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Protecting Our Children: New Solutions Needed

In the wake of this week’s mass shooting in a Florida school where 19 year old Nikolas Cruz has been arrested for the murder of 17 people (students and teachers), let us turn to God to consider how can we better protect our children, our teachers, our families and friends from violence and threats of violence. I spent yesterday praying and crying for all the victims, their families and friends and I prayed and cried for Nikolas too. If only he could have been helped.

Tears are not enough – I prayed to God for inspiration and this is what He gave me.

RESTRICTING LEGAL ACCESS TO GUNS

I stand with people who want stricter gun control laws. However I believe that the immediate opportunity to restrict gun violence is impaired by the extent of the current proliferation of guns in our society. In the case of the US there are already so many guns in people’s hands.

SOCIAL NETWORKS – EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEMS NEEDED

How could this tragedy have been avoided?

I read in the news that the FBI had been advised that on September 24, 2017 a person by the name of Nikolas Cruz left a comment on YouTube stating “I’m going to be a professional school shooter”. The FBI were ultimately engaged but they have stated they could not identify the person associated with this online profile.

We need an online mechanism to easily engage ‘Emergency Response’ on social networks. Consider it an “ER – Emergency Response Needed” solution where we click a button to easily report this type of threat.

We need laws that permit law enforcement to engage the ‘circle of friends’ of the person making threats online so we can do a better job identifying people and engaging help.

Consider this scenario:

A person online makes a threat he/she wants to commit a crime or hurt themselves. Someone sees the post and clicks the button “ER – Emergency Response Needed”. This comment goes to a dispatcher that determines who to engage.

Consider the opportunity that there is a team of people on social media that are ‘bonded, trained, online distress counselors’ that can reach out to the person at risk to try to establish an online relationship.  Once an “ER” threat is received a social media dispatcher could engage a pro-active “Distress Counselor” to try to engage the person at-risk.

I was trained to work in a distress center. Distress center counselors, properly trained can stop suicides and violence, connecting people to helpful resources.

Consider also that in addition to an “ER – Emergency Response Needed” someone online in distress could access a “Counselor Online”.

COUNSELOR ONLINE SOLUTION

By clicking a button you could make a request that a bonded social media counselor connect with you.  There would have to be ways for people receiving assistance to authenticate these people are legitimate and not predators.  The opportunity for people in distress to connect with supportive counseling resources online could protect and save lives making our world safer.

There are so many people in our world who are alone suffering, confused, armed, dangerous to society, often with many different forms of mental health issues.

Social networks connect ‘friends’ but the question is this:

Will we as a society consider that it’s important and necessary to establish ONLINE SUPPORT NETWORKS FOR PEOPLE IN DISTRESS AND AT RISK.

People helping people – that’s called LOVE!  That’s the mission of Jesus Christ and it’s the mission of every caring person.

What we need is to consider how to use the social media networks to engage people who have desire, compassion, willingness to train and be held accountable for helping people online who are at risk of hurting themselves or others.

The funding model around this is the least of our worries. Governments could fund this. It would proactively address crime, violence and support the wellbeing of people.

Consider this digital application:

MENTORS ONLINE

Imagine that you are on the social networks and you are alone and struggling. You may be struggling academically, emotionally, psychologically, physically etc. Imagine the ability to access ‘online’ a ‘lifeline’.

Click a LIFELINE

Who do you want to connect to?

A teacher?

A cancer survivor?

A career coach?

A mental health counselor?

A spiritual advisor? (Different Faiths could be represented)

This scenario opens up the social network to the possibility of making SAFE FRIENDSHIPS. Of course there is some infrastructure needed to support this. The business model could be advertiser paid or it could be funded by governments, philanthropists etc.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34

If we want to make our world safer, healthier, happier, then we NEED TO BUILD OUR DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE WITH A VISIONARY VIEW OF HOW TO GET PEOPLE CONNECTED WITH PEOPLE THAT WANT TO HELP THEM – EASILY, SAFELY!

