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...OR SHOULD WE SAY NAMI IS IN A STICKY SITUATION?
NAMI GLUES TOGETHER PAGES TO TRY TO CENSOR ARTICLES IN TWO ISSUES OF ITS OWN JOURNAL.
THE FIRED JOURNAL EDITOR SAYS, "IT IS CENSORSHIP! I WILL NEVER KOWTOW TO A DICTATORSHIP!"
USE YOUR E-MAIL TO STICK IT TO CENSORSHIP! PLEASE COPY THIS NEWS FAR AND WIDE *NOW*!
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA -- The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill claims it is "The Nation's Voice on Mental Illness." But NAMI is suppressing, gagging and firing a brave voice speaking up for human rights.
NAMI has published a slick magazine called _The JOURNAL_ for 11 years, through its California chapter. In a public e-mail yesterday, editor Dan E. Weisburd said that the newly-elected NAMI-California board of directors has "knowingly killed" _The JOURNAL_, censored his articles, and fired him.
AND THEN THE STORY GETS REALLY WEIRD...
The NAMI-California board has openly admitted it is now using glue to stick together the pages of articles by Weisburd in two recent issues. The glue is a desperate censorship attempt. But the sticky ain't stayin' stuck. NAMI used rubber cement. NAMI members who are outraged by the censorship are gleefully reporting they are able to peel back pages and peak inside to read the taboo articles.
Once more, NAMI leaders' blind faith in a "chemical quick fix" is producing a side effect: Resistance. Said Weisburd, "Typical of their ineptitude, they didn't even do a good glue job."
The un-sticky glue may be a sign of in-house rebellion. In a truly disgusting twist, NAMI made "mental health clients" at a vocational rehabilitation program, Turning Point, apply the glue. It's unknown who chose the glue.
WHAT IS NAMI TRYING TO HIDE NOW?
What were Weisburd's sins? First, he challenged in print the patron saint of some NAMI leaders. Weisburd questioned fraudulent statistics spouted by extremist psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey. Torrey is one of the main champions of increasing the use of involuntary psychiatric drugging of people, even those living at home out in the community. Second, Weisburd wrote about the need for better physical medical attention for people taking prescribed psychiatric drugs, including his own son.
Heading up glue brush brigade is Brian Jacobs, president of NAMI-CA board. Jacobs is married to Carla Jacobs, who recently led the crusade to lobby for AB 1800 in the California Assembly. AB 1800 would have made it easier to commit Californians, and made it possible to involuntarily drug them in their own homes. Hundreds of mental health consumers, psychiatric survivors, mental health workers, family members and advocates united to stop the Jacobs. AB 1800 was crushed in July 2000.
What the Jacobs can't win through voting they want to smother with glue. And the Jacobs label _us_ "mentally ill"? Is this what "normal" looks like?
*** EASY FREE E-MAIL ACTION YOU CAN TAKE ***
COPY THIS NEWS TO ALL APPROPRIATE PLACES ON AND OFF THE INTERNET -- YOUR E-MAIL CAN MAKE THIS CENSORSHIP BACKFIRE! More actions are at the bottom of this alert.
BELOW ARE EXCERPTS from Dan E. Weisburd's public e-mail yesterday to a colleague. Break the silence!
"IT IS CENSORSHIP!
I WILL NEVER KOWTOW TO A DICTATORSHIP!"
by Dan E. Weisburd
Editor of _The JOURNAL_
You may broadcast via e-mail what I'm about to tell you far and wide. In recent years the NAMI California Board of Directors has gone from being mediocre to being a malicious absurdity. In the process I have become a prime target for the simple reason that I am pro-consumer and pro-patient's rights. They worship E. Fuller Torrey, MD, who is a good person but has succumbed to selling involuntary treatment by branding unmedicated people with mental illness as violent, and I've pointed out his fallacious and unsubstantiated statistics.
The simple truth of the current state of affairs is that _The JOURNAL_ is no more. Period.
The board of directors of NAMI California, through its attorney, has informed me that it has suspended _The JOURNAL_. In addition they voted to glue shut my traditional Publisher's Note pages opening the "Mental Illness and the Law" issue because Brian Jacobs, the board president, got an attorney to give the opinion that my calling into question the views of E. Fuller Torrey, MD (a public person -- published in _The NY Times_, _Washington Post_, etc.) could constitute defamation.
Again, showing me no courtesy, had they have called on me they could have learned that I had obtained four authoritative legal opinions to the contrary including one from a former Harvard Law School professor who taught First Amendment and defamation law. Plus, they could have learned that sources cited by Torrey had told the National Stigma Clearinghouse that their work in no way substantiated his claims of 1,000 murders a year by persons with serious mental illness. My concern was labeling our people as violent and that that stigma-raiser was printed, without hesitation or verification by some of our nation's best newspapers!
True to this board's form they did not even notify me of their decision to suspend _The JOURNAL_ until after the "WELLNESS" issue was off the press. Brian Jacobs, the board president, upon reading my Publisher's Note in that issue went to Martha Long, Director of The Village ISA and Richard Van Horn, her boss at MHA-LA County and tried to persuade them to send a letter protesting what I had written. You should know that I am recognized as the "Godfather of the Village" and am very proud of it and fond of its staff, having chaired (1986-8) the California Economic Development Commission's Task Force on Serious Mental Illness, which conceptualized the Integrated Service Agency (ISA) Concept -- The Village being the first model of that concept. You should also know that my son, David, is a member of the ten year old Village, and has been there for almost three years now, and is employed, happy and doing well despite his very "voicey" schizophrenia.
