It’s easy: you mess with the least of these.

In this case, your Sister is well and truly ticked off at her own government… and the next-door neighbor’s government as well.  The reason is so appalling that I thought the headline had to be journalistic hyperbole, but it isn’t.

More than a dozen Canadians have told the Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office in Toronto within the past year that they were blocked from entering the United States after their records of mental illness were shared with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Lois Kamenitz, 65, of Toronto contacted the office last fall, after U.S. customs officials at Pearson International Airport prevented her from boarding a flight to Los Angeles on the basis of her suicide attempt four years earlier.

This is true.  This actually happened.  The thing is, US Customs didn’t know it was a suicide attempt.  The information they had was so vague that it could mean any number of things, including that Ms. Kamenitz was a victim of crime.

Kamenitz says she was stopped at customs after showing her passport and asked to go to a secondary screening. There, a Customs and Border Protection officer told Kamenitz that he had information that police had attended her home in 2006. …

Kamenitz says she asked the officer how he had obtained her medical records.

“That was the only thing I could think of,” she says. “But he said, no, he didn’t have my medical records but he did have a contact note from the police that [they] had attended my home.”

The kicker is that US Customs demanded a medical clearance before allowing her into the country.

A medical clearance.

For someone who had suffered from major depression.

FOUR YEARS AGO.

In the US, one in six people will experience a depressive episode during their life: that’s 16% of the population.  At any given time, about 6% of people in the US (7% in Canada) have major depression.  That’s 2 million Canadians, living with depression right now.

In Canada, the suicide rate is about 15 per 100,000 people, so each year, so that’s close to 5,000 suicide deaths occurring in Canada each year.  But that’s not the whole picture: for each death by suicide, there are about 11 non-fatal suicide attempts.  That would mean that in Canada, each year, there are almost 60,000 suicide attempts (5,000 deaths + 55,000 attempts).

These are big numbers.  And behind those big numbers are a whole lot of people.  A whole lot of very vulnerable people.  People whose pain becomes so unbearable that they cannot find a way — can’t even imagine a way! — out of the darkness. And when they succumb to that pain and darkness, US Customs thinks they’ve become a Homeland Security risk.

Please.

So far, the RCMP hasn’t provided the [Psychiatric Patient Advocate] office with clear answers about how or why police records of non-violent mental health incidents are passed across the border.

But according to diplomatic cables released earlier this year by WikiLeaks, any information entered into the national Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) database is accessible to American authorities.

Local police officers take notes whenever they apprehend an individual or respond to a 911 call, and some of this information is then entered into the CPIC database, says Stylianos. He says that occasionally this can include non-violent mental health incidents in which police are involved.

Yeah, and guess what other kind of incidents police could be involved in.  A loud argument that spills into the front yard?  A burglary?  A vandalism?  Knowing that the police have been to someone’s home means absolutely nothing, not without further information.  And knowing that the police have been to someone’s home has absolutely no bearing on whether that person might be a security risk.

So are you ready for the part that really pissed me off?  Here it comes.

Kamenitz notes that suicide isn’t a criminal offence in either country.

“It speaks to the myth we still hold,” Kamenitz says, “that people with a mental illness are violent criminals.”

At less than five feet tall, with a debilitating form of arthritis that makes it impossible for her to complete daily tasks like cooking and dressing without assistance, Kamenitz says she is hardly a threat to U.S. Homeland Security.

“I’ve been battling not only anxiety and depression but also chronic pain since my teen years,” Kamenitz explains. “I am not a criminal.”

Holy smokes, Homeland Security!  For the love of God, you put a little old lady — wait, make that a crippled little old lady! — through four days of fear, frustration, and expenses before you would let her visit the US!  You required her to submit confidential medical records and to submit to evaluation by an “approved” physician before you would let her cross the border.

A CRIPPLED. LITTLE. OLD. LADY.

My God, I hope you’re proud of yourselves.

Because I’ll tell you: I have never been so ashamed for my country before.  Ever.

Ms. Kamenitz, I am so terribly sorry for what happened to you.  It was appalling.  It was an abomination.  It should never happen to anyone.

