Mad Summit Targets Tipper Gore |
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"...to build a mental health system that is based upon the principle of self-determination, on a belief in our ability to recover, and on our right to define what recovery is and how best to achieve it." |
The Highlander Center, Tennessee, mid-March Thirty people who share a history of working for human rights in mental health gathered at the Highlander Center in Tennessee in mid-March. That center has been a strategic hub for organizers in civil rights since the days of Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks. The
event was sponsored by Support Coalition, International, of which Mouth
magazine is a member. "Because Tipper Gore has made mental health her 'special' issue," and because, the Mad Summit said, "she has shown... that she does not respect our right to speak for ourselves, we will demonstrate at her public appearances to make clear that millions of American citizens... will not tolerate being margin-alized, scapegoated, demonized and subjected to increasing amounts of forcible treatment." To write to Tipper Gore, use this web address: http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Mail/html/Mail_Mrs_Gore.html. To see Tipper's schedule, go to http://www.algore2000.com/tipper. To learn more, go to http://www.MadNation.org. The Mad Summit plans to convene again next year at Highlander. Meanwhile, the whole Mad Nation hopes you'll join in their resistance to forced treatment, and their targeting of Tipper. |
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Participants at the meeting with the Gore staff:
Laurie Ahern Michael Allen Ron Bassman, PhD Marca Bristo
Ted Chabasinski Judi Chamberlin Justin W. Dart,
Jr. Dan Fisher, MD Janet Foner Loren Mosher, MD David Oaks Tom Olin Larry Plumlee,
MD Jeff Rosen Rae Unzicker |
Update,
with reporting by Fred Fay, National Council Chair Marca Bristo presented her agency's landmark report: "From Privileges to Rights: People Labeled with Psychiatric Disabilities Speak for Themselves." Other prominent participants included Judi Chamberlin and Ron Bassman. Following are a writing which the group presented to Lisa Brown, and remarks by Justin Dart. A list of members of the delegation appears in the column at left. --- Requests to Vice President and Mrs. Gore We urgently request a personal meeting with both the Vice President and Mrs. Gore, to discuss our human rights concerns about individuals diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities. We ask for an initial meeting with our organizational leadership, and a later more open meeting with a wider gathering of psychiatric survivors and allies. We call for recognition and endorsement by the Vice President and Mrs. Gore -- and the current administration -- of the President's National Council on Disability report, "From Privileges to Rights: People Labeled with Psychiatric Disabilities Speak for Themselves," including its ten core recommendations. Specifically, we request a signal as soon as possible from both the Vice President and Mrs. Gore that they publicly affirm the following points based upon the first three core recommendations in the NCD report. 1. We ask that the Vice President and Mrs. Gore stand with us to oppose the rise of involuntary psychiatric treatments such as forced drugging and inpatient and outpatient commitment, and instead endorse a public policy direction toward a totally-voluntary community-based mental health system. FROM THE NCD
REPORT CORE RECOMMENDATION ONE: 2. We seek a commitment that a Gore Administration would continue the inclusion on the National Council on Disability a psychiatric survivor who concurs with the report's recommendations. FROM THE
NCD REPORT CORE RECOMMENDATION TWO: 3. We call on both the Vice President and Mrs. Gore to stand with us in opposition to electroconvulsive therapy, also known as electroshock or ECT. FROM THE
NCD REPORT CORE RECOMMENDATION THREE:
Excerpts from Remarks by Justin Dart My
mother, an award-winning author, took her own life because of her terror
of forced treatment and stigma. I'm so proud to be here today with a delegation of distinguished advocates representing millions of people with psychiatric disabilities and psychiatric survivors who suffer the most devastating discrimination in our culture. My
colleagues and I bring a message which has not often been heard in the
mainstream public dialogue on psychiatric disability. ------ jfa@jfanow.org |
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Great new link: |
Mouth's great investigative-journalist friends, Christine Hahn and George Mentes, have published a white paper on Involuntary Outpatient Commitment (or, as it's known in Canada, the Community Treatment Order). Find out why IOC or CTO is a scary, wrong-headed idea. Click here. |
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Tom Olin, who took all three photos above -- the one of Justin is from an earlier public appearance -- sells his photos for use by people and organizations in the disability rights movement. Click here to send him an email. |
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