This is a moral issue of decency and equality. - Rosalynn Carter
In 2010, one out of every four individuals are living with a mental illness.
This disease is still not even considered mainstream.
For a Bostonian, as a jet descends to land at Logan Airport, the IM Pei designed Kennedy Library, on the port side, is a Welcome Home sign, no matter what generation you were born in, or what your modern personal politics are today. Many things have changed in the intervening years since President Kennedy was assassinated. Yet so many social and political issues and challenges remain unresolved 50 years later. November 22, 1963 marked a turning point for the boomer generation until that fateful day of September 11, 2001. It's a bit unnerving.
Twenty years have passed quickly since I walked through the JFK Library. The museum's use of technology, the period collections, the exhibits and artifacts have changed to accommodate visitors. A tour through the museum, conjures up memories. It's fun to see the old TVs, radios and kitchen appliances that form my earliest memories. Aqua GE products were all the rage, and because GE was the employer of three generations on my paternal side, we had the latest and greatest GE products, including a state of the art aqua kitchen in our first home.
Most of the eligible voters in the 1959 election have passed now. I'm struck by the black and white grainy images of the film introducing the visitor to the Library. The color film was obviously provided by the Kennedy family. Who else could afford such luxuries in the late 1940's and 1950's? Mostly, the film is just black and white and gray. Somewhat like the politics of today. We are as deeply divided as nation as in the 1959 election that pitted Nixon and Kennedy against each other. It was a very close race, not unlike the memorable Kerry versus Bush campaign. Kennedy stole Chicago, thus Illinois with some help from his friends, while Bush stole the state of Florida with some familial and US Supreme Court assistance. Let's just say, that both Democrats and Republicans, have a history of stealing Presidential (and other) elections. It's all considered fair and square. Politics, nationally and locally, is a brutal sport. Cheating is permitted, even encouraged. It's just the way it is, all idealism aside.
Looking at the electoral map of the US in 1959, which included the newly admitted states of Alaska and Hawaii, geographically the mainland had grown since the Civil War era. That was the last time, the nation hugely divided against itself. But at that time, only white male US citizens were eligible to vote. Those words, Civil War, as it's commonly called, conjure up images of the citizens, the people themselves, as being responsible for the carnage of war within the borders. It ignores the myriad of forces at play and the riches to be gained by a few. It was the elite classes of both sides, the industrialists and the plantation owners, the divisive regional politicians who deadlocked the government and the military that drove this country into a devastating war on our own soil. The issue of States Rights versus the Federal Union, that the Founders tried to balance, are still competing ideals and forces that linger unresolved today.
The Grand Army of the Republic, comprised mostly of farm boys and immigrants, may have won that war militarily. The Union survived and trumped the secession movement. However, the agenda, the ideals of the Confederacy have taken root, flourished in vast regions and seems to have won by capturing the hearts, minds and souls of a modern era. The Republicans, including the Tea Party, claim Lincoln as their own. I can only imagine the number of times he's turned over in his grave as every political party invokes his name. Just watch the rantings of Fox News and its ratings, if you have any doubts.
Lincoln could not possibly be elected President of the United States of America today. Not only was he not photogenic, but he had a mental illness, too. He suffered a lifetime with debilitating depression during a horrific war that killed thousands of boys during each battle. And there were a substantial number of battles. His southern- belle, privileged wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, also had the misfortune to have a mental illness. She had manic-depression and was often incapacitated by migraine headaches, adoring her buying sprees so much, that she nearly bankrupted Abe while he managed a war. After the assignation of the President in her presence, the reward for all her suffering and losses, was to be committed, institutionalized to an insane asylum for the rest of her life. This final act was accomplished by their only surviving child, a Harvard educated son, with no questions asked. Those with mental illness had no Constitutional rights. Women had none.
Why does any of this matter? The purpose bringing me to the Kennedy Library on a gray, Sunday November afternoon, is to hear Rosalynn Carter speak about "The Mental Health Crisis". She's the first modern day woman, a former First Lady, to use her position as the wife of a politician, to advocate for the legal and medical rights of individuals with mental illness. Mrs. Carter has dedicated a lifetime to eliminating the stigma of mental illness by proposing legislation to protect the victims of this disease and speaking out publicly about the treatments and interventions around this medical condition.
The former First Lady speaks softly with a pronounced southern drawl. She's impeccably dressed, without any lines or wrinkles on her face. She's petite and her inner wisdom and strength radiates the hall. She's a bit frail now, in her 80's, still writing, still making TV and public appearances, advocating, traveling alone and with her husband former President Carter, on world-wide humanitarian missions. Gone now are the days of simple golf and pleasurably pursuits of retired Presidents. Together, the Carters, despite their brief tenure, reinvented the role of former Presidents and First Ladies on a global level. Except for Carter's successor, President Reagan, as wildly popular as he was, late in his tenancy, he quickly succumbed to another mental illness, Alzheimer's Disease.
Every other succeding President and former First Lady, with a contingent of expensive Secret Service agents and their accompanied technologies, have earned multi-millions of dollars by writing their (or their pets) memoirs, jumping onto the speaking circuit and have morphed into global negotiators and humanitarians. When in US History has a former President or member of his family been assinated? None! The evidence of this absurdity is apparent when two Secret Service agents take the stage before Rosalynn Carter appears. I'm sure she'd feel safe without their presence, even being a Georgia Peach in Irish-Yankee territory. Against the advice of her husband's closest advisers, Mrs. Carter gave public testimony for legislation for medical and social parity on behalf of those with a mental illness. The Chair of the Committee was Ted Kennedy, the Lion of the Senate, who at the time was her husband's political nemesis within their shared Democratic Party. No one could dissuade her from her mission. Ol' Teddy must have admired her gumption and integrity. The proposed legislation was passed in 1978, but then was immediately scrapped by President Ronald Reagan. It took nearly 30 years until President George W. Bush, passedthe legislation took effect in 2002, protecting the medical, human and Constitutional rights of individuals with a mental illness. Such a waste of time. What a shame.
So on a gray November day, at the John F. Kennedy Library, Rosalynn Carter, protected by the Secret Service, a roped barrier, and a host of other perfunctory others, signs a copy of her latest book for me, "
Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis". The book is a gift from a dear friend who understands my journey and mission and accompanied me on this occasion. Thank you, Rosalynn Carter, for champion the rights of those with a mental illness, the vulnerable and the often under-privileged. You embody dignity and respect.
Thank you for publicly telling Americans that it's more than OK to adore, love, marry and befriend someone with a mental illness. In your wake, there is more to do to educate and eliminate the remaining social and biological barriers. God bless you, your husband, Jimmy, and keep you safe. Bravo! You're a gracious and courageous woman, a model for those whose work is just beginning.
To each and every one of you, my Readers, loved ones and friends, may blessings and joy be yours at this time of thanks and giving. Happy Thanksgiving!
