Update: human rights in "mental health" systemApril 14, 1998 -- please copy, re-distribute & post!
for more info e-mail: Protest@madnation.org
News Release -- Immediate Release
Free housing Friday evening, May 1, is available for 100 more people attending Counterprotest of Forced Psychiatry on Sat. morning, May 2, 1998
Psychiatric Survivor Activists and Allies To Pour in from Throughout USA and Canada for Counterprotest on Saturday, May 2, 1998, in Washington, D.C., Freedom Plaza
"Everything is free ... Just get to D.C.!!!" say protesters
Washington, D.C. -- Free housing for up to 100 additional activists is available, courtesy of the Center for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) on on Friday evening, May 1, 1998, for those attending the next morning's Counterprotest.
Counterprotesters are arriving from New England and Alaska, from Vancouver and Florida. They are creating a "Counterprotest" of a major US government public relations event promoting the current "mental health system."
"Just get yourself to Washington, D.C.," protest organizers announced. "Everything is free -- the Pre-Event Festival, the Housing, the Main Event, everything. Just show up! We really appreciate the grassroots donations making this possible, keep it up!"
The May 2 Counterprotest especially is targeting the rise of forced outpatient psychiatric drugging, out in the community. The very first protester to register in the additional housing is a survivor of involuntary outpatient psychiatric injections of Haldol; for some time, her "depot" time-released injections were actually administered by mental health officials who came into her own home with the needle, until fairly recently.
With only 18 days to go before the Counterprotest, help by people on the Internet is being requested to get the word out about the event, and the free housing!
Below are details about the housing, followed by a re-cap of information on the protest.
Friday Night Housing, May 1, 1998
The additional free housing, all paid for by donations of Support Coalition members, is at the Center for Community Non-Violence (CCNV), founded by the late Mitch Snyder.
It is available from 4 pm Friday, until 9 am Saturday. It is located at: 425 - 2nd St., N.W., Washington, DC.
CCNV is closest to the Union Station Metro Stop. CCNV is two blocks South and two blocks West from Union Station.
The housing is dormitory style bunks, co-ed. There is a paid CCNV security guard for the entire time. No sleeping bag, etc. is needed. CCNV is providing blankets, etc.
This is free, but please register your name to confirm a space by contacting Support Coalition. You can do this by e-mail: dendron@efn.org Or phone: (541) 345-9106. Or fax: (541) 345-3737.
Friday Night Pre-event "No Force" Festival -- Free
Those arriving on Friday can check in and get a bed at CCNV as early as 4 pm if you wish.
Starting at 5 pm, a few blocks away, will be a Pre-event "No Force" Festival, all free.
This will be at the Carnegie Library Ground Floor Common Room, at Mt. Vernon Square, entrance is at Massachusetts Ave. & 8th St., NW. [A city parking lot, free at that hour, is nearby.]
Special Guest Speaker: Dissident psychiatrist and author, Peter R. Breggin, M.D. Author of Toxic Psychiatry and -- most recently -- Talking Back to Ritalin.
Special Performances by:
- Persimmon Blackbridge, award-winning author from Vancouver, Canada, will perform. Persimmon is author of several books and novels on psychiatric liberation, including Sunnybrook and Prozac Highway.
- Morgan Brown from Vermont will read poetry, and report about his campaign to block S. 103. This bill, which just passed yesterday, means Vermont is the latest state to allow the court-ordered forced psychiatric drugging of citizens living out in the community.
- And more: Gayle Bluebird of Florida, Rozz Lieght of Alaska, David Oaks of Oregon, surprise guests, and open mike.
Plus, poster and banner making, music, and boosting protester spirits for the next day.
Directions from CCNV to Carnegie Library, May 1:
Walking: Walk north on 2nd to Massachusetts Ave, then walk about five blocks to the Carnegie Library. In evening hours, it is advisable to walk in groups.
Metro: Go to Union Station Metro entrance, and take it to Gallery Place. Walk four blocks north to library.
Note: CCNV is also fairly near to Freedom Plaza!
