Homophobia

A young man entered a gay bar in New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA this week. He asked the bartender if the bar was a gay bar. The bartender said it was. The young man began hacking at some patrons with a hatchet and then wildly shot around the bar with a hand gun. Six people were injured. The perpetrator escaped and apparently is in hiding. The fear in this young man is obvious from the story. Also, his rage is evident. We are all capable of fearing one another to this extreme. It is called mental illness. Mental illness, like other illnesses of the human body, is increasingly considered inherent, genetic, chemical. However, despite being predisposed to mental illness, the human mind can choose to develop a practice of prevention and containment of the symptoms of mental illness. Unlike many ancient philosophers, who dismissed the mentally ill as beyond enlightenment or salvation, I practice a modern and scientific approach to mental illness in myself and in others. A strict daily practice can indeed be a prevention against mental illness. Medication may indeed be necessary to contain an outbreak of mental illness in a predisposed mind. Looking at the mentally ill with compassion and mindfulness can be extremely difficult when their behavior releases our fear of our own potential for mental illness or violence. Just as looking at gay men and lesbian women with compassion and mindfulness can be difficult for a mentally ill person who may irrationally fear that their homosexuality may release his own potential to be gay.