BELOW you will find my open letter that combines my  main identities and interests: I am a survivor of abuse in the mental health system, a disability activist (labeled quad), environmentalist focused on the climate crisis, and spirituality: I am a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Eugene, Oregon, USA.

Please comment here. Whether you comment or not, please forward this open letter for anyone far and wide. Help it go viral. Thanks. If you wish to send me a direct message, please use the contact form on the right to reach my office. Because of quantity, I cannot always respond to everything but I try to read your vision.

If you wish, you can use my tweet as a model:

Your mental health justice vision? I’m a psychiatric survivor disability UU activist. 5 tips take on climate crisis http://davidwoaks.org/mental-health-justice

Everyone everywhere is welcome to share your ideas about mental health justice.

Please post your public comments here on this blog entry. I especially would love to hear personally from other survivors of psychiatric abuse, people with disabilities and Unitarian Universalists. You may also email me by using the Contact My Office form on the right of this blog.

Please forward this post to others. If you would like to print out my open letter you may find a PDF of it here.

To read the text of my open letter, simply click “More” below. Thanks.

David W. Oaks

Today, May 4, 2014, MindFreedom and other groups held a protest of American psychiatric corporations. To read about the protest click here. For MindFreedom’s Facebook, click here. Below please find my statement of support. You may download a 2-page PDF of this statement here: oaksprotestapa2014

David Zupan

Thank you again everyone for your support. This blog entry is by my good friend David Zupan. He is a videographer,  and you must see this short video online. The famous group Habitat for Humanity has a special initiative that can help people with disabilities. My friend Sue Barnhart told us about it, and my brother Tony did a lot of the sweat equity that is required.

Many people helped out with a hammer or food. The result is a beautiful deck and ramp that helps me enjoy our wild backyard, and with Debra I know I am home!

Hey everyone, this is Debra and David talking. Thank you everyone for the van. It arrived the other day. It is a 2013 Dodge with low miles and it is fully accessible. Thanks to everyone who donated and supported this goal. We pledge to use this van for many good trips, including challenging the climate crisis!

Debra and David in front of the new van! You can name our van!

If you have a contact who is within driving distance of Eugene Oregon…or if you are local…please support donate to and attend the below fundraising sale to help me.

Here is the announcement from Friends of David Oaks (FODO):

Her is a PDF color poster you may download or view of the event:

OAKS sale214 fnl1

If you are on Facebook, get out this Facebook event to your contacts and say you will attend: https://www.facebook.com/events/188931397984319/

The Friends of David Oaks fundraising committee invite you to a Living Estate Sale in North Eugene, starting Friday, Feb. 21 through Sunday, Feb. 23rd.

WHAT: Living Estate Sale to raise money for David Oaks’ medical/rehabilitative care needs

In his speeches and essays for more than a decade, MLK referred to the idea of Creative Maladjustment. He in fact said the world is in dire need of a new organization: International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment or the IAACM. MLK talked like this more than a dozen times in ten years.

I found out something interesting about MLK’s historic dream speech at the March on Washington in 1963: He brought a written speech named “Normalcy, Never Again.” You can compare the text he never gave, with the actual dream speech which he improvised on the spot, here: http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20130823-key-phrases-from-king-s-dream-speech-were-not-part-of-his-prepared-text.ece

We have a Facebook page for the IAACM here:

https://www.facebook.com/IAACM

Her are some MLK quotes about IAACM:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/mental-health-global/iaacm/MLK-on-IAACM

Photo by Paul Carter, Eugene Register-Guard

The Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, Register-Guard daily newspaper ran a huge piece by journalist Randi Bjornstad about me, my fall, my broken neck, activism, our supportive community, changing the mental health system, and even the Chamber of Commerce protest on climate crisis. There are two great photos by professional photographer Paul Carter, plus how to give to my irrevocable trust fund.

You can read, download, print a PDF of the article here: R-G-DavidWOaks-1-5-2014

You may wish to write a letter to the editor about this excellent article, contact information is here:  http://registerguard.com/rg/opinion/#letter

For news about the protest of the Chamber of Commerce, see the next blog entry below: