decided to use the site to create world's largest airship hanger.

Construction began in 2000 on what would become the world's largest building (by volume). 360 meters long, 210 meters wide and 107 meters high, the hanger was large enough to contain the Eiffel Tower. But apparently the market for Zeppelins was not enough to sustain Cargolifter, and the company went bankrupt soon after the building was completed. Seizing the opportunity to own such an enormous building, a Malaysian company called Tanjong installed the world's largest tropical indoor resort inside of it because really, why the fuck not?

(Pic from Lightstalkers.org)

But no matter how hard you try to keep your eyes below tree line at Tropical Island, you can never quite forget you're inside a giant hanger. The scenery comes close, but not quite close enough, to add up to something greater than the sum of its parts; a strawberry daiquiri might help, but they're 8 euros. A more convincing wall of clouds might also help, but that would cost 5,000 more euros, and you're basically next door to Poland so stop complaining (no offense, Poland).

After spending about an hour trying to find a comfortable way of "enjoying" the fake beach, my boyfriend and I gave up and made our way to the water slides.

I was climbing up the stairs to the water slide when I decided I wanted to climb down them instead so I could see Eyal's face as he emerged from the tallest water slide of them all. Called simply "Water Slide A," it was a covered blue slide which curved around the structure like a snake. It was so fast that when someone slid down it, the entire staircase shook.

I suddenly really wanted to see Eyal's face after experiencing that kind of insanity, so I switched directions and walked down the stairs, clutching the railings. But the stairs were covered with water. That's when I lost control of my feet and, like an old lady, slid down a dozen wet, steel stairs until I hit my knee on a pole. I tried to get up but my leg was numb and tingly, like a prosthesis. I watched helplessly as a thin stream of blood weaved its way down my kneecap, through the metal stairs and (probably) on to someone's head.

The rest of the day was spent clutching my leg, limping, and enduring the sting of chlorine to gain access to the pools. I'm a loser.

But still, I can say this: tropical Islands is weeeeeird. And oddly unsatisfying.

An entire day could be spent searching for a convincing illusion of paradise. Walking through the park's "rainforest" was kind of like watching a film and constantly seeing the boom mics above the actors or McDonald's golden arches peeking through a studio set supposed to look like the desert: no matter where you looked, you could see not only the beautiful lush greenery but also the ugly airport hanger behind it.

The German design team tried to take their cues from Walt Disney, but it's hard to create multiple themed lands on a limited budget so you see lots of symbolism jutting up against each other; one area that's themed like a beach side bar sits adjacent to a shack house made of sheet metal. Poverty chic meets island resort. Perhaps they're aiming for some commentary on globalization? It's hard to tell.

Next time I want to spend 10 hours in an artificial universe with a bunch of people I don't know, I'll just watch TV.

I'm Back, Bitches!

After nearly a year hiatus, I'm entering back into Blogger mode to tell jokes to myself, entertain Internet strangers and try to turn tragic events into comedic gold. I hope you'll ignore the rest of the web and listen to me a few minutes a day.

When we left off, my ass had just landed in Berlin (on the Alexanderplatz TV tower to be exact [I died and my ghost is now speaking through me]) and I was musing about the charming cultural differences between Deutschland and my native Seattle. "Germans are so sophisticated and shiny!" I think I wrote. How embarrassing. There will be no more generalities on this blog. I will no longer speak in awe of "Europe," that hot mess, and will instead try to speak truthfully about my experiences here since, you know, I've now been living here for two years. I should know some stuff by now ( I hope).

I've thought a lot about what I want this blog to be (over the past five minutes) and I think I would like it to clearly articulate the experience of being an American Generation Xer (or Yer, or whatever the hell all us broke kids are called) who skipped out of town to live in a city where poverty is seen as slightly less god awful, and slightly more romantic. Berlin, after all, is a proudly thrifty city (I'm currently sitting on Ikrappa furniture. Berlin would literally not exist without cheap Swedish crap).

So guten tag! Hallo! Ach so, genau and Tschuss! Hallo fellow broke Americans. Should you move to Berlin, too? I DON'T KNOW. Read this blog as we explore what it's like to be a poor European artiste (who still religiously watches American TV shows online). What is it like to live on cheap European food and fart in chic European yoga studios after eating such food? How romantic is it to take your lover to a big beautiful European lake and then realize it was where Hitler ordered all the Jews to go and die? How can you irrigate your nasal passages during the dark and dreary Berlin winter? ALL WILL BE REVEALED.