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How Do I Trump Fear?
I have been trying to explain to friends, family, and others why I, a middle-aged, middle-class white woman, am afraid of what the next four years holds now that Donald Trump is our President Elect. I keep reading comments like, “we will have to wait and see what happens,” or “we will all be okay.”…
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Fear and Misinformation and Throwing Away 50%
DJ Jaffe and Dr. Fuller Torrey are two leading figures in the cause for forced treatment of persons with severe mental illness. Their argument is that persons with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and severe bipolar disorder lack the ability to contribute to their care. While in many cases, that is true, in equally as many cases…
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Mother of The Monster
My friend Marian said it best. “I feel like when that boy went into the theater, he jerked me in there with him. Like I’m able to imagine it as my own child doing what I fear the most. And that is just plain flat screwed up. It is impossible for me to look at…
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Every Day, I Think About Kelly
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Shouting at the Wind
I got the third call in two weeks today. Tim’s psychosis seems to be rearing its head fast and furious this year. Just this week he’s lashed out at classmates, broken a window, thrown items at and yelled at staff. He’s told his case worker that the voices are back and are loud. We went…
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Dear Ron Thomas: You’re Living My Greatest Fear
Dear Mr. Thomas: Earlier this week, I read the news story about the murder of your son, Kelly, at the hands of the Fullerton Police. After reading the story, and viewing the video of the witnesses account of the incident, I was physically sick. If I close my eyes I can see your son, Kelly, sitting…
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Sharing Hope
Photo by Waqar Bukhari Our lives – me, my kids, my husband, other parents like us, other kids like mine – are complicated and messy. Everyone’s lives are complicated and messy but our lives have an extra added shot of complication and a healthy dose of mess more than the average life. Trying to make…
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Loping
Photo by Hey Paul Last Thursday, Tim called his regular daily call, and said he’d had a really bad day at school, but didn’t want to talk about it. Made me wonder why he called, but I had been expecting a call like that. A few days earlier, his case worker called and said he’d…
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Drowning
It’s been an interesting weekend, to say the least. Definitely not relaxing. I don’t know how I feel about it, really. The fact that it’s 5 o’clock Sunday morning and I’ve been up nearly 2 hours after waking during a dream that I was drowning probably says more about how I feel than I could…