Let’s reflect on our school systems…

What if instead of expelling students we consider a personalized ‘inclusionary solution’ that enables students who are failing to get specialized support.

Consider a ‘SPECIAL FORCES’ approach to pro-active problem solving in schools that includes trained, qualified volunteers.

When the military sends in ‘special forces’ there are some big problems to resolve.

We need to consider rallying around public education with teams of qualified people that volunteer to help ‘at risk’ students. This would give at-risk students the opportunity to access the resources they need, e.g., emotional, friendship, tutoring, parenting, counseling, etc.

Impossible?

It’s possible!

What’s needed is some new vision.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish…” Proverbs 29:18

MENTAL HEALTH – Orthomolecular Medicine is the NEW Fronteer for Medical Breakthrough

Now let’s talk about mental health.

Have you ever heard of the Canadian psychiatrist that treated over one hundred thousand people with schizophrenia with vitamins (Vitamin B3 (Niacin) and Vitamin C) His name is Dr. Abram Hoffer, PhD. Dr. Hoffer founded the field of “Orthomolecular medicine which is a form of alternative medicine that aims to maintain human health through nutritional supplementation. The concept builds on the idea of an optimum nutritional environment in the body and suggests that diseases reflect deficiencies in this environment. Treatment for disease, according to this view, involves attempts to correct “imbalances or deficiencies based on individual biochemistry” by use of substances such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, trace elements and fatty acids.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthomolecular_medicine

During Dr. Hoffer’s work he befriended the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson.

Dr. Hoffer treated Bill for depression with Niacin. “Bill began to take 1 gram of niacin after each meal. Two weeks later he was free of his chronic tension and depression. He remained on this vitamin until he died. He was so enthusiastic that he began to hand it out to his friends in AA who also suffered many symptoms of mood disorder even though they were not drinking.” Source: http://www.orthomolecular.org/history/hoffer/ahlife.pdf

I have personally suffered from depression for many years and only found relief when I began taking Niacin. I took traditional ‘anti-depressant’ medication for one week over 25 years ago and I immediately felt my thinking was becoming distorted so I stopped immediately. Did you know there have been linkages between SSRI antidepressants and psychosis? http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/antidepressants-side-effects-psychosis-nice-terror-attack-german-wings-pilot-extremism-terrorism-a7191566.html

While drug companies may maintain this is rare, they have been sued for this scenario.

The important question is this:

Would a natural orthomolecular approach to mental health not be worth researching and funding?

The other thing that has been linked to psychosis is marijuana. Why are we legalizing marijuana for recreational use?

One of the things that inspired Dr. Hoffer was the cure for Pellagra. In the 1940s, Dr. Hoffer noticed similarities between the symptoms of people suffering from pellagra and people suffering from schizophrenia. Pellagra was cured with Niacin supplementation so Dr. Hoffer began experimenting with Niacin treatment for schizophrenia. Today schizophrenia and psychosis are both treated with medication called ‘antipsychotics’. Let’s apply the same logic as Dr. Hoffer used. If schizophrenia patients can be treated with Niacin and Vitamin C, then why can’t we treat psychosis with the same natural approach?

I have been taking Niacin to reduce my cholesterol levels and keep me ‘depression free’ for years now. Of course I give Jesus credit too, but I also believe that the brain needs nutrients to function properly.

Friends – I am going to try to get these ideas Jesus gave me to the right people. I believe the effective implementation of these ideas would cause a peaceful revolution on earth for the glory of Our Lord Jesus. Pray for me and please join me in prayer every day @ the Time Jesus died for us, 3pm (in our local time zones). At this time let us remember the Passion of Our Lord Jesus and let us pray for the Holy Spirit to help us to implement new strategies to make our children and our world safer, healthier and happier. Learn more about A Peaceful Revolution in the Name of Jesus Christ here.