http://www.madnation.cc/essays/activist.htm
Advocate or Activist?
by Vicki Fox Smith
I am currently arguing in a very public way with a representative of a legal
advocacy organization that has a long history of being on the "right side" of
our issues. It's painful.
I like how lawyers think most of the time. I like how they approach tangled
messes of one sort or another and patiently organize the chaos. I like how they
document their positions, and how they are willing to get out in front to fight
for the underdog. I like public interest lawyers in particular because we have
them to thank for the big victories that enhance our civil and legal rights and
protect us from injustice.
That being said, there is a huge difference between being an advocate and being
an activist. I could wax on in a semi-poetic way about Martin Buber and "I and
Thou", but it would bore most people to death and I would probably fail to
clearly make my point. As an advocate there is a disconnect between issues and
the effect these issues have on people. As a psychiatric survivor activist I act
on behalf of myself, as part of a community of people whose, like me, have
experienced first hand the horrors of abusive psychiatric treatment and I
understand only to well the discrimination resulting from being labeled mentally
ill.
When advocates lose a battle, they go on to the next. When activists lose one,
we know that we will be forced to live in a world that is more dangerous and
frightening to us then it was before the opening volley.
There is serious movement afoot to silence the voices of psychiatric survivor
activists, The US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
is seriously considering appointing Sally Satel, a radical psychiatrist who has
publicly called for the silencing and defunding of activist voices, to its
advisory board. President Bush has only appointed one activist to the New
Freedom Commission on Mental Health, and he was appointed without mention made
of his survivor status, and, I assume at least in part, because he is also a
physician. The US technical assistance centers were not offered the usual
three-year funding contracts and had to beg and battle for the interim one-year
funding they finally were able to obtain. The various Offices of Consumer
Affairs established over the past decade are struggling to keep afloat as state
governments reduce their funding, lay off staff, and increase their duties
beyond their capacity to meet constituency needs.
All this is taking place against a background of increased repression and
decreased support for basic civil rights. Forced treatment laws of one sort of
another are now in place in 41 states. Organizations we could usually count on
to protect our rights or to sponsor research that held forth the possibility of
producing data that supports our cause are instead sitting together and
developing policy statements that add to the frenzied calls of our traditional
opponents to lock us up and forcibly treat us.
We have the events of September 11th to thank for much of this. Mainstream
progressive organizations seem to be scurrying around to prove that they are
patriotic-and at the moment, being patriotic seems to mean a willingness to
trade civil rights and social justice for the elusive promise of security. Maybe
it is because I didn't feel safe and secure before September 11th. or maybe it
is because I don't have as much to lose-never having had much to begin with-but
I am not willing to make that trade off. I don't think any activist would.
(note: while this editorial talks about the situation in the US, as a resident
of Canada, and a citizen of the world, I assure you that this is not simply an
American issue--vfs)
copyright © June 2002 Vicki Fox Smith for MadNation
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