Tony Mantor

Yes, it is.

And I believe that I have spoken with that lady that you're talking about, and it sure is a bad situation.

What we have to hope for is some of these states are going to get together, put their heads together, and come up with something that are real solutions.

When I very first started talking about schizophrenia and serious mental illness, I'll be honest, I really didn't know anything about it at all.

And when I would hear about something that someone did that turned out to be psychotic, I didn't understand that this was serious mental illness.

So my first reaction was put him in jail, throw away the key.

Right.

Now, since I've been talking with people and gaining more understanding of this, my first reaction when I hear or see of someone that did something, I want to know, is this person just a really bad person?

Or is this a situation where the system completely failed them?

Right, right.

How do we teach and get people to understand that just because someone does something does not mean they're bad?

It means we have to look at the system first more than just a person.

Just a short time ago, I talked with a legislator that was working on a bill for serious mental illness.

In that state, they were able to work on a bill, put it together and get it ready to present to the House.

Then they had a vote on it and the vote came back unanimous that they passed the bill.

Then it went to the Senate where it died a horrible death there.

How do we get these people, our representatives, talking to each other so they understand the issue?

Because if a bill went through the House and got passed by that many people,

They need to look at it a little bit harder so they can make it into a law that is actually going to help the people that so desperately need it.

Yeah.