LB’s cards continue to travel across the globe. You can see the map of their progress here and see pics of them in their various destinations at #LBbus on twitter. Amazing. Here’s a beautiful pic of a card in Vancouver, courtesy of Anne Townsend (@aftjae).
Anne and I met in Vancouver in 2004 at a symbolic interactionism conference when we were both eager, enthusiastic and (for me, can’t speak for Anne), slightly blown away with the whole gig, PhD students. She performed the most remarkable about turn, Laurel and Hardy style, on the hotel escalator one night. It still makes me chuckle. We then, some years later, managed to alienate the symbolic interactionist discussion list through repeatedly copying the entire list into our inane email chat about something inconsequential. So awkward. So funny. And so cool LB’s bus has arrived in a place of such good memories.
I dug out this pic of LB around that time; bug hunting with his brothers…
Parking the sunshine memories for now, the final version of the report is due to be published, in full, on Southern Health’s website very soon. This is a substantial development emerging through the combined efforts of a cracking legal team (Charlotte HaworthHird of Bindmans and others), INQUEST, Oxfordshire Family Support Network, the disability studies community, and the army of family, friends, colleagues and supporters on facebook and twitter.
A collective determination that LB’s death won’t be brushed under the carpet and end up as another statistic in the premature death of learning disabled people pile. It will mark some change in the way in which dudes are treated.
A right old determination.
LB's Fighting Fund 