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
Billys run-in with the San Francisco police. Often using
Billy speak, the youths arcane lingo, the author reveals
societys 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 kids 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 . . .