Roland Johnson's Lost in a Desert World : An Autob - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Karl Williams is now working on another as-told-to autobiography, "Hello, Stranger: The Barbara Moran Story." Barb Moran is a graphic artist who has autism.

His own autobiography, "Mounting To Heaven," will be published in 2000.

He won a place on the 1998 Grammy ballot in the Best Contemporary Folk category with his CD "Respect: Songs Of the Self-Advocacy Movement," recorded with members of the national self-advocacy group SABE. His songs have been recorded on Rounder and on Flying Fish Records. His current CD is "From One Millennium To Another," and includes the song "To the New Century."

Aus dem Klappentext

Roland Johnson was one of the first self-advocates I ever met - that is, one of the first individuals to emerge from the formal disability system, to proclaim to the world that he was ready, willing and certainly able to articulate his own priorities, and to represent the interests of his friends. When he spoke, his courage, eloquence and ability to turn adversity into positive action moved all present. His death cut short an extraordinary life - but one that left us all with more humility and understanding in the face of his example. - Val Bradley, President, Human Services Research Institute and Chair, President's Committee on MR. Roland Johnson was the most fascinating person I have ever known. The first time I met Roland he said, "Steve Eidelman, I want to tell you that we have people in institutions who we are worried about. Can you help them get out?" The last time I spoke with Roland was a few months before he died. He said the same thing. And every time in between. Roland always took me to task. It was his job to do so, and my job to take it. When he talked, somehow, it carried more weight than the paid advocates I dealt with. He was so fervent in his beliefs and so skilled in talking about the people he cared so much about...Roland's story mirrors the amazing changes in this country in the past fifty years for people with mental retardation. - Steve Eidelman, past Deputy Secretary for MR, Pennsylvania, Executive Director ARC, USA. It's exciting to have a book about Roland Johnson in Roland's words. He was an effective advocate speaking before committees of the legislature, at press conferences, and conventions. He spoke forcefully, sensitively and with dignity. Roland said that we can all learn from one another. With this book he can continue to teach us. - Eleanor Elkin, past President, ARC, USA.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

From Chapter 1: I smelled biscuits. She would make up her dough and put yeast in her dough and let it sit overnight and all that dough would rise and in the morning she would come down and you could smell the biscuits cooking. And all the neighbors would walk by and smell this good food cooking. They'd say, "Grace, what's that smell; it smells very good; could we have some?" She would make that homemade bread and she would just be in there cooking - cooking and cooking while the girls would still be sleeping and I would be awake.

From Chapter 2: After that long ride up there, it was just horrible. That was very scary. Very, very frightening. I was crying that I would never see them again, my family or my sisters. We went out into this big institution that I didn't know anything about. I saw Pennhurst for the first time. When you come down on the main road you see this big thing up at Pennhurst, the water tower, coming in to Pennhurst. Things looked different to me - because it wasn't like a house that I lived in. I'm out here in this gray institution with three thousand people that live in it...Well, I was on the hospital ward. They interview your mother - my mother - and they axed my mother some questions. I wasn't there; I was getting undressed to be on the ward. I didn't know what she was saying...But once I got there things got very overwhelmed to me...They did some tests, psychological evaleration and stuff like that...I was just crying, with tears. I cried that, "My mommy's gone; my daddy's gone. I will never see my sisters again or my brother or anybody. I'm here for life." I though that, "Here I am. I'm here and there's nothing that nobody can do...I put myself there; I got myself into all this mischief and trouble and that's why I was here, to try to better myself"...If I wish back, if I wished that I could do it over again...I put a thing down back in my memories: I would not do that anymore; if I came out of Pennhurst, I would not do it, not eat my mother out of the house any more; I'd change.