So, You Want to Be An Activist?

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The chair creaked as the doctor shifted his weight.

“Well, Faith, what do you want to do?”

                                                 “I want to help save the world.”

Notes are made on a chart,

“So, you’ve been experiencing grandiosity?”

                                                 “No. I want to help save the world.”

 

I.

From a fairly young age, I have wanted to be a revolutionary of some sort. I don’t know precisely why the idea of being an agent of change has always been so appealing to me. I think sometimes that it comes down to the simple fact that I can’t easily lie to myself about the things that I can’t seem to stop hoping for in the world, or the things that cause me to feel sad and frustrated, frightened and angry.  Other times, I credit my revolutionary spirit to my early exposure to good literature and the liner notes of punk rock albums. Regardless of the reasons, I have been deeply drawn to activism for a long time.  I don’t think I am unique in this inclination toward revolutionary occupation, nor do I think that I am particularly “radical,” all things considered.

I am relatively new to the psychiatric human rights movement, but I am not new to initiatives toward service and change. I’ve made huge pots of stew and sloshed them across damp parks, happy to eat with people who became my friends. For a period of time, I spent my Saturday nights writing meticulous and impassioned court reports advocating for kids in state custody. However, more and more, I have begun to realize that I am not satisfied merely helping to address the effects of injustice in policy and culture. I want to change the forces that cause social, economic and cultural disempowerment, to address the systems that seem to have structured our lives in ways that are so fraught with exploitation and varying degrees of oppression.

I want to help to create a world that I feel better about living in.

II.

Because of the way I tend to think about things, I cannot separate psychiatric human rights from human rights in general…the right to live in freedom from fear, the right to shelter and safety from persecution, the right to meaningful occupation and the pursuit of knowledge…the right to be human and to know what that means to us as individuals, the right to not be harmed because of who we are.

To me, it is all connected. The ways we conceptualize being human are very heavily influenced by psychiatry and the traditional industries of authority and cooperative compliance. Therefore, it seems like in order for people to have the potential to re-frame their purpose and motivations toward more sustainable and positive participation in the world it is necessary to identify barriers to the realization and empowerment of collective human potential.

Often, people want to help. They want to see things change. However, the structures of life, activity and worldview can create barriers to engaging in sustainable activism. The television schedule itself can be grueling, not to mention work, children, and shopping.

“There is just so much to do!”

Trying to figure out how to make sense of the knot of grief/fear/anger/worry in the pit of one’s stomach is not easy to do, because at a certain point of facing the truth of one’s heart it becomes necessary to question the integrity and viability of constructed reality. The culture of misinformation has led many people to be oblivious to the fact that there is a problem or to be terribly confused about what that problem may be.

“Do I love my job?”

“Do I trust the government?”

“Do I want to imagine what the world will be like in 25 years or should I try not to think too much about it?”

“What am I giving up and why am I giving it up?”

These are the sort of questions that can cause the world as we know it to slip a little, to cause a rift in which a tiny seed of dissonance begins to unfurl.

“How can I go on living like this? How can I not live like this? What am I doing? What has happened to the world?”

It is no wonder that people go to such lengths to distract themselves, to numb themselves, to try so hard to find comfort and to find safety.

These tendencies can dissuade us from activism, can exhaust and confuse us. Seeing the world from the perspective of an activist (any sort of activist) requires that we see the world differently than perhaps we had before. The shift from feeling helpless and overwhelmed to feeling empowered with strategic clarity and coherent understanding of the forces at work within our lives is nothing short of a transformative re-orientation of consciousness.

Such things are not for the faint of heart. It takes enormous bravery to imagine a different world, a different life. When we see the world differently we move about in it differently, communicating with new words, seeing new relationships, beginning to grasp the impact that our interactions with person and resource have on the outcome of a day, a week, a life, the world. We make different choices.

What are the barriers to change?  For many people existing in the current cultural and economic context, it is a privilege to even have the opportunity to re-imagine our place in the world and the possibilities we are capable of creating.

At some point, most people deeply and sincerely want to make some great and sweeping difference. In childhood, this often takes the form of imagined super-heroics with awesome powers and stealth identity. Some people probably remember the feeling of nighttime at the kitchen table, writing a letter that the teacher assigned you to write and suddenly hoping that the president will read your words and, noticing how carefully you spaced your lines, decide to stop the wars and save the oceans.

