Mental health issues are health issues, pure and simple. And yet, America’s politicians and policy makers have done far to little to give them much more than lip service. That’s tragic, as many people have argued that inadequate treatment for mental health results in countless deaths, many of them arguably preventable.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wants to change that. Let’s hope elected officials listen, and become more willing to give the topic of mental health the attention, and resources, it needs.

Several surgeons general in our history have sought to focus attention, and inspire policy, regarding specific major themes. Murthy’s focus has been on mental health, and he wants to address online bullying and child predators as well as the link between mental health and gun violence, saying that our policy makers are “falling short” with regard to protecting our children and public in general from mental-health-related health issues.

This is no epiphany, for him or anyone else. The widespread threat of cyberbullying and child predation are well known. Also, mass killings often are followed by insistence from officials that such crimes are mental health issues rather than gun issues. Mental health also has been identified as a major element in our nation’s growing problem of homelessness.

And yet they seldom back up those words with any policies or legislation that would address our nation’s severe lack of mental health resources, and the kind of support that would enable and encourage those who need help to get it.

Instead of supporting their statements with action and allocations supporting mental health treatment options, we continue to simply lock up mass murderers and not evaluating, much less addressing, their mental health issues. Many cities are even locking up or driving away homeless residents after passing ordinances that render them illegal.

Those shortages are certainly seen in the Rio Grande Valley. While we do have some mental health and treatment facilities in the area, they are far short of the need.

One of the major problems in this regard is the pejorative nature of mental health classifications. Such issues often tend to be seen as failings or weaknesses rather than treatable conditions.

Those perceptions surely deter many people from acknowledging the problems they have, and lead families to ignore or try to cover up family members’ mental health issues rather than seeking beneficial treatment.

We can only guess how many of the thousands of suicides, including many by children, and violent crimes might be prevented if those perceptions changed and mental health care were made more available and encouraged.

Murthy has said that improving our nation’s mental health policies could reduce such deaths the same way seatbelts and airbags have reduced auto deaths.

The need for better health care options in this country are certainly well known; political officials talk about it all the time. Sadly, that’s about all they do.

It’s time to actually do something about the problem. Countless lives can be saved — not only those of people who need mental health care but of potential victims they might create if those needs aren’t addressed.

The Rio Grande Valley’s most celebrated war hero is Alfredo “Freddy” Gonzalez, the posthumous Medal of Honor recipient who was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade after a fierce four-day battle with North Vietnamese troops on Feb. 4, 1968, during the Tet offensive. In tribute, his name is seen throughout the Valley on a school, a park, a veterans’ home and streets. And not just in the Valley but elsewhere in the country, including a street at Camp Lejeune military base in Jacksonville, North Carolina. A Navy guided-missile destroyer bearing his name still patrols the seas.

Gonzalez, who was a 21-year-old Marine sergeant in charge of the 3rd Platoon, Company A, First Battalion, First Marine Division at the time of his death, had been an athletic standout at Edinburg High School before his enlistment — he didn’t wait to be drafted, but first joined the Marine Reserves and later the active military. As a Marine he became known for his leadership, dedication and strength. The government proclamation awarding him our nation’s highest honor notes that during his final engagement near Thua Thien during Operation Hue City, Gonzalez was injured several times over the course of four days but kept fighting and leading his platoon before the final grenade blast felled him.

His mother Dolia, who died Aug. 12, 2024, six days shy of her 95th birthday, became a Valley celebrity in her own right, and in many ways she was just as iconic. She worked 35 years at the diner of Edinburg’s Echo Motel, and many people would go to eat there just to see and hopefully meet her.

In Dolia they saw many of the same characteristics that led her son to become a war hero.

They saw a woman whose dedication as a single, working mother set an example for her son’s work ethic as a student, football star and Marine; she worked at the Echo well into her 80s. The drive and tenacity with which Freddy engaged North Vietnamese forces was evident in Dolia, who waged a battle with her own country after the Department of Veterans Affairs cut off her survivors’ benefits — she was his only direct relative — and even demanded that she return much of the money she had received.

After years of the struggle and the attention her battle received, a local Albertson’s food store eventually settled the military’s claim and hired her as a greeter to help defray the loss of her government benefit.

Even with the two jobs, Dolia displayed the same sense of responsibility and community spirit that likely led to Freddy’s enlistment, as she also served as a volunteer at the Edinburg elementary school that bears her son’s name.

And through it all she still invested time and effort to champion Freddy’s life and legacy, dutifully cooperating with the many requests for her time by local and national media, historians and researchers who wanted to know more about her famous son.

As the saying goes, it’s easy to see where the son got his special traits.

After 56 years of mourning her heroic son and helping to keep his memory alive, Dolia and Freddy are now reunited. A grateful Valley will remember both of them, and the contributions they made to our community, and to our country.

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Heavenly reunion: Mother of Edinburg hero Freddy Gonzalez dies at 94