From: cmort@NCoast.ORG (Christopher Morton)
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy,alt.activism,talk.politics.misc,alt.save.the.earth
Subject: Re: Dr. Helen Caldicott: "Building a progressive agenda in 1992"
Date: 16 Apr 92 12:55:05 GMT
Article-I.D.: NCoast.1992Apr16.125505.3800
Reply-To: cmort@ncoast.org (Christopher Morton)
Followup-To: alt.conspiracy
Organization: North Coast Public Access *NIX, Cleveland, OH

As quoted from <1992Apr15.035618.15847@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> by dxc4@po.CWRU.Edu (David Condon):

> 
> 
> An excerpt from an address, "Building a progressive agenda in 1992," by 
> Dr. Helen Caldicott, author of _Missile envy_ and _If you love this 
> planet_. Caldicott was speaking at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on 
> October 24, 1991. The address was broadcast on radio station WBAI in New 
> York. Thanks to John DiNardo for providing me with a copy of this tape.
> 
> ________________________________________________________________________
> 
> 
> 	We're going to talk about how to turn this country into a 
> compassionate society, instead of me now for the rich, and too bad for 
> all the rest of you -- including three million homeless people, one 
> million of whom are mentally sick, who were kicked out of the mental 
> hospitals by one Ronald Reagan, who has a stone for a heart. You don't 
> evict people who are mentally sick from hospitals. You keep them in the 
> hospitals, you treat them, you nurture them, and you love them. They are 
> sick. A society that puts its sick people on the streets is sick itself. 
> [applause] One million of the homeless are also alcoholics. People who 
> are alcoholics are also sick. They need help, nurturing, and loving care. 
> It would not take much money to put them in hospitals too and treat them. 
> And alcoholics have dysfunctional families, all of whom need help. 

1) I believe that the non-dangerous mentally ill were "mainstreamed" during or
before the term of Jimmy Carter.  Believe it or not, not ALL evil in the world
can be laid at the doorstep of Ronald Reagan.  This is just one of the milder
examples of the one-dimensionality of Caldicott's thinking.  It of course pales
in comparison to the trivialization of the nuclear issue that she engaged in.

2) She shouldn't be railing against Ronald Reagan.  She should be railing      
against the ACLU.  They fought long and hard to end involuntary committment of
those not an immediate danger to themselves or others.  THEY were the ones who
posited that disturbed homeless people had the right to freeze to death on the
streets of NYC if they wanted.  Whether you agree or disagree with that stand,
you ought to give credit where credit is due.  It certainly ought to affect the
perceptions of people who read this nonsense.  I wonder how quickly people   
who'd swallow this stuff if it could be blamed on Reagan, will be willing to
ream the ACLU for ITS ideology?

Helen apparently knows as little about homelessness and mental illness as she
does about nuclear arms.  I can hardly claim I'm surprised....


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