And U.S. Customs at Pearson International Airport in Toronto?  Undercover Nun is praying for your immortal souls.  God knows, you need it.

Before I say anything else: Undercover Nun is not an Australian.  I know that some of my followers and friends do live in Australia, and I hope that this story will move you to speak up on Ms. Myint’s behalf.  No person should have to go through what she is.

A Perth woman battling chronic fatigue syndrome was committed to the locked ward of Fremantle Hospital after an attempt to euthanise herself in a desperate bid to address her crippling condition.

Theda Myint, 34, has grappled with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) – better known as chronic fatigue syndrome – for 11 years. The condition has left her bedridden with crippling migraines, severe body pain and an extremely low tolerance to light and noise.

She and her mother, Carol Adams, have campaigned to raise awareness of the condition, which they say is commonly misunderstood in the medical world.

Heh.  You don’t have to take the word of Ms. Adams and Ms. Myint: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome is commonly misunderstood in the medical world.  PWCs (persons with…) are commonly dismissed by the medical community as drug-seekers, as lazy, as trying to pull the wool over their eyes, as looking for an excuse for a handout.  Well, I’ll tell you: nobody I know who has struggled with CFS would choose this condition over wellness!  I’ll tell you something else: we may seem resistant to treatment at times, but that’s because we’ve tried so many different things that we doubt this new treatment will work… or maybe that the cost of this treatment — in terms of dollars, energy, time, and devastating exhaustion — will be higher than we think we can pay.  It’s not that we don’t want to be better; it’s that we’ve found our hopes dashed so many times that we don’t believe we can get better.

That’s where Ms. Myint found herself: bed-ridden by tremendous pain, every hour of every day; suffering from debilitating migraines; requiring medication through an IV, just to be able to stand the pain; hearing the government deny her in-home care.  Is it any surprise that she would want to end her life?  It certainly isn’t to me!

But then, the story becomes even worse.  She gets wonderful treatment in the ER for her pain, and then…

Her mother Carol Adams said ambulance, emergency and intensive care staff were “fantastic” in treating her debilitating ME pain, and it wasn’t until she was transferred to one of the hospital’s medical wards that things took a turn for the worst.

Ward staff informed Ms Adams that they would not be able to provide food for her daughter due to her intolerances to potatoes, gluten, eggs, lactose and legumes brought on by her condition. In desperation, the family was forced to turn to highly processed food from a vending machine after Ms Myint went without food for two days.

While on the medical ward, a psychiatrist reviewed her case in light of her suicide attempt and made the decision to move her onto a locked ward, rescinding her rights and placing doctors in full control of her wellbeing.

“She was in so much pain. As soon as she was put in the locked ward, her ME needs were not being met,” Ms Adams said. “She was in a nine out of 10 for pain, and she was being refused treatment for that.

“She asked to have a hot bath or shower to ease her pain, and she was told she couldn’t because it would disturb the other patients.

“She asked to see another doctor, and she was refused. She then asked to be taken back to emergency, and that was also refused because she was in the psychiatric ward.”

Yup.  Insanity happened, but it wasn’t Theda Myint’s insanity; the hospital staff acted in complete defiance of reasonable thought.

Fremantle Hospital, how can you let a patient go two full days without food?  That is cruel beyond belief!

Fremantle Hospital, how can you justify denying treatment to a patient in severe pain?  This is cruelty again!

Fremantle Hospital, how can you justify your turnaround, providing treatment to Ms. Myint after a news reporter called you?  It was then that Ms Adams appealed to WAtoday.com.au for help. After a call was placed by this website to the hospital on Saturday morning, Ms Myint began getting the treatment she required and that afternoon she was released from hospital.  Do you only treat patients if you’ll get good press as a result?  How can you sleep at night?

Fremantle Hospital, how can you say this: “We have every confidence in the care provided to Theda during her recent admission to Fremantle Hospital. We are unable to comment any further due to patient confidentiality”?  How can you say that with a straight face, you hypocrites?  The first words any physician signs up for are Do no harm, and yet you took it upon yourselves to inflict grave harm on a chronically ill young woman who was so desperate for relief that she sought euthanasia!  You brood of vipers! 

