Nearby Circinus GalaxyAn Extraordinary and Powerful Active GalaxyMuch of the gas in the disk of the Circinus spiral is concentrated in two specific rings — a larger one of diameter 1,300 light-years, which has already been observed by ground-based telescopes, and a previously unseen ring of diameter 260 light-years. The smaller inner ring is located on the inside of the green disk. The larger outer ring extends off the image and is in the plane of the galaxy’s disk. Both rings are home to large amounts of gas and dust as well as areas of major “starburst” activity, where new stars are rapidly forming on timescales much shorter than the age of the entire galaxy.At the center of the starburst rings is the Seyfert nucleus, the believed signature of a supermassive black hole that is accreting surrounding gas and dust. The black hole and its accretion disk are expelling gas out of the galaxy’s disk and into its halo (the region above and below the disk). The detailed structure of this gas is seen as magenta-colored streamers extending towards the top of the image. | ||||||||
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Once again, the the horror of violence has blasted its way onto the front pages of the newspapers, with the tragic account of how a consumer gunned down and killed other consumers, in the mental health clinic in Nevada City, CA. There is also an unconfirmed report that another client broke her leg, jumping out a window escaping, and that two NAMI representives were in the clinic at the time of the attack. The consumer left quietly,and went to a restaurant, shot and killed the manager, apparently under the impression that this restaurant manager was trying to poison him.  Ironically,
during the time of the shooting,
I was online with members of
the <mhocca> list, and [another] list dialoguing
about voluntary versus
involuntary treatment, violence and the mentally ill
All the same old
arguments we’ve all made before,
so many times last year during the AB1800
debate.I haven’t slept well in two nights. I’m a little burnt out from all of the violence and trauma from where I work, and the advocacy I do, and need a break. Then this happens: The tragic consequences for the victims in this senseless act, the innocent victims, the consumers traumatized in that clinic. I know this first hand, from a gut level. Healing is needed — the staff that work at that facility. Healing is needed — the victims, their families, friends, a lot of damage and carnage happened that day.  My
heart and prayers are extended to everyone involved,
and I mean this
sincerely. I see the violence, hate and rage every day,
which is why I’m taking
some time off right now.
One more time, I feel a responsibility to all of us to make a statement, that
this act needs to be condemned, that the individual
responsible should be
punished.
In mitigation if adjudicated that he is or was mentally ill,
this is
for the courts, himself and his attorneys to decide,
but we need to be
protected from these kinds of assaults.It has been mentioned privately that the mental health system itself is somewhat responsible, due to its triggering the episode. The fact that this man did not have appropriate case management or — I’m just guessing — someone to talk to occasionally, might have helped. Coulda, woulda, shoulda’s are somewhat moot, at this point. This
happened in the backyard of
Sacramento. I’ve e-mailed Sally Zinman,
two days ago, and not heard from
her, regarding the fact that the NAMI/TAC people will be using this
atrocity to their full advantage.
To wait for Carla, Torrey, et al. to again use
this issue to manipulate the media with more stories
on how the mentally
ill are more violent then the general population.
[She should do this] in a proactive way, not
waiting for the media to knock on her door
the way they usually do, getting the
other side to quote Kathy up at the Network office,
which is the typical way
of handling these situations.This to me makes no sense. It has been reported here in Los Angeles; we monitor your newspapers in the North. Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps, tactically, everyone is waiting to make the first move, to comment. Perhaps people are tired of these kinds of stories, and they should fade away. I don’t think they will. One
of the things that everyone should be reminded of,
though, is that we do
live in a violent country. It started that way and
continues to be this way:
Turn on the TV programs, go to the movies, or watch the evening
news.
Have we become so desensitized, or like Andrew says,
perhaps we’re just a
little too sensitive, [more] than most?My prayers are for the dead and wounded, my prayers are for the living, and my prayers are for all of us. There is no way to understand or rationalize this, but to accept it and continue to struggle to keep this from happening again. My fear and experience, not my negativity or intuition, tells me it will though. Respectfully G. Minsk | ||||||||
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