Kandahar comes out of the closet
NOW that Taleban rule is over in Mullah Omar’s former southern stronghold, it is not only televisions, kites and razors which have begun to emerge.
Visible again, too, are men with their ashna, or beloveds: young boys they have groomed for sex.
Anyone want to argue that Afghan culture, whether it be with Taliban rule or not, is in serious need of outside influence? Oh wait we’re not supposed to judge other cultures, right? Bull!
I got an email yesterday and with Dyana’s permission I’m reproducing it here for all my readers to see and respond to, if they so choose! You can respond directly to Dyana at dyperkins@nospam.yahoo.com. (Take out the nospam part, I’m trying to limit the number of email harvesters who pick up the address from this…
Pin So, what do we do? We can definitely take advantage of the suggestions made by Lindsey Holmes in that HuffPost link above. We can also acknowledge that without available therapists, many of us are going to have to do the best we can for ourselves and each other. We are going to have to muddle through this, and the only way to muddle through is by supporting each other. No, we are not therapists and we shouldn’t really try to be. But, we can be human beings who care enough about other humans to offer support. Whether that be in person, through text or calls, on social media, etc. we can all offer something to each other. We can all share our stories and our struggles because right now there’s simply no excuse for anyone to feel like they are struggling alone.
As if these sorts of stories weren’t completely predictable, it seems that yet again someone listed on an offender registry has been the victim of vigilante justice in Sacramento. Years ago, when every child protection agency in the country was pushing for these laws I though they were a bad idea, and I still do….
Pin I read this ESPN piece about the suicide of Penn Track athlete Madison Holleran and I thought there were a few pieces of the article that resonated with how I look at social media, and how we should, but also about how difficult it can be to cut through the fog of depression. Here’s the…
Pin You could argue that the outcome will be a large number of people with mental health issues crammed into a massively overburdened prison system with almost no hope of ever getting out. (Where would they go? Back to being homeless and thus getting arrested again.)Â
We’ve tried that with serious mental illness, and it doesn’t work. It fixes nothing unless you think lots of people with mental health issues dying in prison is the answer. I prefer that most of us are not that callous and uncaring. But most of us aren’t writing these laws and upholding them. That’s for the elite few with power, and I’m not as convinced they would care about anyone with a mental health struggle because they surely don’t do much to provide resources and assistance to struggling people.Â
Pin Listen to both episodes. You’ll be challenged to think about youth mental health in a much broader sense. Hopefully, you will also see that these are not easy questions to answer and that existing in the world and planning for a future right now is hard. It’s no wonder that young people are struggling. It’s time we start taking serious steps toward making it less challenging for everyone and quit looking for a silver bullet that’ll fix it.
Subscribe to our Newsletter
See a sample before subscribing here
If you’d rather use RSS – that feed is here.