jasonderoga86: The O.G. Lil' Hero Artist (Default)
A terrible thing happened not long ago to a participant at the agency I work at. Accompanied by his business instructor and friend/fellow student, the guy came to a special gallery show in San Francisco, California (I'm a Cali guy, for anyone who doesn't know) to take part with his exhibit ready. According to staff, he was accosted by a bystander claiming our guy was showing "threatening mannerisms." Our guy is disabled, and the gallery show knows his instructor from previous shows. Nevertheless, this bystander though it legitimate to call the cops on our client because of his "threatening mannerisms". The police swiftly arrived to "evaluate" our guy, and promptly judged him dangerous, ready to arrest him. Our guy demanded entry into the show, as was his right. He was barred from entry. His friend/fellow student (she is in a motorized wheelchair) broke down in tears, condemning the whole thing as a grave injustice. Ultimately, our instructor had to take our participant home, but had to also leave our wheelchair client behind until later due to space in his transport vehicle (a two-passenger). As of right now, my agency is working with an SF lawyer and pressing charges against the gallery coordinators.

This is oddly significant for me, as I just met with my psychiatrist today for a check-in. I've been having a hard time due to adverse side effects as a result of taking my prescribed antidepressant medication; we suspect it may be tardive dyskinesia (it's mostly in my legs and mouth somewhat). I told her that our participant's experience at the gallery was a trigger for me, because I had a similar experience back in September. 

It was Friday, September 8th, and my friends had called me to hang out San Francisco for the night. I was all up for it, because my therapy appointment had been cancelled earlier that day -- without notice and not until FIVE MINUTES AFTER THE SCHEDULED MEETING TIME. Upon meeting my pals in San Francisco, we decided to go clubbing. As we stopped by an ATM, I made a withdrawal. Immediately, I was alerted that my debit card had been blocked due to a "suspicious activity". I called the the bank, was put on hold for a good while, and deduced there would be no answer (it was around midnight). So now, my debit card was no longer active, and I would have to get a new one. But the worst was yet to come.

As we approached the nightclub, we were carded for age verification. But the doorman was giving me an uncomfortable look, eyes nervously darting around. I asked him what the problem was. He responded "are you okay?" I answered yes. He responded "You look twitchy. You sure you're okay?" At this point, my buddy was angered. He shot back, "Hey! What's your deal? Is he threatening you?" The doorman promptly told him, "I can't admit him." My buddy angrily shot back, "And why is that?" Instead of answering, the doorman retorts with "Does he have Tourette's? If I let him in, my boss will kill me." 

Irritated and aware of where this was going, I politely asked, "Okay. If you won't admit me, can I have my money back?" He handed the money back... to my friend. My own money that he wouldn't accept because I was "twitchy", and he hands it to my FRIEND instead of me. He doubled down on the "Tourette's" stuff, and my pal went full rage-mode, demanding to see the doorman's boss. At that point, I stormed off, two blocks down, found a receding wall near a small shop, and sulked. 

My friends soon caught up, informing me that they cussed out both the doorman AND his boss after the boss asked if I wanted to come back to be "evaluated" before entry. 

"Evaluated". I assure you, the doorman's boss doesn't even have BASIC knowledge about mental health and psychology. 

And just like that, my evening was ruined. A cancelled therapy appointment after the fact and with no notice, a bank's screw-up freezing my debit card for the next week until my new one arrived, and a nightclub doorman who thinks that subtle body movement is grounds to refuse entry -- and to humiliate the "twitchy person" in front of a bunch of other club goers waiting to enter.

What I'm seeing in San Francisco, a city I once loved -- and, for that matter, the whole country -- is that an alarming number of people are becoming increasingly close-minded when it comes to the unknown. If they don't know everything about something, they become afraid. It's a known fact that the stigma towards disabled and mentally unwell people regards them as dangerous, unpredictable, and violent, as they are often portrayed in media. As a result, there's a certain "social standard" that's erected by these people. Anything that deviates from the standard is judged a threat, and it must therefore be contained or neutralized. It's the cornerstone of discrimination, and after nearly two centuries, it's still very much alive and well.

To people who think that way, I'd like to tell them of a film I watched with my agency's participants. In it, a disabled individual with one normal arm and one wedged in her back talked about how, despite her condition, life was actually quite great. She believed so of her perspective, which switched on the lightbulb in my mind. She said:

"The way I look at it is like this. On some level, everybody has a disability."

Everyone has a disability, be it being a slow learner, a short-tempered person, athlete proficiency, anything. So in reality, there is no normal. We're all different. And the concept of difference is being out of the ordinary, or in other words, normal.

I really wish people would stop being so closed-minded, ignorant, and judgmental about mental illness. We can't base those with mental instability on what we see in a hospital thriller movie. Doing that feeds the stigma, demonizes these people, and becomes a part of the problem, not the solution.

