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Sent: Monday, May 08, 2000 4:24 PM
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Subject: Mendelson: 60 Minutes and People with Mental Illness


                        Justice For All

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        Mendelson:  60 Minutes and People with Mental Illness

Lorre Leon Mendelson, [log in to unmask], writes:

May 7, 2000

Don Hewitt and Lesley Stahl
60 Minutes
524 West 57th St.
New York, New York 10019

Dear Don Hewitt and Lesley Stahl:

If your show tonight on mental illness and violence was an attempt on
your
part to perpetuate the myth that people with mental illness are
different
from people without mental illnesses, you succeeded. This is the year
2000.
Have we not learned YET that we are not "THE mentally ill", we are
PEOPLE
with mental illnesses- we are NOT our illnesses; they are one part of
us.
Some of us commit violent acts; most of us don't, just like the
population of
people without mental illnesses. Mental illness is NOT a predictor of
violence; a history of violent behavior IS a predictor of violence. Of
course
some people with mental illness don't take their medication,
approximately
50% of all Americans taking medications of different kinds stop their
medication before the series ends, take less or more than directed yet
we are
being punitive and condemning to the very people who have done nothing
to
deserve this segregation, continued hysteria and condemnation by the
media.

If you are evaluating if people with mental illness MUST have medication
because they MIGHT become violent or symptomatic, does this include
people
such as Mike Wallace, Art Buchwald, William Styron, Donny and Marie
Osmond,
(would it have included Abraham Lincoln), Tipper Gore, Buzz Aldrin, Mrs.
Colin Powell, Kim Bassinger, Jonathan Winters, Rod Steiger, Ellen Hart
Pena,
Patty Duke Astin, Robin Williams, Margot Kidder, Jimmy Piersal, Charley
Pride
and Betty Ford. There are no "serious and non-serious mental illnesses".
Mental illness is mental illness, it is also the same as physical and
spiritual illness. For we are one whole person. Because I am in recovery
for
OCD, PTSD and depression and have a neuro-biological brain disorder, how
is
that different than Attorney General Janet Reno also having a
neuro-biological brain disorder with Parkinsons?

If you are interested in serious journalism and not creating more
prejudice
and discrimination against a large part of humanity (according to David
Satcher, Surgeon General in November 1999, 20% of the US population),
please
contact me and let's talk more about mental health, mental illness,
equal
rights and parity. Let's dialogue and create understanding of illness,
not
increase the wall between those with and without mental illnesses. I
cannot
imagine you would ever present a program on survivors of cancer,
leukemia,
heart attack survivors, MS, MD or any number of disabilities that, like
mental illness, know no boundaries of race, language, age, and
nationality.

For every story you present that creates the hysteria and fear of people
such
as this, it affects the youngest child who may be suffering, the oldest
adult
who may think there is no help for them, and for this you have done a
disservice to us all...

Lorre Leon Mendelson
Mental Health Activist/Advocate
Santa Clara, California
[log in to unmask]
408/554-9705



--
Fred Fay
Chair, Justice For All
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http://www.jfanow.org