Street Level

Normally, I’m delighted to see my boys reading the paper in the morning while they have breakfast.

It shows they’re interested in their world, engaged with it, curious about it — and it is reassuring for a print journalist who is told frequently by others the newspaper business is losing relevance to the next generation.

But that delight wasn’t there this week.

“Three children were killed by their dad?” the youngest asked Wednesday morning.

“Why would he do that?”

Why indeed

If it’s incomprehensible to a 12-year-old, it is certainly unfathomable to the rest of us.

While the judicial system will be oh-so-careful to say the dad of the young innocents who were knifed to death on Sunday is just a suspect, the rest of us know in our hearts what we would declare the verdict.

And, although we all profess to believe in the criminal justice system — perhaps not as fervently as our parents and grandparents did — each one of knows we would welcome a completely different justice system in a case like this.

It’s wrong, it’s not the way we were brought up to think, but it’s a reality that makes us all the more human.

And, of course, the protestations are also coming forward.

He’s not a bad guy. He has a mental illness. He’s not dangerous.

He’s sick.

As someone who lives with a mental illness daily, it’s people like this guy who, quite frankly, give the rest of us a bad name.

So let’s be clear here — we are not talking mental illness in this situation.

To be charitable, we are talking about a severe mental defect.

There’s a completely different category for the Clifford Olsons and Paul Bernardos of the world and they should never be lumped in with those people who struggle with depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and the other illnesses that play havoc with the normal functions of a person’s brain.

And that’s why, when Doug Sage of the Kamloops branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association called and asked if KTW would support Kamfest, I didn’t even bother to ask the boss.

The answer was obvious — of course we would.

If there was ever an agency that is essential to the community, it’s the CMHA.

Just a few days ago, I met a woman who used to live in Lillooet.

She told me how, back in the 1980s and early 1990s, the only Kamloops agency that ever sent anyone to that community to help those who needed it was the CMHA.

A counsellor came for a day every seven weeks. Even today, this woman remembers and appreciates that fact.

Just a few years ago, Matt McLean called KTW to ask for some coverage of his campaign to get money to keep the CMHA evening program for teens going. He was working there at the time and had planned a march through the downtown to try to get some headlines Kamloops MLA Claude Richmond might read and be inspired to help out.

It took a long time for McLean to see that money come through, but he kept at it, as did the teens who were congregating at the CMHA Clubhouse every night around 5 p.m., because they all knew how important the program was.

It was vital because these teens were worth the fight.

They had issues, but those challenges didn’t define them.

They just made it hard to get through the day.

So, if there must be a poster child for mental illness, let’s make it those determined teens who knew they could do better and were willing to fight to see it happen, rather than a coward now hiding from the law.

And let’s support the work the CMHA does.

It doesn’t come to the community often looking for financial help but, tomorrow night, it’s holding a fundraiser at the Sagebrush Theatre — a night of music, comedy, fun, surprises, awareness and understanding.

It’s a night for families, Sage says, although it’s also a night to show some appreciation for the work he and his staff do every single day.

So, if we must talk about mental illness this week, let’s not let the face of the suspect in Merritt come to mind.

Instead, let’s celebrate all those other people who get up every morning and — whether living with it or helping to heal it — must accept the fact a mental illness is going to be there with them that day.

Tickets for Kamfest are only $20 and there are still a few available.

You can get them from the Kamloops Live box office.

dale@kamloopsthisweek.com

Posted by Dale at 2:52 p.m. Comments