The morning began with the invited-uninvited-reinvited journalist and author Robert Whitaker. He passionately presented the materials of his most recent book, Epidemic in America. His message was punctuated by a thunderstorm and power outage. At noon, Mark Ragins (psychiatrist and founder of The Village in Long Beach), presented himself and his message about recovery as the counterpoint to Robert Whitaker. His presentation was punctuated by protest and confrontation.
I think both have important things to say and it is important our movement dialogue about the issues but I was frustrated that organizers felt the need to counter Whitaker and with the way Ragins did it.
I spent a good portion of the evening and into the night talking with friends including a new one, Scott Cooper. Scott is an artist that has embarked upon an incredible project called It's Our Story. He is going around the country collecting the oral history of our movement and those from other "disability" communities by interviewing the leaders of the movements so we capture our history. He has interviewed over 1000 people using a camera and then working with youth to post the interviews on youtube, Scott is an incredible artist with a passion to tell the story of our movements through the people that made it possible. You can read more by searching for It's Our Story or www.itsourstory.org
Just another day at Alternatives.
Sounds awesome, Brad! Hope I can get to report on some of this stuff sometime.
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