Mental Health Consumers Picket In Fort Worth Over Paradise Center Closure Scandal

Has the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had an article about the Paradise Center closure that I somehow missed? Or is this often sad excuse for a town's newspaper of record not reporting this particular news?

I just got an email with the latest Press Release about the Paradise Center Fort Worth Scandal

Mental Health Consumers Picket 

MHMR of Tarrant Co. Headquarters 

Demanding 

CEO Dr. Jim McDermott 

Return Their

Properties and Their Dignity as PEOPLE

Today, Monday 2/21/11    11:00am  3840 Hulen, FW

Fort Worth, Texas-- 02/21/11  

One weekend after MHMR of Tarrant County's CEO and his executive team's shocking and upsetting decision to take over their community center and locked them out of their home away from home of over a decade (as recorded and reported last Friday evening by WFAA/Channel 8 News) the leaders and supporters of Paradise Center Inc., (www.ParadiseCenterInc.org) -- an autonomous 501/c/3 non-profit Organization dedicated to helping people with serious mental illness with their recovery and reintegration back into the community as full citizens AND one of the few such organizations in the nation/world that is run by people living with serious mental illnesses-- are going to the offices of the CEO and his executive team to picket and demand that they return every item of property that belong to their outstanding Organization.

The list is long but include operational equipments like computers and printers, office desks and  pool and ping pong tables, a closet of puzzles and games, expensive arts and crafts supplies, bins of prizes used for weekly Bingo games  - all items donated to Paradise Center, Inc. or purchased with monetary donations given by groups and individuals to Paradise Center, Inc.

The leaders who operate Paradise Center, Inc. are anxious to retrieve their possessions as well as the promised funding from MHMR so they can relocate and continue to offer vital peer support services through a community center to the hundreds of members who consider Paradise Center the home away from home.

By simply doing these two basic things, Dr. Jim McDermott and MHMRTC can minimize the damage that has already started as a result of the sudden and unexplained take over of this well-established and reputable community center and the organization that has operated it for over 12 years.

The public and the media should be concerned about the manner in which these mental health consumers have been treated by this tax-payer funded organization that CEO Dr. McDermott leads.

Make no mistake, what is and will be operated out of 505 S.Jennings Avenue IS NOT ANYTHING CLOSE TO THE COMMUNITY CENTER THAT PARADISE CENTER HAS OPERATED.  The staff in the building are not Paradise Center staff, they do not operate by Paradise Center's philosophy and are not experienced in operating a consumer-run organization.

Paradise Center, Inc., while homeless and in exile at this moment, is still alive and determined to fight to recover our properties, our good name, and our promised operational grant.

MHMR and CEO Dr. Jim McDermott can restore this "Paradise lost" by acting with decency.

A Full Moon Over Texas Brings On Puerto Rican Lunacy

I stepped outside to check out the morning view from my patio this 3rd Monday of the 2nd month of 2011 to see a big round white glowing orb hovering in the sky above.

Had I realized it was the full moon time of the month I might have been a bit more understanding about how extra loony Miss Puerto Rico was acting last night.

Near as I can tell, Puerto Ricans have a tendency to irrational emotional bursts of temper. Last night's Puerto Rican temper incident occurred when the ABC website required a flash update in order to view a TV show. While Miss Puerto was having an emotional breakdown over this I was clicking the mouse and installing the update.

I can understand something making a person mad. What I've never understood is having a temper tantrum over some minor thing. I've known more than one person, over the years, with this problem. I find it very annoying to be around.

I escaped from Miss Puerto Rico's after the flash installation. I likely won't return for quite awhile.

On a more pleasant note, the full moon has heated the air this morning to a balmy 33 degrees above freezing.

Which means I am going swimming.

Water Baby Has A Gator Encounter In The Inner Tubing Area Of The Trinity River In Fort Worth

One of my undercover agents, who, for blogging purposes, will be referred to as Water Baby, was taking a stroll along the Trinity River last night, before sunset. As Water Baby walked, she and her walking companion were startled to see a large reptile moving stealthily down the Trinity River.

Moving stealthily in the same location in Trinity Park that J.D. Granger and his TRV crew hold their Happy Hour Inner Tube Floats.

Due to the bad light provided by the setting sun, Water Baby's pictures aren't all that great. But you sure can clearly see something is moving in the river and leaving a wake behind it.

Below is another of Water Baby's pictures and below that I'll insert Water Baby's Full Gator in the Trinity Report.

