Mary Neal's Sharebook 

Yes, you can make a difference!

Exciting news to report! We have a congressional bill to support that will help decriminalize mental illness in America!  A life is a terrible thing to waste.

Please VOTE for H.R.619 to replace prisons w/ hospitals for acute mental patients. The link below will take you to OpenCongress.org where you can use your voice to say to our elected officials, “We care about the least of these, His brethren: naked, sick prisoners.” (Matt.25:36) http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h619/show

Please agree that millions of citizens should not be left imprisoned or live under the threat of prison because their health care needs are not addressed.  Support H.R.619: Medicaid funding for psychiatric hospitals instead of prison cells for mentally challenged people – a change that will save money and restore lives!

Thanks in advance for voting. Please invite others!

H.R. 619 gives us the opportunity to end discrimination against mentally ill citizens. Families of acute patients watch loved ones spiral downward mentally from lack of treatment until many of them eventually wind up homeless, imprisoned (sometimes after avoidable atrocities), or dead.  Please tell your representatives we want mental hospitals, which are important for community safety, reducing prison costs, and protecting human rights. 

As we go about our lives, there are 1.25 million mental patients imprisoned, some of whom have no criminal charges but were arrested on lunacy warrants.  Others have done horrible crimes because they could not get the psychiatric treatment they needed.  There is a simple song we sang in my old, wooden Methodist church when I was a child that seems to apply to the 1 in 5 Americans who have mental illness - "Do Not Pass Me By."  Below is my tweet to the 111th Congress today:

@cxs Mentally ill citizens sing fr prison "Please don't pass me by" 4 #health care. Pass H.R.619 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ-f4c9Zh_U

Treatment Advocacy Center, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and numerous other mental health organizations and advocates support H.R.619.  NAMI's letter of support is at this link:  http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/1405992

Most congressional bills never reach the House floor for a vote, but die in committees.  H.R.619 was introduced on January 21, 2009, and it is still being reviewed by committees.  Your help is needed.  So far, the bill that could decriminalize mental illness in America has gotten no major news coverage although over half the inmates in facilities across the country are mentally ill. To learn more about the negative impact that criminalizing mental illness has on society and individual people, you are invited to visit the website below.   Thanks for your interest in helping the least of these, His brethren!

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI
P.O. Box 153, Redan, GA 30074

JAIL IS THE LAST THING THAT MENTAL
PATIENTS NEED, AND TOO OFTEN, IT IS THE VERY LAST THING THEY
EXPERIENCE. Please join our effort to decriminalize mental illness. No
one deserves to be punished for having a disability.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., A MAN WHO DEMANDED EQUAL JUSTICE FOR ALL

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Matthew 5

The truth in these verses regarding our shared responsibility to care and to demonstrate that we care for human rights before the world does not depend on one's religion.  It is a simple fact that more people should peacefully oppose adversity and like John the Baptist, who Jesus called 'the greatest of all prophets.'  What did John do to earn such high praise from Jesus?  John never raised the dead or performed mighty miracles like previous prophets. 

What John did that was so unique was this:  He dared to stand before the powerful rulers of his time and say, "You are wrong for doing that.  Please improve."

John stood up for truth, just as Dorothea Dix did in the 1800's and like Martin Luther King did during the 1960's.  Because John the Baptist courageously stood for what was right, Jesus Christ called John the greatest of all the prophets. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. was also one of God's greatest prophets.  He put aside care for his own person and even risked the safety of his loving wife and children to stand for human rights.  Coretta Scott King was a phenomenal woman.  She worked right alongside her husband and received death threats many times while Rev. King was away from home with Freedom Fighters conducting a justice quest that was eventually victorious.  Their sacrifice helped to free our nation from the grips of inhumane, unjust, prejudicial Jim Crowe policies.

Several members of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill report they have to be offline a good deal due to Trojans and viruses, just as I do.  Many members of Care2 who advocate for other important causes may also endure increased occurrences of computer interference as The New World Order takes over.  Free speech and freedom of press suffer increasing attacks as governments of the world move toward fascism.   I just had my computer cleaned (AGAIN!) last night and equipped with more anti-virus programs, but I will be lucky if that holds a couple of days. 

One thing you should do is stop working on the Internet under your ADMINISTRATOR'S ACCOUNT.  Create a user account with no control over your computer settings, and only go online using that secondary account.  That may save a trip to the P.C. doctor. 

