I want to applaud Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration for taking an active, compassionate role to address the issue of mental illness with a proposed law to enable outpatient civil commitment in Maryland ("Dispute over treating mentally ill," Dec. 11).
Who is the opposition to an initiative that is helpful to those relative few who don't have the mental capacity to help themselves? Where are you on cold nights at bus stops when those who are mentally ill refuse to come in from the cold and lie on the bench all night, their faces covered in frozen mucus by morning? Where are you when the relatives of that person tell you he or she refuses to stay home or take medicine but habitually goes back to that same bus stop seat every night in the winter, spring, summer and fall? And where are you when the relatives and those who care stand waiting for an ambulance which comes on a regular basis to pick up that person before they die?
Governor O'Malley has taken a compassionate stance to address mental illness in all communities of Maryland and that it should be supported. What would you want him to do if it were you, watch you die?
Jennifer Coates, Baltimore