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Immigration reformers headed to therapy?

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

By Donna Locke

(The following news story was published Jan. 27, 2005. Link unavailable.)

ARLINGTON, Va. --- The latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual cites immigration-control advocacy as a cause of mental illness, according to an advance review released last week by several of the nation's leading psychiatrists.

The author of the review, Dr. Randall Kotropec, said the entry addressing a form of political and social activism is a first for the psychiatric manual.

The Southern Poverty Law Center ("SPLC") in Montgomery, Ala., quickly responded to the report with a press release titled "Chicken or Egg? Chicken or Egg?" and went on to announce that its next Intelligence Report will present evidence that the American Psychiatric Association is a hate group.

The SPLC, which tracks hate activity in the United States and has labeled several immigration control/reform groups as hate groups, is challenging the APA's premise that immigration controllers may develop mental disorders as a result of their activism.

"We don't believe it," said Heidi Beirich, an investigator-writer for the SPLC. "There was something wrong with these people before. They aren't mentally ill. They're simply evil. Why is the American Psychiatric Association trying to turn thes people into victims? Shockingly, the APA is obviously part of a racist conspiracy."

When told of the hate-watch group's claims, APA member Dr. Wilson Gowon of Boston, Mass., who was not one of the advance reviewers, referred a reporter to Gowon's peer-reviewed research linking sensationalistic behavior to serotonin levels in the brain.

Fellow APA member Dr. Richard Goldmein of Beverly Hills, Calif., was more direct, saying, "I have a couch in my office with Morris Dees's name on it."

Dees is co-founder and chief trial counsel of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The chairman of the American Psychiatric Association could not be reached for comment.

Asked about psychiatry's new focus on immigration control, specifically activism and activists in the American immigration-control movement, Gowon said, "Yes, it's a new and intriguing study. One that has broad applications because of social activism as a whole and the personalities that gravitate to it. But, as a researcher, I must say I was surprised that the contributors to the DSM have gone so far as to cite a particular social movement as a causative, rather than correlative, factor in mental dysfunction. That was rather ... swift. I expect this will be good for business."

Several immigration-control activists contacted by Earth Crier declined to comment for this story. Donna Locke, who heads Tennesseans for Immigration Control and Reform, replied with a line from the Jimmy Buffett song "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes": "Well, hey, 'if we weren't all crazy, we would go insane.' "

Locke, who previously led the Georgia Coalition for Immigration Reform and has posted on the Internet a satirical Christmas gift list for the immigration-control movement and its opponents and launched a mass e-mail comparing assorted immigration reformers with various breeds of dogs, directed most of her comments to the SPLC's press release and other actions.

"That's a good example of dysfunction right there -- the SPLC," Locke said. "I gave them my Broad-Brush Hustler Award. Did you know that using SPLC and Intelligence Report as an oxymoron is also a pun?"

Mark Potok, who directs the SPLC's Intelligence Project, said of Locke's comments, "That's typical of what we've come to expect from Ms. Locke. I can tell you that we have evidence that one of Donna Locke's e-mails was forwarded to a woman in Pennsylvania who forwarded it to a man in Texas who forwarded it to a man in Oklahoma who forwarded it to a known racist in Idaho. We have intel that one of Locke's associates is a psychiatrist in Georgia. Locke has also been in the same room with a known white nationalist. More than once. You can rest assured that Ms. Locke's activities will receive the scrutiny they deserve."

Locke responded by saying, "I'm terrified. And possibly dazed. I believe Potok is referring to my wall photograph of President Eisenhower. By the way, I'm proud to have voted at the age of six for Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Weekly Reader's first presidential poll in 1956. You can see I started young."

Asked if she feels a psychiatric consultation is in her future, Locke said, "No. But a restraining order might be."

"Don't believe everything you hear," Potok said.

"Or read," Locke added.


-- The story "Immigration reformers headed to therapy?" was published by Earth Crier, a subsidiary of The Anemographic Press, a division of Locke Ness Enterprises.

© Copyright 2005 - This story and its attribution remain the property of its author and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the writer's express prior written consent.




Donna Locke
Donna Locke is a former journalist and current freelancer, the former leader of the Georgia Coalition for Immigration Reform, and currently, on-hiatus leader of Tennesseans for Immigration Reform. She is an activist for environmental protection; civil rights, including women's and gay rights; animal rights; and church-state separation. She identifies with no political party.

She lived in Cobb County, Georgia for 31 years before escaping to her native Tennessee. She can be reached by e-mail at: Tennessee Coalition.

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