Alternative Text
Mouth Magazine
The statue of liberty sits in a wheelchair with a tablet cradled in her left hand while using the outstretched, right arm to hold the torch high above her head appears amongst a page of blurred text on the cover of Mouth, the Chronicles 1990 to 2000.
Crime
A person inside a jail cell is holding onto the window bars with both hands while their left foot is chained around the ankle to a large weight and stretches the person across the cell with only the right foot extended to the floor to support the person. Text reads, “If being disabled isn’t a crime, why are more than three million of us locked up?”
The Hill
Three parking spaces are shown in a row in front of the steps leading up to the Capitol building. The space furthest from the stairs is reserved for Hilary while the space next to her is reserved for Bill and the final space that is closest to the stairs is reserved for accessible parking.
Facing the Dragon
A strong dragon with smoke coming from its mouth and with the word “Ableism” written across its side, fiercely approaches, a lone individual who cowers backward away from the dragon as if in fear.
Professionals Anonymous
Two surgeons stand over surgical equipment in masks and gloves. Text reads, “Do you experience 3 or more of these symptoms?
Egocentrism
Impulsivity - reflexively providing inaccurate or insensitive prognostic information
Lack of self-monitoring or error awareness
Inability to take the perspective of other - patients, for instance
Language deficits- lack of intelligibility or uncontrollable use of demeaning or offensive terminology
Self isolation- keeping yourself impossible to reach
Organizational and time perception deficits- scheduling multiple clients, conference calls, and out of town meetings during the same 3-hour timeframe
Confabulation -- saying anything rather than admitting you don’t know
Difficulty incorporating new information into post-training routines.”
Annual Meeting
A man wearing a suit and tie is shown standing behind a podium addressing an audience, on the front of the podium a sign that reads “Annual Meeting”. A quote below the image reads, “And so, in this Decade of the Brain, our challenge will be to help people stop helping themselves.”
Calling the Law
Calling the law. Do you have any rights?
We’re reprinting this page from our first issue.Four guys we heard about got themselves free from forced rehab last time we printed it. Good work, guys! Spread the word!
If somebody decides to stick you away somewhere-- for your own good of course -- and ship you off to some “residential community” or “skilled nursing facility,” you don’t have to go.
Even if they get you there, you can get out. Legally.
Here’s some law on it, starting with the good old Magna Carta: “No free man shall be taken, or imprisoned, or outlawed, or exiled or in any way harmed. Nor will we go upon him, nor will we send upon him, except by the law of the land.”
In plain English: they can’t send you away just cuz you got hit in the head.
Ask the trusty old Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created-equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness -- that to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted upon Men, deriving their just powers from the Consent of the Governed.
In plain English: nobody can put you nowhere ‘less you say you want to go.
Fast forward to the 2oth century, here’s our own Supreme Court: “In Short, a State cannot constitutionally confine.. A nondangerous individual who is capable of surviving safely in freedom by himself or with the help of willing and responsible family members or friends.” (What goes for the state goes ditto for nursing homes and “community re-entry facilities.”)
In plain English: if you can get by on the outside, they can’t keep you inside.
Unless they get two doctors to sign something. Something that says you’d be dangerous to yourself or to someone else if you got out.
Most of the time the professionals don’t even bother to call the doctors -- they count on you not knowing your rights. Prove ‘em wrong!
What if they get a couple of doctors to say you’re dangerous? You can drop a dime on them. Call a lawyer. Or get a friend to call a lawyer for you.
All this talk about “men” goes for women too, natcherly. We’re free people even if we’re poor people, people who can’t talk, people who are crazy, people who can’t think fast, people who walk funny, or don’t walk at all.
Here’s an ugly exception: if you’re a minor, your parents get to make the big decisions. And maybe you think you’re getting great help when you are. Uh-oh.
The good news for adults is: nobody can hold you anyplace against your will without taking you to court. A judge will put a stop to their nonsense.
That means hiring a lawyer. Lawyers cost money. But lawyers in most states have to tell you the names of other lawyers who will help, no matter how poor you are.
If you’re in a place you don’t want to be, get help wherever you got this paper.
Brain Injury Rehabilitation Center
Overhead view of tall, pillared building labeled, “Brain Injury Rehabilitation Center” Two tiny humans stand below with thought bubble that reads, “...The place where the customer is always wrong.”
Managing the Unmanageable
Humans trapped in what looks like a rat cage with a running wheel and rodent water dispenser. Many people are crowded together and sign on cage reads, “Managing the unmanageable. Bill to insurance. $1067.00 per day per client.”
Faceless
A faceless, naked body with outstretched arms and hands appears as if struggling through water, waves appear behind the body.
A doctor sits at a desk across from a woman sitting in a chair, holding her purse. Both watch with concerned faces as a smiling man in a suit and bow-tie, dances joyfully with both arms rounded and raised above his head with fingers touching as he leaps into the air. Text reads, “I see what you mean, Mrs. Burns. Perhaps we’d better ease up on the anti-depressants.”