<p>Dear Mr. Maio:</p>
<p>Thank you for writing to express your concerns. We think this is an important story that the public has the right to know about and there is no way to tell fully convey what happened without quoting what Walker's staff said.</p>
<p>As the inspiring Senator Paul Wellstone said:</p>
<p>We must "help those with chronic mental illnesses, those with acute depression, anxiety, or PTSD resulting from the trauma of September 11, children with autism or eating disorders, and the millions of other Americans with mental illness. Without treatment, mental illness can worsen, and can even lead to death. We cannot as a country allow people with mental illness to be treated as second-class citizens any longer."</p>
<p>And: "The basic scientific facts of mental illness are straightforward, but the difficulties encountered by those who want to eliminate the cruel and unjust stigma that surrounds diseases like schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder and others have been monumental. Mental illnesses represent a major portion of the disease burden in the United States and worldwide; depression is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. and throughout the developed world. And yet, our efforts to reduce stigma and provide fair treatment for people with mental illness are still needed. Parity for mental health treatment is a civil rights issue, and the fight for the rights of those with mental illness will not be stopped."</p>
<p>And: "It is difficult to believe . . . there is a whole class of citizens--probably well over 20 percent of the families in this country have a loved one who struggles with mental illness--certainly, all of us know someone who does--and they face discrimination. There still is a tremendous stigma attached to people who struggle with mental illness. . . .[It] does not know any political party boundaries. It does not know any economic boundaries."</p>
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An interesting story would be the corporatization of Public Media-- the forming of shell corporations so that Public Radio and Television producers could make more money. I remember jousting online with Ray Suarez in his NPR days. They hated that their salaries were limited to no more than the head of the joint chiefs of staff in DC. But there was no limit on how much you could pay an "independent production company".
If we could educate the police and military "grunts" on the ground then maybe they could help us have a non-violent French Revolution!?? ha ha We are 300+ million strong you'd think we could do something about this. We have to assert our rights that's all I know.
There is so much good stuff here. But are you sure one of your sources wasn't the Onion? They outfitted a Mercedes bus for a cross-country austerity tour collecting cans at $3,000 a pop? That's almost as good as having David Cote, with his $800,000 a month pension being the front person declaring that social security benefits of $1,200 a month are too high.
I should have been a right wing campaign consultant. You don't even have to be good.
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