While another area in Knoxville rallies together to be heard by St. Mary’s, the neighborhoods around Lakeshore sit silently. They silently watched, year after year, while the buildings deteriorated as the state reduced Lakeshore’s budget. They said nothing when Lakeshore was forced to sell some of their valuable property to Parks & Rec. They are remaining quiet as all of the cottages and buildings on the soccer field side of Lakeshore’s Orchard Road are claimed for the soccer teams’ parking needs. The majority of the SPMI population at Lakeshore has been tossed aside by their families and the state is quietly taking away their front and back yard. This time, they have taken the consumers’ chapel away from them. The Lakeshore family needs that chapel far more than the Hummer driving soccer moms need additional parking. How many of those soccer parents have ever spent an hour in that chapel with the Lakeshore consumers? I’m seriously guessing that the answer is none. How many soccer games are the Lakeshore consumers welcome to attend? There may be a few kind hearts on that field, but I still doubt if the majority would allow it. Lakeshore’s chapel needs to be open. The consumers, doctors, nurses and volunteers need that chapel. The chapel would never turn away any of the soccer families. Unlock the chapel doors and let it serve the entire Lakeshore community, athletic families and health families alike.

When I have my mental breakdown, if you love me in the very least, please, please, please do not call Dr. Phil. In fact, don’t call anyone with their own television show. It won’t take much effort to locate a good therapist. The local Mental Health Association can recommend a doctor who specializes in whatever has sent me over the edge. If it involves helicopters always flying over me, idiots rifling through my trash and cameras constantly pointed at my crotch, a talk show appearance is NOT going to make things better. Buy me some underwear and take me someplace where paparazzi are treated like the criminals that they are. I suspect my personal crisis will be much simpler than that anyway. I think someone in Hawaii specializes in my problem. Send me there for a week and I’ll feel much better. Thank you for caring about me.

Love, Cathy

P.S. I sure hope Britney’s problem is Rheumatoid Arthritis.

I can’t count the number of times I came home from work and complained to poor Doug about how frustrating and depressing it was to not be able to really help the people who needed help the most. Lacking any other option to get services for their child, parents gambled with the odds by handing their children over to the state. Teenagers getting thrown to the sharks on their 18th birthday. Parents helplessly watching their intelligent 18-year-old tailspin out of control without medications or therapy. Families torn apart by frustration and pain. Parents hoping that their own child gets arrested. The magic three day fix that is supposed to make people well enough to be released from medical care. I still hear someone’s voice in my head talking about “Little Timmy” playing with her children and everyone in East TN is haunted by the complete loss of common sense that necessitated an edible roadkill bill. If Senator Burchett can draw the delicate line between families who sincerely want to help their ill relatives and the families who want to lock the ill away forever, he will really be helping the people who need it.