Yesterday while I was walking on the trinity trail I spotted something peculiar swimming in the river.  I noticed it right away because the wake behind it was huge.  It was swimming in the middle of the river at a very slow pace and coming from under the university st. bridge toward the mini train station (by the zoo).  My first instinct told me it was a gator because of the way it was moving, like it was scoping the area for prey.  I  took a few pics and continued to watch just to see where it was going, it eventually stopped along the edge of the river bank over by the train station.  By this time it was out of sight so I continued my walk, looping around to the other side of the river and headed back home in the direction of the zoo (and the mysterious creature).  When I was nearing the train station area I walked over to the river bank area to look around and check to see if that thing was still in the water and I saw it in the shadows!!!  At this time I was very close and it still looked like a gator, so I was a little nervous.  I took a few more pics.  Because the sun was going down, my flash was on and I could tell it was bothering this thing.  It seemed to be looking at me from the side, then it swam around in a half circle to face me, as if it were sizing me up.  then it became too dark to take any more pics on my cell phone cam, so I just sat there staring at it.  It stood there looking at me for a while and then slowly started swimming back toward University upstream. There were two ducks swimming downstream so I thought maybe it was interested in the ducks, but as it approached them, they started flapping their wings and took off flying.  I watched it until it disappeared into the shadows of the river banks under the bridge.  My companion and I really thought it was a gator, let me know what you think.  One thing is for sure--JD Granger's TRV tubers better watch out, because if this was really a gator, their happy hour production could turn into Jaws, gator-style. 

A Soldier Under A Stormy Looking Arlington Sky With Me Botching Spaghetti With Kettle Korn

Today I stopped at Veterans Park in Arlington on my way to Pantego to go to ALDI.

The picture I took of the soldier guarding the Veterans Park Memorial makes it appear way stormier than it actually was. A very strong wind was blowing around noon, coming from the south.

I did not like walking in the wind, so I did not walk for long.

On weekends there are a lot of groups playing Disc Golf at Veterans Park.

I really think Disc Golf should have its own park, instead of being in a mixed use park. I nearly got hit by one of those hard spinning discs today, likely blown far from where its thrower intended it to go by the strong wind.

When I got back here from ALDI I made lunch. Spaghetti. I was in superfast cook mode, which caused me to grab the wrong thing when I reached for garlic powder. Instead I sprinkled Kettle Korn Seasoning into the spaghetti sauce. I thought this would ruin it. But it didn't.

Speaking of Kettle Korn Seasoning, if you like Kettle Korn, but don't like the amount of fat and sugar involved, you can make do it yourself Kettle Korn that tastes just like the real thing.

With the Kettle Korn Seasoning only adding 5 calories per 1/4 teaspoon.

Of course, I don't need to tell you to make air-popped popcorn and spray it with butter-flavored non-stick/fat-free spray so the Kettle Korn Seasoning will stick to the popcorn.

Sunday Morning In Texas Thinking About How Sad It Is That Fort Worth Does Not Have A Daily Newspaper

The 3rd Sunday of the 2nd month of 2011 has dawned with me in a very good mood.

And it's not because I woke up early, as you can see from the view through the bars of my patio prison cell, after a long night of saloon hopping with Elsie Hotpepper.

I don't think I've whined about it on this blog, but I have been having a chronic pain in my right foot for quite awhile now. And when I say pain I mean PAIN.

And now this morning the PAIN is gone. I hope this is not just a temporary respite because this pain has been a really BIG PAIN.

Maybe it's been being able to go swimming the last few days that has cured my foot pain.

Still no mention made in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, online, that I could find, of the bizarre closure by Tarrant County of a significant mental health facility called the Paradise Center. How does a newspaper make any claim to being a legitimate newspaper, and not just a tool of the corrupt local power structure, if it does not investigate and report the results of its investigation when something as bizarre as this incident is?

Thugs shutting down a mental health facility in your town is not news?

I need to go swimming now and try and swim away my disgust.

Hiking The Tandy Hills Thinking About Fort Worth's Corruption With Its Dis-Connect From Paradise & Gestapo Goon Squads

The Tandy Bamboo Teepee was still standing tall, and unoccupied, today when I saw it around noon.

Such a perfect day and yet I saw no one but myself out enjoying the Tandy Hills Natural Area.

I've been making up for all those days being snowbound. This morning I was in the pool for around 45 minutes. Today's Tandy Hill hiking was over an hour.

I'd really been missing my endorphins.

I'd gotten myself all twisted up this morning, obsessing about a Google/AdSense/Feedburner feed confusion, that was having me confused and annoyed.

I was also obsessing about an Inconvenience Bank problem that arose yesterday, that I'm going to wait to blog about when I'm not quite so obsessive about it. The bank problem was not exactly mine. But I sort of got blamed for it.

So, as I hiked the hills today I was continuing to obsess. But as the aerobicizing continued and the endorphins started having their desired effect I found myself slowly sliding into my preferred mindset of living in the moment and not letting things bug me.

Sort of.

