Bowling Alleys, Mass Murder, Schizophrenia and Hate Crimes

Joseph Cuba, murderer, suffered from schizophrenia

 

Mass murderer Robert Card suffered from schizophrenia

That sounds like a lot for one post. But it so happens that there have been two mass murders (over 4 makes it massive) in bowling alleys in the past few years, the latest in Lewiston, Maine. 

The shooting rampage, took 18 lives and lest 13 injured on October 25, 2023. 

Lewiston is a close-knit community. The shooter is a licensed gun instructor. He teaches people (taught them) how to shoot. And here I thought I would learn, now I'm not so sure trusting an instructor is the best idea. 

And yet, we have learned that Robert Card, the murderer, a whispy 40 years old, suffered from schizophrenia. This is a disorder that can affect the brain to such a degree that the person with schizophrenia hears voices or sometimes sees things that are not there. Usually it presents with auditory hallucinations and they are paranoid, the person is highly anxious and hears voices telling him (it is usually a him, but not always) to shoot others and then, oftentimes, to shoot himself.

Interestingly, we recently heard of another murderer, a man who murdered a child in Plainfield, Illinois, a Muslim child. It is assumed that the murder is a hate crime because the man who murdered the child professed to not trusting his tenants, Muslims, and intended to do something about it. Eviction, apparently, wouldn't do the job, not according to whatever voices Joseph Cuba had in his head. 

'You Muslims must die': 71-year-old Joseph Czuba, said.  to remain behind bars, faces hate crime charges in murder of Wadea Al-Fayoume.

Wadea, 6 years old, didn't have a

chance, stabbed 26 times as Cuba looked him in the eyes. His mother, Hanaan Shahin, fared better, although she suffered stabbings, too.

I read: Many Pro-Palestinian and Muslim faith leaders placed the blame for this crime on the shoulders of President Joe Biden, U.S. support for Israel and the media's coverage of the war.

Not a word about what schizophrenia does to a person. This is unbelievable, to me, that in one case, the case of a MASS murder in a bowling alley, schizophrenia is the known cause, the one to worry about, the one to treat.

And in another, schizophrenia had nothing to do with it. Joe Biden, the support for Israel, this prompted a mentally ill man to go off the edge. 

Every opportunity, every single one, that the media can glom onto to support the underdog, is blown up, is taken way out of proportion, in this case the slaying of a child. The Palestinian people are afraid to not support Hamas. If they don't they are killed. So yes, they have problems. 

But Joe Biden did nothing to cause the death of Wadea Al-Fayoume, no more than he had anything to do with the 18 victims in Lewiston, Maine. 

Should the community of Lewiston have been aware that they had a very sick man in their midst, someone capable of a terrible crime? Apparently the police did know, had been sent out to investigate that possibility six weeks before the shooting. 

Card was a reservist in the US Army. 

Coastal Defense Firearms in Auburn, Maine, refused to issue him a silencer because on the request he wrote that he suffered mental illness. The Sagadhac County Sheriff's Office told the press that Card had a 14 day psychiatric inpatient in July due to concerns about scuffles with other soldiers. He had begun hearing insulting voices in the spring which worsened. He accused three men of calling him a pedophile and said he would take care of it. The men, one a friend, calmed him down and they went back to their hotel where he locked himself into his room and wouldn't come out. This resulted in the hospitalization.

Soon thereafter another incident resulted in an Army well-being check on Card.

Once again Card told a friend to stop calling him a pedophile, but he added that he intended to shoot up the drill center. Authorities called him in, apparently, but he did not show. A unit commander told an officer that Card no longer had any military issued weapons, and at a home visit (Card would not come out to talk), his brother told the commander that Card had no personal weapons, and that he and his father would be sure of that. The unit commander let Card alone to have time for himself. 

Note. Untreated schizophrenia only gets worse. Time alone to think is very dangerous. Thinking is the opposite of healthy. 

Eighteen people dead.

So. Should the community of Lewiston known about Robert Card? Apparently the important players knew. But not his neighbors. Probably not the people bowling. 

Should the Plainfield community have known about the strange man who rented his home to a Palestinian family? Should they have known he would be dangerous?

I hate the word should. But I will say that when we get to know the people in our neighborhood, as Mr. Rogers always advised, we are more likely to find such things out. 

That's modern day community mental health. 

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The War, Uncertainty, and Depression

Israeli security-acting on a tip finds 4 terrorists from Gaza in an apartment.

Let's take a minute and discuss the misinformation about the 'Israeli' strike on a hospital in Gaza. A video from Al Jazeera, of all places, indicates the missile came from Gaza, aimed for Israel, misfired and fell on a hospital parking lot. Yes, people were killed, but not as many as the news you get will tell you. The news we hear is, I hate to say it, biased, Jew-hating media. This business about Israelis aiming for a hospital is, in four words, yet another blood libel. 

