I want to encourage thinking, so “way to go” USA for pausing to consider the pros and cons of replying to Syria’s civil war and apparent poison attack.        I will watch that debate, but it brings up two other poison attacks.

First, what should be our response to our so-called normal society’s chemical warfare against citizens who are considered crazy?  I am referring to psychotropic drugging of people diagnosed with mental health problems.  If you find these drugs helpful, then I am not talking about you.

David and Debra pose on our new deck from Habitat for Humanity in our backyard summer August 2013: I am Home.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Here are my top 5 ways that the disability movement intersects with the civil rights movement and the environmental movement, especially the climate crisis.

1. The Movement

When I began my activist career in the 1970’s we called ourselves The Movement, meaning we were all in one movement. I visited the civil rights museum in Atlanta near the Martin Luther King memorial. There is a clear connection in that museum from the civil rights movement to the the launch of the modern disability movement. I was glad to hear that today’s March on Washington commemoration included many other issues including voting rights, l/g/b/t marriage equality, and even climate crisis. Of course. MLK summed up his work as a creating the Beloved Community, which now means all people and the environment.

My whole adult life I have been an activist for people in the mental health system, part of the larger cross-disability general social change movement. Since my accident about 8 months ago, I have been working on my own independent living. One of the most challenging parts of my recovery has been getting back on the Internet frequently and independently.

Dear Friends,

Below is an important forwarded message from Ron Unger, local coordinator of MindFreedom Lane County, full time mental heath worker, and a Prankster Extraordinaire.

We will have fun, and poke fun of climate crisis denial, and the roll of the mental health system in suppressing creative maladjustment. All are invited, just be peaceful, we will try Youtube it, please spread the word.

Please join me and Ron to try out the below simple street theater. We will be at the Lane County Free Speech Plaza across from the Saturday Market north-east corner of 8th and Oak, this Saturday, 17th August 2013, at 12 noon.

Your Creative Maladjustment is welcome. Personally I nominate Eugene Chamber of Commerce as a champion of climate crisis denial deserving a Golden Ostrich Award.

David Oaks

Here is an idea for Creative Maladjustment. Now, first let me give credit where it is due. For more than a decade Martin Luther King used that CM concept in more than a dozen speeches and essays. In fact, MLK repeatedly said the world may be in dire need of an IAACM–that is International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment.

For several years we have helped make MLK’s dream of an IAACM real. So what about next year July 7 to 14 2014?

Author and Psychiatrist Carl Hammerschlag gave some positive feedback after leading an IAACM event at the Oregon Country Fair this year. Carl said let us nominate people who deserve recognition and then we can give them awards next year. What do you think? How can this process be open? How can we use crowd sourcing and social media? I have major disabilities so I can not do this all on my own, nor should I.

So I suggest that we use something like Tumblr. Anyone can nominate anyone else, though I suggest we especially recognize younger people. For a deadline I suggest MLK’s birthday for nominations. Patch Adams and Carl will be at the 2014 Oregon Country Fair and can be asked to present the awards to those who are there. Though you can tell there are many ways to do this. Let us hear from you. For instance IAACM, has a Facebook page.

IAACM is a wonderful gift for MLK for social change, including disability, mental health, anti-racisim, climate crisis, and so much more. Did you know you are a leader in the IAACM if you want it?