(Reposted from Foreign Policy in Focus: click here for the original) The latest Academy Awards ceremony, which crowned the well-intentioned but fatally flawed Argoas the year’s best film, merely formalized the nearly universal acclaim that director Ben Affleck has received for his gripping CIA drama set in Iran. It also said a lot about what’s wrong with Hollywood today.
On Tuesday, Feb 12, 2013 President Obama gave his first State of the Union address of his second term. Front and center was the issue of gun violence, both in his speech and in the audience. Most notably, guests Nathaniel and Cleopatra Pendleton, parents of Hadiya Pendelton, attended the address as guests of the President and Mrs. Obama. Hadiya was gunned down in Chicago just days after performing with her high school band at inauguration. Along with Hadiya, the President mentioned the mass shootings of Aurora, Colorado, Oak Creek, Wisconsin, Newtown, Connecticut, and Blacksburg, Virginia as reasons for congress to vote on gun control measures. Alongside the gun control debate we are hearing some discussion of mental health and the need to address mental health in our health care system. The issue of mental health and its connection to gun violence raises a lot of issues around race, class, and how the two are actually related. In this first YOUTUBE episode of the No Spoon Show, Fouad Pervez, Reggie Miller, and Fatima Ashraf of the collective team up with American Muslim Health Professionals to discuss mental health and gun violence. Khizer Husain, President of AMHP, speaks about the definition of mental health and discusses his efforts in Washington with the Department of Health and Human Services to bring this issue to the forefront of our country's overall health care discussion. Maryum Khwaja, licensed therapist and parter at Nasiha Counseling, LLC in NYC brings an experienced perspective to the table, having served as a therapist for over 10 years in the tri-state area. Watch and learn.
