Below is an announcement from wonderful supporters who are planning a national fundraiser about the same time and place as Alternatives 2013 Conference (totally separate, of course). Please spread the word, and if possible attend:

Support David Oaks’ Independent Living
Sponsored by Friends of David Oaks

The Friends of David Oaks Committee invites participants from Alternatives 2013 in Austin, Texas to a fundraiser dinner to support David to obtain a wheelchair accessible van. David Oaks is the former Director of MindFreedom International. He has given 30 years of his life to activism and fighting for human rights in the mental health system. Let’s give back to him in his time of need!

(For more info:)

There is a campaign to impact peacefully the US Chamber of Commerce by reaching the local chambers about the climate crisis. My friend David Zupan took a video of our street theater. Here is his blurb about our guerrilla theater:

Watch activist David Oaks in “How We Stop Worrying and Deny Climate Change,” a new 10 Min film now on vimeo at:

Street Theater Against Climate Crisis

In spite of a recent spinal cord injury, David leads friends to the Saturday Market in Eugene, Oregon to engage the public in playful but thoughtful dialogue about climate change. In the role of cheerful “climate change deniers,” they collect signatures in support of giving prizes like the Golden Ostrich award to the best deniers like the Chamber of Commerce.

This is David W. Oaks talking. My friends are raising money for an accessible van for me. You can help by spreading the word and contributing, even if you do so for a second time.

The good news is that my friends and family have raised enough for a used van. So your donation will help my van be better and better. Any extra money to my trust fund will go to accessibility items not covered by Medicaid, such as massage.

Below is the plea on behalf of my friends and family, from my very good friend David Zupan:

Habitat for Humanity made this backyard deck and ramp.

My friends and family launched a Crowd Source Campaign to get me an wheelchair accessible van.

The campaign was launched around my 58th Birthday (September 16th). Here is how you can help and/or spread the word.  I will use this vehicle for activism including on the climate crisis, so please excuse the irony, but it looks like I will use this well.

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.