Background Information on May 2 Counterprotest
[The following is a re-cap of the recent DENDRITE with news release and logistical information, updated to reflect the news about CCNV. All is included here so one whole alert gives a person new to this event all the info they need to attend! Just get to D.C.!]
Counterprotest to Be Held of Clinton Administration Major Public Event
Counterprotest Focus Is Against Forced Psychiatric Procedures
Hoisting balloons and huge prop hypodermic needles in the air imprinted with the motto of "No Force," Counterprotesters vow to break the silence about the spread of forced psychiatric drugging in the USA, especially court-ordered involuntary psychiatric drugging out in the community, on Saturday, May 2.
Freedom Plaza is on E Street, between 13th & 14th streets, in Washington, DC, USA.
The location of the Counterprotest has reportedly "enraged" a high-level US government official. That's because the site of the Counterprotest is in the midst of a big, expensive US government public relations event that is supposed to be celebrating the current mental health system.
The U.S. government, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and American Psychiatric Association and other major pro-mental health system groups, are all uniting in a one mile "Walk the Walk" to promote the current mental health system. The event is mainly paid for by $200,000 in US taxpayer money.
But mental health system "customers" are not showing much gratitude. "Psychiatric survivors" promise to hold their Counterprotest at the same time, same place.
Support Coalition International -- an alliance of 65 groups in eight countries -- is leading this legal Counterprotest against forced psychiatry.
Counting themselves part of a "Million Mad March," Counterprotesters will be in "Freedom Plaza" from 9 am to 1 pm.
Counterprotesters will be raising signs and stringing large helium-filled balloons that say "No Force" above the crowd. An anonymous counterprotester, driving in from Virginia, reports: "Six-foot hypodermic needles made of cardboard and PVC tubes have already been made and will be hoisted high in the air, with the message of 'No Force!' A ten-foot hypo prop is now under construction!"
Counterprotesters are relying on grassroots ingenuity, because they are being outspent 100 to 1, and relying on donations. The U.S. government is spending $200,000 on their "Walk the Walk," and Tipper Gore is co-chair.
For the U.S. government itself to fund a political march on Washington is said to be unprecedented.
The federal agency sponsoring "Walk the Walk" is the Center for Mental Health Services. A reliable source described the director of CMHS, psychiatrist Dr. Bernie Arons, as "so enraged he has become irrational about the Counterprotest." At the government's request, Counterprotesters have held several negotiating sessions with CMHS, but Counterprotesters have refused to back down. Because Arons' event is a free, open public event paid for by the taxpayers, legally speaking Counterprotesters simply cannot be stopped.
Other No Force Events:
Pre-event "No Force" Festival
The night before the May 2 Counterprotest -- on Friday, May 1, starting at 5 p.m. -- protesters will gather for a Pre-event "No Force" Festival of music, poetry, banner-making and speakers. Admission is free.
On the day of the protest, May 2, simultaneous events in other cities will be held in solidarity with the Counterprotest, including an International Tribunal against forced psychiatry in Berlin, Germany with SCI activist Don Weitz flying in from Toronto, Canada. The day after the protest, on Sunday, May 3, a low-cost all-day workshop will be held in Washington, D.C. on alternatives to forced psychiatric drugging. Psychiatric survivor Janet Foner, co-coordinator of SCI, will offer this acclaimed "Peer Crisis Prevention" workshop. Pre-registration with SCI is required.
Counterprotesters from Throughout North America
Vans, buses & planes carrying Counterprotesters from Syracuse (including speaker/survivor/activist George Ebert), Florida (including speaker/survivor/activist Sally Clay), New York City (including African American activist Chris Brunson), and Massachusetts are already confirmed. Others are flying in from Alaska, Oregon, Kansas, California, Canada, etc.
