Courts Strip Elders of Their Independence

?Cromwell, after a broken ankle and a brief rehab in early 2006, had expected to go home. But on the say-so from the nursing home's doctor - a short, nearly illegible diagnosis - a judge decreed that Cromwell was mentally ill and handed all of her decision-making to a guardian. Cromwell lost all power over her own life, with no opportunity to object, no right to have a lawyer represent her, no chance to even be in the courtroom. Three months later, the same judge, E. Chouteau Merrill, made the guardianship permanent - in a two-minute hearing in which the judge asked not a single question.? Well, they do it to children all the time...and soon will have more legislation passed to make it easy to label and lock up the rest of us...if our thoughts aren't in line with the Ministry of Truth.