At what point in the process of human psychosocial development do we stop believing that it is possible to change the world?

What happens to those of us who cannot and/or will not stop believing it is possible to change the world?

III.

After my last transformative undoing and re-seaming, I had to seriously reckon with what I needed in order to feel truly alive, what I needed to be happy, to feel like myself. The nature of my reckoning (which some would call “psychosis”) involved months of complex vocational inspiration, meaning that I spent a lot of time trying to figure out, through a process of logical deduction, why I felt fated to contribute to the world’s salvation in some way. I believed that if I didn’t contribute to some effort to create meaningful change in the world that I would not be able to live with myself, that something important within me would – in fact – die.

My inclination to work toward justice and reparation was, predictably enough, deemed to be a product of “imbalanced chemicals” and I was encouraged to cease and desist in my pondering the mechanics of multi-systemic revolution and to focus on my life. It did not seem to occur to anyone that perhaps being inspired to change the world was just a part of who I am and that I was focusing on my life, trying to figure out.

The clinicians and psychiatrists didn’t seem to understand why it mattered so much to me that polar bears will likely be extinct by the time my children are the age I am now. No one saw much worth in my renewed sense of clarified purpose and potential, my newly deep appreciation for the human capacity for goodness and sense.  They encouraged me to find a job, any job. They told me to be sure to rest, to swallow my pills as prescribed and to learn to practice acceptance. To them, it wasn’t a shift in consciousness or the creation of a new worldview. It was all “a part of the illness.”

“Focus on your children,” they told me. “People have always wanted to save the world, Faith. It’s always been this way. You just have to accept it and live your life the best you can. Do you need a refill?”

In a lot of ways, my decision to expand my activist life was made with my children in mind and in heart, because I want the world to be a better place for kids, especially quirky, brilliant and sensitive kids. Children won’t be children forever, and I want my kids to know that it is possible to make a difference. I want them to know that we all have a right to be empowered and conscious participants in our lives and worlds. I want them to understand the plays of power and idea that have so thoroughly affected their family. I want them to know that it is okay to be different, and that it is vital that we be true to the best of who we are, whether or not it makes sense to anyone else.

I made a very conscious decision that I would not set aside my activism instinct. I would not try to ignore what I saw in the world and what is inspired in me.  Gradually, I set aside the prescriptions and learned to listen to my heart instead of to the jaded clinicians who seemed to prefer that I settle for a life of quiet and compliant mediocrity.

IV.

In a lot of ways, I am starting all over. I am considering my goals and my ambitions, what interests me and makes me feel hopeful. I have thought a lot about my experience and my skill-sets, taking inventory of what I know and what might I need to learn.

What kind of activist do I want to be?

What would I be good at? What skills might I have that could be useful in trying to support change? What would make activism worth my time? What would make it fun?

I spent well over a year coming to terms with the possibility that I might not ever be truly satisfied or happy unless I was helping to support some sort of vast and encompassing liberation movement.  However, not so long ago, I didn’t have even the slightest idea about how to connect with people or how to make myself useful in efforts toward change.

I began experimenting with ways to get involved. I started to pay attention to what was happening, to look for opportunities. I took deep breaths and hung around the edges of local rallies and meetings, watching and listening.  I commented on websites and joined Facebook groups, sharing ideas. Still battling a nearly incapacitating anxiety, I tried to show up when I said I would, even if nobody cared if I showed up at all. I learned about consensus process in the city park and played around with writing press releases in order to learn how to communicate more effectively. I studied how people responded to me, and considered what approaches seemed to be most successful. I have learned as much about what doesn’t work as I have about what does and I am still learning.

What is most encouraging is the recognition that I am a part of something bigger than myself, that I am a part of a big dynamic dance of action, ideas and influence that has the potential to change the way people think about what it means to be human.  Being involved with people who understand, in their own way, the deep desire to see things change is absolutely vital to me. It helps me to be a part of an activist community, because it is important for me to not feel alone in my worldview. I am not alone.

On May 5th of last year, I took my first trip alone in over 10 years, driving north to Philadelphia for the Occupy Psychiatry protest of the DSM-5. It was a triumph for me in many ways. I was doing something I had dreamed of doing, which was to publicly speak out about the harm that is caused by forceful, coercive psychiatry and pathologized labeling of the human condition.  Ever since I had realized how I had been so terribly wounded in my life, I had wanted to tell psychiatry they were wrong about me. For me, the Occupy Psychiatry protest was a great opportunity to do that.

