Wow, have you thought of how much of a high school you really do make this town seem like. I mean it is bad enough that Buffalo already has small man complex, Artvoice just confirms that we have city wide popularity contest and pick on "normal" denizens by mocking them for being weird.

It would be appropriate for Artvoice to apologize for this insensitive mockery of people in our city with obvious mental issues.

The people that Artvoice has listed and labeled as Buffalo's Weirdest Residents are not elected politicians or media personalities in the public eye. Politicians and entertainers are fair game for lampoon. The mentally disabled are not to be put up to such abuse. This is tasteless and really sinking low.

To make mockery of these powerless people does harm to all humanity.

This is a dehumanizing attack on people who are defenseless and unable to stand up for themselves by the nature of their disease. This list opens the door for hatred and further wrongs that they do not deserve.

Artvoice has provided a great deal of service to our community but this instance requires calling thus publication to a higher standard which protects justice and fairness towards people who through no fault of their own are disabled and deserving kindness and understanding instead of public ridicule.

The credibility of this publication is now subject to being questioned as to how serious it can be considered when it stoops so low.

We all pay a price when we look the other way when people we do not know are harmed wrongly. I cannot look away because the experience of human history has shown us that allowing darkness to degrade others leads to uncountable horror and terror. In my heart I know that the staff of Artvoice are not intentionally being mean but nevertheless you have brought harm down upon yourselves by not taking the time to consider the ramifications of going to print with this listing of local citizens who are not weird but are medically sick with disease.

Out of human decency please print a public apology.

R.D'erissi- perhaps you should get around a bit more. Most cities, especially major ones, have the same popularity contest called"Best of" every year.

http://nymag.com/bestofny/
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/best_of/index.html
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/Best-of-Chicago/
http://bestofla.blogspot.com/

Shame on those who pillory mentally sick and defenseless people walking the streets of Buffalo, New York.

Go ahead Penny Lane and jump off a cliff with all those who would dash out lists of people in our community for a jolly laugh. Your lack of sensitivity and puffed up arrogance shows you lack something inside yourself called humanity. Your soul is a dark cave.

One of the people being victimized on this list of intolerance is someone that has these streams of consciousness that are filled with a library of information about art and artists. What I have heard spoken out of this person's mouth leads me to believe that if there was a break through in medical science this person would be your boss or held by this community as a citizen of the year.

Just in the slip of a nano second any one of us could find ourselves or a member of their family entrapped in a strange, foreign land where our bodies are no longer in our control.

On this day when survivors of Nazi death camps are standing in silence and marching that we never forget. I say that this Artvoice borders on sadistic and cruel treatment of fellow human beings based on their lack of perfection.

Squirm because because this list is just how tyrants legitimize dehumanizing people to harm or kill them.

This month in Buffalo respected author Isabel Allende mentioned how in dictatorial Chile she saw people disappeared. Allende said people shrugged these disappearances off because they didn't know these people. These same up standing citizens of Chile years later turned away again when the blood of people flowed through their streets. The cycle of violence starts when we dehumanize sick people and make them the butt of a joke or exploit them because they are not perfect and healthy. This is done by people who are uncomfortable with themselves because they lack character and humanity. They have fear in their hearts.

This weird list is nothing better than a published stoning of people because they are deformed and sick.

My defiance and objection to this atrocity may not be popular but Artvoice stands accused and so do all those who harm those because they lack a facade of beauty but can be fit into a low brow curio shop or folk street fair.

How ugly are the souls of collaborators who go along with harming others for a cheap laugh.

This is my resistance in opposition to those who choose to do harm to others.

John Q a bit sensitive eh?

Some people would consider "weird" a compliment. I would. If it were "Buffalo's most unique resident" would you have your panties in such a bunch?

Relax guy... you're reading way too much into it... you're the only one calling anybody "deformed and sick" here...

BOB '09 is excellent, as always but I did discover an omitted, perhaps over looked category; 'Best Performance By A Self-Serving Political Hack' - Joe Illuzi - and his Politics WNY.com site. I suppose I shouldn't be overly critical, if it wasn't for 'Joe, The Champion of Truth,' I'd never get to read the eloquent rhetoric of Ann Coulter.

Joe weird is a slur insult. Only someone lacking good judgment would print in a publication that the mentally disabled are weird. At least two of the people who Artvoice has singled out are in fact mentally disabled.

