Opinion: In today’s pages: Britney, Osama, Hillary and Obama
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Columnist Patt Morrison imagines a Britney’s Law for mental healthcare in California:
[T]here are heartbroken families begging the courts time and again to intervene on behalf of loved ones who won’t take medicine, won’t see doctors. Spears’ family’s frustration, if the tabloids are to be believed, is the same: How can we get help for her if she refuses?Proposition 63, which is generating upward of $2 billion since the law passed, can accomplish a lot -- but it can’t change that conundrum. Laura’s Law was passed to try to strike a balance. It’s named for honor student Laura Wilcox, who was working in a California mental health center when she was killed by a delusional man who couldn’t be forced to take medication. Thanks to the law, judges now can order outpatient treatment for people after medical and legal hearings.What, I wonder, would a Britney’s Law look like? Would it make it easier to require treatment, especially if the outburst gets 100,000 hits on YouTube?
Columnist Rosa Brooks says race and sex don’t matter for Gen. Y voters. Author Barry Gottlieb thinks it’s time you pimped your fridge. And Sacramento State University’s Tim Hodson has a litmus test for ballot measures.
The editorial board looks at Pakistani public opinion and finds little support for a U.S.-manned operation against Osama bin Laden. The board says a state gender discrimination law for students should stand, and it evaluates a state plan to ease the public employee benefits mess.
Readers respond to an editorial proposing ways to end the city’s gridlock. Studio City’s Gary Aminoff objects to a plan to make solo drivers pay: ‘This is not New York or Washington. If the destination is not within a few blocks of a bus or subway stop, people still have to get there by car. Solo drivers are not the cause of the problem; ineffective planning is.’