The Anti-Electroshock Proclamation

Above is a picture of Dr. Bonnie Burstow

The Anti-Electroshock Proclamation
We who care,
We who are committed to decency,
We who behold with horror the disrespect for humans around us
We who shudder at the knowledge
Of women whose memory has been turned into ember and ashes,
Of families brutally torn asunder by pulse waves or sine waves
Of the elderly, whose final life reward is electrocution,
We who hold this fearful knowledge can be silent no longer.
LEGISLATORS, on this Mother's Day, we hold you directly accountable and call
On you to withdraw your authorization for electroshock
FELLOW CITIZENS who think this "practice" stopped decades ago, on this
Mother's Day
We tell you that the carnage continues and that you too are responsible.
On this Mother's Day, May 13, 2007, as survivors and allies, we come together to
Raise our voices to protest
And we vow to return
Return,
And return again
Until this abomination

Is no more.

Written and read aloud by Bonnie Burstow on May 13, 2007, Mother's Day, in Toronto during the anti-shock demonstration STOP SHOCKING OUR MOTHERS AND GRANDMOTHERS.

Bonnie Burstow co-founded with Don Weitz the Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault (CAPA). CAPA's websites:
http://capa.oise.utoronto.ca
http://capacanada.wordpress.com