At that protest I met people that I immediately felt a kinship with, people that I deeply respect and admire. Shared story and experience create powerful bonds between people, particularly when the experiences shared are so deeply personal and formative of our individual histories.

“That happened to you? That happened to me, too. I felt like I was all alone.”

I will know some of these people for years and years. In the span of just a few days, I went from being a socially isolated dreamer to sitting on a bus full of survivors, talking about why we were there and what had happened to us, why we must fight for the rights of children to be who they are without harm and to express their experiences without being pathologized. The people who sat beside me on that journey are, in some ways, like a dispersed family to me. For the first time in years, I felt comfortable and safe being honest about who I am and what I had experienced. For the first time in years, I felt that I was being seen clearly…and that I was accepted, loved.

It’s not possible for everyone in the world who is interested in psychiatric human rights, and the right to not be manipulated or misled by corrupt institutions of profit and power, to attend the May 19 protest and rally in San Francisco that is being held by Occupy Psychiatry. For many who are in support of the grassroots psychiatric human rights movement, the distance to travel is too far, the costs prohibitive.

For people on the West Coast or in a position to travel, this protest and rally is a good opportunity to learn more about the consumer/survivor/ex-patient (c/s/x) movement, to hear some legendary speakers, and to bring their voices to the protest against the DSM-5 and the use of force and coercion within the mental health system. Occupy Psychiatry is about HUMAN RIGHTS and about the integrity of our approach to mental health in the context of the societal and cultural oppression which is so prevalent in this crazy and damaged, dysfunctional world. We have a right to stand up to the things that make us feel sick and make us feel sad, the forces which burden us with the exhausting frustration of  being led to believe that there is nothing we can do other than try to get by, try not to get upset. It is our collective human right to be upset about what is happening within our lives and within the world…and it is our collective responsibility to work towards change.

There are millions of people who want (need) to see a change and activism can take any number of forms. We can smile at strangers and create images. We can tell stories and make impressions. We can notice something small and beautiful while sitting quietly and we can show it to a friend, point it out to a child.  We can shake hands with legislators or go for walks with teenagers. We can send messages and add our names to the list. We can bring our voices to a sea of people in the streets and we can carry our splintered signs.

We can ask:

“What’s your story?”

“What happened to you?”

 “What do you think?”

“What do you want to do?”

There has been a lot of talk lately about activism and getting more organized in our collective efforts to advocate for psychiatric human rights around issues such as:

 – The use of force and coercion in mental health practice and systems

 – Harm and manipulation done by the pharmaceutical industry

 – Cultural liberation and celebration of human diversity

However, operational activism around these issues (or any other issue) is not so simple as, “Get organized!”

…or maybe it is?

Because of the scope of concerns and the intricate dynamics that hold the culture and protocol of the mental system in place, it can be difficult to know where to even begin. How do we effectively and cohesively address the challenges of dismantling and re-visioning an entire system of ideas that are so rigidly reinforced in formal protocol, law, and culture?

How do we bring more people into awareness and action and how do we work together toward mental health liberation?

For more information on the upcoming protest and rally in San Francisco, please check out Occupy Psychiatry’s site: http://www.occupypsychiatry.net/

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/423484091080573/

 

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

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30 COMMENTS

  1. Well said Faith, as a fellow activist I agree, also as a mother and now grandmother, that the wanting to make a positive difference to the world around you is something inherent and deep rooted. Something to be proud of, having a cause and getting organised. Whatever psychiatry might say.

    I remember last year meeting a psychiatrist as a carer, advocate and activist, when he recommended baking cakes and making soup as a relaxing activity. I think he wanted me to relax, take the pressure off him, if you like. It couldn’t have been easy for him with me blogging away about human rights abuses in the psychiatric hospital where he worked. Tough. But I don’t care. There’s a time for baking and soup making, and also a time for action and speaking out against oppression.

    Last November I went down to London, from Scotland where I live, and joined the Speak Out Against Psychiatry group in their protest against perinatal psychiatry, the drugging of and children, forced ECT/shock treatment and especially on pregnant women. Asking for alternatives to be considered:
    http://chrysmassociates.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/bringing-in-heavies-at-perinatal.html
    It was uplifting to be in solidarity with the SOAP comrades in our campaign, having a voice and taking a stand. It was liberating and powerful. There’s nothing quite like it.

