December 20, 2007 - Thursday

 

This is a periodic personal commentary by Marty Omoto, director/organizer of the California Disability Community Action Network (CDCAN).  Address inquires to Marty Omoto, CDCAN at 1225 8th Street, Suite 480, Sacramento, CA 985814  916/446-0013 or email  martyomoto@rcip.com Website: http://www.cdcan.us  to get the free non-partisan CDCAN Disability News Reports and to view archived copies. Since 2000, CDCAN Reports and commentaries go out to over 45,000 people with disabilities, seniors, families, Asian and Pacific Islanders disability groups, other minority advocacy groups, organizations, policymakers, media and others across California.  It is okay to forward this - just provide attribution.  To read other and previous commentaries, go to the CDCAN website at www.cdan.us    Thanks - Marty Omoto

 

 

 

Recently, the remains of about 40 children and adults with disabilities and other special needs, originally buried in unmarked graves during the late 1890's on the grounds of the now-closed Stockton State Hospital (45 miles south of Sacramento) were reburied   They were among the estimated 25,000 children and adults with developmental disabilities and people with mental health needs who lived and died in California's state hospitals between the mid-1880's and 1965. 

 

During  that time period,  those 40 children and adults in Stockton, like the thousands of others buried in other places at that state facility and other state hospitals, were considered "invisible" members of society and ignored by the rest of the world even when they lived. Those without families to claim their bodies when they died, were often put into unmarked graves and were forgotten as quickly as the last shovel of dirt that covered them. 

 

The California Memorial Project, a collaboration of people with mental health needs, people with developmental disabilities and other advocates, along with state and local agencies, helped to identify those persons forgotten and buried, and to remember them with the respect and honor that they never received in life. 

 

Dick Jacobs, executive director of Valley Mountain Regional Center, observed that recent reburial in Stockton and recalled that during the original excavation of the unmarked graves "...One of the crew reportedly wept openly while exposing the remains of a little girl who was apparently buried with nothing other than the plain shift that 'inmates' wore in those days. Perhaps he was hoping to find the remains of a doll, I don't know."

 

Remembering the past is always linked to how we live in the present and view our future.  The California Memorial Project, like other efforts to remember the past, is also about honoring those who died, and respecting people now. That is something important for all of us to understand,  not just in the disability community,  but also for policymakers and others in our State and nation. 

 

It also has some important lessons to teach us as advocates and policymakers in the coming months, whether in health care reform or how the State responds to a budget crisis that grows worse each month.

 

Remembering the Good Things and the Bad

Certainly remembering the past means remembering the good things this country has done and the progress it has made in human rights.  Certainly there is much for all of us to be proud of.  There is no better country, and no better ideals as expressed in the Constitution than the United States of America.

 

But the California Memorial Project and other efforts, including remembering the Holocaust or the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and other terrible chapters in our past,  is important because it also reminds us how often our country has badly treated people because of differences in color, because of disabilities, gender, age, because of mental health needs, because of sexual orientation, because of income status or what other country they immigrated from.

 

Yes, our country has changed dramatically since that time in Stockton over a century ago, and will continue to change. Hopefully the good changes will outweigh the bad, or at least correct the bad things of the past. 

 

But there are bad things happening now - and bad things that many fear will happen in the coming months.

 

Another Important Reason to Remember the Past

George Santayana once wrote that "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

 

So there is another important reason to remember. 

 

It is important for us to also remember that the rest of the world, and the rest of the country during that time and times more recent, claimed it "did not know".  Some people during that time were simply indifferent, because they did not care or had other important things to worry about. 

 

We need to remember that indifference, not hate, as Elie Weisal once wrote, is the opposite of love because it is often more destructive, more insidious and more shameful.  Indifference means that good people stand by and do nothing to stop an injustice, to correct a wrong or to cry out for help while another is being hurt. 

 

Indifference is the silence that lies, it is the trust in things that betrays our values.  It is the evil that stands by and allows shameful and bad things to happen, whether 100 years ago, or 50 years ago, or here and now. 

 

Less than a half century ago, many people thought it was okay to isolate people who were different either through poverty, because of disabilities or mental health needs or color.  Even more people would have claimed they did not know or through indifference claimed they did not see. 

 

They did. 

 

Now, over some 50 to 100 years later , how does that past - and the subsequent things that have happened - matter to us beyond simply remembering the people who died and were treated so shamefully?   Or are we condemned to repeat the same mistake again?

 

Lessons in Advocacy In Remembering Our Past

 

It means that we need to also remind ourselves that decisions are made by those who show up.  It means that we must teach ourselves that if we truly believe in inclusion and self determination then we must also believe we have the power and responsibility to create change, to protect our friends and families, and to remind the world - and perhaps most importantly ourselves, that a life matters .

 

Decisions are made by those who show up, who are not invisible, who by their very presence demand to be noticed, to be a part of what happens in their life in every possible way. It means to be respected and to bring down the comforting veil of indifference that divides and separates us from the rest of California and our nation.

 

If we do that, we will be honoring  those who have died in those state hospitals in unmarked graves that an indifferent world wanted to forget and we will be respecting the lives they had lived by "showing up" and insisting that the world respect ours. 

 

Thanks and Some Next Steps

Thanks to Shella DuMong of Santa Barbara, a good friend and a parent of two children, including a daughter with disabilities and disability rights advocate, for urging me to write this commentary (it would not have happened otherwise) and for the George Santayana quote she gave me and for the help in reviewing the final draft.   

Background information - California Memorial Project:

The California Memorial Project is a partnership of the California Network of Mental Health Clients, Capitol People First, and the Peer and Self-Advocacy Units of Protection and Advocacy, Inc. (PAI) and was supported with legislation passed in 2002 (SB 1448, Chapter 490, Statutes of 2002)  and also 2006 (SB 258, Chapter 391, Statutes of 2006) by then State Senator Wes Chesbro.  The Project holds an annual rememberance day - the most recent was held in September 2007 at some of the state and developmental centers. 

For more information - including copies of those bills, go to the CDCAN website at www.cdcan.us