On the 18th’s Episode I discuss the word ‘crazy’ (see open letter to Rachel Maddow below), interview the amazing author T. Thorn Coyle and discuss Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

If you have not yet followed T. Thorn Coyle’s blog or read her books, she is an internationally respected visionary and teacher of the magical and esoteric arts. The author of Kissing the Limitless and Evolutionary Witchcraft, she hosts the Elemental Castings podcast series, writes a popular weblog, Know Thyself, and has produced several CDs of sacred music. Thorn’s spiritual direction, soul reading, and body/spirit coaching practices help people worldwide. Pagan, mystic, and activist, she is founder and head of Solar Cross Temple and Morningstar Mystery School. For further information, please visit thorncoyle.com

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…as promised in the podcast…

Open Letter to Rachel Maddow

Whether or not MSN is a ‘bastion of Liberal Media’ you are a force within the media. A voice referenced, cited, and honored in liberal circles while simultaneously used to drum up fear and conservative funds by the right wing. For better or worse, such public roles serve as inspiration and example for the rest of us.

So when you use ‘crazy’ (short hand for the very real category of sicknesses known as ‘mental illness’) or ‘kook’ or any other colloquialism you, perhaps unknowingly, perpetuate able-ism within a movement that aims to level the playing-field for oppressed people. As a reporter you un-ironically are taking the misconceptions and bigotry against one group to describe the actions of a political movement.

Tea-partiers/teabaggers, birthers, Sharron Angle, and yes, even Christine O’Donnell are not crazy. Or rather, they are not crazy because they have a deep seeded fear of a change in the status quo. In fact, conservative white folks have kept their power by an unwillingness to share or give up privilege based on class, race, sexual orientation and the host of other classifications that they feel make them superior. This complete investment into the power structures have kept folks in line, hoping that if they ‘follow the rules’ (be straight, Christian, get married, get a ‘good office job’ and maintain whiteness) that they will also get a part of the pie.

I understand and respect the sense of balance that is taken by journalists when covering the rallies, the antics of Ms. Angle or the birthers. But consider how individuals who do suffer from mental illness – who are often denied coverage on their medical needs, who suffer from bias against those illnesses, and the pure insult that you are lumped into the likes of a teabagger because your brain doesn’t produce/receive serotonin like it should.

Please, don’t just take my word for it. Here is just the tip of the iceberg as far as resources/voices/perspectives on this topic:

http://disabledfeminists.com/
specifically their post here: http://disabledfeminists.com/2010/05/28/ableist-word-profile-crazy-to-describe-political-viewpoints-or-positions/
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/the-transcontinental-disability-choir-what-is-ableist-language-and-why-should-you-care
http://takesupspace.wordpress.com/category/ableism/
http://www.raisingmyboychick.com/2010/09/on-the-ubiquitous-use-of-crazy/

There are umpteen words to describe the hatred, ignorance, and fear that the right wing peddle. Using ‘crazy’ is just intellectually lazy.

Laura

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 at 7:44 pm and is filed under Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.