[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 187 (Wednesday, November 15, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7257-S7258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO RON POWERS
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I would like to take a moment to recognize
the moving work of Ron Powers of Castleton, VT--a Pulitzer Prize-
winning author who has written about everything from Mark Twain to the
soldiers of Iwo Jima to broadcast news and sports.
Ron's latest book, ``No One Cares About Crazy People,'' concentrates
on a topic that he promised himself he would never write about: the
social history of mental illness in America. This story is poignantly
told through his own deeply personal story of his two
[[Page S7258]]
sons' struggles with schizophrenia, which tragically claimed the life
of one of them.
The book's informative yet intimate approach raises awareness about a
subject that most are too uncomfortable to broach. When reading it, you
can hardly hold back tears.
I cannot imagine the pain Ron and Honoree went through while working
on this book. It is a truly personal journey and a triumph. I am proud
of him for publishing this important work. He understands that mental
illness is not an issue that will simply go away if pushed into the
darkness of neglect and denial. One cannot lock it up in an institution
and expect to be rid of the problem. Mental illness in America needs to
be discussed openly, by those who suffer from it, the friends and
families of those affected, medical experts, and those of us Senators.
We must all follow the footsteps of Ron and continue to shine a light
on this extremely sensitive issue.
I ask unanimous consent that the October 8, 2017, Vermont Digger
article honoring Ron Powers and his family and recognizing his great
work be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Vermont Digger, Oct. 8, 2017]
A Vermonter Questions the Nation's Mental Health
(By Kevin O'Connor)
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Powers' past works have
eagerly explored everything from the 1800s literary lion Mark
Twain to the flag-raising World War II soldiers at Iwo Jima
and the present-day pioneers of broadcast news and sports.
The Vermonter's current focus is different.
``This is the book I promised myself I would never write,''
Powers begins its preface. ``I have kept that promise for a
decade--since our younger son, Kevin, hanged himself in our
basement, a week before his 21st birthday in July 2005, after
struggling for three years with schizophrenia.''
The author, born 75 years ago in Twain's hometown of
Hannibal, Missouri, can boast of a prolific career that has
seen him in a columnist's chair at the Chicago Sun-Times and
a commentator's seat on the CBS News program ``Sunday
Morning,'' as well as on the best-seller list for more than a
dozen books that include collaborating on the late U.S. Sen.
Edward Kennedy's memoir ``True Compass.''
But after the death of one of his two boys, the Castleton
resident could barely think about, let alone tackle, another
project. He and his wife, Honoree Fleming, were finally
starting to heal (``adaptation, really,'' he says) when they
saw their surviving son, experiencing a psychotic break one
Christmas, tell neighbors he was the messiah before police
took him to a hospital.
And so Powers began to research mental illness--not just
the schizophrenia his family has faced but also all the other
issues the World Health Organization estimates will affect
one-fourth of the world's people at some point in their
lives.
``I realized that my 10 years of silence on the subject,''
he says, ``silence that I had justified as insulation against
an exercise in self-indulgence, was itself an exercise in
self-indulgence.''
And so Powers is talking up his new book, ``No One Cares
About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health
in America.'' The 384-page Hachette hardcover shares his
family's story alongside a historic and often horrific survey
of mental illness in larger society.
``Studies by the National Institute of Mental Health show
that among Americans age 18 or older, more than 62 million
(26 percent of the population) require (but are not always
given) counseling and medical treatment,'' he writes.
Powers could cite too many reasons for not wanting to
tackle the topic: What about his family's privacy? The
appearance of exploitation? The fact he isn't an expert?
``Book writing is hard work,'' he continues. ``And, really,
end of the day, who the hell wants to read about
schizophrenia anyway?''
Plenty of people, the author would discover. Nearly a
decade after their son's death, Powers and his wife accepted
an invitation to testify at a 2014 Vermont legislative
hearing on whether acutely mentally ill patients should be
medicated against their will.
``At first glance, speedy `involuntary treatment' might
seem the least objectionable of measures, given that people
in psychosis are virtually never capable of making rational
decisions,'' he writes in his book. ``And yet opponents of
the process bring passionate counterarguments to the debate.
Among the most formidable is that `involuntary treatment' is
by definition a violation of one's civil liberties.''
Powers testified in support of shorter waits on decisions
about involuntary intervention, which the Legislature went on
to adopt as law. But the author was moved by opponents of the
measure.
``They were there: the faces and souls of the mentally ill,
emerging from their prevailing invisibility to declare
themselves,'' he writes. ``The sheer presence of them, their
actualization in the room, had affected me in the gut, not
because I hadn't expected them, but because of the profound,
elemental humanity of them.''
Three weeks later, Powers read news of a Wisconsin
political aide who, responding to headlines of state mental
health mismanagement, emailed a colleague: ``No one cares
about crazy people.''
That's when the author started writing--for himself, his
household, other families, friends, neighbors and psychiatric
professionals.
``My aim with this book is not to replace or argue with the
existing vast inventory of important books on mental
illness,'' he writes. ``Rather, I hope to reamplify a simple
and self-evident and morally insupportable truth: Too many of
the mentally ill in our country live under conditions of
atrocity.''
Powers has taken his message to National Public Radio's
``Fresh Air'' program and is seeing it shared in publications
nationwide.
``He writes with fierce hope and fierce purpose to persuade
the world to pay attention,'' fellow Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist Ron Suskind wrote in a review for The New York
Times. ``I'm not sure I've ever read anything that handles
the decline of one's children with such openness and searing,
stumbling honesty.''
Readers can learn for themselves when Powers speaks at the
Brattleboro Literary Festival on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the
downtown Centre Congregational Church. If similar appearances
are any indication, he'll share a few of the book's humorous
family stories, too.
``Why do I include these?'' he told an audience in
Manchester. ``Because they make me smile and bring the two
boys to life. I wanted to avoid a kind of cliche--the
afflicted loved ones described only in the context of their
victimhood. It's hard to feel compassion for an abstract. My
sons were wonderful spirited boys before this affliction
struck.''
That said, Powers isn't seeking to entertain.
``I hope you do not `enjoy' this book,'' he writes. ``I
hope you are wounded by it; wounded as I have been in writing
it. Wounded to act, to intervene.''
``America must turn its immense resources and energy and
conciliatory goodwill to a final assault on mental illness,''
he concludes. ``My sons, and your afflicted children and
brothers and sisters and parents and friends, deserve nothing
less.''
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