When they (Long and Van Horn) refused to write a critical letter, and Van Horn even told Jacobs that he agreed with the thrust of my column -- that good medical care was needed for our population -- Jacobs nevertheless went to his attorney and his Executive Committee and got concurrence to once again glue shut my Publisher's Note -- this time in the "WELLNESS" issue, before mailing it out. But, typical of their ineptitude, they didn't even do a good glue job. People have been calling me asking why this was done, and saying it was silly and offensive and easy to pull apart.
But the event is not silly. It is censorship.
Perhaps next they will burn the books (press over runs) that are in storage and have an approximate $250,000 value when sold at conferences or by mail. That value belongs to the members of this 501(c)(3) nonprofit and is not to be taken lightly by those who accept board responsibility. Few magazines live beyond three years. _The JOURNAL_ lived 11. I believe it is now dead, and that they, the board of NAMI California have knowingly killed it, for reasons known best to them.
In 1989 when, as 1st Vice president of CAMI, I was given carte blanch to create a new publication as long as I raised all the money for it and would not take liquor or tobacco funds, I took the responsibility seriously. Over the years I have raised more than two million dollars to produce the 44 issues contained in the 11 volumes of what has become _The JOURNAL_, and never was there ever a talk of censorship. I am very proud of the legacy I leave behind, and will never kowtow to a dictatorship -- not in these United States. What sorry times our family movement has fallen upon, and what a sad excuse for leadership we have now holding power.
Dan
Dan E. Weisburd
10260 Moorpark Street
Toluca Lake, CA 91602
(818) 769-3252
*** OTHER ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE ***
Please keep your messages to NAMI *civil*.
1. COMPLAIN ABOUT CENSORSHIP TO NAMI NATIONAL
NAMI national says this is a state concern. But national NAMI needs to speak out. The national NAMI board helped remove executive director Laurie Flynn on Jan. 1, 2001. They are searching for a new director.
Sample message: "Please pick a director who speaks out for freedom, not censorship and forced drugging."
E-mail to NAMI's national director of public policy Andrew Sperling at:
NAMI's toll free help line 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) extension 2.
Other NAMI national contact information:
http://www.nami.org/poc.htm
2. COMPLAIN ABOUT CENSORSHIP TO NAMI CALIFORNIA
E-mail to:
If you'd like, copy complaints to NAMI California to both Dan Weisburd at
NAMI CALIFORNIA phone: (916) 567-0163
(They still have copies of the glued "censored JOURNAL": "Mental Illness and the Law" and "Wellness" are available from NAMI California for $10 a copy. Or $55 for 10 copies.)
3. JOIN SUPPORT COALITION INTERNATIONAL
Support Coalition International speaks out about human rights in the "mental health system." SCI's journal _Dendron_ doesn't censor human rights news! Information below on how to join. Tell NAMI their censorship inspired you to join Support Coalition!
*** YOU CAN NOW JOIN SUPPORT COALITION ONLINE ***
You can now join, donate and renew with Support Coalition International by VISA/MasterCard via a secure web server: http://mindfreedom.org/Participate/index.html
To contact or join Support Coalition International other ways: Phone 9 am to 5 pm Pacific Time at (541) 345-9106. Or you can join toll free at 1-877-MAD-PRIDE (623-7743). Or fax at any time to (541) 345-3737. Or write to: Support Coalition; PO Box 11284; Eugene, OR 97440 USA. Or e-mail: office@MindFreedom.org. Donations tax deductible.
www.MindFreedom.org DENDRITE ALERT BROUGHT TO YOU FREE BY SUPPORT COALITION INTERNATIONAL.
www.MindFreedom.org DENDRITE is a one-way *occasional* e-mail list, so you do *NOT* get too much e-mail this way.
UPDATE: One week after one of these alerts went out to stop a psychiatric institution from hounding postal worker Arnie Smith to pay for his own forced human rights abuses, Arnie won!
*** BRANCH LIKE DENDRITES DO *** Copy & forward this alert to appropriate places on & off the Internet, just as your brain uses your tree-like dendrites to network billions of neurons. Thousands of interested people are the first to receive this. Many re-distribute it and take action. Disclaimer: WWW.MINDFREEDOM.ORG DENDRITE is not affiliated with -- and not to be confused with -- any other entity, such as "DENDRITE FOREST" or their publications.
Support Coalition International is a totally independent non-profit federation of nearly 100 groups in 14 countries united to win human rights and alternatives in the "mental health system." SCI is open to the public, and led by psychiatric survivors. SCI receives no funding from the psychiatric drug industry, the "mental health system" or the government.
NAMI national on the other hand, received $11.72 million from the psychiatric drug industry. See _Mother Jones_ article: http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/ND99/nami.html More than a year after this article, NAMI still tries to keep their drug company funding secret. Glue this, NAMI leaders.
NOTE: Just getting this human rights alert e-mail does *not* necessarily mean you are already an SCI member. www.MindFreedom.org DENDRITE is a free public e-mail alert list. _Dendron News_ is Support Coalition's newsjournal for members. Not sure you're a current member? Ask
You can get www.MindFreedom.org DENDRITE e-mail human rights alerts *free*:
To get free www.MindFreedom.org DENDRITE alerts, simply e-mail to:
with these two words only in body of message: subscribe dendrite
To stop receiving these human rights alerts, e-mail to:
with these two words only in body of message: unsubscribe dendrite
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