Is it any wonder that some people become anti-government, when it fails them?

1. The Americans with Disabilities Act (of 1990)
2. Request for Accommodation 10-22-04
3. The hell of acting as my own, and only, advocate
4. Is our legal system bigoted against the mentally ill? - the bigotry is documented.
5. Finding out about mental illness Stigma in November 2004
 

My failure on Oct. 22, 2004 to find new legal or other help.

 

1. The Americans with Disabilities Act (of 1990)

I have highlighted the sections of the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA) that should have been followed by police, prosecutors, the public defender, and court in Bowling Green and Marion Ohio:

From the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA) of 1990:

SEC. 201. DEFINITION.
 As used in this title:

(1) Public entity.--The term "public entity" means--

(A) any State or local government;
(B) any department, agency, special purpose district, or other instrumentality of a State or States or local government; and
(C) the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, and any commuter authority (as defined in section 103(8) of the Rail Passenger Service Act).

(2) Qualified individual with a disability.--The term "qualified individual with a disability" means an individual with a disability who, with or without reasonable modifications to rules, policies, or practices, the removal of architectural, communication, or transportation barriers, or the provision of auxiliary aids and services, meets the essential eligibility requirements for the receipt of services or the participation in programs or activities provided by a public entity.

Subject to the provisions of this title, no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity.

2. Request for Accommodation on Oct. 22, 2004

Using Section 201 and 202 of the Americans with Disabilities Act as a guide (item 1. above), I expected the courts to modify their rules to accommodate me.  If they can not do it themselves, I expect other government agencies to help.  It is not unreasonable to expect those same courts to correct their past mistakes and provide me with justice.  That resulted in the following:

a. accommodation-request: My attempt to find potential advocates.  I sent this out on Oct. 22, 2004 to address the issues that I discovered during the year.  It was sent to the courts, the U.S. justice department, all my Senators and Representatives at both State and Federal level, the State Governor, and the U.S. President.  It was also sent to various groups who claimed to be advocates for the mentally ill or civil rights.  In total over 50 copies were sent.

b. va-award-mental-illness:  This document from the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that my mental illness, Bipolar Disorder, would qualify as a disability under the ADA (item 1. above).  The civic group might find it interesting, for it explains many of the concerns that they were attacking me about.  Note on pages 2 and 3 the issues with stress and impairment.  What can I expect from society?

c. www.bgcourt.org:  Find false information about my criminal case on the internet with the Bowling Green, Ohio, Court.  If the court broke the law, then placing the information on the internet only serves to harm me.  To find the information click each of the following - (1) Clerk of Court - (2) Case Information - (3) enter "Michael Lake" to find the records.

d. certified-reply:  This is a copy of the signed certified cards, showing that both courts and the U.S. Department of Justice had received my requests.

e. help-justice-reply & senators :  Reply from ACLU and government - This is in response to item 2.a. above.  The only answers came from the ACLU, my U.S. Representative, my State Senator, and finally the U.S. Department of Justice.  The Ohio ACLU could not help.  My federal representative and state senator did not seem to understand.  The Department of Justice claimed:

"We have determined that we shall not initiate an investigation into your complaint because, absent exceptional circumstances, this office does not intervene in litigation in State or local courts and does not review judicial decisions of such courts in individual matters."

- United States Department of Justice

3. The hell of acting as my own, and only, advocate

I was confronted by groups of people, working together, to prove that I am crazy and dangerous.
It was not difficult for them to find additional support both legally and from their friends.  They have had time and resources to research their intentions.  Gossip has worked to their advantage, for people like to talk about the crazies out there...  And if they needed additional evidence, all they needed to do was confront me.

My position was one of weakness.  No one was helping me to prove that I was a good person.
My attempts at legal support were ignored or used against me.  People claiming to be supportive friends joined the ones confronting me.  Even family members and my roommate were bothered to talk about the pain going on inside me.  I was a person confused, dealing with mental illness, alone, with only God to have faith in.

Many people have claimed that I was dangerous because I would seem to talk crazy at times.
I had to deal with over a dozen years of fear without anyone to provide support.  I could never expect to date or have a family because of how people act about mental illness.  Compassion is a crazy light that shines from within, showing what others would not see.  People were showing me the nature of mankind by their actions.  I was learning (see help page, item 5).

On top of this all was making this website.
My failure on Oct. 22, 2004, item 2.a., demonstrated that ANY extreme sign of mental illness (at the start) might cause people to turn away.  So, it took me many more months to show what I needed to show while avoiding being too extreme.  On the other hand, people tend to ignore what is boring.  You could say that as a person with mental illness, I needed to be a better communicator than most people!  This is at odds with the very nature of having a mental illness.

Look at the subdirectory - /why to see everything I had to organize and deal with.

Is society or the mentally ill to blame for these problems?
You can not expect people with mental illness to serve all of society's needs on their own.  Instead of blaming the mentally ill for everything, they need support!

 

4. Is our legal system bigoted against the mentally ill?

I believe that I should have expected better from the authorities who treated me like a criminal (page 2 item 1 and page 3 items 1, 2, 3, & 4).  I was told that they were just doing their job.  Or, that they need to act the way that they did as part of their job.  It is like the justification for deadly force - they are worried about themselves but do not seem to care about the damage that they may cause.

As mentioned in item 2.e. above, it appears that the ADA is not enforced against the state legal system.  This leaves the law enforcement and courts within a state free to act with bigotry, hate, and prejudge against the mentally ill or other handicaps.  My own experiences suggest that this is a significant problem.  I do not feel that it is too strong to attack the state's legal system in this way.  You can not blame the individuals for something that the whole group allows to happen.

The failure of the legal system has caused me irreparable harm which has no adequate remedy in law.  The mentally ill make good scapegoats because it is hard for them to defend themselves.  Do not take my for for it, see CineManiaStigma.com and other websites in the mental illness links.

Please help, see the next page!

 

5. Finding out about mental illness Stigma in November 2004

What really started to change me was finding out about "The Stigma of Mental illness" in  November of 2004.  It took awhile for it to sink in and understand.  I had experienced 15 years of stigma, so it may take a while to learn how to deal with it.  My entire personality was changed during and after army because of stigma.

More than ever, I want to do something about it!

Now that I knew about stigma, the lack of responses made sense.  The great leaders of our society appeared to be bigoted about mental illness.  They deserve the stigma that is given to the mentally ill.  Actually, in order to help me with my own stigma, I wrote a web page about it. See Society's problem with mental illness.