Pissed off Wiccan for Peace: 04/11/2004

Saturday, April 17, 2004

Yahoo! News - Columbine Dad Turned Away From NRA Event

Need I say more...?

posted by Kimber at 9:34 PM :: ~#~

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Yes, I am once again going to get on my Disability Rights soapbox. Please read these articles and the ones I've linked to and think about this...

DISABILITY ADVOCATES ARE NEEDED IN EACH OF THESE CITIES TO CONTACT PRESS NOW AND TO HAND OUT PROTEST FLYERS!
(see sample flyer below -- feel free to change & personalize). If you can work on organizing this in your city, please forward this to local advocates with info. specific to your city and plans.

The subtitle of the movie is: "Crime. Confusion. Compassion. They’re all just states of mind."  The murder victim (a young man with autism) is portrayed as an object, a plot device, rather than a real human being -- with the sympathy vote going to the person who committed the murder.  When this film was first being promoted in 2002, the description (still being run on many movie sites) read in part: "This is the story of a sensitive teenager, Leland, faced with issues of morality and hope under difficult circumstances, who is arrested and sent to juvenile hall, after he kills an autistic child out of sympathy (sort of like an emotional euthanasia)." Other comments have indicated that a focus of the film lies in exploring the "unexpected good" that emerges as a result of the act of murder.

One reviewer said, "Where 'Leland' crosses the line to reprehensible, is in its blatant attempt to elicit sympathy for Leland (the person who committed the murder) and none at all for the slain child, Ryan. Perhaps the most shocking line of all is spoken by Ryan's mother who in her grief expresses bewilderment at Leland's having murdered her son, who she describes as having "nothing there." Anyone who has the least knowledge at all about having an emotional attachment to a child -- let alone that of a loving parent -- would know how repulsive and unrealistic that line really is."

Would anyone promote a movie that tries to get the audience to see the sensitive side of a murderer if his victim had been a popular cheerleader? Just your average kid? Or even a representative of another disenfranchised minority group? The plot depends on the victim being someone the audience won’t identify with ---  it's a movie that uses some of the most damaging stereotypes of people with disabilities as a way to gain an audience, make money, and promote the view that crimes against people with disabilities are justifiable. Please see the sample flyer for more info.

The movie is being distributed by Paramount Classics .  To get information on where and when the film is opening, go to:

http://www.paramountclassics.com/leland/main.html

Click the tab labeled "find a theatre."

For a review of the movie that is fairly informative, go to this URL:

http://www.orbitalreviews.com/pages/movie/Leland.shtml

Also linked find a review by Mike Ervin and a letter from Dick Sobsey which may be useful in your press contacts. I'd appreciate your letting me (nweiss@tash.org) and Stephen Drake of Not Dead Yet (sndrake@aol.com) know of your plans and how it goes. Feel free to use us as resources too.

The Disability Rights Community Protests This Movie:
The United States of Leland

Why we are protesting?: The United States of Leland examines the motives of a teenager who brutally murders a boy with autism. The film suggests that the killer is full of empathy and kills out of kindness – stabbing the young man with autism 19 times. The film downplays the horrors of the murder by soliciting empathy for the perpetrator of the crime.

We object to the way the victim, who has disabilities is portrayed in the film. The film’s writer and director, Matthew Ryan Hoge chose a victim he could objectify and with whom he did not think audiences would identify. In fact, the mother of the young man with autism who is killed describes him as having “nothing there.” Every parent should know how repulsive and unrealistic that line really is. Parents of children with disabilities love their children no less powerfully than do parents of children who do not have disabilities.

Could you imagine promoting a movie premised on evoking sympathy for a murderer if the victim had been ‘just a kid’ instead of a young man with autism? Our fear is that audiences may be all too ready to sympathize with the killer simply because his victim is someone they don’t see as important or as valued as others. We’ve seen it play out too many times in real life. We ask you to think critically about the role of disability in this film:

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Fact: Violence against disabled people is a prevalent and serious problem. Children with disabilities are at least three times as likely as non-disabled children to be victims of abuse.
One expert identified 2,370 homicides or attempted homicides involving victims with developmental disabilities, including 49 homicides of people with autism in the U.S. since 1997. Only 26 of these resulted in charges at all -- and only 11 led to convictions. Only one of these led to a death sentence, none resulted in life sentences, only 7 of the convicted murders served any jail time (average time served was 16 months) and 3 convicted perpetrators received only probation. Sadly, films like this help justify crimes against people with disabilities.

Questions: . In what ways do these facts reflect the extent to which people with disabilities are devalued by our culture? Does The United States of Leland excuse violence against disabled people as a compassionate act rather than a hate crime?

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Fact: People with disabilities, including people with autism and cognitive disabilities, are human beings who deserve to be respected and valued.

Question: Does the movie treat Ryan, the murder victim, as a person, or as a stereotype? Is he a real character in the film, or just a plot device?

Remember, you know someone with autism

posted by Kimber at 2:14 PM :: ~#~