Mailbag

Claim: Police Dispatch Column Should Be More Sensitive to Mental
Illness

I was troubled by the Police Dispatch report “There’s Always an
Irrational Explanation” (Feb. 19). Having lived with a family member
suffering from severe mental illness, I recognize all too well the
senior citizen’s apparently delusional remarks regarding her feeling
that she was being stalked, robbed, harassed, etc. While I could not,
of course, say for sure that the woman in question is mentally ill, I
think there is a fairly good chance that she is, and if so, these
delusions are very real and frightening to those who suffer from
them.

I am distressed to see the Weekly publishing this account as
an oddity or something to be snickered at. Our society’s understanding
and treatment of mental illness has a long way to go. Reports such as
this only perpetuate misunderstanding.

The report preceding this one, regarding a woman apparently on drugs
or intoxicated, titled “Semi-Insane,” is another example of
insensitivity to mental illness. Insanity (or addiction, for that
matter) is an illness, not a glib phrase for catchy titles.

Beckie Kravetz

Our World Needs Limits on Population Growth—but They’ll
Never Happen in the U.S.

Regarding O’Sullivan’s views on breeding habits (April 30): It was
an interesting coincidence that while I am currently reading the
30-year update to Limits of Growth (I read the original book in
the early ’80s while in college), Catherine O’Sullivan published her
views about limiting population growth.

Her article raises the question: Why in today’s society does a
family need more than one or two children? If we desire to live longer
and healthier (many of us consider this a priority), and we realize
that the rate of population growth is a combination of both the birth
and death rates, it is all the more necessary that we have fewer
children.

I remember when I was much younger, China imposed a law upon its
citizens that limited the number of children any couple could have. At
the time, it seemed a rather harsh rule, but it makes sense to me
today. There are only so many mouths you can feed with the finite
amount of food you can grow. Unfortunately, in today’s society,
insurmountable resistance to a change in breeding habits would be
brought on by many of our organized religious affiliations.

My proposal to aid in lowering the birth rate is to dramatically
change the existing tax laws: Federal and state tax benefits for
couples with children need to change. We should provide a tax credit to
a couple with only a single child. Families with multiple children
would receive no additional credit, as opposed to the current
ever-increasing available deduction. Put the law into place so that no
more welfare aid is available to religious zealots, the breeding
polygamists and octo-moms!

The government could balance the budget and pay off the deficit
within a few years! But since our elected officials will not benefit
from this law, nothing will change.

But be forewarned … “Soylent Green is people!”

Scott Prechtel

Christianity Is Fading Because People Are Acquiring
Knowledge

In his Guest Commentary (May 21), Jonathan Hoffman provided
anecdotal evidence to counter the “hype” given in the April 13
Newsweek article “The End of Christian America.” The message I
received was that Jonathan was trying to ameliorate a fear of his, or
the concerns of other fearful Christians. His opinion reads as if some
members fear that the Christian dogma may not be true, because other
Christians are losing their faith. But there is no evidence to suggest
that there is any correlation between the number of believers and the
truth of a religion. For more rigorous and objective data on the
membership dynamics in Christian denominations and the growth of the
unaffiliated, read the Pew Research Center report “Faith in Flux” from
April 27 (pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=409).

Jonathan’s experience leads him to believe that, although there has
been a rash of books promoting secularism, Christianity remains
unscathed. Christianity and our other religions are in the unenviable
position of constant rear-guard struggles against modernity. They have
suffered many intrusions through time by all of the other human
endeavors (science, technology, philosophy, politics, etc.) whose
growth has expanded our naturalistic worldview. This is a major driver
in the membership dynamics of Christianity today. Denominations are
competing to woo the faithful, and the faithful are choosing the
denominations that better fit their modern worldview, or are just
jettisoning their faith altogether.

Those tenets of Christianity that defy rationality and are based on
time-invariant ancient texts will continue to be subject to scrutiny as
long as humankind continues to reason and acquire knowledge. It is in
our nature; we evolved with these exquisite abilities above all other
creatures.

Mark Egan

Clarification

In “Indigenous Works” (Books, May 14), the headline stated that
Ritual Beauty: Art of the Ancient Americas was published by the
University of Arizona Press. While the UA Press is helping to market
and distribute the book, the actual publisher is the University of
Arizona Museum of Art. We apologize for the confusion.

This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2009.