Election Day
![23326295[1].jpg](http://trouble.philadelphiaweekly.com/archives/23326295%5B1%5D.jpg)
Well, today is voting day, and my new polling place is Abbraccio restaurant, where I can do my civic duty while scarfing down ravioli. I'm voting for mayor today -- Al Taubenberger -- and there are ballot questions as well.
Tee hee. Just kidding. I probably will eat ravioli, but I won't be voting for Al. I'm voting for Michael Nutter because you would have to rip my fingernails out with fishing pliers before I'd vote for a Republican. I didn't always feel that way, but today's GOP is so radically divergent from my own views in every way, I can't imagine a Republican candidate who would appeal to me. But then again, I'm kind of a typical liberal: pro-choice, anti-death-penalty, pro-gay rights, pro-environmental protection, anti-gun, antiwar, anti-Iraq ... you could write the rest of the list. Liberals are just as predictable as conservatives. Yawn.
If you live in Philly and want to know where to go to vote for important judicial retention questions, ballot issues, City Council races, and more, go here. Also, read this City Paper article about a judge who made what an appalling decision, was rebuked by the Bar Association (see below), and who may end up having a tough time today because of it.
Jill Porter | Phila. Bar rips judge who nixed rape of hooker
Comments
The amazing thing about your post is how easily the words "fishing pliers" roll off your tongue. FYI-the official Hadassah implement of self-injury is eyebrow tweezers.
Posted by: HS | November 6, 2007 02:48 PM
New Jersey residents voted to revise the existing constitutional language to eliminate the words "idiots and insane." Surprisingly, 40% of the electorate voted for keeping the existing language. It makes me question all the progress that has been long asserted with respect to the eradication of stigma or the value of the efforts. After all, how we think of ourselves is not entirely a reflection of what we are called but how we are treated, our role in the community, etc.
I wish I could get excited having voted for this revision but for the life of me I can't. We've been through the word game for so long that another change seems hardly worth mentioning. What changed when persons receiving mental health treatment went from being called the mentally ill, to recipients, to clients and then to consumers? What changed when we went through the Era of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, the Era of Evidence-Based Practices, and now that we are fourteen years into the Era of Recovery and have been several years into the Era of Wellness and Recovery? What changed after the Carter Commission, the Surgeon's General Reports, the Decade of the Brain, and the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. The words changed as did the medications but did anything else?
"Words should be used as tools of communication not as a substitute for action."
Joe
Posted by: Joe | November 7, 2007 10:58 AM