    All the best, Chrys

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    • Thank you, Chrys! The work that you all do over in Scotland is some of the first c/s/x activism I learned about, and hearing Ted C. speak about going over there (? seems like a memory I have of a conversation..) seemed like, oh – I don’t know – just really…amazing. I was totally struck with: “Wow, these people have allies all over the place. These people are friends. They care about each other.”

      It’s so remarkable to me how deep the bonds run in this movement and its various branches…all the way across oceans and decades, over generations.

      Thanks for always being so supportive of my efforts to contribute my perspective and story to the mix. It genuinely means a lot, because…well, you know…I haven’t been around that long. Thank you.

      The best to you, as well…

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    • Hey, thanks, Maxima! This was a really difficult piece to narrow down and pull into focus…I was going off into diatribal analysis about the irony and tragedy of the Revolutionary war and discussions of Locke’s inalienable rights. It was ridiculous.

      Glad you appreciate it and thanks for being out there!

      “Timely and motivating.” <- that's a great compliment for a piece on activism! Thanks! Report comment

  2. I LOVE this, Faith! No…..We do not want a life of “quiet and compliant mediocrity!” Not for a minute. And I love that you say this activism is not for the faint of heart. Your words are so wise and familiar to me and filled with a perfect amount of humor. Thank you, always, for taking the time [especially when the TV schedule is so demanding…. 🙂 ] to give us such a rich account of your wonderful thoughts. I wish so much that I could go to San Francisco for this important protest, perhaps the most important in a long time. But it’s not possible for me now. I shall be there in spirit. The megaphone shall be blaring with our messages from the east coast from the top of the Empire State Building!
    Much love, Dorothy

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  3. Hi Dorothy – I wish I cold hug you right now. You’ve probably gotten the notification from where I flagged you on facebook…

    I feel so upset, genuinely and like out of nowhere, about the fact that Kermit put this stupid post on the page above your narrative (…and Susan! …and that guy Deron’s mother…and all those survivor stories)

    …I don’t want to be way up there at the top of the page. I want to be off to the side!

    This probably all sounds crazy, in the c/s/x sense of the word, but whatever. I love and respect you so much, Dorothy. I mean, I met you on that bus and you welcomed me and you were so generous and so polite and so kind…

    …and I just love you.

    Okay, this is totally off-topic re: activism. Though maybe not…it comes down to respecting my elders, holding story space as sacred, and respecting remembrance of loved ones.

    You offered so much praise for the young activists in your comment replies…and I just want you to know that I may not even be an activist of any sort if it weren’t for the likes of you who helped to build the movement, and all the people who share their stories, all the people that were lost.

    I really hope Kermit will move this piece. I’m being a real pain about it.

    With Respect,

    Faith

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  4. Of course, you belong right where you are according to the date, and I love having your words above mine. We are all comrades in this together. No one person’s words are any more meaningful than any other. We are all side by side, supporting each other. As I said above, I love your words and I love you.
    Dorothy

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  5. Thanks, Dorothy. I think – among other things – the intensity of the year, all the transformation that has happened and the friends I’ve made…well, it all sort of walloped me for a minute.

    I’m off to bed now…tomorrow is bound to bring more change. Everyday does…

    Here’s to good dreams!

    Love,

    FR

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  6. Addendum: The past 24 hours have brought up so much for me. I have had to face the fact that in spite of my awesomeness and defiant accomplishments, I still have remnants of crushing self doubt and deep fears of not being accepted.

    It can be truly hard for people who have been psychiatricized to undo the self-undermining tendencies that come about from being second-guessed, psychoanalyzed, doubted, scorned, and judged in our interactions with “professionals” and in family+community.

    For me, one of the biggest barriers to activism and empowered participation in the world is the struggle to believe in myself and in the worth of my voice. Right now, I am angry. I am an intelligent, compassionate, lovely and creative person…and psychiatry really bungled my self-concept. I guess it takes a while to undo 20+ years of psychiatricization, to decolonize my mind and heart.

    I really appreciate that MIA gives voice to people who were de-voiced. Thanks for being out there you all.

    “I WILL BELIEVE IN MYSELF. I WILL BELIEVE IN MYSELF. I WILL BELIEVE IN MYSELF.”

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    • Yes, Faith, it does take the gentle passage of time to regain your voice and a sense of equilibrium after being brutalized for so long. In the end, you will be (and already are) a much fuller person because of what you have gone through. I needed to take a few years off from my activism while I was raising the children as they both took enormous amounts of physical and emotional energy. My children came first. Be kind to yourself.
      Much love, Dorothy

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      • Thank you again, Dorothy…

        I’m already a much more full person, just still re-integrating and sorting out what is true of my heart and why. I’m actually thankful that I had a chance to experience what I experienced, because I really appreciate my life now and I like who I am…so, I can’t really figure out how I would be who I am if I hadn’t lived what I lived. I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing, and I like my life…so, it all works out.

        You’re absolutely correct that balancing family and activism can be huge challenge. Because of the way my family is structured, I have some stretches of time when they are off doing other things with other people, and so I have figured out how to do x and y on days a,b, and c and save z for days d and e…

        I am really enjoying figuring out alternative modes of activism, like writing stories and making art…how to bring activism to things I do anyway, so that it doesn’t become consuming in ways that are not sustainable. Finding people that I work well with is important, too…many hands make light work and things done alone seem like they are not so effective as efforts undertaken in cooperation.

        Thanks again for all your encouragement and your steadfast kindness.

        Love, FRR

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  7. Yesterday I celebrated my fourth anniversary of being booted out of the state hospital that I spent two and a half months in. I now work in that same hospital, trying to do some kind of activist work as a peer worker. When I told the nurses on the unit where I was held that I would be back but I’d have keys and a badge to access all the doors they laughed in my face and said that I’d be back all right not not as a staff person. Those same nurses go an alternate route when they see me coming down the hall towards them since they don’t want to face me. They avoid me at all costs. So, doing any kind of activist work here is very difficult, since most of the staff will always see me as being “mentally ill.”

    Writing like yours give me the incentive to come back here tomorrow and to keep banging at the doors of a system that is repressive and destructive to human beings. Thank you for sharing with the rest of us. You are an inspiration to many of us.

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    • Well done to you Stephen on going back into the lion’s den and facing them up! Being a Daniel if you like. Someone needs to do it and it’s a task I’d find very difficult. So hats off to you.

      The mental illness label will no doubt be their way of justifying the use of compulsory treatment and keeping the distance between them and you/us. It’s great that you’re there to remind them of the potential and what’s possible.

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    • Stephen – Ha! Way to prove ’em wrong! Aside from the desire to contribute well, for the sake of sense and goodness, a big motivator for me is simple defiance, a flat out refusal to live by the low expectations of others…and, sometimes, the low expectations still held by aspects of myself. I have to defy myself sometimes.

      I think you are incredibly gutsy to do the work you do, to walk all those fine lines and to re-inhabit that space in an empowered role. I work in the system, too…but not at a hospital. I think I would have a really hard time being in that environment.

      Thank you for inspiring me and for sharing so much on these pages.

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  8. I think that third wave feminism is often about the impulse to correct obvious wrongs–second wave feminism has turned into, women have to have the same responsibilities of men for less pay, or demeaning work, and often for the pursuit of other fields, like gender construction through ecology or women’s studies, people have stopped being able to look right at someone, point and say very forcefully at a quiet restaurant–Your a sexist. I have read old psychiatry textbooks from the republic of germany and they flat out state that most of these psychiatric opinions, are just plain, odd–they don’t qualify where they are getting data, like a private school college fraud, return to basic principles, if it is state funded? Not that everything in state institutions is perfect–but why don’t people qualify sometimes how they get patients or students?

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    • “…why don’t people qualify sometimes how they get patients or students?”

      It seems like then the flaws in research and education would be apparent and the whole medical model would be apparent as the sham that it is?

      As for feminism, I think that a lot of the same power dynamics in patriarchy are evident in psychiatry and in the psychoanalytic traditions.

      Thanks for reading and for asking questions. It’s really a shame that people have devoted their entire careers creating a body of literature that is ultimately useless, unethical and fraudulent.

