Aid the Fight!

[Lady Renae]

We've got the right to choose and
there ain't no way we'll lose it.
This is our life. This is our song.
We'll fight the powers that be, just
don't pick our destiny 'cause
you don't know us, you don't belong.

...

Oh you're so condescending.
Your gall is never-ending.
We don't want nothin', not a thing from you.
Your life is trite and jaded,
boring and confiscated.
If that's your best, your best won't do.

We're right.
We're free.
We'll fight.
You'll see.

We're not gonna take it anymore.  ~ Twisted Sister

While I have always had a serious problem with the mindset that hierarchal status equates to and defines knowledge base and personal worth, especially when that mindset is used to marginalize the concerns of a minority group or individual, events and conversations of the past few days have led me to the conclusion that I can no longer sit idly by and complain while doing nothing significant or useful to resolve the issue. As a means of action, some members of the forums and I decided whilst in the IRC to take matters into our own hands and attempt to band together with others who share our concerns in the hopes that we can achieve in unison what we could not individually: effect a change in the gross societal perspective that denies the contributive capacity of 'lesser' individuals and belittles their opinions and concerns to the point of negating their validity and engendering an almost pathological state of powerlessness and defeatism in the affected individual or group.

To that end, we agreed to form an organization that would serve as a headquarters and meeting ground for those who would be interested in helping us achieve this goal. In order to do that, however, we need the contributions of more than just the few of us who coalesced in the IRC. We need your help as well.

This isn't just some minor entertainment similar to that which was created in the NSFW sub-forum. This is a major undertaking that will require significant amounts of research, campaigning, networking, and general work to achieve. From choosing an appropriate title, to designing the website, to creating and managing a unique message board, to collecting personal stories, to financial and legal management, every part needs someone to do it, and do it well. We are not foolish enough to think we can handle everything on our own. We need more hands in this.

If you have an idea, suggestion, thought, or potential contribution of any type, please share it. We'll take all the help we can get. If you just want to join us, that's fine too. The more members we have, the greater our chances of success.


At the moment, we are somewhere between the conceptualization and outlining phases, so I don't really have much to present other than what I've already said and a list of who all is part of this so far. We've tried to think of title ideas, but haven't settled on anything yet due to the first few ideas either not quite sounding right or having unforeseen contextual issues that we realized could either make us sound like something we weren't or draw the wrong sort of people to our group.

Here is who we have so far and what they've volunteered to contribute (if they were specific in any way), and yes this list will be updated as more people join:

• Lady Renae - Founder, Site Admin (means I do everything I can get my hands on and my brain around)
  
• Oriet - Co-Founder, (dunno what she's going to do yet)
  
• Brielle - Co-Founder, Webmaster (or at least, she's going to be hosting it... dunno about actual coding)
  
• CV - Advertising (general)
  
• Current
  
• Sikotik_Psyphi
  
• Renaissanceblonde
  
• Trevelyan - possible Universal Moderator
  
• Mattias
  
• amindfarfaraway
  

..yeah we're a pretty small group... but everything starts that way, right? ^-^

[Sigmaleph]

As I mentioned in the IRC, I would like to help, I'm just not sure what I could do.

[Sikotik_Psyphi]

I'm seriously intrigued by this. Not an hour before you posted, my day treatment facilitator had suggested I do something similar for mental health clients like myself. We are currently working on a quarterly magazine filled with the writings, photography and art of the people who go to said facility. I personally have found it to be a great outlet and a good small start. So many of us there have been told all our lives to sit down and shut up and that we do not matter. Well meaning but naive volunteers often treat us like children. I really want our little magazine to show that we have relevant thoughts and ideas and that we DO matter.
I also have been tempted over the last few days of posting here asking for advice on how to possibly inspire and motivate my peers that seem to have a terminal case of apathy to contribute content or get them involved in something other than smoking on the front benches and drinking coffee.
So yes, I'd like to join in some capacity. I enjoy doing research and I am doing graphic layouts for the magazine I keep mentioning. Next week the staff are going to look into getting a grant for me to get my peer counseling certification so I can do more with the group and community at large.

[D'Coke]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but how do we get anything done without majority consensus? You can't please everyone, so why not a majority? It seems like it would be more valuable to promote your personal agenda and its own merits rather than try to get the majority to kowtow to a minority.

