No One Cares About Crazy People
The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America
“There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success.” John Steinbeck Vacaville, California, has a history of popular uprisings to confront the powerful as they violate the humanity of the dispossessed. In 1932, organizers came to Vacaville … Continue reading “Beyond Denunciation”
I am NOT homeless! I have a home! My home is the United States of America! James Mark Rippee Listen to the words above. Say them aloud. And try not to feel stirred. Angry. Transformed. Try not to feel inspired to stop what you’re doing and throw your energies into a cause that is becoming … Continue reading “”
The documents below usher in a revolution. They describe a bold new movement, a national front organized to break the silence of the stricken and reverse the longstanding political neglect of America’s decrepit mental healthcare policies and institutions. The advocate and author (Sooner Than Tomorrow) DeDe Ranahan has completed a wide-ranging national canvass of those … Continue reading “Voices for Mental Healthcare Reform, United at Last!”
Tyler West is in a prisoner in the Richard Handlon Correctional Prison in Ionia, Michigan. Mark Rippee, blind and severely disabled, as well as severely mentally ill, is at large on the streets of Vacaville, California, where he has somehow survived for twelve years. He is regularly beaten up and tormented by street punks. His … Continue reading “LEST WE FORGET”
-Catherine Rippee-Hanson, a sister of James Mark Rippee You know about Mark Rippee if you live around Vacaville, CA. Or if you read the text of the talk I delivered at the Pathways to Hope conference in San Antonio on August 24. Mark Rippee has survived on the streets of Vacaville for nearly twelve years … Continue reading “THIS IS A MAN . . .”
EXPLANATORY FOR THE TEXT OF THE TALK BELOW Below is the text of the talk I delivered to the 2018 conference of Pathways to Hope in San Antonio on Friday. Pathways is an exemplary nonprofit outreach organization that has set new standards for reclaiming and treating victims of mental illness and addiction. Because of a … Continue reading “Guest Speaker Ron Powers at the Pathways to Hope Conference”
I am wearily–yes, wearily–posting links to two recent pieces by the peerless mental-healthcare blogger Pete Earley. Below them I’m linking to an archive within the blog you are reading now. Their common denominator: they are about young brain-damaged men enduring Hell-on-earth lives on the streets of America as those who love them–mothers, sisters–trudge on through … Continue reading “CHRIST! WHAT ARE PATTERNS FOR? –Amy Lowell, 1916”
Pardon the sarcasm. I am steaming. We’re still in Bedlam. The mad, including afflicted children, are still getting gunned down by cops who are clueless, untrained, or worse. Linden Cameron of Salt Lake City, riddled with police bullets on Friday for the crime of running in fear and confusion, has survived, so far. Yet our severely brain-damaged mental healthcare system–including jails, prisons, and vicious trigger-happy cops–remains mired in its historic ignorance, incompetence and, yes, cruelty.
