Part One: Hurtful Words -Prejudice, NPR, and Fox TV

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 Juan Williams and I both worked at The Washington Post at the same time and have remained friendly ever since, so I was very interested in the media melodrama that unfolded last week when National Public Radio fired him.  

NPR CEO Vivian Schiller accused Juan of violating the radio network’s journalistic standards after he said on Fox Television’s “The O’Reilly Factor” that he got nervous when he was in an airport and saw people in Muslim garb.

His firing caused a flurry of accusations. Muslim groups accused Juan of being prejudice – a charge he denied. Bill O’Reilly accused NPR of dumping Juan because he had become a familiar face on the conservative Fox network — thereby irritating liberals. And everyone from Sarah Palin to NPR’s ombudsman chimed in.

Meanwhile, a chilling statement by Schiller was largely overlooked.

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CIT Returns to Fairfax County!

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Great news for those of us who live in Fairfax County, Virginia!
The Fairfax County Police Department just finished conducting a CIT class that was held from September 28th to October 1st and was attended by 49 officers.
In an earlier blog, I criticized the department for not including Crisis Intervention Team classes as part of the police force’s regular training program.    For those of you unfamiliar with CIT, it is a specially designed program that brings mental health professionals and law enforcement together to find ways to improve community mental health services.   
Sadly, police officers today deal with more persons with severe mental disorders than psychiatrists do. It only makes sense that the police undergo training that helps them identify someone who might be having a mental break and teaches them successful methods to deal with those persons, hopefully without force.

Comments Enabled with New Commenting Policy

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As return readers of this site know, the ability to comment on the blog was recently suspended. A post Pete wrote caused some uncivil remarks and subsequently, we shut down comments while we developed a comment policy. Pete encourages debate and conversation and we feel this policy will allow for both while keeping comments respectful:

Comment Policy: Keep the conversation civil and on topic. If your comment does not add to the conversation, it will be removed. Debate intelligently and thoughtfully. Personal attacks and insults against the author or other commenters will result in comment removal and possible ban. Any links posted with a comment will go into moderation before being posted and anything deemed as spam will not be approved. Typing in all capital letters is discouraged as it is considered rude. Moderators reserve the right to ban and remove comments and commenters that violate this policy without notice. Commenters are encouraged to flag comments that violate this policy if they have not yet been moderated. If you would like to track your comments, sign-up for a free Disqus account or use any of the multiple login options. This policy is subject to change.

We apologize to those who have contributed to the site’s conversation already following these rules before they even posted and thank you for your readership and patience during the brief suspension.

Top Notch, Inspirational Speakers!

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When I’m asked to recommend a speaker, I immediately mention four mental health advocates.

I’ve seen Fred Frese, PhD., talk for two hours and still leave the audience wanting more. Diagnosed with schizophrenia while in the U.S. Marine Corps, Fred could have easily ended-up in the back mental ward of a state institution, forgotten and   overlooked. Instead, he managed to win his freedom, take control over his symptoms and become a strident consumer advocate. Along the way, he earned a doctorate in psychology, ran a hospital ward and taught as a professor. As a speaker, he is an emotional powerhouse who causes listeners to leap to their feet.

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Comments Disabled Until Futher Notice

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Because of the recent amount of controversy and personal attacks in the comments across this site, the ability to add comments to the blog and on Pete’s Facebook page are disabled. We hope this will be temporary as Pete and I discuss a comment policy to implement across his multiple online platforms. Apologies to our readers who have contributed thoughtful and intelligent responses to the blog posts and thank you for your patience during this time.

For more information about this, please read Pete’s recent post.

Alternatives 2010: Answering Critics

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 I normally post my blog on Mondays but after the firestorm that my last blog caused, I feel I should answer some of the comments.
1. Why don’t I participate in the blog comment section?
 I was trained as a journalist and was taught that a newspaper published an editorial and then readers reacted with letters. It was considered improper for a newspaper to add a comment to a letter. Why? Because the letter writer would not have an opportunity to reply to that note. Obviously, blogs are different and I have noticed that many bloggers do interact with readers.
I have chosen to not do that because I think the comment section should be for readers to give their reactions. 
At this time, I don’t plan on changing my policy, especially because I am behind on writing my newest book, which has nothing to do with mental health. This doesn’t mean that I don’t read and think about all comments. I do.