New from Texans for Truth + more on mental health screening

[Guest guest]

Here's the latest Texans For Truth ad

http://texansfortruth.com/

 

And here's one from the DES group about Bush's lunatic idea on drugging

all Americans into submission (which just PASSED the House with

virtually NO Democratic opposition - write to your Senators NOW!):

 

 

M

Wednesday, September 22, 2004 10:31

Here is what some Republicans are saying about Bush's crazy

idea

 

Write to every Democrat in congress, and tell them that on this

single issue, the left stands with Ron Paul.. that people should not

be forced to take drugs against their will. Make sure to let them

know you're a Democrat, because so far, inexplicably, only the right

is speaking out against Bush on this issue. For our side to be silent

is ridiculous.

 

The Psycho State

by Rep. Ron Paul, MD

 

A presidential initiative called The " New Freedom Commission on

Mental Health " has issued a report recommending forced mental health

screening for every child in America, including preschool children.

The goal is to promote the patently false idea that we have a nation

of children with undiagnosed mental disorders crying out for

treatment.

 

One obvious beneficiary of the proposal is the pharmaceutical

industry, which is eager to sell the psychotropic drugs that

undoubtedly will be prescribed to millions of American schoolchildren

under the new screening program. Of course a tiny minority of

children suffer from legitimate mental illnesses, but the widespread

use of Ritalin and other drugs on youngsters who simply exhibit

typical rambunctious, fidgety, and impatient behavior is nothing

short of criminal. It may be easier to teach and parent drugged kids,

but convenience is no justification for endangering them. Children's

brains are still developing, and the truth is we have no idea what

the long-term side effects of psychiatric drugs may be. Medical

science has not even exhaustively identified every possible brain

chemical, even as we alter those chemicals with drugs.

 

Dr. Karen Effrem, a physician who strongly opposes mandatory mental

health screening, warns us that " America's children should not be

medicated by expensive, ineffective, and dangerous medications based

on vague and dubious diagnoses. " She points out that psychiatric

diagnoses are inherently subjective, as authors of the diagnostic

manuals admit. She also is concerned that mental health screening

could be used to label children whose attitudes, religious beliefs,

and political views conflict with the secular orthodoxy that

dominates our schools.

 

The greater issue, however, is not whether youth mental health

screening is appropriate. The real issue is whether the state owns

your kids. When the government orders " universal " mental health

screening in schools, it really means " mandatory. " Parents, children,

and their private doctors should decide whether a child has mental

health problems, not government bureaucrats. That this even needs to

be stated is a sign of just how obedient our society has become

toward government. What kind of free people would turn their

children's most intimate health matters over to government strangers?

How in the world have we allowed government to become so powerful and

arrogant that it assumes it can force children to accept psychiatric

treatment whether parents object or not?

 

Parents must do everything possible to retain responsibility and

control over their children's well-being. There is no end to the

bureaucratic appetite to rule every aspect of our lives, including

how we raise our children. Forced mental health screening is just the

latest of many state usurpations of parental authority: compulsory

education laws, politically-correct school curricula, mandatory

vaccines, and interference with discipline through phony " social

services " agencies all represent assaults on families. The political

right has now joined the political left in seeking the de facto

nationalization of children, and only informed resistance by parents

can stop it. The federal government is slowly but surely destroying

real families, but it is hardly a benevolent surrogate parent.

 

September 14, 2004

 

Dr. Ron Paul is a Republican member of Congress from Texas.

 

 

 

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" It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument. " -- William G. McAdoo

" Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing

health care to all Americans is socialism. " -- anon