The terror of the shooting at Northern Illinois University is a different sort of terror than the terror of September 11th. We can easily racially profile those Arabs that crashed planes into the World Trade Center and start wars in other countries to deal with our anger and anxieties. Yet how do we deal with it when the person who perpetrated the terror looks like us, was a good student and so on.

Recently, I’ve received emails and read blog posts suggesting a few different approaches. The first is by poligirl on DailyKos. She talks about growing up in a family where people talked openly about mental illness. She talks about dating a boy who had all the signs of mental illness. She tried to raise the issue with the family, but they didn’t hear her. Instead, the boy took his parents hostage and ended up in a standoff with a SWAT team which ended in his suicide.

Then, from the Group Psychotherapy mailing list, I learned the story of Larry Trapp. Larry was a leader in the Ku Klux Klan, who had plans to blow up a synagogue until the Cantor reached out to him, touched the underlying hurt and ultimately brought Larry out of his hatred.

All of this ties to a discussion on mailing list of Democratic activists that I’m on. One person wrote:

I just heard that Illinois has declared the university a disaster area so they can get FEDERAL FUNDS for grief counsellors. Does this make any sense? I'm sorry about what happened, but why should the rest of us pay for grief counsellors for a local event in Illinois? Anybody got a clue?

I responded,

It sure makes a lot of sense to me. First and foremost, I believe that what has made our country strong and great is our willingness and our ability to help out our fellow Americans in their times of need.

Yet forgetting the altruistic aspect, there is another part we need to consider. As I read through the reports out of DeKalb, everyone is asking how this could have happened. Steven Kazmierczak seemed like the bright, helpful student, yet digging deeper, he had a troubled past. Would access to better counselors in the past have prevented this atrocity? Will Federal Funds to help people in DeKalb deal with the grief prevent future similar atrocities? I don't know, but personally, I believe it is a wise investment in the effort to keep our country safe, whether or not you have any commitment to your fellow citizens.

It is wrong to use profiling to suggest that Arab people, or people with mental illness are likely terrorists. There are many Arabs and many people with mental illness that lead wonderful lives. Yet as the stories above illustrate, by taking mental illness out of the closet and providing help to people that need it, we can make our world a better and safer place.