MindFreedom International News - 21 January 2008
http://www.mindfreedom.org - please forward
USA Officially Celebrates the Life of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
MLK called for "International Association for the Advancement of
Creative Maladjustment" (IAACM)
TODAY: Patch Adams, MD Agrees to be New Chair of the "IAACM"!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
This day, 21 January 2008, is the
official national holiday in the
USA to celebrate the life of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., who would
have
turned 79 last week.
Just moments ago, Patch Adams, MD phoned up MindFreedom International
from his home
in Virginia. Patch agreed to be the new chair of a
dream MLK had that never came true:
The IAACM.
That's
the International Association for the Advancement of Creative
Maladjustment, not the International Association of
Air Cleaner
Manufacturers.
Patch Adams is the internationally famous psychiatric survivor
physician/clown
who was portrayed by Robin Williams in a film about
Patch's life.
Repeatedly, in the last two decades of
his life, Rev. King said in
speeches and essays that he was proud to be "psychologically
maladjusted"
to oppression, war and poverty.
MLK said the "salvation of the world lies in the hands of the
maladjusted!"
More
than 10 times MLK said the world desperately needed a new
organization, the International Association for the Advancement
of
Creative Maladjustment (IAACM)!
As far we know, the IAACM never officially formed. Time Magazine
called it a "half joke."
But last year, in 2007, MindFreedom International helped launch the
IAACM at
its international conference as part of the "Mad Pride"
movement that celebrates the right to be nonviolently different,
odd,
crazy, nuts, strange, weird, or whatever term society would like to
toss our way.
Who else
could have intentionally and consciously formed the IAACM,
in reality, other than psychiatric survivors?
The
Mad Pride movement asks you a simple question:
By MLK's 80th birthday in 2009, what action will you take to show
your "creative maladjustment"?
For a decade "Mad Pride" celebrates each and every human being's
creative
uniqueness and right to be nonviolently different, including
we people who have survived the psychiatric system.
Like Gay Pride,
Mad Pride events have included parades, theater, "bed pushes,"
concerts and more.
Patch
announced the paradox today that as official honorary chair he
would like to have the IAACM "as non-hierarchical
as possible."
Patch said the main quality he would most like to celebrate is,
"Insane persistence! Never,
ever give up. I am crazy every day. Stay
nuts!" Patch travels the world 300 days of the year spreading his
message of maladjustment. In 2008 he will be in Haiti and Darfur
among other places literally dying for a new
kind of normality.
As long as you follow MLK's nonviolence guidelines, *YOU* are a
leader in the IAACM!
Your
suggested long-term goal: Millions upon millions upon millions
-- okay billions, why not -- of people engaged in
creative acts of
cultural disobedience! Hey, we're in a global crisis -- get grandiose!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MARTIN
LUTHER KING, JR. ON "NORMALCY":
"The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that
recognizes
the dignity and worth of all of God's children.
"The only normalcy that we will settle for is the normalcy that
allows judgment to run down like waters, and righteousness like a
mighty stream.
"The only normalcy that
we will settle for is the normalcy of
brotherhood, the normalcy of true peace, the normalcy of justice...
"We
must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with
itself, a society that can live with its conscience.
And that will be
a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the
day of [hu]man as
[hu]man."
-from MLK's 25 March 1965 speech in Montgomery, Ala.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
