I Am Adam Lanza's Mother
16/12/12 16:06![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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talkpoliticsThree days before 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, then opened fire on a classroom full of Connecticut kindergartners, my 13-year-old son Michael (name changed) missed his bus because he was wearing the wrong color pants. "I can wear these pants," he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises. "They are navy blue," I told him. "Your school's dress code says black or khaki pants only."
"They told me I could wear these," he insisted. "You're a stupid bitch. I can wear whatever pants I want to. This is America. I have rights!"
"You can't wear whatever pants you want to," I said, my tone affable, reasonable. "And you definitely cannot call me a stupid bitch. You're grounded from electronics for the rest of the day. Now get in the car, and I will take you to school."
I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.
I am sharing this story because I am Adam Lanza's mother. I am Dylan Klebold's and Eric Harris's mother. I am Jason Holmes's mother. I am Jared Loughner's mother. I am Seung-Hui Cho's mother. And these boys—and their mothers—need help. In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it's easy to talk about guns. But it's time to talk about mental illness.
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We always hear the same questions - and accusations - when a tragedy like this happens. We wonder why no one saw it coming. If you've ever had a family member in your house who frightens you (and I have), you can empathize with the woman who wrote this article.
(no subject)
Date: 16/12/12 22:20 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 16/12/12 22:22 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 16/12/12 22:35 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 16/12/12 22:39 (UTC)"They're coming. You have only three choices: run, hide... or die."
(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 00:57 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 02:07 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 00:34 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 00:38 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 16/12/12 22:40 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 16/12/12 22:51 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 00:31 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 01:29 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 02:12 (UTC)someone who is that fucked in the haed would probably (in the absense of guns knives or pointed sticks) simply settled for setting aptartment complexes of fire after putting chains & padlocks on the exits.
(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 02:45 (UTC)Another possibility is that in the absence of guns, he would've just hung himself and killed no one.
(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 03:22 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 05:13 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 05:38 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 06:59 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 07:26 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 08:30 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 05:07 (UTC)-----
Yes, but Americans like to enact measures that make them feelsafer. We think with our emotions and not with our heads in this country.
(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 05:31 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 06:09 (UTC)This wasn't a little kid fooling around and picking up daddy's gun. This was an adult willfully stealing weapons from his mother so that he could kill her and go on a shooting spree.
(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 09:38 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 09:38 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 09:45 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 02:48 (UTC)All talk of mental illness being a crutch/bootstraps and beating children is supposed to make them behave better.
(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 05:09 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 05:36 (UTC)*these are things that are both increased in populations that use of physical discipline on children.
(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 03:15 (UTC)rail against gun culture, blaming people who arent responsible in a weird zig zag of
the familiar victim blaming of fundamentalist rape assessment.
(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 05:37 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 07:16 (UTC)turn a blind eye to Barry's drone war or even the continued abuse
of the drug war so they can fap to him.
(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 08:23 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 08:59 (UTC)wrong. Of course there's an agenda behind it which is the reason for its
continuance
(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 12:48 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 07:35 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 18/12/12 06:18 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 18/12/12 08:07 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 12:20 (UTC)a conversation should be started by a group of known professionals....a share/support group to follow.
(no subject)
Date: 17/12/12 17:30 (UTC)