Visions Voices Violence

As a "fictional memoir," Zahn Pesh tells the true story of a mentally disabled young man Billy, known affectionately as Vaney and Billy's run-in with the San Francisco police. Often using "Billy speak," the youth's arcane lingo, the author reveals society's neglect and injustices toward such individuals. Wrongly, Billy is accused of making "terrorist threats" against a paramedic, but few other than Pesh believe the disabled kid's story. Avoiding the blame game, Pesh shows how each from personal perspective does his duty, indiscriminately, but nonetheless Billy, or Vaney, suffers because the system fails. Billy is treated like a criminal, not as a patient, which Pesh insists he is. Try as he might, Pesh only meagerly reforms that system, before . . .