Support for Mentally Ill

Even though I am probably the last person to compliment President Bush, I must commend him for his efforts to have mental illness recognized as a disease like any other (“Mental Health Parity Urged,” April 30.) If we as a society are to truly address the issue of mental illness we must stop treating the subject as taboo. Only then can we work on making the lives of mentally ill people and their families better.

But I marvel at the fact that this issue was first trumpeted by his electoral opponent, Al Gore. Is Bush, in fact, co-opting a Democratic Party issue? If so, it looks like Bush is taking a page from Clinton’s book on how to stay in office: co-opt every issue.

Justin Christensen

Berkeley