From: "Andrew Phelps" <starfish@northcoast.com>

Sender: s-acc@yahoogroups.com

Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:50:19 -0800

Subject: [s-acc] grassroots advocacy

 

Hi

The reason there have been no posts on S-ACC recently is that .. nobody has tried to post. I've been absorbed in my own "grassroots advocacy" - and in the "dialogical challenge" of the start-up of Stage 1 of the "New Social Roles" project. With the NSR project, I'm trying to formulate our "OSR" concerns with the "sneer" and getting feelings hurt speaking to the integrity of lived experience. There is also a psychologist/clinician "OSR" concern which bears discussion here: I'm reluctant to delve into that just at this point in the conversation. Suffice it to say that social responsibility is a challenged advocacy in many "helping" situations.

Meanwhile we face an "opening" in the "grassroots advocacy" arena, in the capacity of the "Occupy" which is shifting the social discourse. The MHCA SJCC Community Forum Dec. 14th HERE was in that vein. Action is risky and we as "behavior objects" are facing the crisis/opportunity of representing that kind of "NSR presence." I note with pleasure, for instance, how Michael Diehl was quoted on the KPFA (Pacifica Berkeley) morning news last week as the "community organizer" who could throw light on the "social breakdown" of the Berkeley Occupy. The voicing did not bear the "official imprint" of "client/survivor advocacy," but Michael did speak to the power dynamics that led to the police removal of that 'occupation'.

All over, there are "grassroots advocacy" openings and - while they can be 'difficult' and 'dangerous' - the activists here engage many. We could happily hear more on that here.

Also the 'dangerous' needs to be considered. In California, the Calif. Network is in crisis, and much stands to be lost. Yesterday I attended a dinner event along with the Chair of the Calif. Assembly Human Services Committee and his wife. His comment to me as we were leaving the event was that he was pushing AB154 Health Care Coverage. I indicated in a civil way that the "mental patients" have commonly disagreed. On the other hand, he has a passion for the "forensic disaster issue" that obtains in the state today. Where is the balance for our advocacy?

And, at a level closer to our networking concern, I'm very much worried for the well-being of Ed Knight. I hope we can provide him the support he needs in regards the Visionary risks he has taken for freedom and dignity.

 

Best

Andrew