A spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families said Friday that the agency is actively working to return Justina Pelletier to Connecticut, and that Tufts Medical Center will oversee her medical care. DCF is also dropping charges against Lou Pelletier for violating a judge’s gag order.
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From the article:
“… The judge Monday had announced the possibility that Justina would be moving soon to a foster care and treatment center in Merrimac, but that facility backed out soon after Rev. Patrick Mahoney, of the Christian Defense Coalition based on Washington, D.C., announced that he was organizing a vigil at the center to protest Justina’s placement there.”
“Mahoney’s is one of several national conservative Christian groups that have taken up the Pelletier case, seeing it as an example of government trampling on parental rights.”
I have said for years that I think we need a *big* political tent to make a paradigm shift. This case os a prime example… It made a 180% turn – based on action taken by Glenn Beck, two Republican state representatives (MA), and several Christian groups.
I certainly think there is a role for people of *all* political leanings – including liberals, progressives, Democrats. But I’d also like to see more people with these views take a stronger stand. Ironically, many want to simply bash the right.
Duane
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All Things Political Forum:
http://www.madinamerica.com/forums/
Duane
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“I have said for years that I think we need a *big* political tent to make a paradigm shift. This case os a prime example… It made a 180% turn – based on action taken by Glenn Beck, two Republican state representatives (MA), and several Christian groups.”
Couldn’t disagree more.
Yes it’s true that the case has been turned around due to the opportunism of the
extreme right. Glenn Beck??!! Are you serious??!! Ms. Kelley, I believe, is on
record as assuring young children that both Jesus and Santa Claus are white.
These people are politically the worst of the worst and represent the interests of
the same racist, anti-woman, homophobic forces that are behind the institutional
oppression not only of the psychiatrized but many others groups in society.
Sorry, I don’t want to be part of a “big tent” that includes people who are committed
to crushing me.
That said, it is the deafening silence of those who consider themselves liberals and progressives in the face of psychiatric totalitarianism which drives those like the
Pelletiers into the arms of the Becks and The Hannitys. But liberals are heavily
invested in psychiatry and other fields which are subservient to the medical model,
and rarely seem to even question it. Thus we have the spectacle of anti-choice
ideologues getting props for defending personal freedom.
That must bother someone around here, right?
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“… *deafening silence* of those who consider themselves liberals and progressives in the face of psychiatric totalitarianism… ”
You’re right about *that part*, anyway.
Re: your painting conservatives as “racist, anti-woman, homophobic”.
You’re way off.
Want to get rid of conservatives with this movement?
You’ll have to toss Peter Breggin under the bus, and a few on MIA under the bus also, including me.
Good luck with that.
Duane
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Tell us why marxism will set us free:
http://www.madinamerica.com/forums/
I’ll stick with the Constitution.
Duane
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As i mentioned elsewhere i won’t be drawn into a phony “liberal-conservative” debate, it’s a red herring. So-called liberals and conservatives are two sides of the same coin most of the time, neither are down for a fundamentally different system.
At any rate I never mentioned “conservatives,” I was and am referring to
ultra-right, anti-choice so-called “Christian fundamentalists” of the sort
which glommed onto the Pelletier case; they are an ilk that many self-
respecting “conservatives” would want to disassociate from as well.
I have always considered Breggin to be primarily a libertarian btw but
what’s most valuable to victims of psychiatry is his integrity, not his
ideology; likewise with Szasz. And I never talked about “getting rid of”
conservatives (however they’re defined) or anyone else. Nor did I ever
claim that “marxism will set us free.” I think you’re projecting. But this
debate (if that’s what it is) probably belongs elsewhere.
Still I would feel better to know that others reading this are disturbed by
this association of their movement with the “Christian” right. Anyone?…
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Yes, I am disturbed. I believe that you accurately described the situation that we are in where it comes to politics. I have no problem with conservatives at all, I came out of an entire family of them. However, I do thave great problems with the ultra-ultra-Right that’s attempting to hide behind Christianity and conservatism as they go about employing their agenda that you’ve described.
I’ve always stated that neither the Left nor the Right are friends of those of us with a “lived history” of being in the supposed “mental health” system. Both want to do things to us “for our own good” of course, whether we like it or not.
I also agree that this discussion needs to take place in the forums but I just couldn’t resist having my little soap box say here.
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I am a conservative Republican. I am pro life and I am pro traditional marriage (which means that I do not approve of gay marriage – which is promoted by LGBT groups- nor polygamy -which is promoted by Muslims and Mormons). I am not anti anybody.
This notion that there is no room in the psychiatric survivor movement for people like me is preposterous.
The Justina Pelletier case shows that when it comes to opposing psychiatric oppression, all contributions are welcome. I am also in favor of collaborating with CCHR. In fact, I got CCHR people in the UK engaged in the matter very effectively http://fiddaman.blogspot.com/2014/02/marriott-hotels-and-case-of-justina.html .
People forget that when FDR had the hard job of confronting Nazi Germany, he forged an alliance with Stalin.
This is not to say that anybody who disagrees with me politically is Stalin like, rather, that if working for the greater good – and I think that most members of the MIA community would agree that eliminating coercive psychiatry is the ultimate goal- requires me to work with people whose political views I do not share (American liberalism) and whose religion I do not share (Scientology) I am 100% willing to work with said people as long as it is done peacefully and legally.
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Like Mr. Pelletier, I can’t seem to trust this is anything but more of the same three ring circus lip service. They’ve gone from planning to move her to foster care on the north shore, to swearing they were all along actively working to return her to Connecticut and Tufts? They’ve gone from holding Mr. Pelletier in contempt of court to completely dropping the charges? Do even they know what they are doing? Isn’t putting a family through this type of see-saw decision making it’s own form of cruel and unusual punishment? Well let’s hope it sticks this time, I guess. Maybe one year and three months is a charm!
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Fox News reports today (March 3rd):
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/03/03/justina-pelletier-mitochondrial-massachusetts-family/
Hopefully, things will work smoothly with this.
Duane
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I don’t think they care one bit about Justina and her family and what they’ve put them through. This has all been one, big power trip on their part with Justina and her family being the pawns that they played with.
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oldhead,
For the sake of accuracy (your comment above):
Glenn Beck is a Mormon.
Jesus was a Jew, a Nazarene.
St. Nickolas (aka Santa Claus) was born in Patara (present-day Turkey)
And what does *any* of this have to do with anything?
Especially diversity of thought?
Duane
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