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  9. Congratulations Faith! We can be the change we want to see in the world! We can be very effective as a united group. We can sew seeds of encouragement and hope even though many of us were abused by psychiatry. We can let the world know that we have all the goodness and special gifts that all citizens of the world have in common. I like you always wanted to turn the world upside down and I still do at 65!!
    Thanks for being YOU!
    In solidarity,
    Mary.

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    • Thank you, Mary! It is a great hope of mine that by the time I am 65 I will be a formidable revolutionary!

      Yes, we all have the goodness and we all have the gifts. I have found so much unity in the deconstruction of the ideas that keep us apart. The wonderful thing about human struggle is that it is something we all – every single one of us – go through in our own way. David Oaks said, last May, “We’re the 100%!” and that is just so true.

      Thanks so much for the fist in the air!

      In Solidarity,

      Faith

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  10. So you want to be a revolutionary? It’s the normal folk out there that give us mad folk an edge in that department. Think big money, bought politicians, pollution and war as opposed to gentleness, love, co-operation and peace. Think greedy profiteering versus good deeds. I like it. Thumbs up to the new regime, even if the new regime is a long way from being. Yes, we’ve got a lot to do, no question about it, but, surely, it is what needs doing. Competitive dog against dog nonsense is going to leave us with nothing but a heap of blood and gore in the end, and who needs that? The 1 % got their 80 % of the wealth through highway robbery. It’s time to take back the world we hold in common.

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    • Thanks, Frank! You know what’s really cool? That dysfunctional systems inevitably destroy themselves…and there are a lot of people outside of the systems of power that have little to lose by following their hearts.

      I also really do believe that, in the evolutionary span of culture and consciousness, a full-fledged re-visioning is just about imminent. A lot of folks might lose their minds in the process of a changing world…fortunately, there are a lot of people who know how to navigating shifting reality.

      Onward, outward, upward…

      Good luck in SF! I’ll be there in spirit!

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  11. Good for you, Faith. I think these meditations about one’s identity are really very valuable. And I love your sense of humor. I also from a young age had a sense of injustice and a drive to do something about it.

    I will always remember our conversations on the bus that shuttled us back and forth to the Philadelphia demo against the APA. We are kindred spirits, no doubt about it.

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    • Thanks so much, Ted…it means the world to me that you understand so much of what is in my heart. Kindred spirits, indeed.

      In Solidarity and with Love,

      Faith

      Good luck in SF! I’m so sorry I won’t be there. However, I will be there in spirit…

      (…and given my belief system, I really will be there!)

      The most beautiful thing about this movement is the way that we all carry one another and the unvoiced masses in our hearts.

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  12. Faith

    Your writing is raw, unfiltered and inspiring.

    Your poignant description of your own unquenchable thirst for human connectedness in a world that demands that we all join together and become creative agents of change – this captures my own sense of spirituality.

    This is coming from someone who is atheistic and who constantly craves tangible evidence that Revolution is both necessary and possible.

    The “necessary” smacks us in the face everyday. The “possible” is more elusive.

    Your personal call to action seems to capture the universality of youthful rebellion that so desperately needs to join with us aging veterans who deeply yearn for a better world.

    Your writing has helped make the “possible” more believable. Thank you!

    Comradely, Richard

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  13. Richard, I love this symbiosis of inspiration and mutual encouragement. Thank you for inspiring me. I cannot think of a higher compliment than the suggestion that something I wrote helped someone to believe in the possible.

    “…human connectedness in a world that demands that we all join together and become creative agents of change.”

    …and with that, we are part of something far larger than the psychiatric human rights movement…we are a part of the core of humanity, rising up like lions from a long slumber.

    I have noticed that even in decidedly non-revolutionary circles and settings, things seem to be shifting, shifting, shifting. That might just be me, though…what I look for, what I focus on…keeping an eye out for potential, for what might be possible.

    Thank you for expressing appreciation with such generosity and thank you for all you have done and do, in your work and in your being.

    In Solidarity,

    Faith

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  14. Wow, Faith. I wanna go to San Francisco with flowers in my hair and dance and sing and scream and negotiate and participate. Chances are not as things are working out but what can I do otherwise, to help the cause, and I can do much. I love your writing. It’s hot and thoughtful and good and seamless and I count you among my best colleagues and a new good friend in Asheville. As an activist I count you as a teacher. Thank you for bringing Jacks to the Firestorm last week and opening my world and mad heart up. There are miracles in this world. You are beautiful and your work is great. I hope for more.

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