Update Biographical and Educational Details
on Ms. Tammy Yard-McCracken
Credited VS Unaccredited Degrees, licensing, educational standards and the Case of Tammy Yard McCracken, a doctor by some standard but not others
Experts? More Questions about Tammy Yard-McCracken, self described violence dynamic expert
I had planned to post some more about dealing with street people, a subject that was touched on at the Violence Dynamics Boston seminar (in fairness the actual subject was pre-attack signals, but I find myself focused on the idea of people spending money to learn how to deal with street people in a safe environment. You can read about it in the last few posts, or, if all goes to plan, the next few posts on these subjects on this blog). But an interesting thing happened this week, so I delay that discussion for a bit.
Last Friday, one week ago, I posted a bit about street people and street people in Schenectady As mentioned, being from Schenectady I like to think I know something about street people.
In the same blog post , I mentioned Rayford Faulkner, "the legend," (a title he proclaims wherever he goes). Before I went to graduate school in 2004, Rayford Faulkner used to be well known in the circles where my friends and I traveled. He had a public access TV show and later a youtube channel and frequently appeared at local open mikes (an event where anyone could peform, --"open microphone")
If given the chance there was nothing THE LEGEND (a fellow Schenectadian told me I must put this in CAPITALS, so I will) was eager to take his turn at the microphone and regale and enrapture the audience with performances equal in quality to this one. I have a fond memory of one night attending a wonderful open mike at the Van Dyke when he came on stage and performed something that he assured us, very loudly, was a Budd Holly and the Crickets song. In between songs he would cry out to the audience about how he was a legend and had his own TV show, which was true, the show being aired regularly on Schenectady Public Access --Channel 16.
Great Music from The Legend Rayford Faulkner on Vimeo.
On this show, The Unreal Variety Show, THE LEGEND, Rayford Faulkner, would pontificate about life and philosophy and the state of the city and explain things like his unique fashion sense and what it said about the world and the way we should live our lives.
You can see it here, although this video was actually filmed in Albany. Apparently, THE LEGEND liked the taller Albany buildings as backdrops.
Seasons like emotions from The Legend Rayford Faulkner on Vimeo.
In a way, Ray Faulkner was a bit like the famed Emperor Norton of the nineteenth century, an off beat intellectual with grandiose fixations known for issuing proclamations. (Cheap plug --If you're not sure who the Emperor Norton was, perhaps you should be reading my new History Blog . Although there's no Emperor Norton post, I can't imagine that if all goes to plan there will never be one.)
As he wrote on his website:
I am The Only Legend in Your Crappy Town
certain persons have crappy lives and watch channel 16 waiting for me to come on and I give them a reason to carry on.
I am The Legend Rayford Faulkner and I say things that most others are thinking however are afraid to say.
In all of my existence i"ve been different. This website is to help increase my success, this website is a tremendous oppurtunity for fans to reach The Legend Rayford Faulkner
Makes sense to me.
In my blog post I linked to Ray Faulkner's youtube channel. Yes, the Unreal Variety Show had a youtube channel. (note, past tense)
In the same video, I wrote extensively about my thoughts on the Violence Dynamics Boston seminar and mentioned that one of the presenters, Tammy Yard-McCracken, advertised herself as having a PhD but the PhD seems to have come from a place called "the Eisner Institute." The Eisner Institute, at one time, was exclusively an on-line school and their degrees were, at one time, not accredited. If the degree is not accredited, few academic institutions or licensing bodies would consider it valid. (That's why accreditation is important.) I did a little digging and discovered that while it's quite easy to find evidence that Tammy Yard-McCracken was a licensed therapist in Texas, she was licensed because of her master's degree, which does come from an accredited college in Texas. Although I may have missed it (I honestly did not dig that long. Why should I?) I did not find any signs of a license to practice as a therapist in Virginia where she now lives and teaches martial arts. (As stated, it's quite possible I may have missed it. If someone finds one, please send it to me and I'll put the proof here.)
I posted this video on Friday.
