To the Editor: As a person with a federally recognized disability in the form of a mental illness, I continue to experience discrimination in my local community. Since November, 2013, this has been my unfortunate experience with a small, privately-owned business in downtown Rochester, New Hampshire. Despite the stigma and stereotypes of mental illness, at no point in time did I become violent or threatening towards the owner of the business in question. Paradoxically, it was the business owner who descended to the level of discourtesy, profanity, personal put-downs, and threatening me with violence. When I called my local police to report his threat, he …
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