http://www.napanews.com/templates/index.cfm?template=story_full&id=71E6870E-0558-415A-861C-AD4C6502AFAF

A different view on Napa State lawsuits Sunday, December 28, 2003

Dear editor,

I am writing this in response to the front page article by Chris Tribbey titled "Napa State accused of abusing patients," published on Sunday, Dec. 14. A responsible city editor would have done his homework before writing such an unprofessional article. Laughably, he refers to the Citizens Commission on Human Rights as a Los Angeles-based group that independently investigates psychiatric abuse. Mr. Tribbey should have made mention of the well-known fact that CCHR is a front organization for the highly controversial Church of Scientology dedicated to disseminating misinformation and filing unreasonable lawsuits. Unfortunately, most readers will not have taken the time to go to the link cited at the end of the article to read what these militant malcontents really do. As one critic of the groups says, "It is absolutely remarkable that an organization which stands accused of so many human rights violations itself should spawn a pressure group with this name."

Just to give you an idea of their beliefs, the Scientologists see mental health professionals as evil aliens from the fifth galactic invader force. The truth is that CCHR and Scientologists have made psychiatry and psychology targets for their wild accusations because they are trying to make sure they don't lose the grip on the members of their cult. These people support their own special brand of brainwashing. As Carl Sagan noted in his book "Demon Haunted World," L. Ron Hubbard (founder of Scientology) "managed to create a written process that was capable of driving people insane. And followers pay large amounts of money for subjecting themselves to these mind-altering processes." CCHR is hardly a credible source for information about mental health advocacy.

Napa State is a vital part of our community. We should be supporting the dedicated professionals who give expert care to the patients there. A web site called apologeticsindex.org states that press releases about CCHR are "puff pieces used as filler for mainly small-town newspapers." I guess that accurately describes the Napa Register's front page pseudo-news article.

M. Boudreau

Napa

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