Dai, please don't apologize. The day when music makers don't take an interest in the world outside music (BS) will be the day the music really dies.

I've been watching CNN. Someone just commented that youth mental health programs in many states have disappeared because government funding was cut. This reminded me of a discussion I had with some one back around '82.

This individual was someone I list in my "top 10" of people I respect, but in this case he was wrong. In his ideal world, people should pay for citizenship, and only those who could pay would receive benefits. I argued that if this happened people who couldn't receive medical care would increase and eventually start infecting those who could. Illness of any kind doesn't recognize rights.

Congress kept cutting funding to various public program (can you remember "free clinics?"). The rate of sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis and many vaccine-preventable diseases began to rise to epidemic proportions. During the budget-war government shut down, Washington DC's Department of Public Health wasn't there. Now it's mental illness that's becoming epidemic - just add it to the list.

I know there are a lot of other contributing factors, but permissiveness, availability of guns, peer harrassment, and the rest have always been with us. The only thing that's changed in recent years is a drop in program funding.

Sorry for my long-windedness - it's a subject I care deeply about.