Just FYI, I also saw her commit at least one act that struck me as unethical for a therapist --essentially she used her job title at a trump card in a disagreement accusing the person of pathological behavior and stating she could not explain why the behavior was pathological without entering into a therapeutic client-therapist relationship with that person, It was quite strange, a bit troubling and made me wonder what kind of person she was, so I spent some time digging and found credentials that seem like they should be clarified before being accepted. It also struck me as a sure-fire way to start a clash, again troubling for someone who claims to be an expert on how to avoid conflicts.)
On Sunday, two days later, someone in Nattick, Massachusetts, the town where the Violence Dynamic Boston seminar was held, checked out the blog, and Monday, the next day, someone in the approximate area where Tammy Yard-McCracken lives in Virginia checked out the blog. Whoever this was, they spent a lot of time on the blog and seemed to be trying to understand what type of blog this is exactly. (Ha! Good luck with that. Let me know when you figure it out.) And the day after that, Rayford Faulkner's Unreal Variety Show youtube channel was taken down from youtube for allegedly "violating youtube community guidelines." ( see here )
Did Tammy Yard-McCracken find it offensive and work to have it taken down? Did this clearly urbanesque, slice of life show offend her suburban sensibilities that much? Did she think that Rayford Faulkner and I are friends and such an action would hurt me? Honestly, I have no idea what happened. There's not enough data and it could clearly be coincidence. A strange coincidence but a completely believable coincidence. (For the record, Rayford Faulkner is not a friend of mine. I barely know the guy, and I doubt very much if he has any idea who I am. He, like Tammy Yard-McCracken, is merely someone who strives for celebrity and fame, and whose path I have crossed. Just as Tammy Yard-McCracken strives to take on the role of a purveyor of ideas and wisdom, and has adorned herself for this role by purchasing a PhD from the Eisner Institute --hey, does anyone know if the Eisner Institute is an accredited institution or not? Someone really should check-- just as Tammy Yard-McCracken adorned herself for her role of teacher of society with the purchase of an online PhD, Rayford Faulkner, adorned and distinguished himself for his role as teacher of society and purveyor of hard-earned truths by putting a plastic bag over his head. The intent is the same, but, of course, a plastic bag is cheaper and no one who sees you walking around with a plastic bag on your head will ever ask "Is that a real plastic bag?")
Again, why does it matter if the Doctorate is accredited? Because as stated in other blogs in this series, if one does research into issues like sex abuse, child abuse, child and human trafficking, and the surreal, tragic, witch-hunts of the 1980s daycare center cases, the Satanic Ritual Abuse hysteria of the same era, the completely disproven "recovered memories therapy" fad of the same era, a fad that hurt or destroyed thousands of families, feminist therapists who exaggerated their credentials were an important component of all these tragedies. It's a subject I wrote and researched a lot in the 1990s, and it's quite an important one. Heck, therapists exaggerating or working outside their area of expertise were an important component of the UFO abduction craze of the 1990s as well, another disproven tragedy. ( Buy my books please! and if you want more on Witch Hunts and people who use false credentials for fame, power, and the infliction of terror on others in time, pieces should start appearing on my history blog, https://history-for-fun-profit-and-insight.blogspot.com/ )
Of course, there are other explanations as to why and how that youtube channel was removed. It and the Unreal Variety Show has been a source of intermittent controversy for years. A friend of mine, an attorney was once involved with Channel 16 Schenectady Public Access TV (he and I were both involved with WRPI non-commercial radio back when it was free and good and open to all kinds of interesting ideas and music. It was a great station and I had a great time back then at that place.)
He told me of once, after the local Fox News affiliate accused Rayford Faulkner of praising Osama Bin Laden, he and others at the station had to carefully watch and rewatch the episode of The Unreal Variety Show in question repeatedly trying to parse the statements and follow the line of reasoning and the statements exactly. It seems that the lesson of the day, the LEGEND's lesson for us all on that show, was that right and wrong are real things and if you do not believe there is a right and a wrong then you are psychotic, And if you are psychotic and cannot tell right from wrong then you believe that Osama Bin Laden did nothing wrong and might even be a great men. Yes, it's important to listen carefully, and people who don't will become offended and cry out and,ultimately, insist not only that they are right but that there is no value to listening carefully (and, as for this, I cannot abide. The truth must be discerned and disemminated, another reason to check credentials.)
