Advocacy

I'd like to address the Stephanie Pearl-McPhee issue.

I've been too lazy to blog since May, so you know this is important to me to write. (But as long as I'm here I might as well share my projects with you. See next post.)

If you live under a rock or are a non-knitter I will tell you that my favorite knitting philosopher was attacked by a woman who found SPM's Canada Day post offensive to her as an American (although it seems SPM made fun of Canada more often than America. I myself love both countries. I'm on a Canada kick right now though. I'm rambling.) Here is the post in which SPM addressed this woman's behavior.

Now, this woman is very mean and harassed my friend SPM, but there is another side to the story that I feel like sharing with you. Keep in mind as you read on that I just came from a training on Mental Health First Aid, the final part of which addressed the stigma socieity holds against those with mental disorders.

So I read this woman's blog--because hey, I like drama--to see what she is all about. In it she divulges in a non-socially-appropriate way that she has mental issues and takes meds and even calls herself crazy. She appears to have pretty severe issues with socialization and/or interpreting others' statements, otherwise she maybe wouldn't have written such verbally aggressive comments (on SPM's blog, twitter, personal email, etc). This is not to say that people with these issues are allowed to behave in such a way, but to give us insight on herself and her struggles with mental health.

I myself work with teens who have similar problems (e.g. cursing out 15 male gang members=not a good idea). We teach them how to be socially appropriate. Hopefully someone is working on that with this woman as well.

Also, you only know what you learn and this woman is from Texas and likes George Bush.