An air fare war is helping some Counterprotesters. SouthWest Airlines has a discount sale on flights, but reservations need to be made by Wed., April 15. [More Logistical Information -- including some updated lodging info -- follows this news release, below]
Parents' Organization Is Special Target of Counterprotest
A focus of the Counterprotest is National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI), which is on "Walk the Walk's" steering committee. While some individual members of NAMI support liberty concerns of psychiatric survivors, the leadership of NAMI is escalating their own campaign for more forced psychiatry. NAMI is primarily composed of parents of psychiatric survivors.
NAMI recently launched their "Treatment Advocacy Center" [NAMI-TAC] to greatly increase the number of Americans who would be subject to forced psychiatric drugs, both inside institutions, and even those living in their own homes out in the community. NAMI-TAC is the brain child of U.S. National Institute of Mental Health psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey. NAMI's annual report shows more than half of their major corporate donors are drug companies. Drug companies have given millions of dollars to NAMI.
NAMI works closely with the Clinton Admnistration, and NAMI's executive director Laurie Flynn is on Clinton's National Bioethics Advisory Commission.
NAMI has already helped pass "involuntary outpatient commitment" laws in more than 35 states allowing courts to order people living at home, out in the community, to take psychiatric drugs against their will, even though critics maintain that these powerful drugs can kill, addict and cause brain damage leading to worse emotional problems than the person originally had. NAMI is also loosening commitment laws in many states, making it far easier to lock up some Americans. The NAMI-TAC board voted that a "primary" purpose of NAMI-TAC will be to increase forced psychiatry in the USA, to a far greater extent. "No matter how people stand on other mental health issues, all but the drug company financed organizations like NAMI are with us on the issue of forced psychiatric treatment," said Vicki Fox Wieselthier, the SCI national organizer of the Counterprotest, flying in from Missouri to protest.
David Oaks, a speaker at the Counterprotest and co-coordinator of SCI, said, "The theme of the 'Walk the Walk' is that 'Mental Health Treatment Works.' We're going to say: 'The Mental Health System is Broken.' Usually the leaders of the push for more forced psychiatric drugs stay in their board rooms and conferences. They have made a big mistake thinking they could 'hit the streets,' without any opposition!" Oaks is flying in from Eugene, Oregon for the Counterprotest.
CMHS is paying much of the taxpayer's $200,000 directly to a large public relations firm, "Hayes, Domenici & Associates" (HD&R) to spin-manage the event. The name "Domenici" refers to one of the PR firm's co-owners, the sister of Congressperson Pete Domenici. Congressperson Domenici is one of the most fervent supporters of funding CMHS, and traditional "mental health" system. Internal e-mail from HD&R, accidentally released to the public, reveals some staff bitterly & angrily discussing Counterprotesters.
Counterprotesters are making heavy use of the Internet to organize. Grassroots donations are funding the Counterprotest. Tax-deductible donations can be sent to Support Coalition at the address listed below.
For More Info
For more information, people can e-mail:
Protest@madnation.orgThe counterprotest web site has brand new updates:
http://www.madnation.orgThe Support Coalition web site has newly updated information about the campaign to stop forced psychiatric drugging, including ordering info for hard-to-get books on the subject:
http://www.efn.org/~dendron Support Coalition is a non-profit alliance of grassroots groups working for human rights and alternatives of psychiatric survivors. Founded in 1990, their newsjournal is Dendron News. SCI has held a dozen successful national protests.
SCI's 48-page Dendron #39 has information on the "Campaign to RESIST Forced Outpatient Psychiatric Drugging." A free copy is available to those who pledge to join during the current membership drive.
E-mail Support Coalition at: dendron@efn.org. Those not on the Internet can phone (541) 345-9106. Or write: Support Coalition International; 454 Willamette St., Suite 216; PO Box 11284; Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USA. Fax: (541) 345-3737.
Million Mad March & Counterprotest
Updated *Logistics* Information
Put the "Freedom" Back into Freedom Plaza
Saturday, May 2, 1998, Washington, D.C.Freedom Plaza is located on E Street, NW between 13th and 14th Streets, two blocks south of the Metro Center Metrorail stop.
If you are unable to attend the Counterprotest, please wear a white carnation on May 2 as an expression of solidarity with those who have endured psychiatric abuse.