Sorry but I reject your bad advice because if one was to listen to you they would allow other abuses of people that are no longer suitable in our culture and nation. You are telling others to pay no attention when others are in fact being harmed and wronged unfairly for being mentally disabled. Your reading comprehension is sadly lacking. Spare me any further advice. I disregard it based on your poor thought processing of the issue.

John Q writes "Your lack of sensitivity and puffed up arrogance shows you lack something inside yourself called humanity. Your soul is a dark cave."

Dark comments. Arrogance statements as well. You only perpetuate an anger people can end up loathing as well. There are two sides to a coin. I see the category of Buffalo's weirdest as a sign of acknowledgment. You cannot assume why these people do what they do and yes I have work with people who are labeled mentally disabled. I spend my time educating not condemning.

These people are not knocking on your door to rally for them. Your insight to the human condition is "sadly lacking."

"How ugly are the souls of collaborators," are your words. How condemning as if you were "stoning" another being.

If you are attempting to promote compassion towards the "mentally disabled" I suggest you model it and treat ALL beings as such. That would be more beneficial to your cause.

BE the change you want to see in the world (not just talk it!). -Ghandi

Api Bo you imply that we should blame the victim and pretend that this is not wrongful.

There is no darkness, arrogance, malice, hate or dishonesty when I challenge those who harm defenseless people, who through no fault of their own are being publicly slandered.

Being termed weird is not a compliment and it's intolerant. It's wrongful to term someone with AIDS as being weird as it is wrongful to term someone who is disabled physically or mentally as being weird. Are people with cancer, deformed people from car accidents, birth defects weird to you?

My strong words are not acts of public stoning. They are acts of protest. I am not the one who is doing the harm. I am not the publisher of Artvoice who distributes a media newspaper to thousands of people in WNY and southern Ontario and allows people with disabilities to be publicly taken to task for being 'weird.'

Words carry strong messages. Terming the mentally disabled as being weird in our U.S.A. media is a very negative connotation against a group of people who are not powerful enough to defend themselves.

I'm not into promotion. But it is the duty of every American to stand up and speak out against harmful writing that degrades the human condition.

"These people are not knocking on your door to rally for them." - Api Bo

Maybe this is my point that you do not understand or empathize with. One cannot look away when any truly wrongful act against someone with a health related disability being attacked. One does not have to wait for someone to be express a call for help when they are being harmed and are unable to knock on a door or ring a bell or shout for help. Implied consent takes precedence here. Any indiviual who is being harmed requires people to stand up and act to stop the harm. Those who are defenseless should never be abandoned when they are wrongfully attacked and harmed.

The Indian philosophy that Ghandi lived is derived from ancient Buddhist teachings. Asoka codified laws in ancient India. His words can be found in pillars across India. The words inscribed in these time worn, stone columns say harm no creature and all life is sacred. There is no listing that describes some people as being weird because they are disabled.

Yes indeed we could be quiet and passive and overlook this written wrong against the menataly disabled and perhaps that would be all well and good or incorrect and perpetuating intolerance. There are two sides to every point of view. There is a need for my Socratic calling out and examination of Artvoice's terming disabled people in our community as being weird in a list. If the truth here produces loathing in some hearts but nonetheless is the truth than the one who speaks to the truth is correct.

Last year Chinua Achebe the author of "Things Fall Apart" spoke about his book in Buffalo. He said that wrongs occur everywhere in our world. In "TFA" the protagonist is a strong man who accepts a belief that twin children are evil. The village he lives in allows twins to be taken to the jungle to be discarded. Achebe in discussion of his book pointed out that in his country there is another village near the village in his book. The other village sees children as a miracle from God. My point here is that we have significant choices to make in our village and our communities about how we view people in our midst and on our streets.


Api Bo at work are you ever allowed to write or verbally refer to your patients with mental disabilities as being weird? This question is rhetorically written to make you think about what you write and how you are concurring with Artvoice printing a list that terms people with mental disabilities as being weird. This is either passive agreement or active failure to see harms for what it is in our communuity.

"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

I'm so happy Mickey Kearns has been lifted out of "obscuroty!"

Retards are weird.

