June 11, 2001
Governor George H. Ryan
207 State House
Springfield, IL 62706
Dear Governor Ryan:
Recently, the Guardianship and Advocacy Commission/Human Rights Authority determined
that the DHS/Chester Mental Health Center violated my rights under the Mental
Health and Developmental Disabilities Code when, acting pursuant to the apparent
direction of Sergeant Robert J. Gomora's June 21, 2000 letter urging restriction
of, inter alia, my "computer communication" rights, the CMHC intercepted
and confiscated two batches of software and innocuous reference materials and
a hand held scanner. The GAC is investigating numerous other and continuing
interceptions and confiscations of software, reference materials, and peripherals
as well as an ordered "freeze" on my upgrading, replacing or supplementing
my modest laptop computer and attachments.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported on these obstructions of my rights in articles
dated May 10 and 23. In the May 23rd article a spokesperson for your office,
in disregard of the findings of a supposedly autonomous investigatory and advisory
agency, stated that my rights are not being violated. I attach hereto text copies
of those articles for your reference as well as the findings of the Human Rights
Authority.
Citizens should be able to petition their governments peacefully and nonviolently
for redress of perceived wrongs, publish their writings, share ideas and information
with persons of their choice and engage in peaceful and nonviolent persuasion
to effect social and political change. Under Illinois law and the United States
Constitution, my confinement in your madhouse does not suspend those rights.
The Illinois MHDD Code explicitly states that a recipient of services shall
not forfeit any right merely because he is in receipt of such "services."
There is no compelling state interest in restricting my innocuous tools for
writing, research, creating documents, etc. These actions came in the wake of
your staffs' asking that my rights be restricted. You will recall that my right
to write to you was illegally restricted until protested by human rights activists
and the GAC.
One item recently confiscated without accompaniment by a statutorily mandated
restriction of rights notification was a T-shirt with the following logo printed
on its front:
I had planned to wear this shirt to court proceedings in which your government
seeks my further madhouse incarceration. Freedom of speech is guaranteed by
the Illinois and U.S. Constitutions. The shirt was confiscated upon delivery
and only after the GAC/LAS made repeated demands did I two months later receive
a restriction of rights notice which gave as the reason far the restriction
"Per DR. Hardy [CMHC Director] the shirt could interfere with the treatment
of other recipients." Today, most of the guards and nurses at the CMHC
word without a hint of protest by Dr. Hardy or the CMHC administration adhesive
buttons on their shirts with the following logo:
The CMHC guard union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees (AFSCME) local 424 is permitted to have its members wear buttons here
in front of us so-called "recipients of services" advocating abolition
of the agency that is statutorily charged with investigating and reporting neglect
and abuse of the unfortunates housed in Illinois' mental health system. I would
suspect this is more psychologically pernicious than my innocuous shirt advocating
abolition of "forced" mental health treatment which I'd only intended
to wear to public court proceedings. But AFSCME IS a major contributor to political
campaigns and politicians while I am merely a "recipient" of alleged
"services" which I don't want. The OIG periodically but infrequently
finds that union members have engaged in abuse and neglect and recommends their
dismissal. Of interest here also is the fact that an OIG-contracted outside
expert review that was to have taken place in 1996 was scuttled after Dr. Hardy
learned of this theretofore clandestine examination of me by a hired psychiatrist
and he vigorously and successfully protested this to various state officials.
The review was never resurrected and the OIG has refused for years to answer
anyone's' inquiries about this matter. It is widely believed by advocates and
those confined in these institutions that the OIG is regularly co-opted in its
activities by political interests such as AFSCME is able to influence with its
members' dues dollars. Seeing organized unionists protest a supposedly autonomous
oversight agency while on the job in a state "mental health center"
is disturbing and ominous.
The ongoing suppression of my lawful First Amendment activities smacks of fascism
and is reminiscent of the sort of oppression the Nationalist government of South
Africa utilized against Nelson Mandela and the ANC. I too am a social revolutionary
who seeks to abolish a social institution that oppresses millions of people,
i.e. coercive psychiatry. I have never used or advocated violence or force but
always and only moral persuasion and reason.
Timothy McVeigh should have struggled nonviolently as I am doing. He used violence
to protest government oppression and is vilified by the government as a monster.
I use speech, petitions in courts, letters to you, and publications in the press
and media and for my efforts l too am vilified by my madhouse wardens and my
efforts are frustrated and thwarted by illegal suppressions of my rights. It
was such activities that drove the peaceful Mandela to organize an army and
embark on the unsavory work of armed struggle.
An enlightened governor would not allow this and I must continue to believe
that you are not personally aware of these matters, are being misinformed by
bureaucrats below you, or both. I urge you again intercede to end this oppression.
Volunteer experts from around the globe have for some time been reporting that
I am rational and not afflicted with the supposed "mental illnesses"
my captors are attributing to me. It can only be assumed that my captors, in
addition to all the other proven violations of my most fundamental rights, are
incarcerating me in a madhouse on the basis of "diagnoses" which are
roundly disputed by well-meaning, informed volunteer experts whose only motivation
is social justice.
You have never answered or responded to any of my letters or to the hundreds
of letters sent you on my behalf from concerned supporters from around the globe.
How much longer will you continue to defer to a Department of Human Services
so obviously riddled with corruption?
Sincerely,
C. Rodney Yoder
cc: CCHR/St. Louis
John Soderlund/South Africa
Jeff P!esko, Director/LAS
Download a Word RTF file of this letter.