HAPPY MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY!

 

 

MORE ARTICLES ABOUT MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
by Mary Neal:

 

HAPPY HEROES DAY - APRIL 4! by Mary Neal
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/happy-heroes-day-april-4-mary-neal

A hero is someone who steps out of the everyday conditions of his life to do something great and usually something sacrificial to benefit others.  There are many people whom we may admire - teachers who made a difference in our lives.  Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dorothea Dix are two of my heroes . . .

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created by duo | 41 wks ago | updated 41 wks ago
883 views | 4 recommendations | 7 comments

 

         Happy Martin Luther King Day to Americans - Strongest People on the Planet! by Mary Neal
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/happy-martin-luther-king-day-americans-strongest-people-planet-mary-neal

by duo | January 20, 2008 at 10:08 am
1087 views | add comment

Here is a video regarding Negro Spirituals and perhaps the most celebrated song ever written by a white songwriter: 
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=DMF_24cQqT0
What an emotional presentation!  I could not stand to listen as Wintley Phipps began humming the non-lyrical version of Amazing Grace — the melodic moans that John Newton heard filtering up from the slave pit on his ship and later used to pen this most amazing song celebrating God’s forgiving and loving nature. 

Mary Neal, victim of The Cochran Firm fraud (Google it!)
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/

No jutice, no peace!

Dorothea Dix, human rights advocate of the 1800's on behalf of the indigent mentally ill, delivered mentally ill people from prisons in America and Europe.  Now they are back again.

Larry Neal, brother of Mary Neal, died under secret arrest in Memphis/Shelby County Jail on August 1, 2003.  Because we hired The (Johnnie) Cochran Firm as our wrongful death attorneys and they defrauded us (undisclosed conflict of interest, fraud, breach of contract, working WITH the jail), my family still has no explanation or resolution for his death.

To whom it may concern: 
No jutice, no peace!

Recently, when I opened one of my folders, THIS MESSAGE WAS THERE IN BIG FONT:

YOU ARE PROTECTED BY NO ONE.  (Actually, there was a big ZERO rather than the words "no one."  Was that an ad for some company, or another message from my cyberstalkers, meant to harass and intimidate me? 

If that was from my cyberstalkers, they only wrote it because they know nothing about my God, the Almighty, the Everlasting Father, and His son, the King of kings, who sits at the right hand of the Father and makes constant intercession for His people, of which I am proud to be one.

If/when your computers suffer from repeated attacks because of your advocacy, count it all joy!  Keep shinning your light and one day soon, mental illness will be decriminalized in the USA.  Keep telling the world that homelessness, prison and death must cease being America's answer to mental illness.

Congratulations to members of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill and to all people who work for justice and human rights like Dr. and Mrs. King and the thousands of Freedom Fighters of the 1960's who joined their justice quest. 

Members of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill advocate for mental illness to be decriminalized in America.  Mentally ill citizens, particularly those who are indigent, are as persecuted as millions of citizens were and are for reason of their race.  Mental illness is a very common and highly treatable health condition.  Yet, about 1.25 million of America's mentally ill are incarcerated rather than treated in hospitals or as outpatients.  Many may have been deliberately left untreated until committing some crime to qualify them for incarceration, financially benefiting private prison owners and investors.  This is a problem that also affects millions of people who are their family members and friends.  Americans who are sick need psychiatric care, not prison.

Dare to be like Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Dix, John the Baptist, and Jesus Christ.  Visit Assistance to the Mentally ill online, and help with this important human rights quest for justice.  I know that Dr. King would if he had been allowed to live.

Visit us online today: 


JAIL IS THE LAST THING MENTAL PATIENTS NEED ... AND TOO OFTEN, JAIL IS THE LAST THING THEY EXPERIENCE. Please join us in our quest to decriminalize mental illness in America.    

