Universal mental health screenings: a call to rally

http://www.illinoisleader.com/opinion/opinionview.asp?c=17950

Universal mental health screenings: a call to rally

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

- Penny Pullen, former state rep and President of Eagle Forum of IL

As planned for all children in Illinois, during the state\'s required
physical exams an evaluation of a child\'s mental health will soon be
included.
OPINION -- A recent letter-to-the-editor writer first asked how such an
invasive law as Illinois\' new universal mental health screening
atrocity could be passed, and then answered, essentially, that anything
can pass any time if it\'s characterized as being \"for children.\"


This may be true today, sad to say, but once upon a time, it was not.
And so, I\'m not so sure it is true.


Time and again, during the 16 years I was a state representative,
sheeply-dressed wolfish legislation was defeated.


(Mandatory \"parenting education\" comes to mind, for example ...
defeated over and over until its sponsor finally left office.)


Indeed, when I first learned of this legislation last week -- to my
horror -- my first reaction was to wonder where all the \"good guys\"
must have been when this was going on. It should not take 50,000 phone
calls from \"back home\" to block such an obvious invasion of family life
.... even in a legislature which is dominated by the more liberal of the
two parties. A vigilant and active citizenry is helpful and even
necessary, no doubt about it. But where are the pro-family spokesmen
within the legislature? How could the Senate, where noted, veteran
conservatives serve, have let this go through without a single opposing
vote? Were the new conservatives in the House whom I\'ve heard such good
things about sleeping when this abomination attracted only five
negative votes there?


Now that our leaders have let us down, the families of Illinois must
speak out about this thing and demand that it be repealed before it can
actually damage anything more than the reputations of our \"good guys\"
in Springfield.



Citizens who live in districts whose representatives and senators prize
their pro-family reputations should be contacting them right now to
respectfully request that they undo what their apparent inattention has
wrought.


It is possible; I recall a time when a bill sneaked through to legalize
the possession of machine guns (in limited, controlled circumstances)
in Illinois. When it was discovered by the media, legislators in
Springfield rushed to repeal it at the first opportunity. Though
conventional media no doubt will yawn over the issues inherent in the
mental health screening law (will parents who refuse to let their
children be put on Ritalin, for example, be declared neglectful and
forced to comply?), citizens can raise their voices to their own
legislators, and unconventional media (like IllinoisLeader.com) can
raise quite a ruckus (thank you!).


So I urge your readers to take this on as a crusade. Do not be
disheartened by the lack of stewardship this law\'s passage has exposed.
Instead, look on this episode as a rallying cause for taking back
government. The critical thing is to rise up now, when the enormity of
this has first come to light and before the psych teams, social workers
and bureaucrats have been hired.


[Penny Pullen is the state president of Eagle Forum of Illinois and a
former Illinois state representative]

Distributed by Gary Konigsberg
of http://totalitarian-pseudoscience.org