Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman so much for his kindness and his support for this legislation. As has been said, whenever one of these tragic killings occur or when some tragedy occurs, we have our moment of silence, and then we do nothing. We have a chance to do something. America demands it. I know that the overwhelming majority of Americans expect us to do something more than talk about it, particularly when so many family members are struggling. As we closed many of these institutions, what we ended up with is families themselves being the ones that are being told, here's your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister, your mother or father; go take care of them. By the way, we are not going to give you much information on them. We are not going to provide you much support, unless that person, indeed, is a danger to themselves or others. I have heard from many family members that they have called the police when they have had troubles at home, struggling. By the way, with mental illness, when someone's out of control, we call the police. With other illnesses, you call paramedics because we recognize that that is a disease that needs help, like when someone is having a heart attack or something else. But with mental illness, out of our fear, out of our stigma, or other things, we call the police, and the police are oftentimes not fully trained to do this. Then we tell the parents, well, good luck, and take care of them. We are not going to give you much information.…”