Middletown Woman Helps Lead Protest Against JI Editorial Targeting Mentally Ill

By David Moran

About 20 people lined the intersection of Center and Main Streets in Manchester Friday afternoon holding protest signs declaring discrimination and yelling slogans such as "Educate! Don't discriminate!" 

Their intended target? 

An editorial published in the Monday, Feb. 18 edition of the Journal Inquirer newspaper written by Managing Editor Chris Powell that they said unfairly promotes discrimination against the mentally ill.

The protest was co-led by Heather McDonald, executive director of Focus on Recovery-United in Middletown.

FOR-U is a peer support program which envisions a statewide network of peer-provided recovery education and support opportunities for adults in Connecticut. Its website says the group is dedicated to "promoting a culture of wellness by encouraging positive change in the lives of adults, their family members, providers and the community." 

She told the Courant that Powell's editorial "promotes discrimination against the mentally ill. She said the idea for the protest came after she and other advocates for the mentally ill began emailing about the editorial."

"At this time in history in this state when there's so much scrutiny being paid to mental health services and persons who have been diagnosed with mental illnesses and the rights that we have and should have, it's doubly offensive that a respected newspaper in Connecticut should be promoting those kind of ideas," Ronna Keil, a Bloomfield resident and one of the organizers of the protest, said.

"So is a landlord necessarily irrational and hateful in his reluctance to rent to someone who may behave badly but claim not to be responsible for himself on account of illness, who may bother his neighbors, and who may have trouble holding a job and paying rent and still prove impossible to evict against a claim of wrongful discrimination?” Powell asks in his editorial.

“And is an employer necessarily irrational and hateful in his reluctance to hire someone whose mental illness incapacitates him at certain times and may scare co-workers but who may prove impossible to dismiss against a clime of wrong discrimination?" Powell writes.

Powell also mentions the Newtown shootings in his editorial and notes the shooter, Adam Lanza, is believed to have suffered from some form of mental illness; although Powell does not mention Lanza by name in the editorial. 

"Language is a powerful tool and when fear-based, it serves to perpetuate stereotypes, stigma, and discrimination of those it speaks," McDonald told Middletown Patch Friday night.

"Our protest today was aimed at bringing attention to Mr. Powell’s misinformation and assumptions that people who have been labeled with 'mental illness' will behave badly purely on the basis of such a label. This is illogical, irresponsible, punitive, and potentially, dangerous."

McDonald said she and other protesters don't expect a written apology or retraction from Powell or the JI.

Rather, "we hope for responsible journalism that reports the logical, and evidence-based information available, namely that one person (be it a landlord, employer, or whomever) base how he or she relates or treats another person on the individual and his or her behavior rather than arbitrary (and much disputed) labels that may have been imposed upon the person by another."

Earlier Friday, Keil said protestors were seeking a public retraction and apology from the Journal Inquirer and Powell for the editorial, and planned another protest on March 2 at the State Capitol in Hartford sponsored by Advocacy Unlimited. 

Powell could not be immediately reached for comment about the protest Friday afternoon.