Crazy People Have Rights Too.

Seems like any time you turn on some TV talking head program where they're talking about some hot-button issue, they start throwing around words like 'crazy', 'insane', and the like. And if they're not calling the people with these 'radical' ideas about self-defense 'kooks', they're dreaming up hypothetical 'wacky' scenarios ad nauseum as if to demonstrate that if 'crazies' are allowed to do this then pretty soon they'll want to do that.

Well, I've been talking to my good friend who is actually crazy - diagnosed schizophrenic since high school - and we've come up with a list of things that he and other certified "crazy" people demonstrably are and have been allowed to do/be/own/use. Among these:

1. right to marry
2. right to marry same-sex in states where it is legal
3. right to have children
4. right to drive a car
5. right to free speech
6. right to religious expression
7. right to the press
8. right to petition government for redress of grievances
9. right to be secure in their person and belongings
10. right to not incriminate himself
11. right to legal counsel
12. right to self defense
13. right to vote

And guess what? He still has all these rights even though he is part Indian, part Mexican, and colorblind! And apparently he would still have all of these even if he were also black, Asian, female, gay, disabled, old, or someone's long-lost twin!

Of course, the talking head people don't really think that anyone who defends gun ownership wants to acquire an Abrams tank, nor do they really think that gay marriage advocates are secretly planning a world where people marry their furniture, pets, and closest relatives.

The word 'crazy' is thrown at these people as a weapon for the simple purpose of causing harm. They are trying to stigmatize something that is no more of a choice than gender, skin color, race or creed. Ironically it is the same liberal-leaning media that put its support towards equal rights for blacks, women, the disabled. It is no more appropriate than if they were to call the person a retard.