I repost stuff from elsewhere

[sabotabby]

It's not like I don't read the newspaper every day, but if I didn't read LJ/my feeds, I wouldn't know about...

The Georgia Prisoners' Strike.

On Thursday morning, December 9, 2010, thousands of Georgia prisoners refused to work, stopped all other activities and locked down in their cells in a peaceful protest for their human rights.
...
· A LIVING WAGE FOR WORK
· EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
· DECENT HEALTH CARE
· AN END TO CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS
· DECENT LIVING CONDITIONS
· NUTRITIONAL MEALS
· VOCATIONAL AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES
· ACCESS TO FAMILIES
· JUST PAROLE DECISIONS
...
The Georgia Department of Corrections is at http://www.dcor.state.ga.us and their phone number is 478-992-5246

Or about Jody McIntyre, a student protester who was dragged from his wheelchair by police during the London protests. China Miéville is at his scathing best on the way the media covered it.

Or this story, brought to my attention by springheel_jack:

"One individual had two boxes attached, one box taped to his leg and one box seemingly taped to his forehead," he said.

"There were what seemed to be wires attached to them," he added.

Go on, guess what it was.

ETA: All this is SRS BUSINESS, so here's one that radiumhead found.





You're welcome.

Comments

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

Good for those prisoners!WTH on the "box with wires" story and ...too angry to comment on the story about the abuse of a PWD. IT's a sore spot for me today thanks to the asshole suicide prevention group that told me to fuck off last year now wanting money from me :/

[sabotabby]

What the shit? Isn't it part of the job of suicide prevention groups to not tell people to fuck off? This would seem critical.

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

I may have overdramatized it since our last communication was during a horrible bout of depression last year but it went like this: I offered to do a reading from my memoir about living with depression as part of their annual fundraiser and split book sale proceeds. They told me tersely that they weren't interested and then...stopped speaking to me at all, even to let me know when the suicide walk was. I wouldn't have been so hurt if I hadn't been very actively involved with them up to that point.

Since then I've decided that I won't give my time or energy to any group that doesn't put PWMI on its radar. I mean, fuck, I'm both a suicide survivor AND someone who has struggled with suicidal ideation. OMG I'M A SPACE ALIEN!

Sorry to tl;dr there. I've been angry about it for like a year now.

[sabotabby]

No apology necessary. I'd be right pissed too.

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

*nodnod* Yeah, I mean a part of me thinks that maybe I just misread the situation, and I don't want to seem like I'm just talking shit about them because I'm angry, but it was really, really hurtful whether or not they'd intended it to be. If they'd have said "we can't do that right now but maybe next year!" or even "that's a good idea, but we don't want to do it," I'd have been fine.

I also got irritated that none of the survivors in the (admittedly two) videos for national suicide awareness day they put out talked about struggling with suicidal thoughts and mental illness before or after the suicide. Seriously, they couldn't have found ONE person to talk about this?

Bah! Anyway, sorry to derail. Thanks for these links :)

[sabotabby]

Well, and also they stopped talking to you after you were doing work with them. That strikes me as exceedingly passive-aggressive, and inconsiderate, and even potentially dangerous to your own mental health.

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

i re-read the email recently and I remember being so demoralized after that exchange that I didn't go to the planning meeting after, despite saying previously I'd be there (I'm not proud of that, but I was really sick at the time and thought, hey, they don't want me around so why bother?)...which is when they stopped talking to me.

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

ER that should read two that I've seen*. I did'nt participate in the event last year or this year so they may well have done things differently.

[akisawana.livejournal.com]

I once called a suicide hotline and was put on hold. Their message, in retrospect, was probably very nice, and had more to do with the increase in calls, but I heard it as "IF YOU HAVE A FRIEND, CALL THEM INSTEAD BECAUSE WE ARE OVERLOADED."

[sabotabby]

WUT

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

Wow fuck them. Nice to know that people with depression can just, like, reach out to friends because self-isolation and being abandoned because people "can't deal" with you isn't part of depression at all!

Sorry you had to deal with that. I mean, I get being overloaded because these places are almost always volunteer but come ON. Give another number.