Dignity

Dr. King, John Lewis, and many others of that generation became true Heroes/Heroines in every sense of the word, and had a deeply profound affect upon many hearts and lives, mine, life-changing. He remains the youngest in History to have been honored with receiving the esteemed Nobel Peace Prize Award. He, John Lewis and several others in that generation demonstrated genuine heroism and humanity in the face of appalling corruption and struggling to redefine our values and characters, both personally, socially, and as a Nation.

I’m sharing a portion of one of his most treasured Speeches, his last, just prior to his assassination…

“And then I got into Memphis. And some began to say the threats, or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?

Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind.

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I’m happy, tonight.

I’m not worried about anything.

I’m not fearing any man.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

#Love . #compassion . #Forgiveness . #courage . #Dignity /Self-Worth

RIP MLK Jr. May the Spirit of your Dreams burn increasingly brighter over Time, the visions of your heart be realized sooner than later, and the fruits of your life’s labors weigh low and plentiful to the ground! ♥️🫂

Recently, I had the opportunity to share some of my story in a TED Talk at Rochester U’s Live Stream Conference while answering the question, “What is humanity that God is mindful of them?“

The event was not recorded but, I made a YouTube video of my talk for people to see. In my talk I share some of my story, as well as exploring the descriptive, defendant, and deeper understandings of who we are as people who have disabilities and are human beings.

I hope it might bring some encouragement and deeper reflection to all who might see it.

#Disability #humanity #Dignity

Here is the link:

youtu.be/JYMTZ8Zr7us

There’s a mental health testimony group in Hershey, PA that’s working with high school students there. It has something like 5 conferences around the US. I can’t remember what it’s called, but they’re the reason I’m sure I don’t have bipolar. The girl who was talking was saying she had 4 to 5 episodes a day where she couldn’t move. I don’t have episodes. And I’m not suicidal or self harming, though those things aren’t absolutely necessary for a diagnosis. I also don’t have mania; I’ve just always been hyperactive. I was diagnosed with adhd in kindergarten. I also didn’t get depressed until some really negative things happened in my life, so it’s not a chemical imbalance. What happened was my dad thought I should always be positive, cooperative, and obedient and he told the psychiatrist that I wasn’t at times. That was in high school. I told the psychiatrist I didn’t want to come home because my parents were oppressive and I was hoping he could tell them to back off and let me do my homework myself at the risk of not completing it and failing. He knew I was losing sleep and having random bad thoughts. But he ignored the fact that I was willfully staying up late to finish the homework, and attributed it to mania, and put me on a heavy sedative. He also attributed me avoiding home and my cynicism to depression. He also didn’t realize that I was having random bad thoughts from being half asleep, so it wasn’t really my conscious self. He could have ordered that I be forced to have a reduced courseload, but psychiatrists are all in the medication business. And the solution to a problem with a psychiatrist is not more intensive psychiatry, obviously. But that’s what happened. I know I’ve done some really stupid stuff, but it has nothing to do with my mood, just bad learning and context errors. It’s been 16 years, and now I’m forced to rely on medication to stay on social security, because the people at my last job wanted me to leave and they harassed me until I left. But the way they were doing it made my family think I was having delusions. So it was back to the chopping block. There’s a lot of other forces that are involved that I’d like to reverse so I could achieve the things I should have, but that would take a lot of power and money. (I have also tagged Autism because I was briefly diagnosed with pdd nos and treated for autism; I find that psychiatrists favor “harder” diagnoses like schizophrenia if people have more difficult lives, as opposed to looking for actual pathology) #BipolarDisorder #ADHD #Autism #Schizophrenia #SchizoaffectiveDisorder #Medication #reason #Dignity