Is it any surprise, then, that this precious young woman’s mother observes “She is extremely distressed and she just wants to die. She has just lost all hope. She doesn’t believe anyone can help her anymore. She’s had so many knockbacks and has been let down so many times, she’s just frightened to have hope”?  Truly, who wouldn’t lose hope after all of this?

Undercover Nun finds this concept troubling. I’m not sure how to feel or what to think about this.

The landmark decision is the first time in the country a court has examined the provision of infanticide in the Criminal Code since it was introduced in 1948.

Infanticide occurs when a woman wilfully or by omission kills her baby because she is disturbed as a result of childbirth or lactation.

In a 65-page decision, a three-judge panel agreed that infanticide is both an offence that a woman can be charged with and can also be used as a defence. If convicted, the charge carries a maximum five-year sentence.

I can see how this defense could be abused.  I can also see that it shows mercy to women suffering from extreme affective disorders.  What if, though, she lashes out against the husband, rather than the child? Does she get similar mercy?  And what of all who commit assault or murder while suffering from extreme depression or post-traumatic stress disorder?  Do they get similar mercy?

The court was asked to examine the issue last September after a 29-year-old woman was found guilty of infanticide for killing two of her babies. She had originally been charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

The woman, who can only be identified as LB, was 17 when she smothered her first baby.

Four years later, she smothered a second son. Autopsies determined that both had died of SIDS — Sudden infant death syndrome. The killings went undetected until LB confessed years later.

The trial judge found there was enough proof that LB suffered post-traumatic stress as a new, young mother.

Undercover Nun aches for this young woman.  We can only imagine the torment that drove her to smothering her baby, and the overwhelming sorrow and shame that followed from it.  I know there are some who believe she should just be shot for such a repugnant crime, or perhaps “merely” sterilized.  That is what comes of a justice system based on retribution and punishment, rather than on reconciliation and dignity.

I am praying for this young woman, praying with all my heart.  I pray also for the father(s?) of these children, knowing their anguish must be terrible.  And for the souls of those perfect, precious babies: may they find eternal rest in God’s loving hands.

Maybe someday my thoughts and feelings will come into finer focus and find clarity on this idea… but I rather hope they don’t.  I suspect that the question of infanticide is one that should, of necessity, be messy.  Just like life.

james-lock:

I was looking up P.O.D lyrics as a couple of songs came on in a mix CD I made in the car yesterday and I was planning on burning Roots in Stereo to a CD for the car today. I happened to see that they had a song called “Abortion is Murder” so opened up the lyrics. To check that someone hadn’t just submitted it wrongly I found it on another site and on Youtube.

Right now my view on P.O.D is fairly changed. No I don’t think abortion is great. I would rather life was brought forward and allowed to live. If I ever found out a child of mine had been aborted I would be distraught. But what people who have been through an abortion need is love not hate. They don’t need people screaming at them that they are murderers. For a lot of people it isn’t a decision made lightly, they are in a really bad place to have made it. They are probably upset about it already, a lot must feel really really bad. They need to hear a voice of love, of the unconditional love that we are called to show our neighbours. If we fail at this then I think we fail at the crucially fundamental thing in following Christ. Love.

More than once, Jesus told us why he came into this world as God in a human body: to save the lost, to save sinners.  It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, Jesus says, but the sick.  It’s not the innocent who need forgiveness, but the guilty.

It is an incredibly sad occasion when any woman has an abortion.  In a perfect world, no woman — or man — would feel that having an abortion is needful, but we don’t live in a perfect world.  No, we live in a profoundly broken world, and life is destroyed and diminished around us on a regular basis.

Did you know that a woman who has an abortion is more at risk of committing suicide?  She is, by 248%.  That’s right, she is more than twice as likely to commit suicide than the general population.  About 13 years ago, I found myself in the hospital with a young woman who had attempted suicide multiple times.  She was a “frequent flyer” in the psychiatric unit, believing herself to have one of a series of terrible medical disorders on each visit.  Multiple scars marred her inner forearms, lengthwise from wrist to elbow.  This young woman was waiting for her punishment, trying to bring it on herself.  She could not hear the voices of those around her who cared about her, who wanted not to punish her but to hold her and soothe her and let her know she was still worthy and loved and even forgiven.  She was lost.