Link: Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill

Martin Luther King - Mountaintop Address
April 3, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee
 

Boston is a great city - and Music Hall has a fame almost as extensive as that of Boston. Nowhere more than here have the principles of human freedom been expounded. But for the circumstances already mentioned, it would seem almost presumption for me to say anything here about those principles. And yet, even here, in Boston, the moral atmosphere is dark and heavy. The principles of human liberty, even I correctly apprehended, find but limited support in this hour a trial. The world moves slowly, and Boston is much like the world. We thought the principle of free speech was an accomplished fact. Here, if nowhere else, we thought the right of the people to assemble and to express their opinion was secure. Dr. Channing had defended the right, Mr. Garrison had practically asserted the right, and Theodore Parker had maintained it with steadiness and fidelity to the last.

But here we are to-day contending for what we thought we gained years ago. The mortifying and disgraceful fact stares us in the face, that though Faneuil Hall and Bunker Hill Monument stand, freedom of speech is struck down. No lengthy detail of facts is needed. They are already notorious; far more so than will be wished ten years hence.

The world knows that last Monday a meeting assembled to discuss the question: "How Shall Slavery Be Abolished?" The world also knows that that meeting was invaded, insulted, captured by a mob of gentlemen, and thereafter broken up and dispersed by the order of the mayor, who refused to protect it, though called upon to do so. If this had been a mere outbreak of passion and prejudice among the baser sort, maddened by rum and hounded on by some wily politician to serve some immediate purpose, - a mere exceptional affair, - it might be allowed to rest with what has already been said. But the leaders of the mob were gentlemen. They were men who pride themselves upon their respect for law and order.

These gentlemen brought their respect for the law with them and proclaimed it loudly while in the very act of breaking the law. Theirs was the law of slavery. The law of free speech and the law for the protection of public meetings they trampled under foot, while they greatly magnified the law of slavery.

The scene was an instructive one. Men seldom see such a blending of the gentleman with the rowdy, as was shown on that occasion. It proved that human nature is very much the same, whether in tarpaulin or broadcloth. Nevertheless, when gentlemen approach us in the character of lawless and abandoned loafers, - assuming for the moment their manners and tempers, - they have themselves to blame if they are estimated below their quality.

No right was deemed by the fathers of the Government more sacred than the right of speech. It was in their eyes, as in the eyes of all thoughtful men, the great moral renovator of society and government. Daniel Webster called it a homebred right, a fireside privilege. Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason of righteousness, temperance, and of a judgment to come in their presence. Slavery cannot tolerate free speech. Five years of its exercise would banish the auction block and break every chain in the South. They will have none of it there, for they have the power. But shall it be so here?

Even here in Boston, and among the friends of freedom, we hear two voices: one denouncing the mob that broke up our meeting on Monday as a base and cowardly outrage; and another, deprecating and regretting the holding of such a meeting, by such men, at such a time. We are told that the meeting was ill-timed, and the parties to it unwise.

Why, what is the matter with us? Are we going to palliate and excuse a palpable and flagrant outrage on the right of speech, by implying that only a particular description of persons should exercise that right? Are we, at such a time, when a great principle has been struck down, to quench the moral indignation which the deed excites, by casting reflections upon those on whose persons the outrage has been committed? After all the arguments for liberty to which Boston has listened for more than a quarter of a century, has she yet to learn that the time to assert a right is the time when the right itself is called in question, and that the men of all others to assert it are the men to whom the right has been denied?

 It would be no vindication of the right of speech to prove that certain gentlemen of great distinction, eminent for their learning and ability, are allowed to freely express their opinions on all subjects - including the subject of slavery. Such a vindication would need, itself, to be vindicated. It would add insult to injury. Not even an old-fashioned abolition meeting could vindicate that right in Boston just now. There can be no right of speech where any man, however lifted up, or however humble, however young, or however old, is overawed by force, and compelled to suppress his honest sentiments.

Equally clear is the right to hear. To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. It is just as criminal to rob a man of his right to speak and hear as it would be to rob him of his money. I have no doubt that Boston will vindicate this right. But in order to do so, there must be no concessions to the enemy. When a man is allowed to speak because he is rich and powerful, it aggravates the crime of denying the right to the poor and humble.

The principle must rest upon its own proper basis. And until the right is accorded to the humblest as freely as to the most exalted citizen, the government of Boston is but an empty name, and its freedom a mockery. A man's right to speak does not depend upon where he was born or upon his color. The simple quality of manhood is the solid basis of the right - and there let it rest forever.

Mary Neal
http://wrongfuldeathoflarryneal.com/

" It is just as criminal to rob a man of his right to speak and hear as it would be to rob him of his money."