As stated, there were pre-existing controversies surrounding the show and the youtube channel. You can read about them here: https://www.reddit.com/r/schenectady/comments/8p3hhq/the_legend_rayford_faulkner_has_been_removed_from/ or here: http://dummydumdum.tripod.com/id9.html or do a google or other search on relevant terms.
So there's no evidence that Tammy Yard-McCracken had anything to do with the removal of The Unreal Variety Show youtube channel. And there are most certainly valid, probably more likely, alternative explanations as to what happened to it.
But wondering if she did have something to do with it got me wondering. As stated, the Violence Dynamics Seminar Boston was heavy on cops and law enforcement presence. (I mentioned that Tammy Yard-McCracken was married to a cop. She has also appeared as an expert witness in at least one trial where she helped defend a police officer against allegations of police brutality. I am curious to know if she stated she had a PhD when admitted as an expert witness.) And the audience, as stated, were nice people but they were paying $175 a day, more or less, to be there. It seemed to have a middle class vibe to it all.
And they were there to learn about what is sometimes called "street violence." And, and I do believe this strongly, if one does not find The Unreal Variety show, a show where Rayford Faulkner, genuine street person, shares his thoughts and sense of humor and outlook on the world, to be even a little bit interesting, and instead just find it completely offensive, stupid, and of no value whatsoever, then you probably should not be teaching anything that has the word "street" in it. --and that includes lessons on street violence.
Which got me thinking, in the 1980s, when I was an EMT for a commercial ambulance in Schenectady, a subject I wrote about in my as-of-yet unpublished but completed novel "Holidays at the Ambulance -1986," I spent a lot of time travelling around the city, going in and out of all kinds of neighborhoods, as well as in and out of all kinds of people's houses and apartment, often seeing people at their worst. And when I say "their worst," I often meaning hurt, bleeding, sick as a dog, drunk, and/ or psychotic. I thought I knew the streets and understood them. But I didn't really. My encounters were brief. And I was always coming into their stories just a little bit after the point where they got hurt and exiting from the saga just a little bit after they were dropped off at the hospital. Which mean I missed most of the story and had no idea what the build up or aftermath of this brief, dramatic episode of action was. Which means I did not understand what was going on at all.
For instance, the truth is I have no idea how many people I've seen with bleeding stab wounds in them. I really don't. I'd hate to guess. But I do know that generally if you are dressed in a uniform and ask someone why someone else went to all that trouble to stab him (the majority of the stabbing victims I've seen, maybe all, were men) the general answer will be "for no reason at all."
Of course, sometimes people stab one another for no reason at all, but it's much, much less common than "someone stabbed me for a reason that made good sense to him or her at that moment but I'm really not in the mood to tell you, Mr. Ambulance man, just get me to the hospital so they can stitch me up and plug his hold in my side, please."
Like I said, if you work in emergency services, then you often are only getting a small slice of the story. You're missing the rhythm, the cause and effect, the pattern of the events, the aftermath and denouement, and in some cases, you're so blind that you don't even know that there are parts to the events that you don't realize are there. Many emergency services people really do think that large quantities of people are running around stabbing people for no reason at all, when, in fact, usually they have a reason and often the rhythm and pattern of events was quite predictable, even inevitable, to the people who knew them.
I learned that later when I begin working in other capacities with inner city folks and spending time with them, talking to them, learning their stories, learning how they think, live, and make it through the week. This is something good cops do, the ones who see themselves as part of the community, but something the bad ones don't, the ones who see themselves as an occupying force, the last line between anarchy and civilization, defending the good people, the middle class, mostly White or White-acting folks from the lower classes, the mostly non-White and "Urban" looking and acting folks.
Something to think about. In the meantime, in the words of Rayford Faulkner when asked about what he has to offer society:
I am The Only Legend in Your Crappy Town
certain persons have crappy lives and watch channel 16 waiting for me to come on and I give them a reason to carry on.
I am The Legend Rayford Faulkner and I say things that most others are thinking however are afraid to say.
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