I'm not being snarky. But I have never understood this view. I seek understanding if there's any to be had.

[Lady Renae]

It isn't about kowtowing. It's about the mindset that, for example, a minor with a disability is completely incapable of knowing what they're talking about when they try to communicate their needs and/or their ideas of what they think could help them advance in an area of difficulty simply because they are the person with the disability and don't have a fancy degree earned from studying out of a book.

It's about organizations supposedly created to help find better treatments for certain illnesses and mental disabilities and undesired traits (let alone the ones that actually want to 'cure' them) that are run, populated, and funded by, and serve the interests of, parents, psychiatrists, graduate students, religious leaders, and family members rather than the affected individuals, and when these individuals try to be part of these organizations they are viewed with pity and treated like children (no matter how old they are) when they voice an opinion that disagrees with the control-freak majority. "Oh you poor thing how horrible it must be to be so broken that you can't think exactly like we do. We love you so much we must fix you and change the very core of your being so you're easier for us to deal with because we don't like having to actually think about what we do, say, and believe. What you say doesn't matter because we know you really do want us to do everything we want to do because it's impossible for you to be anything other than what we tell you you are because we know better and always will. Oh, and we love you, so stop being you."

It's about being told that I couldn't possibly know what's going on in my own head, what's good for me, or what it's like to be who I am because the fact that I am who I am somehow makes me inferior and incapable of accurate thought unless I blindly parrot whatever I'm told by those who place themselves above me like a good little puppet.

It's a culture war, basically, and the fight to be recognized as a valid human being capable of rationality, and the ability to exert control over one's own life rather than constantly being treated like a fragile idiot child.

Also, maybe we don't WANT to be cured of whatever it is the 'normal' people don't want to have to deal with. They don't even bother to think about that. They're too busy looking for something to blame so they can point at it and say "see? I told you it was evil and completely not my fault!"

It's one thing to not have a voice in politics or the medical industry. It's another thing to not even have a voice in your own life with your own family, your school, your therapist, your workplace, and sometimes even your friends. That is what we fight. We fight against being shunted to the side and dismissed like annoying pets capable of human-like tricks.

We DO have minds of our own, and they are just as capable as anyone else's. We are valid, and we matter, and at the very least we demand for that to be recognized.

[renaissanceblonde]

Huh, I don't know how I'd help beyond some fairly extensive experience in explaining Aspergers to those who don't understand.

[Lady Renae]

I'm not thinking clearly enough to make an actual post, but I'll add you guys to the list. *goes to modify the post*

[Trevelyan]

Well, I can't really do anything techy. However, if you need help with a message board, I have experience being a mod, super-mod, admin. I realize that I'm new here, and that those aren't the types of things handed out lightly, however, I am more than willing to help out with a website in any way I might. What you have planned sounds intriguing and I'd like to help.

[Mira]

I am still not sure what this is all about, but I have a variety of mental illnesses I could help provide first-hand knowledge on. My brother actually did a research paper at University on a mental illness and he interviewed me for part of it. Don't know how else I could help, but count me in.

[antichrist]

So would this be about Aspegers?

If you're speaking about mental illness this site is a decent reference. It's written by people actually on medication, not the handout that comes with the prescriptions.

[Lady Renae]

It's more than just Aspergers. It's also more than just mental illness. It's a more general concept than that. I just seem to be having issues communicating it properly. Ironic, methinks.

[Mantorok]

It seems like a very broad "fight for the underdog/little guy" kinda thing to me.

[amindfarfaraway]

I think this is an absolutely necessary idea that needs to be promoted. As I've discussed on here before, I have Asperger's, and it's difficult when all people want to do is label me a freak, or some other epitaph that makes them feel better about themselves. And normally, I would be gung-ho about doing whatever I could to help. However, as it seems that I and my wife are about to go through a divorce, I don't think I could be of much use at the moment. But, when the time allows, I will want to help. But for now, all I can do is watch and see how your idea progresses. I'm very interested in seeing this thing go as far as it can.

[Lady Renae]

Ok. It seems like starting with this as a thing aimed at the diagnosed is the way to go. That, therefore, is where we'll start, and we'll add causes on as we gather more people able to help with those causes. Spreading ourselves too thin would be bad. I'll add names to the list.

[renaissanceblonde]

Articulate people with Aspergers, mental illness and other 'invisible' disorders need to get together. We have more in common than you think!