It may have been an unrealistic question back then, but Rodney King had the right sentiment when he asked, "Why can't we all just get along?"

Why can't we?
jasonderoga86: The O.G. Lil' Hero Artist (Default)
I recently became a member of the blogging website called Medium. It's a place where I can find different perspectives on various topics by various people. I mostly read about mental health topics, the comic book industry, and sometime politics. I checked my account today for updates, and well, again the horror in Maine was front and center. But the article also had an interesting title: ""God isn't fixing this:" The Controversial Headline That Divided America".

This article pretty much spelled what I've always tried to explain to others about my views toward this shameful normalization of gun violence and forced living in fear. What really spoke to me in this article were two words that both political parties (the Republican Party more than the Democrat Party) always use every time a mass shooting happens: "thoughts and prayers".

Every time.

I knew that these platitudes were worthless, but I couldn't find a way to express how. But this article, by a guy called Dan Foster, did the work for me. 

As everyone knows, America considers itself a Christian nation above all else. And Republicans like to consider themselves devout Christians. But when one looks at them, it doesn't take a deep thinker to see through the facade. Foster goes even further and digs out a Scripture from the Book of Isaiah, which tells a story about the People of God (whom I will refer to as People, for simplicity) who ask why God has not blessed them and fixed their problems. The People had done everything to please him, be it fasting, worship, and other pious actions. They believed they were doing everything right, so why weren't they receiving and abundance of blessings and solved problems? Welp, the Almighty had two basic answers. 

One, God had expected them to end injustice, to liberate the oppressed, and relieve the struggling of their burdens.

Two, God had expected them to stand up for and give unconditional support to the poor.

Pretty obvious where I'm going with this, eh?

For as long as I can remember, the Republican Party has done the exact opposite of those two expectations. They have relentlessly oppressed all marginalized groups. They are still passing laws to negate the significance of these groups. There are still invalidating the lives of these groups. They are relentlessly trying to maintain the status quo of systemic and institutional racism, sexism, and bigotry. And above all else, they are obsessed with maintaining a country where White, Christian, heterosexual Americans reign supreme.

For as long as I can remember, the Republican Party has always put their own personal gains above the American people -- including their own voters. They have always neglected those who struggle to provide for their families, and they heartlessly shun those who live on welfare and other benefits, dismissing them as lazy and not working hard enough (easy for them to say, they're rich and don't HAVE to work as hard), They are still trying to gut any kind of government assistance benefits like Social Security and the Affordable Care Act (remember, one time they tried to gut it, but had nothing to replace it at time). I can actually remember when Mitt Romney was running against Barack Obama in 2012. He also was dead-set on killing Obamacare. When he was asked what Americans could do when in need of critical care without Obamacare, he responded with, "They can always go to ER." 

Seriously?

As a guy who had to go to the ER many times in a pinch because I had nothing better at the time (no real health insurance) and had to be sacked with hospital bills up the wazoo demanding 1,000 to 1,200 dollars each, I resent that completely.

But I'm getting off topic.

As I was saying, Republicans consider themselves staunch Christians with an unshakable devotion to God. But whenever a crisis happens and American people demand action, whether it's a natural disaster or a mass shooting, they are as silent as a nighttime grassy plain with only crickets chirping. The truth is, they aren't devoted to God, but rather hiding behind his name to shield themselves from the "heretics and nonbelievers out there who are the true sinners." Well, their Lord and Savior DJT was quoted saying that he "never asked for -- or needed -- forgiveness". And with their loyalty to him and him alone, I gotta ask them, "You guys really have the balls to talk about devotion to God?"

And that's to say nothing of a political party that believes gun violence is the best, or only, way to solve disagreements, the whole "good guy with a gun" (who's never been there when needed in a mass shooting, or is already gunned down in such an incident by the bad guy -- or guys -- with guns) simply because they have a noose around their necks by the gun lobby, and because in an indirect way, letting these bloodbaths continue helps them with this cockamamy "race/culture war", as most of them target marginalized/ethnic groups. They believe wholeheartedly in the Great Replacement Theory (a bogus concept if I ever heard one) and that's the best way for them to prevent it, regardless of how many casualties it takes. Ron DeSantis and Marjorie Taylor Greene can attest to that, with Greene wanting to kill Democrats and DeSantis inciting racial/bigoted hatred and murder through so-called "legislations".

I will end with this quote from Foster's article, which itself is from C.S. Lewis, the author of the Chronicles of Narnia books and a real Christian:

“If conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a man’s outward actions — if he continues to be just as snobbish or spiteful or envious or ambitious as he was before — then I think we must suspect that his ‘conversion’ was largely imaginary; Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in ‘religion’ mean nothing unless they change our actual behavior.”

One thing is certain above all else, and we've known it all along: the Republican Party is full to bursting with heretics and repeat sinners, and they're proud of it, because it gets them everything they want. And contrary to what they would have us believe, they show that America is not -- and never was -- the greatest nation on Earth.

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