John Engler: Terrorist

I guess I could start nearly every blog post with “What strange times we live in…”  

In the past week there was a terrible tragedy in Traverse City, Michigan.  A mentally ill man pulled out a knife in Wal-Mart and stabbed eleven people before he was subdued by a Black man with a gun.  I wondered quietly at the cognitive dissonance that fact would cause across the Great White North.  Surely the comments section of every news story would be cheering that a dude brought a gun to Wal-Mart, followed by calls to arm everyone, everywhere. (And I was NOT disappointed.) And yet in the back of their minds was this worry that a Black dude is walking around northern Michigan with a gun.

But I digress.

Today’s post is about terrorism…because in America these days, we LOVE labeling things “terrorism”.  It gives the government wide latitude in investigation and prosecution, and the Bill of Rights takes a back seat to whatever initiatives the government wants to take.

Sure enough, within a day, the man, BJ Gillie, was labeled a terrorist.  God knows defining that term is difficult enough to define without tossing it at a mentally ill person who society turned its back on long ago.  Here’s an excerpt of a moving post put on Facebook by one of his childhood friends.  You can search for Mikal Doke to read the entire piece and I hope you do.

That was the last time I saw him in person. It seems that he had been living in The Pines in TC for a while. He should have been in a hospital where he could have gotten the care he deserved. It has been YEARS… DECADES for him, without receiving appropriate mental health care! Turns out they closed The Pines in May of this year. So all of these adults were just roaming TC homeless. Most likely all of them needing medical care and mental health care. To quote Thomas More, “You first make thieves, then you punish them.”

Everything that has happened is a horrible tragedy. For the victims. For the people that were there. For the families. But I will tell you this, BJ Gillie was this great boy that I knew years ago and everything that has happened to him has been a horrible example of our society failing people with mental health issues. I do not know who he was anymore. I do not condone what he did. It is horrible. But I will say that he is NOT a terrorist! He is a confused adult that was once my friend that has been kicked down time and time again in his life.

Yes, if you do the crime you must do the time. But label it correctly. He is not a terrorist! He probably has no idea what he did or where he is or who he is. Take responsibility for the problem that society has created.

If BJ Gillie is a terrorist, then so is the man responsible for putting Gillie on the streets.  That man is none other than former Michigan Governor John Engler.  Engler is Gillie’s accomplice and should be arrested, incarcerated, and tried as such.

During Engler’s three horrible terms as Michigan’s governor, he decided that saving money was more important than doing his job and set about slashing budgets for schools, aid to children, etc.  He is personally responsible for lowering Michigan school funding to levels that have decimated what used to be one of the finest education systems in the country.  But that doesn’t make him a terrorist of course…just an asshole.

Engler’s biggest crime was closing nearly every mental hospital in the state of Michigan and simply putting people in dire circumstances out on the streets. He literally opened the doors, let the mentally ill out, and bolted the doors behind them forever.  Many of these folks were veterans who returned from combat with severe mental health issues. Many (most?) of these people in need ended up in jail, prison, or on the streets.  Engler proudly declared victory over mental health issues in closing SIXTEEN facilities across the state.

But at least we saved money.

So while we gleefully seek our revenge on BJ Gillie, we might want to pause long enough to take responsibility for our role in creating an army of Gillies who still roam our streets.  The Republican Party aggressively pushed Engler’s agenda.  The people of Michigan elected this terrorist THREE times.  Since then, we have done almost nothing to restore essential services to those who need them most.  This has always been the Republican game plan…target the weakest segments of society who don’t have giant lobbying firms and aren’t major donors because no one will speak for them.

What trump is doing today started during the Reagan years and has moved steadily backwards nearly unabated since.  

BJ Gillie is no terrorist, but there is no shortage of people who have earned that moniker for what they’ve done to those most in need in our state.