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Bravo, Glee
You are not your illness. Denying your illness by not treating it keeps you from being who you were meant to be. (note: this is last week’s entire episode – the anti-stigma portion starts at minute 46).
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The Dance: How and Why I Spoke Out Against Stigma
I firmly believe that sunlight sanitizes, that being open and honest about something that is widely misunderstood can bring clarity and eliminate the overtones that make people afraid. Phew. What a March. I’m glad it’s over for a number of reasons. It’s historically Tim’s most unstable month. It still snows here in Chicago, no matter…
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HAWMC – Day Four: Absurd Headlines – Another Idiot
I wish I was making this one up. Again, a “doctor” that says, basically, we’re just lazy parents. Here’s his article (reprinted from the Metro West Daily News) and the comment I left on it.Childhood Bipolar Disorder or Just Childhood? By Dr. Jacob Azerrad On the Today show, a few days after the earthquake in…
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Throttling Artistic Expression?
I got an email today from UK reporter Brendan O’Neill. Apparently he’s writing a story about the RMU dance team. I don’t know anything about Mr. O’Neill other than what I’ve read on his column at The Telegraph. The byline there describes him as, “the editor of spiked, an independent online phenomenon dedicated to raising the…
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Say What You Need To Say
I’ve gotten lots of comments on the last few day’s worth of blog posts. I don’t post them all. I don’t post ones that are personal attacks against me, because they don’t further the discussion. I definitely don’t post the ones that border on death threats. I’m going to continue to say what I need…
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RMU Sent Me a Letter Today
I got the following email from the Athletic Director for Robert Morris University today: Ms. Hickey- I am writing in apology that the Robert Morris University Women’s Dance routine and costume was perceived negatively, as you have described in your letter. In no way did the students and/or the coaches plan to poke fun…
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Look At Who Resigned….
From the Huffington Post (my comments in italics, click the blog title for the full article on HuffPost): CONCORD, N.H. — A 91-year-old freshman lawmaker who suggested the mentally disabled should be shipped to Siberia resigned Monday from the state House and said he was sorry that his “big mouth caused this furor.” Rep. Martin…
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Straightjacket Dance Criticized – Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-dance-straitjacket-0315-20110314,0,7810200.story By John Keilman A Chicago dance team that performed in straitjackets last month has drawn criticism from a mental health advocate who said the outfits displayed insensitivity toward people with mental disorders.The Robert Morris University competitive dance team wore the costumes, which included wild, frizzy hair and dark eye makeup, at a national contest in Minnesota. Chrisa Hickey, a…
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State Senator Suggests Shipping Mentally Ill to Sibera, Says Hitler Was Right
A reader posted a link last night to this article from ThinkProgress.org on my Facebook page. When I read it, I felt physically ill. It’s about New Hampshire Republican State Senator Martin Harty and a phone call he took from one of his constituents, a community health care center manager from Stafford, New Hampshire. She is…
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Stigmatization By Another Dance Team
An anonymous poster alerted me to Chicago’s Robert Morris University dance team and their recent 8th place finish in a dance competition. Their costumes? You guessed it. Straight jackets. (Update 3/14/11: here’s the cached version of the story and picture, as it has dissappeared from the live site) I can’t believe we’re seeing this again,…