In the car listening to the radio this morning I was disappointed to hear talk show guest host, Norman Goldman, on the Ed Schultz Show, using words and phrases that perpetuate negative stereotypes and reinforce ignorant attitudes about people with psychiatric disabilities. Mr. Goldman is an attorney and describes himself as "progressive." Unfortunately, his attitudes about people with disabilities are incredibly regressive. When talking about people who were commenting on the President's scheduled speech to students on Sept. 8, he said:

"...That has been turned into socialist indoctrination talk by the loons, they're loonie, they're nuts, they're insane. I'm talking psychosis now. Clincal madness. Prozac, valium, powerful psychoactive, psycho pharmacology. It has gotten scary."

Another non-gem:

"How do you deal with these nut jobs, and these lunatics.."

and

"These are the imbeciles we're dealing with."

The podcasts for The Ed Schultz Show are only available through subscription or I'd supply a link. I couldn't get through by phone so emailed Mr. Goldman and Mr. Schultz: 9.4.09 Mr. Goldman, I tried to call the Ed Shultz toll free number, but can't get through. I just caught your passionate speeches about the individuals who are showing up at town hall meetings about health care and the individuals involved in the 'birther' movement. You've been referring to them as clinically insane, as idiots and nuts. Your language reflects your own bias and prejudice against people with psychiatric disabilities. I urge you to stop and reflect upon the words/labels that you're using to describe these individuals. You've assigned racial prejudice and hate to people with mental illnesses. Certainly you know this is not true. The disability rights movement and psychiatric survivors have identified words such as "nuts," "idiots" and "morons" as derogratory. These individuals are ignorant not mentally ill. Respectfully, Susan Henderson, Executive Director Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund I followed up this evening with an email to Ed Schultz: Mr. Shultz, I wanted to share with you the email below that I sent to your guest host, Norman Goldman, this morning. I'd like to hear your opinion about the language he used throughout the first hour of your show today (Friday, September 4). My organization as well as many other organizations would be pleased to provide Mr. Goldman with rich histories of the disability civil rights, independent living, psychiatric survivor and self-determination movements that would help him to understand how his choice of words are inappropriate. Best, Susan Henderson, Executive Director, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund You can imagine my dismay to learn that Mr. Schultz has a regular feature on his MSNBC tv show called, "Psycho Talk." To let the Ed Schultz Show know how you feel you can email him at ed@edschultzshow.com At MSNBC you can use a webform to contact him: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30031533/ns/msnbc_tv-the_ed_show Norman Goldman is available at normangoldman@gmail.com