No further word on the fate of Fort Worth's Paradise Center. This morning I remembered the bizarre incidents of the Fort Worth Gestapo raiding Steve Doeung's house to intimidate him at various times when he'd appear in the press, using ridiculous strong arm tactics to scare Fort Worth's Lone Ranger into giving up his fight against Chesapeake Energy and their Henchmen on the take in the City of Fort Worth.

Steve Doeung was featured in an article in FW Weekly last week regarding State Bill 18. A bill that supposedly was supposed to reign in eminent domain abuse in the eminent domain abuse Capital of America.

Texas.

But instead the bill was written in cahoots with those who do the eminent domain abusing.

Which has had people like Steve Doeung and Bill Mitchell criticizing it.

And then Thursday bully thugs working for Tarrant County used Gestapo tactics to shut down the Paradise Center. And what is Steve Doeung's connection to the Paradise Center? Well, it was Steve Doeung's wife who was the object of the Gestapo this time.

I really think it is time to use Twitter and Facebook to organize protests on Sundance Square, demanding Fort Worth Regime Change and the arrest and prosecution of the Fort Worth Gestapo and those who give the Fort Worth Gestapo its orders.

Did you know that the Paradise Center is very close to the Rainbow Lounge? With the Rainbow Lounge being another Fort Worth location that was subjected to a Gestapo Raid. That raid injured people and made news world-wide. One of the many reasons Fort Worth is the Envy of the World.

Now, how can we get the story of what Fort Worth and Tarrant County has done to the Paradise Center to be a national story? I suppose protest signs could be made in support of the Paradise Center, to wave in front of the TV cameras covering the thousands of Fort Worthers holding Sundance Square hostage until we get Regime Change in this sadly corrupt city.

And let's add a total sweep from their jobs of those who are the administrators of the Fort Worth schools, starting with Superintendent Melody Johnson. Read this week's FW Weekly cover story "Dis-Connects" and you'll see why I think total regime change of the Fort Worth school administrators is needed.

And then send a task force to observe how a successful school district is run. It ain't rocket science. But, in Fort Worth, apparently, it is.

The Saturday Morning Shadow Of The Skinnydipping Texas Thin Man

The 3rd Saturday of the 2nd month of 2011 is starting off 26 degrees above freezing. As you can see, via looking past the Shadow of the Skinnydipping Thin Man, it is yet one more sunny morning in Texas.

Heard from Y. Steve Doeung this morning that WFAA, Channel 8 news reporter, Chris Hawes, showed up yesterday at the closed Paradise Center to interview board members and community supporters for a report that may have aired last night at 10:00.

I have no idea what I'm going to do today, except for going swimming in a little bit, hiking a little later, with a visit to Town Talk after the hiking. And then possibly some saloon hopping with Fort Worth's most infamous saloon hopper, Elsie Hotpepper.

Helping To Get A Memorial In The Garden Of Angels To A Texas Murder Victim

I have likely mentioned The Garden of Angels before on this blog.

The Garden of Angels is a memorial to murder victims, built on the site were Amy Robinson's body was found.

From a plaque near the entry to Garden of Angels...

This is the place where Amy Robinson was taken and murdered. She was kidnapped by two co-workers while on her way to work. Because she did not like to be alone, others decided to put their loved ones in the garden with Amy.

I long ago made a webpage about The Garden of Angels on my Eyes on Texas website. That webpage usually Googles #1 or 2. Which is what brought about a rather poignant email this morning from Wandalyn, the grieving mother of a murder victim.

This is what Wandalyn wanted to ask me.....

How would one get the name of a murdered loved one put on one of the crosses in the garden? My daughter was murdered in 2000. I visit, often, the place where her body was found. I'm 62 now, and that place is very scary. I go alone, because no one wants to go with me. My daughter was 31, when she was murdered. The crime remains unsolved to this day. I miss her very much. I've often thought about making a memorial there. With no money and no one interested in helping, that's all it's been, a thought. It's dangerous there and very scary, so I don't go as often now. viewing the angel's view of your park, looks so much like the thoughts I've had. My health has gone downhill, since she was taken from me. I have no closure. If you can point me towards the path to take, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your time. I hope I haven't wasted it.

I was able to help Wandalyn in her quest to add her daughter to The Garden of Angels by pointing her to The Garden of Angels website.

I asked Wandalyn to keep me posted. I'll go take a picture of her daughter's Garden of Angel's memorial after it is added. If you want to help with The Garden of Angels you can make a donation from their website.

The Garden of Angels has grown hugely since I first saw it early in this century. I don't think I've been to The Garden of Angels since 2003 when I was there with my cousin Kristi. We'd been to Joe T. Garcias, where we had too much of the Mexican food called Margaritas.

Kristi lived in Dallas at the time. She was new to Texas. I drove backroads all the way back to her place near where the American Airlines Center is now. Those backroads took us by The Garden of Angels. So, I stopped.

