By Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times –
WASHINGTON — A move is under way in Congress to strike any reference to “lunatic” in federal law in an effort to reduce the stigma of mental illness.
“Federal law should reflect the 21st-century understanding of mental illness and disease,” Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said in introducing the 21st Century Language Act with Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. “The continued use of this pejorative term has no place in the U.S. code.”
The idea for the measure, Conrad said, came from a constituent seeking his help in removing “this outdated and inappropriate language” from federal law.
Ohio in 2007 removed words such as lunatic, idiot and insane from its code.
Already, the proposed federal legislation has won the support of mental health groups.
“Deleting these terms from usage in the U.S. code is a simple means of demonstrating respect for individuals living with mental health conditions and will have no effect on the underlying federal laws,” the Mental Health Liaison Group said in a letter of support.
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1 thought on “‘Lunatic’ called inappropriate for federal law; term may be banned”
the prefix “luna” from spanish for “moon”, reflects the very real phenomena of full moon energies that influence the human psyche’. I myself find an intensification of my psyche’ during the full moon phase, and enjoy the added clarity and focus. For some, it must have been too much and they became unstable hence the term “lunatic”.
As far as the “stigma of mental illness”. That whole notion of pitying those deemed as mentally ill is becoming thoroughly debunked. It turns out most of the people who pointed the finger in the first place, were themselves suffering from ignorance, and mental maladies.
I’ve only met a few “lunatics” in my life, and the only ones that truly bothered me were the ones who had an underlayment of violence to their character.
If society wants to characterize someone, they should use the terms lunatic and mental illness to apply to violent people, because violence is something that is truly dangerous to you. If someone believes in something “far out” or different, yet are peaceful…how is that such a problem?
Like the cartoon South Park, where they re-define the term “fag” to mean someone who rides on their motorcycle with loud tailpipes, I think we can re-term the mental illness and lunacy to mean people who are ignorant, and violent.
Leave the other imaginative thinkers alone.