Schedule of Events
If you are going into DC early, please take this opportunity to visit your elected officials to educate them about these important issues. Appointments should be made well in advance. Be sure to send them our press releases, and an invitation to join you at the Million Mad March.
Friday, May 1, 1998:
Pre-event "No Force" Festival of music, poetry, banner-making and speakers. Carnegie Library Ground Floor Common Room, in Mt. Vernon Square, Massachusetts Ave. and 9th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. This is two blocks from the Youth Hostel where many protesters will be staying.
Special Guest Speaker: Dissident psychiatrist and author Peter Breggin, M.D. Performers include: Persimmon Blackbridge of British Columbia, Canada, author of several books including the new fiction book "Prozac Highway"; Morgan Brown, poet, currently fighting S.103, a forced outpatient drugging bill in Vermont; Gayle Bluebird of Altered States of the Arts; singer/poet Rozz Lieght of Alaska and more.
May 2, 1998
9 AM: Begin gathering in Freedom Plaza for the Counterprotest. Speakers, street theater, and a very visible presence will be established for the Counterprotest.
9:30 AM Registration for the official "Walk the Walk" begins. If you are in Freedom Plaza, you should be able to pick out the Million Mad Marchers and Counterprotesters. We hope to have plenty of No Force signs and balloons to go around. You can also make your own. Counterprotest speakers will break the silence about forced psychiatry! Bring chants & signs!
11:00 AM Government's Program begins. Confirmed speakers, at this time, are Donna Shalala and Tipper Gore. The Counterprotest will be legal. It is the Counterprotest intention to be quiet during actual speakers. The NoForce signs will be raised high in silent witness to our presence, and as commentary, during the speeches. We can speak out, chant, etc. inbetween any speakers.
11:30 AM Walk Begins. The SCI Counter-protest will continue at the same time. We will be together, we will be visible, and our message of NoForce will be heard.
The next day, Sunday, May 3, 1998.
Other events are being planned for the weekend including an SCI Workshop by Janet Foner entitled Taking Charge of Your Mind: Crisis Prevention for Community Leaders which will be held at Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. Pre-registration required for this low-cost workshopin downtown Washington, D.C. Contact SCI for more information.
Those staying until Monday and Tuesday can give public comment to federal oversight groups meeting about CMHS and its parent agency SAMHSA.
Lodging for Counterprotesters
Free Lodging on Friday Night, May 1
The additional free housing, all paid for by donations of Support Coalition members, is at the Center for Community Non-Violence (CCNV), founded by the late Mitch Snyder.
It is available from 4 pm Friday, until 9 am Saturday. It is located at: 425 - 2nd St., N.W.
This is closest to the Union Station Metro Stop. CCNV is two blocks South and two blocks West from Union Station.
The housing is dormitory style bunks, co-ed. There is a hired security guard for the entire time. No sleeping bag, etc. is needed. CCNV is providing blankets, etc.
It is free, but please register your name to confirm a space by contacting Support Coalition. You can do this by e-mail: dendron@efn.org Or phone: (541) 345-9106. Or fax: (541) 345-3737.
If you want to stay in a hotel or motel, generally it is cheaper to stay in Arlington, Virginia area, and take in the Metro. To find out about reservations, have your credit card ready and call this combined service for many hotels/motels in that area: 1-888-743-8292.
If you want to try hotels in the D.C. area, you can call a similar service there: 1-800-554-2220.
Some Counterprotesters are staying at the American Youth Hostel. NOTE: As of today, April 9, because of turn-out, the AYH is no longer accepting reservations for May 1 or May 2. They do reserve some rooms for walk-in traffic each day, so you could try that. This AYH is a few blocks from Freedom Plaza at 1009 11th Street, NW. For more AYH info you can call 1-800-909-4776 (key in 04 when the message asks for a code to reach DC hostel). These are group accommodations. If you mention that you are with the Million Mad March, you will get the group rate of $19 a night.
