This week marks the birthday and national holiday for the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther, King, Jr., who would have been 82 years old yesterday.
It also is the 50th Anniversary of the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy this coming Thursday.
And sadly, it is just a little more than a week since Jared Lee Loughner opened up fire in Tucson, Arizona, and killed six, wounded nineteen and attempted to assassinate Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords at a Congressional meeting with constituents outside a supermarket.
These three events all are tied together by the connection of gun violence, and by the specter of the plague of mental illness which is so much ignored in this society, as compared to people who have physical illnesses, such as heart disease or cancer.
Besides having reasonable controls on the type of ammunition available, and preventing unstable people from having the right to weapons, we need to recognize that mental illness is a malady which must be addressed, instead of overlooked and ignored until a tragedy occurs.
The need for national health care is ever more important in the midst of this recent tragedy, and the critics of the health care legislation that the Republicans are now trying to repeal must accept that the responsibility of all Americans is to help prevent future tragedies by providing necessary intervention, no matter what the cost in taxes!
The sooner we realize that we all have a responsibility to each other, that this is not just a ME society, but rather a WE society, then we will be able to start healing as a nation with many troubles, trials, and tribulations!