By Bill O'Reilly
She did not have a gun. She had a car. 34-year-old Miriam Carey, a dental hygienist and unwed mother tried to crash through a White House barrier yesterday. Reports say Ms. Carey believe President Obama was stalking her she had a history of mental problems.
After leading police in a wild chase that ended on the grounds of the Capitol Building, Ms. Carey was shot dead by cops. Her one-year-old daughter who was also in the car is unharmed.
Now, like the gunman in the Navy Yard shooting a few weeks ago, Ms. Carey was obviously mentally ill. And it is estimated that a whopping 26 percent of Americans suffer from some kind of mental disorder, in fact the National Institute of Mental Health says six percent of American adults have a serious mental illness. With the U.S. population of 314 million that's a whole lot of folks.
There's simply no way any country could control mental illness but there is something happening in the world that is exacerbating the problem. Most mentally ill people can be constrained to some extent. When they go out of control they can be confined and they know it. So there are millions of Americans walking around right now who have jobs, family, social interactions but who are also desperately ill despite the appearance of normalcy.
Here is where the change comes in. It used to be these kinds of folks were kind of isolated. There isn't a schizophrenic club or bipolar club. But now on the Internet there is the most horrendous stuff you can imagine readily available to anyone. In cyberspace there are no boundaries. The worst acts that human beings can perform are on display.
Therefore restraints are falling back and the fuse of mental illness is being lighted as troubled people see violent fantasies up close and personal. So we Americans and folks all over the world are going to see an epidemic of bizarre behavior in the future far more than we have experienced in the past.
All compassionate human beings should feel sympathy for those who are mentally ill. And we should try to help them go if we can. But the truth is, the cold truth is there's often little we can do. And the only thing we can do to protect ourselves against the mentally ill is to be very alert and aware that this problem is getting worse.
And that's "The Memo."
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