Tom Lehrer used to sing, in National Brotherhood Week, .   The punchline, And everyone hates the Jews isn't funny, but we used to laugh. Because it feels, sometimes, like it's true.

In the therapy chat groups we are told that trauma victims in Israel need therapy. I signed up as did hundreds of my Jewish colleagues. One mentioned, Well, what about malpractice. My feeling is, what about it. 

My heart is in Israel, always, so I am in mourning as I work. 

Many of us feel stuck in the United States, our soul tied to the land and the people, unable to move for a million different reasons. We visit, we give money. FD and I have always wanted to be Israeli citizens, even have plans to move there next year. Even now. That's the plan. 

I'm grieving (oh, we can make it about me, why not) but am depressed, too. This grief is layered.

A woman I know, not in Israel, tells me she cries in the morning, cries before she sleeps, if she sleeps, she cries at random times in between, and this is normal, she knows it. She feels guilty for feeling good when she feels good. She feels guilty for not doing enough for the war effort. People are buying supplies from Amazon, shipping over to Israel. It is hard to keep up with the opportunities to help and we all have our own domestic and business responsibilities, too.

We in America, many of us, are like her. We feel helpless and hopeless and scared, we cry. We are very sad and angry. We pray constantly. This is not an exaggeration. Constantly. Obsessively. I get it, we are a tiny minority, but it feels as if we are everywhere.

So it is strange that we are not, as I tell FD, we are not in need of Citalopram or some other antidepressant, which would take away the tears that matter. We need the tears, in my professional opinion, to purge the negativity. We need the tears, in my metaphysical opinion, to get G-d's attention. This is a merciful G-d and tears, we think, influence Heavenly decisions. 

So we need anti-depressants but won't take them.  Give me my grief, my anger, yes even the depression. That is the party line. It proves I care. That I can't control the depression is mind-blowing. It is not simply a reaction to negative thoughts and it is not simply fear. Fear? We all have fear. The challenge, as the Buddha would say, is not to listen to fear. Don't do what she says to do.

 

I am afraid, I must be, of nuclear war, but don't dwell on it. I'm not even conscious of this fear unless someone brings it up. (Mindfulness training is amazing).  But this is unusual, not feeling fear but knowing it is there. It is in a place inside of me, and I am fighting it. 

 

So no, let's not medicate. Let's lean in or distract (I prefer that, distracting). Or go ahead and feel, damn it, I told a patient this week. Just cry.

 

That's what I'm trying to do. 

 

There's a thing on FaceBook that says: 

Your Jewish friends are NOT okay. 

This is in answer to the obvious question, Are you okay?

Of course we are not. 

But do we dwell on that not okay-ness? Do we want to talk about it?  

Not so much, if at all! We have a war to win. We have work to do. To fight a war soldiers needs energy, food, dry clothes, and most important, spirit, song, social media support, a belief in a positive outcome. And anger at a bad reporting.

 

No time for tears. No time for fear. No time for negative thoughts--definitely no time for those. No time for a biased media that loves anyone who hates Jews. Don't ask us for money, National Public Radio. You should rot, go under. 

Anger is nice in these situations. 

 

Is this the usual treatment for depression, avoiding medication? 

It can be.

But when you know it's not going to go away or let up at all, meds are recommended. For some of us, fake it 'til you make it has never been more important. Find some spirit, some light, serotonin, and hang onto it, and when it is completely gone, when the tank is empty, go ahead and cry. 

Get some sleep. Give to legitimate causes. Open the pocketbook. Find out how to do something.

The thing that kills us is the uncertainty. We can't stand not knowing what's to come. But emotionally healthy people have a high tolerance for uncertainty. They have patience, know when things are beyond their control. They know when they will have to 

WAIT AND SEE. 

Tolerance of uncertainty is critical at times like these. Tomorrow is a new day, until tomorrow we can wait and see what will be. And there is always another tomorrow. We hope. We pray. 

We haven't been confronted face to face with evil for over fifty years, and yet, here we go again. 

Did you see the story about the pizza restaurant in Gaza with a banner in the window: A holocaust survivor's face, an old woman, and a pizza? Both go into the oven. This is the implication. 

I couldn't make that up. 

This time, it appears, we have America on our side. From the too, not years into a war. God bless America. God bless Eretz Israel. God bless God bless Klal Yisrael (the congregation). 

Am Yisrael Chai.

The people of Israel, as FD likes to say, believe in life. Remember the words: Therefore choose life? 

Unfortunately that isn't the enemy's world view.

Blessings, 

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