Kristi totally freaked out. She would not enter The Garden of Angels. She said she felt spirits there, unhappy, unsettled spirits.

Kristi's grandma, my aunt, was murdered, brutally, in the early 1980s. She is in her own Garden of Angels, along with a lot of my relatives, in a cemetery in Lynden, Washington.

It Is Hot In Fort Worth With A Tandy Bottle Hanging Mystery & Texas Girls Packing Heat

Why is someone hanging bottles from branches along the trails of the Tandy Hills?

A couple days ago it was the Mystery of the Tandy Bamboo Teepee. And now the Tandy Bottle Hanging Mystery.

A week ago I was having trouble getting warm, suffering through blizzards with sub-zero wind chills.

A week later I'm getting too HOT hiking which forced shirt removal.

And this morning I had my first real swim of the new year. I was in the water for over a half hour. It felt good. I think it was the loss of swimming that caused my gain of weight.

The pool will be even warmer tomorrow with today's degrees being in the 80s for the first time of the new year. I think that's true.

My current temperature reading is 82, with the Heat Index making it feel like 83. I think I like the Heat Index better than the Wind Chill.

I have not turned on the A/C. But I do have my ceiling fan spinning above me.

Denise finally checked her gmail, so we can quit worrying about not hearing from Denise. Now Denise must complete her undercover assignment.

I learned yesterday that a person I frequently mention on this blog, but who I won't mention right now, by name, got her license yesterday. License to pack heat. Now armed with a six-shooter. Which is why I don't want to raise her ire by saying who it is who is now armed and dangerous.

I will say it is not the Wild Woman of Woolley, Betty Jo Bouvier. Betty Jo is well over 2 thousand miles away, so really can do no harm to me with bullets. Same with Carlotta Del Rio. Carlotta is closer than Betty Jo, but not close enough to be dangerous.

I just heard from Carlotta Del Rio. Telling me how beautiful Washington is being today, with Mount Baker making an appearance, after being shrouded in clouds for awhile.

I can't remember the last time I saw a mountain.

EMERGENCY: Save Fort Worth's Paradise Center From The Fort Worth Way

Last night I got an email from Fort Worth's most famous Lone Ranger, Steve Doeung, with the word "Emergency" in the subject line. Steve's wife works at a Fort Worth Community Center which helps people with mental health issues. Last night agents of Tarrant County shut down the Community Center, without warning and for no apparent valid reason, in what seems to me be yet one more instance of the local government behaving badly. Read the Press Release below and you'll likely find yourself feeling a bit disgusted. You reading this who do not live in Fort Worth and Tarrant County, are likely even more appalled, than us who live with the Fort Worth Way...

Press Release for Immediate Distribution

On Thursday Feb. 17, 2011 the CEO and executives of MHMR of Tarrant County, a sub-unit of local government under the County Commissioners Court of Tarrant County, took a shocking and devastating action that could very likely damage the mental health and stability of many citizens living with serious mental illness who are members of Paradise Center Inc., a 501/c/3 nonprofit organization that is run by the very people recovering from serious mental illness and homelessness.

After over a decade of cooperation and of keeping its commitment/contract to provide the "foundational grant" for very effective but rare organization in the whole state of Texas, MHMR of Tarrant County began to exert intense pressure on the organization's only full-time professional staff of almost ten years Teresa Davis (two masters degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) to admit and agree to something that she knew was not true and could jeopardize her organization and her own personal and professional reputation:  that Paradise Center Inc. is "just another MHMR program" and that she is just another one of their 1,300 employees who need to submit to their control and "supervision".

MHMRTC ignored our Board of Directors' many attempts to communicate with them to find out why they were pursuing this disturbing course of action and causing emotional distress on Ms. Davis and the people she serves.  We implored them to deal with the authorized Board of Directors of Paradise Center.

Instead they decided to exert even more pressure, including the withholding of critical paper goods like toilet paper for the four bathrooms, and culminated in this so called "termination" of Teresa's job.

Essentially, this means that they are reneging on their commitment to fund Paradise Center's operations, including paying her salary and benefits.  Their xerox copied letter of the so called termination cited the sole cause for termination being that Ms. Davis did not accept an invitation to meet yesterday with the CEO, Assistant CEO, and MHMR's lawyer. They demanded her immediate evacuation of the taxpayer owned community center and sent four men to come take the keys and take over the building.

The peer leaders of the hundreds of mental health consumers who are members of Paradise Center were angry and tearful as they hurriedly removed their operational supplies like the bingo box they use weekly, the cash register that is used in their snack bar, and the basic supplies they use daily.

The mental health consumer leaders, Board members, and Ms. Teresa Davis will gather today across the street from the little building at 505 S. Jennings Avenue.  The building that they have worked so hard for many years to create a haven, a "paradise" for them and others with serious mental illness.  The building they have now been suddenly thrown out of.