The following paragraphs were not written by me… they were written by “Joe” so credit must be given to him. I found them very enlightening and perspective.  It is very much like what I want to write, in part, denonstatind one side of what i've been doing for nearly 50 years.

How do we accept and work with the reality of our country and world in 2008?  How can we begin to make amends for centuries of conquest of the land and its inhabitants and for the present day realities of war and global warming?  We can start by doing the right thing today.  We can collectively wake up to human and non-human suffering and healing, seeing our roles as helpers, healers, and instruments of peace. 

I believe that we are alive in a very special time.  This present moment offers us an opportunity to direct our individual and collective energies towards a more sustainable and just future.  I believe that electing Barack Obama as the President of the United States is a right action that can help steer this country towards healing and recovery, a process that is an important step in ensuring a healthy future for generations to come.  Electing Obama as our President will not immediately resolve legacies of violence and injustice, but will serve as a vital and important step in working towards true peace and healing, within our own country as well as in relation to others.

I have just celebrated my thirtieth year on this planet.  (Thank you God!)  For the first time in my life, there is a presidential candidate who I can fully believe in and support.  (Thank you God!)  Barack Obama represents to me the best side of American political consciousness.  He is inspiring in his drive to empower ordinary citizens and communities to rise above their differences and unite for the greater good.  Obama's clear ability to think and make decisions critically, intelligently, and creatively gives me hope that we can pick up the broken pieces of this country and create something beautiful.

Yesterday I joined two friends in Detroit on a bike ride along the Detroit River to hear Barack Obama speak in Hart Plaza.  We walked our bikes in anticipation and awe among the tens of thousands of people sharing the space and excitement.  As Obama gave a brief address to the crowd, he spoke about the importance of unions and the organized labor movement.  He suggested that we can learn from this movement about how to take care of each other in situations like the hurricane on the Gulf Coast and in our every day lives.  His simple message of Brotherhood and Sisterhood reaches far beyond the immediate political realm into values that are core human truths.

We have been working on this for generations.  The struggles and sacrifices of the Civil Rights Movement, the Labor Movement, the American Indian Movement, and the Environmental Justice Movement among many others working for peace and justice have all helped this opportunity to manifest. 

We are ready for real change and transformation in the United States and in the world.  We need a leader like Obama to help us move through these changes.  Although he will not resolve all of our domestic and international issues for us, he has the ability to lead and inspire people in our country to work together for a collective change that no one can do alone.  We need each other!  Its not about Democrats and Republicans, its not about Black and White, it is about an inclusive and sustainable future for the USA and for the human race.

Every small action that we do to lend support to the Obama Campaign makes a difference toward achieving our vision.  I am dedicating a performance on October 3rd at the Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor to an Obama future.  I will be accompanied by an amazing drummer from Detroit named Gayelynn Mckinney and vocalist Ann Judge.  We will also be joined by special guest poets Brian Babb and Will Copeland.  Please join us in collecting and sharing our energy of hope and excitement in support of President Obama.

I am seeking help in spreading the word for this event and am looking for street team volunteers to help hang posters and distribute handbills around Ann Arbor.  Let me know if you are available.  Please also forward the press release below to any friends in the media.

Thanks for all that you do each day to ensure a brighter future for generations to follow.  I am sure they are smiling and singing with us.

In Peace,

Joe

How I Met Joan Baez

By David Duboff

            Joan Baez was married to Davis Harris at the time. David Harris was the founder and leader of the resistance movement at the time of the Vietnam War.  I myself was involved with the movement (later I actually was inducted) but because the law at the time changed such that people resisting the draft were put to the top of the list. But anyway, back to how I met Joan Baez…  Friends of mind arrange a tour of Michigan for the two of them. The only resistance office at the time was located in Ann Arbor.  She and her husband visited the office and we talked about the tour and other matters related to the efforts to end the war.  Resistance had a somewhat different philosophy from The Students for a Democratic Society which I also was participating in heavily. But Resistance had a more moral tendency and outlook. We wanted a community, not just a chapter of 100,000 or more members. But we worked with them very closely with SDS and were intergraded in their cause.

            David liked to use these words during his speeches, “I hope that two words will be abolished from the English language: oppressor and oppressed.  The most significant thing to me was when I went to see Joan perform I sat on a seat in the isle.  And she went walking down the isle she stopped and gave me a kiss on my cheek …. I will never forget that the in my life.

What's New with Me

These are notes on my struggle with mental illness and with Asperger's syndrome that is not a form of mental illness but a disorder listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, including other disorders such cognitive disability, developmental disability, etc

Later, I may describe the nature of my two mental disorders – bipolar and agoraphobia with panic disorder as I've learned from being involved with therapists for thirty years.  Right now I just get my thoughts down on paper.  I have a blog, which according to my computer is called David Duboff, Lifetime Social Worker and Member of Occupy Wall Street.
When it was constructed five years ago I thought it was entitled Housing and Mental Health because those were the two primary areas I had been working with for over thirty years as a community organizer and then as a social worker.

The purpose of mentioning I have a blog is that I want to use it as a journal of some sort, and possibly take my psychotherapists’ suggestion to write a memoir about my struggle with mental illness which would be cathartic and possibly even of some interest.  As a Socialist, I have   always believed my life has been a struggle subsumed within the wider struggle for a better world.
 

My immediate experience is to get help understand the nature of the stress I've been under here at Plymouth court as I realize I will probably have to live in a nursing home for the rest of my, life, the anger I've developed and how I take it out on this place, which includes the fact that with Asperger I have to tolerate living in an institution with strict procedures.  This, it seems, is just a part of a work involving using the mental system for my benefit, being an integral part of that system as it helps me help other mentally ill people, while struggling to be a radical at the same time.
 

Since I  first became mentally ill thirty years ago (or perhaps even before that) I have always felt that self-determination for the mentally ill is essentially the same as for any other group of people who have been denied their civil rights and, in many cases brutalized, because of barriers of what’s considered “normal” behavior, gender issues, issues of color, etc.  One thing I continue to think about is whether being politically radical in terms of fighting for more and better housing for the mentally ill, poor and homeless people, along with human services, is part of a broader popular struggle for democratic socialism. 

new york times article

A good article abut a Federal Court decision to close all large homes with for mentally ill people who have been warehoused.  Great for advocates all over working for better conditions for mentally ill, homeless, and poor people in general.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/nyregion/09mental.html

Overview

As in most cities throughout the country, a crisis in housing and homelessness has existed since the Great Depression of the 1930's. The nature of the crisis changes at the national and local level based on economic factors which reflect governmental policies at a given time. Under Democratic admistrations, more money tended to be available, administered by HUD. Local agencies would have to work with cities and counties to develop workable plans for how to utilize the money to provide the best continuum of care as possible, meaning affordable housing and the right kind of support for people with special needs.

New Shelter has less beds than old shelter

Options getting better? Not in Ann Arbor. All the kinds of housing options actually provide less beds because of a lack of money. "Housing first" is not solving the problem of a lack of beds, and, in addition, lack of funds for supportive services causes some people to be unable to live well enough in the homes which had been designed for alcoholics, drug addicts and mentally ill people.

More funds are going to be necessary. Meanwhile, the Shelter Association can coordinate placing people in the best way possible while advocating with the state and federal governments for more money.

A tent city now exists in Ann Arbor. It is becoming much more well organized,seeking to become a non-profit organization run by the homeless themselves. In part, it's an attempt by the homeless to be able to live the life-style of their choice without having to abide by "shelter rules."

David Duboff