Undercover Nun has this to say: Jesus came into this world, God in human form, to save her. 

Mr. Lock is correct: these women should be embraced, comforted, and loved by God’s Church.  There is no excuse for heaping abuse on those who are already profoundly damaged.  Indeed, this is murder.  The very clear commandment from Christ is to love all persons.  That’s all persons, not just the ones we approve of.  When we judge among our brothers and sisters in this way, we become the Pharisees.  Let’s be Jesus instead.

(via james--lock-deactivated20120204)

Dear beloved Sister in Christ,

I’m not God.  I can’t explain why this has happened.  But I love you, and God loves you, and neither of us wants to see you hurting.

Your ex-boyfriend sucks.  Truly.  It sounds like he is an abuser, even if he never harmed you physically.  The wounds of verbal and emotional abuse, and the scars they leave behind, are every bit as real as physical injuries.  Most importantly, you are not responsible for his intolerable and reprehensible behavior.  You do not deserve what happened.  What you are responsible for is the choices you may from now on, how you choose to live your life.  Right now, you’re a victim.  The dream of my heart is to see you transformed into a survivor.  That is where God is calling you. 

I know this, because I was a victim, and I’m a survivor now.  I have loved someone who may not ever know how to love.  I married and lived for more than 15 years with an abuser, with someone who punished me until I no longer even needed him to be the punisher: I became perfectly capable of doing it to myself.  I, too, have felt like a ruined woman, like used goods, like a person no man in his right mind would want.

And today, I am married to the most wonderful man in the world.  He’s cute, but goofy-looking.  He’s brilliant, and he’s broken.  He’s just like me, and we’re totally different.  And he treats me like a precious gift.

There is such a thing as a godly relationship, as a Christian romance.  This isn’t necessarily about abstinence or austerity.  It is about the kind of love Jesus calls us to.  It is recognizing your partner as that precious and beautiful gift, a gift that God entrusts to us for a time, to lovingly care for.  It is sometimes about giving up what you want, so that your partner can have what he or she needs; it is also about accepting the gifts your partner has lovingly given you, out of similar sacrifice.  It is about recognizing each day that you are in this relationship, this romance, this partnership because both of you have chosen to be there.  Neither of you is trapped.  Neither of you is forced.  It is your choice.

So you’re not a virgin.  So what!  What is past is past, and the only one who gets to hold that against you is God.  But God is a God of compassion and grace and forgiveness — God chooses not to hold it against you.  So don’t hold it against yourself!  You are beautiful, and you are precious, and you are a gift God has given to all of us.  And when you have trouble believing in that for yourself, I ask you to put your trust in people of faith and grace: we’ll believe in you for you.

This sucky, abusive ex-boyfriend does have one redeeming value.  He brought you to the Church, and he brought you to God.  He may suck as a Christian — I don’t know his heart, so I won’t say he does — but he gave you at least this one, very precious gift.  God exists.  And God will never, ever, ever, ever leave you alone.  Trust me on this one: even when I’ve tried to get God to eff off and leave me the eff alone (and in those words), all God does is take one step back, give me a little space, and stand there, ready to embrace me in God’s loving arms again.  God weeps for you, and God weeps with you.  God aches for your brokenness, and God yearns to fill you with God’s healing light.

In 1998, the abuse I’d experienced in my marriage drove me into a severe depression.  I was hospitalized three times that year, the third time following a suicide attempt.  Yes, I chose to try to end my life; that was the depth of my despair and hopelessness.  But I’m still here.  I may have committed what is called the unforgivable sin, the complete rejection of God; I’ve also learned that anyone afraid of committing this sin, truly has not.  I have walked through the valley of the shadow of death, and I know God is with me.

I know God is with you, dear one, even when you cannot sense God’s presence.

The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious unto you.
The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you
and give you peace.

And may the blessing of our infinitely-loving, perfectly-forgiving God be with you, beloved sister, in the name of the Father who runs to greet the prodigal with hugs; and in the name of Jesus who lived as a man and experienced abandonment, hopelessness, and rejection; and in the name of the Holy Spirit, who is present with us in wind and water and fire. 

Amen.