Thwacking Randy for the Hell of It

Posted on November 10, 2005 in Justice Stigma Violence

Lindsay and Julia are doing the classic feminist dance around Andrea Yates which is all well and good (I generally support feminism) except that they are both missing a very serious point regarding Yates’s trial. Lindsay gleefully quoted Julia:

Randy “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church, and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies, except if you feel like denying her meds that kept her life from being a living hell and making sure you get her knocked up as much as possible because you really want to breed your own baseball team, in which case you should do that” Yates is “very happy” that his wife might be getting a new trial.

Randy Yates is a gospel-burping toad, but I’m a bit disappointed in Lindsay and Julia’s focus. What led to this retrial is the fact that a psychiatrist who moonlights as a television show consultant (Law and Order) made a factually incorrect statement that led to Yates’s conviction under Texas Law.

Texas holds that you must be totally incapable of discerning the difference between right and wrong to be not guilty by reason of insanity. Unlike other states, it does not accept psychosis as a defense.

Dr. Park Dietke said that Yates had seen a television show in which a woman drowned her children and then got off on an insanity plea the week before. This was an implication of her motives that proved unjust when it came out that no such television show had aired.

In other words, Dietke said she was faking her brain dysfunction. (Do normal people really like murder that much?)

Yates’s crime sloshed out of a hurricane driven mind. Those who do not suffer from mood disorders have not a clue about what it feels like up there when we are unmedicated, how easily we can be set off our balance and how readily we can set ourselves to chase after yellow shadows. Andrea Yates lived among people who believed in demons and she took it the one step further that black manias can inspire. Dietke’s “erroneous” testimony distorted the nature of Yates’s illness.

We’re not going to be seeing a Texas prosecutor indicting a star witness for perjury (Dietke says that it was an “honest mistake” — see the previous article) and there’s nothing we can do about Randy Yates. If this inspires you to fight for anything, make it for justice for the mentally ill, the ones who have been warehoused in complexes such as the Los Angeles County Jail (12,000 strong), called liars when we report conscience-distorting mood swings, or stigmatized as dangers when we are not.

I find it very odd and disturbing that all the friends of Andrea Yates do not join me in supporting the cause of LaShaun Harris who threw her three children to the sharks. Though Harris is schizophrenic and Yates depressive or bipolar, there are several commonalities, the most significant of which is that both killed their own children by drowning them. I suggest that the reason why Lindsay and Julia have not stated their support of Harris is that there is no nasty husband involved. The focus must be on Andrea, LeShaun, and the way they are treated in the courts. I just wish that on this matter these two and others would set their feminism on the back burner and get a handle on the issues that face those of us with organic brain dysfunction because of public paranoia and absurd legalities.

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Fellow liberals/progressives might ask why I challenge two comrades, especially ones as intelligent and eloquent as Lindsay and Julia. Answer: I’ve give up on the conservatives entirely. All my hope for mental health advocacy resides in helping these advocates understand the difficulties they cause by their narrow approach and how they can assist.

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I bet some of you were hoping I’d play the race card when comparing LaShaun and Andrea. No way. I know Lindsay better than that and I trust Julia wouldn’t sink so low either. Frankly, I think LaShaun will get a better trial simply because she acted out here in California rather than Texas. But I am not holding my breath on that.

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Got to love how they reported this case in Lawrence, Kansas:

Mother’s conviction tossed in kids’ deaths

I can see the vigilantes mounting their horses for the ride down to Texas as we speak. Led, undoubtedly, by the Kansas State School Board.