Monday, March 22, 2010

A Presentation on the Rights to Fair Housing for Those Challenged by Mental Illness.

I went to the Staten Island Mental Health Council Legislative Breakfast on March 19th in Staten Island, New York. Some of the local politicians had some interesting things to say. The Co-Chair of the Council, Larry Hochwald, who ran the event, had a lot of things to say. Some of them were interesting and some were funny. Next Left Notes journalist Tom Good, who recorded some of the politicians speeches, chose to record and post a part of the Co-Chair's presentation that was not so funny, but was clearly unscripted and made some good points that the audience of 300 appreciated. He spoke about dealing with stigma issues directed at those challenged by mental illness, living in Staten Island. (Due to confidentiality issues he did not record scenes of the audience). Apparently he spoke "quickly" because there was a lot to cover at this breakfast and there were time constraints as well. For New Yorkers, the comments of all the elected officials might prove interesting. The Co-Chair's comments could resonate wherever there is stigma or the feeling of "Not In My Back-Yard".
Here is a link to the complete set of clips Tom recorded.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=82E7BA9ECDF26669

And here is the particular clip I just discussed:

3 comments:

Bruce said...

Wonderful video...nice going. Very passionate & poignant speaking. Bravo.

LHwrites said...

Thank you! Could have been better--could have been worse. I thought it made some interesting points.

Bruce said...

You were excellent, really.