Note Mental Health Month
May is Mental Health Month. By urging my public officials to prioritize suicide prevention, mental health, and crisis care, I am hoping to influence collective change to support #MentalHealth4All.
Right now, individuals in crisis are able to call 1-800-273-8255 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress and those that care for them. Soon, it will be much easier to remember how to reach the Lifeline as the number will be changing to “988” nationwide by July 2022.
Knowing this, it is critically important that states pass legislation now to reliably fund 988 and their state’s crisis response system, just as we fund 911 and emergency services – through small fees on our phone bills. Reliable funding will help to ensure all 988 callers can reach a counselor in their own state who is familiar with and can connect them with local resources. Culturally competent support and local connections can better help all callers through their crisis and in their recovery.
Suicide prevention is important to me because I lost my oldest nephew, Rusty, to suicide when he was 32 years old.
I’ve become an advocate for people with mental illness because no family should experience losing a loved one to suicide.
No American veteran should live on the street because of mental health issues, and veterans should and must have access to better mental health options.
We must do better for our mentally ill in America.
Join me this month in urging your public officials to fund 988. We all play a role in changing the culture around mental health.
Together, we can ensure #MentalHealth4All.
Carolyn Bonner, Mineral Bluff, Ga.
‘Mountain Man’ says goodbye
The family of Howard Martin would like to thank everyone for coming together to make the birthday gathering for him such a huge success. Known throughout Murphy as “the Mountain Man” of Mountain Man Produce, he has resided in the care of his family in Sylva until coming “home” on May 1 to celebrate his 90th birthday.
Previous to the event, announcements were made on the radio by his best friend, Ab Radford, and through the community by his nephew, Clifton Martin, and others, and it was arranged for us to use the Unaka Community Center.Roxanne Nusbaum, Cyndi Martin, and others decorated the center with balloons and signs, and colorful table decorations.
When we drove into the parking lot, there was a welcoming crowd cheering him in. You could see happiness in the smile on his face as he saw them. That happiness grew as he entered the building to see family and friends who had come to celebrate this special day with him.
After prayer, feasting on
goodies brought by everyone, and “Happy Birthday” was sung with cake, a guitar was handed to him. He joined in picking and singing with members of his church as he had done in earlier days.
It turned into a family reunion of sorts as my sisters and I, Howard’s daughters, began to reacquaint with blood relatives from the Martin side as well as from the Coleman side. With Covid-19 having kept everyone isolated for over a year, it was a warm and meaningful gathering for each and every one of us.
Dad surprised his family and friends as he presented them with handmade wooden gifts he had made in the shapes of snowmen, bunnies or slingshots. He became tired around 3 p.m., so we left.
I can honestly say I saw a joy in Dad that day that I have not seen in quite a while. I stand amazed at the love that was poured out that day by the whole community. Not only to Dad, but to each other. After all, “There’s no place like home.”
Rose Noell and family of Howard Martin, Sylva
Yes, it really is getting hotter
Last week’s unseasonably cold weather doesn’t seem natural – that’s because it isn’t. Manipulation of the jet stream and engineered cool downs are masking the true severity of ozone depletion and the overall warming of the planet.
Step outside on one of these “cool” days. You can feel the sun burning your skin.
Open your car door, and you will feel blazing hot, summertime heat escape. Get a mercury thermometer, and you will see how NOAA, NWS, etc., consistently underreport the true high temps. This is especially apparent in the mornings.
Meanwhile, there is record breaking heat in Europe, Asia and Russia, while drought and wildfires continue to cripple the Western United States.
Look up the decline of the Great Barrier Reef and the Kelp Forests. Krill populations, plankton, bee and other insect populations are plummeting worldwide. If you still don’t believe the planet is warming, look up the Siberian methane craters and the release of Arctic methane due to rapid permafrost melt.
Many tactics are being used to distract people from the true severity of warming, and the big distraction isn’t likely to go away. Despite all evidence pointing to the need for Covid booster shots, we are being told, “just get the jab, and everything will go back to normal.” If you are ready to awaken to the crimes being committed against all life on the planet, visit non-political, zero-ad geoengineeringwatch.org.
Weather modification and solar radiation management are pushing us to the brink of total climate collapse. Our skies used to be blue. They are near daily polluted by trails that dissipate into a grey toxic haze.
If enough people band together and demand a halt to this madness, there may still be a chance for the planet to heal. If you are ready to face the storm, visit geoengineeringwatch.org.
Lynn Phillips, Andrews
‘Searching for a Voice’
To be closed to the eyes of the world.
We are left with only words, or did the words enslave us?
Did we only know what we could describe? What’s the opposite of popular culture?
What are unpopular parties: slow times down at Joe’s Bar? An evening home, alone?
If goodness is Indescribable, what’s the point of paper and pen?
Would we all rather be a dog than have one?
Seeking the indescribably delicious.
Does keeping it together mean keeping IT together?
Is that the opposite of just going through the motions?
Are we all creatures of our own devices, scattered in the trees along the edge of the meadow, each holding out our bags collecting our own lunches, like spiders each minding our own webs?
Harry Holdorf, Brasstown
One virologist sounds alarm
Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche, a world-renown virologist and vaccinologist, is sounding the alarm that the experimental Covid injections will kill many millions worldwide this year.
“Dr. Bossche, PhD, is an internationally recognized vaccine developer having worked as the head of the Vaccine Development Office at the German Centre for Infection Research. Coordinated Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization’s Ebola Vaccine Program and contributed to the implementation of an integrated vaccine work plan in collaboration with Global Health Partners (WHO, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CDC, UNICEF), regulators (FDA) and vaccine manufacturers to enable timely deployment or stockpiling of Ebola vaccine candidates.”
This YT video, by Conlustro Research, “Dr Geert Vanden Bossche Interview About Vaccines And Whether They
Create More Harm Than Good,” highlights the principle of using a prophylactic vaccine worldwide in the midst of a pandemic. He believes it’s likely to create more viral variants in the process and mass deaths worldwide.
Due to limited space here I’ll try to simplify the video, but it would be much better understood by watching it.
Dr. Bossche is saying that it’s the wrong weapon for this war on Covid because these injections should not be given while the virus is already upon us. The injection – it’s not a vaccine because it doesn’t protect you from the virus but only lessens symptoms – will dominate your innate immune system.
The injection codes its antibodies for Covid-19 only and no other virus variants. Then when mutated virulent strains attack, with your innate immunity destroyed, it will leave you defenseless. This will lead to a worldwide cataclysm to a degree that the world has never experienced, with mass deaths.
Please watch this video, especially if you are planning to take the jab. The world is in great peril. God help us all.
Mary Mason, Murphy