Yo PennyLane if that is your real name! I've been "around" probably more than most. all im saying is that this city is like a high school. Lets say the "lady in White" wins, is she going to be invited to the awards ceremony? and if so, Do you think that she would go? and feel good about winning? and what is so weird about walking down the street with a slight lean wearing complete white linens and puffs throughout the whole year? Im not sensitive about having this category, but this city is too small for that kind of category, then we might as well put in "nicest body", "best Kisser" ,"most likely to give you an STD" you know all the crap that was in a high school yearbook and then at the awards ceremony we can all sign eachothers! it would be neat. Pennylane of the real name, chances are if it wasn't for our anonymous posts that we even know eachother, maybe even shared coffee or iced cream on the grand ol'strip.

...cause there is only one, and this in not a major city folks. Its an awesome city, but not major.

How about these categories:

Best Stone Waller
Most Insensitive Blogger
Most Careless Editor
Best Media Dodger
Most Sensationalist Media Talking Head
Best Corporate Flunky In The Media
Most Likely Media Personality To Cave to Power Establishment
Person in WNY NOT Likely To Question Abuse of Power
Biggest Do Nothing Government Appointee In A Suit
Person Most Likely To Rise Above Animal House Journalism

Mickey Kearns will not win, he's a simpleton

Mickey Kearns will not win, he's a simpleton, unfortunately.

What happened to the Unsung Hero category? That is where the Allentown Bubble Man should be. That is most assuredly what he is. He has put more smiles on faces of young and old than anyone else in this city.He sits up there in his window and brings joy to folks just by blowing some bubbles. So let's recognise him for what he is...NOT a weird citizen...but a much appreciated eccentric hero...
And stop in Cafe Taza and drop a few coins in the jar to help buy him some more bubbles...Thanks to all.

John Q

This will be my last response because I don't enjoy circular arguments. Just two question: How does your sacrasm inspire positive change in others? And can you tell me when Ghandi or MLK did that?

From a place of respect, please examine your intentions as well as your words. They say volumes. Be the example. Not the counter-example.

You create change your way and I will do it my way. Let us see who has better results. Goodluck to you.

You cannot solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it. -Einstein.

I absolutely love Eric Starchild. He's so friendly and confident. Also, how many other people in Buffalo are willing to hike all over the city in all weather selling their handmade jewelry? I think he should be commended. He is a shining example of what it means to be unique.

In my jewelry box, I have a ring made of silver wire and sparkling pink glass beads. One day he came into my place of work and we got into a long conversation about the government, corporations, and the educational system. I gave him a tea because it was cold out, and he gave me my ring because, "Every girl should have something pink."

Next time you see him, try striking up a conversation. His opinions will surprise you. They are more thought out than those of my classmates'.

Unsung here hmm...shameless promotion for a cafe that houses freaks of all kind, then we might as well give The bubbleman's sidekick an award aswell you know "the guy who thinks his is Jack Nicholson in the cowboy hat award"

LOL...I AM the guy in the cowboy hat.So I guess I'm one of your freaks.Do you really think I look like Jack Nicholson?Damn..I thought I was a lot cuter.As far as shameless promotion...YES...Cafe Taza is a nice little place with a great atmosphere and lots of friendly people.Instead of criticizing it why don't you stop in and see for yourself?
The main reason I mentioned the cafe in the first place was to get some donations for the Bubble mans bubbles.He's just an old guy living on a small monthly pension.So I would really like to extend "Thank You's"to those that have stopped in and donated to the bubble fund.He was surprised and pleased to see that people do care and appreciate what he does.Thank all of you very much.

..and let me guess Tattoo Dan you probably date the guy who wears dresses!

Did anyone else notice that the Bubble Man has been featured on NPR story corps? I thought the weirdest resident category was interesting and obiously someone like the Bubble Man is not mentally ill. Just listen to the story corp interview. See below.

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE _ID=1468549§ionID=5366

When I was looking at the winners, I was searching for the winner and confused when I didn't see it.

Did anyone else notice that the Bubble Man has been featured on NPR story corps? I thought the weirdest resident category was interesting and obiously someone like the Bubble Man is not mentally ill. Just listen to the story corp interview. You can find it on the WBFO site.

When I was looking at the winners, I was searching for the winner and confused when I didn't see it.

Thanks for the plug LL.We did the interview last summer when Storycorps was in town.They found him thru me so we were both invited to the interview.It was a nice experience.Although we aren't featured there,Storycorps has a website with lots of great interviews.
I want to thank everyone again for stopping in the cafe and dropping some coins in the bubble jar.The Bubble Man is thrilled that he's appreciated.