If you've tried everything and still can't find lodging, and you definitely want to go to May 2, e-mail to: Protest@madnation.org and we'll try to brainstorm together. Let's get you to this historic event! Don't give up!
Air Lines & Airports
SouthWest airlines has cheap discount fares at the moment, but reservations need to be made by April 15. Phone: 1-800-435-9792.
D.C. has three airports.
BWI International Airport
Located 30 miles east of Washington and offering a full range of domestic and international flights. More than 50 trains travel between Washington's Union Station and the BWI rail station Monday-Friday. Ground transportation to 15th & K Streets every 60 minutes with door-to-door service available to BWI from your DC suburban hotel, office, or home. Taxi fare to downtown Washington is approximately $45. For ground transportation, call SuperShuttle at 1-800-809-7080. For information on complimentary convention and hospitality, plus group sales, call 1-800-I FLY BWI, press #5 and ask for the Convention Sales Manager at extension 7034.
Washington Dulles International Airport
Located 26 miles west of Washington and offering a full range of domestic and international flights. Taxi fare to downtown is approximately $40. Washington Flyer provides bus service to downtown hotels, with departures every 45 minutes. For more information, contact the Air Service Development Manager at (703) 417-8766.
Washington National Airport
Located south of the city along the Potomac River and offering a full range of domestic flights on major, regional and commuter carriers. Shuttle bus service to downtown (1517 K St. NW) available. Also accessible on Metrorail's yellow and blue lines. Taxi fare to downtown is approximately $12-$15. For more information, contact the Air Service Development Manager at (703) 417-8766.
Metro System
Metrorail and Metro bus provide the safest, cleanest and most efficient way of getting around Washington. Five rail lines and extensive bus system connect the District with the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. Train lines are named for colors: red, yellow, orange, blue and green. Station entrances are marked by brown pylons capped with the letter "M" and colored stripes indicating which lines are available. Route maps are posted at each station and inside each subway car.
Trains operate Monday-Friday 5:30 a.m.-midnight, Saturday-Sunday 8 a.m.-midnight. Each train displays the name of its farthest destination. Rail fare cards can be purchased at vending machines located inside the stations. Farecards are inserted into the turnstile gates to enter and exit subway platforms.
The fare is automatically deducted each time you exit a station. To continue your trip by Metrobus, obtain a transfer slip at the turnstile. Buses travel to Georgetown and other areas not serviced by the subway
Parking
Parking is restricted during rush hours and some weekend hours (check posted hours on street signs). If your vehicle is towed Friday after 7 p.m. or anytime on weekends, you won't be able to retrieve it until Monday after 9 a.m. For details contact the DC Dept. of Public Works, 65 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001; phone: (202) 727-9200.
Rail Service
Amtrak Main toll-free number for reservations, fares and information in US and Canada1-800-USA-RAIL (1-800-872-7245) Group Travel Traveling with a group of 15 or more, call Amtrak for more details. 1-800-USA-1GRP (1-800-872-1477) Metroliner Service Reservations for Metroliner Service only in the Northeast.1-800-523-8720
Greyhound Travel
Greyhound has great rates, but they are being targeted by Disability Rights groups across the country for their failure to provide accessible busses and other ADA accommodations. Phone # 1-800-231-2222.
By Road
Washington is circled by the Capital Beltway, formed by Interstates I-495 and I-95. Interstate 66 leads from Washington west to Virginia. Interstate 50 heads east to Annapolis, MD, the Chesapeake Bay and the beaches. Interstate 95 heads north to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York. Interstate 270 heads north to Frederick, MD, and beyond.
For More Information
For more information see the MadMarch pages of http://www.madnation.org or contact:
David Oaks
Support Coalition International
454 Willamette St., Suite 216
PO Box 11284
Eugene, OR 97440-3484 USAPhone: (541) 345-9106
Fax: (541) 345-3737
Email: dendron@efn.orgVicki Fox Wieselthier
National Coordinator
SCI May 2 Counterprotest
4386 West Pine Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63108 USAPhone/fax: (314) 652-8030
Email: Protest@madnation.org
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