Monday I'll Save the World: Memoir of a Heartland Journalist

Monday I'll Save the World, by retired news editor Larry Hayes, begins and intermittently returns to the case of a young woman named Donna, whose mental illness caused her to set a fire that killed her mother and sister. She was 14 years old, and served seven years in adult prison. The book opens at a turning point in Donna's life, as she moves from a women's prison to a women's shelter. This is a book about advocacy for a range of significant social issues. NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) activists will find this broad-brush approach instructive and inspiring. The principles and passion which drive genuine advocacy come through vividly. Along with his wife Toni Kring, Larry Hayes is a longtime member of NAMI and has given well-received presentations at NAMI conventions on working with the media. With his grandfather Reverend Hayes and his grandmother as role models, Hayes spent years in a seminary, then he taught English. His nature as a "an unrepentant bleeding-heart" was unfulfilled until he happened upon a job writing editorials for the Fort Wayne, Indiana, Journal Gazette. He reached a turning point, "stirred to crusade mode," when he wrote a piece on "no Christmas toys for poor kids," then watched in disbelief as the donations poured in. Hayes tackled every important issue that came his way-civil rights, smoking bans, gun control, corporal punishment in schools-using methods worthy of note. Yet for the most part, Monday I'll Save the World focuses on Donna and her mental illness, as well as other related issues including suicide prevention, mental health insurance parity, and Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for police. With Donna's story, he delves into one of the most complex problems of the day: the increasing placement of people with serious psychiatric disorders into penal institutions, with juveniles in overwhelmingly greater percentages than adults. Hayes reserves the account of his son John's story until near the end of the book. I won't divulge the very interesting details, apart from his heartfelt praise of the Fountain House clubhouse model, or any other consumer-owned enterprise that brings people into recovery. It is evident in every chapter of Monday I'll Save the World that Hayes is dedicated to fighting for those who need a voice to succeed in their struggles. John's story adds to our impression of an activist with heart. Don't miss this book. (review by Nicki Sahlin, Ph.D., in NAMI Advocate, Summer 2005)