Number One Thing NOT To Say To An Empowered Disability Self-Advocate..

Do as I say..

Alternately :: Because I said so..............

You are most assuredly more than welcome to offer your opinion as to why you think something should occur a particular way.. Beyond that, though, you start seriously stepping on individual human and civil rights along with the dignity of the individual when you place a demand that another perform specifically as you say..

:raises left brow:

Least the above seem somehow trifling, please never discount that, in precisely the same manner that the ADA benefits all persons, the disability self-advocacy Voice likewise is among the leaders in the legions of those striving to empower all disenfranchised individuals, not just those with disabilities..

Indubitably. :wink:

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..

---

The Calf Path..

And from that day, o'er hill and glade.
Through those old woods a path was made.

And many men wound in and out,
And dodged, and turned, and bent about;

And uttered words of righteous wrath,
Because 'twas such a crooked path.

But still they followed - do not laugh -
The first migrations of that calf.

~S.W. Foss

USF University of Law :: How The ADA Benefits People Without Disabilities..

Found the following while surfing over around the Disability Law 2.0 blog a little bit ago.. As one of my cyber friends over at the ADA-Laws Yahoo! group said, this is something nice for a change:

• Lashing Back at the ADA Backlash: How the Americans with Disabilities Act Benefits Americans Without Disabilities
  TinyURL :: tinyurl.com/4hhb52..

This University of San Francisco - School of Law paper applies Professor Derrick Bell's interest convergence hypothesis to the disability context. It identifies that the ADA benefits nondisabled workers and challenges the notion that advancing equality for individuals with disabilities necessarily comes at the expense of the nondisabled workforce.

The above referenced webpage is "just" the abstract.. It also has a downloadable 65-page 300+ .pdf file that goes with.. The link to the article that immediately begins to download is at the bottom of that same page..

A(nother) new resource for me, the above article's hosting website is called Social Science Resource Network and is found at:

• www.SSRN.com

For those playing over at Digg.com, I've got it dugg in the Business and Finance category..

Yeah....... Something nice.. Something that just feels supportive for a change..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..

Universally Inclusive Communities :: One Size Fits All Political Rah-Rah Rhetoric..

Enough with Bittergate.....

Enough with sweetie.....

Enough with separatist catch phrases like low class and Ordinary People..

And all the positive campaign rah-rah rhetoric in the World will only carry a fella, any fella, just so far in this Life..

If any political parties plan on remaining in the running for much longer, now is the time to start large scale, proactive, united discussions on how we are going to work together at the local community level across our entire Nation to develop universally inclusive programs like housing, employment, and transportation for everyone..

Likely very few communities anywhere that are healthy for long from within without these fundamental Societal Lifelines..

It's not like we don't already have centers for independent living (CILs) scattered throughout our country and possessions, employees and volunteers, alike, with their noses resolvedly to the proverbial grindstone formulating exemplary battle plans of actions towards the same even as the rest "rah"..

Yeah, I dream.......

A lot.

Surely, one of these days one of those Dreams is going to come true.. :wink:

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..

Wakeup Call :: An Unknown Suicide Jumper On Atlanta's I-285 Spaghetti Junction..

The words just won't come after having seen yet another news report of this nature:

• I-285 West Reopens At Spaghetti Junction; Dekalb County, Georgia; Posted 4:47 pm EDT, Updated 5:22 pm EDT, May 19, 2008

Somehow unexplainedly to these Fingertips through the Tears, this, just the very latest this second of similar pieces echoing across our Country, symbolizes all that is wrong in our World..

Traveled over to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), to see what, if anything more, they had to add to WSBTV's short blurb, and things got just that much worse.. There, right below their own story of the Spaghetti Junction overpass suicide jumper, is a teaser for an article on.......

Taking tourist bus tours to view the destroyed Lives of others in the form of their foreclosed homes:

• Bus tour gives people look at foreclosed houses; Kevin Duffy; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Published 05/19/08..

The white shuttle bus came to a stop and Damon Borozny joked to the passengers, "All right, time to scare the neighbors."

Borozny, a product manager for an office supply business, was helping lead a new kind of tour for Atlanta - the home foreclosure tour.

A dozen people paid $49, or $65 per couple, to spend five hours Sunday checking out other people's broken dreams and possibly find a deal.

One unfortunate set of people's Lives are being shattered forever because of endlessly skyrocketing food and fuel prices even as these other wonderful folks are trading humorous barbs over the same while carelessly rummaging where tiny feet of Hope, Love, and Joy once pitter-pattered.. Seeing that article couldn't help but bring back to Mind the similarly minded individuals who graciously provided anxious sightseeing tourists with bus tours immediately following Hurricane Katrina's deaths and devastation in New Orleans, Louisiana..

Our World just keeps sicker by the keystroke.. Predatory lending has now led to predatory sharks very publicly, visually sucking off the blood of permanently wounded homeowners..

For all we know, it was something precisely like this bloodsucking predatory entrepreneurship that was the last straw for the Spaghetti Junction suicide jumper.. Someone somewhere knows the History, the Truth behind what happened today.......

We have GOT to start coming together and support each other for everything we are..

Every Life was someone's Child once..

Every Life had a Chance once to be a productive member of our Society, of our local Communities..

Every Life has Value now in this, our Own one and only, if given a Hand back up towards that Chance..

It begins with Compassion, Human Compassion for another from deep down within our own Souls..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock........

---

In my Mind's Ear, listening to.......

Against all odds
Against the grain
Love finds a way
Some people change.

Thank God for those who make it
Let them be the light.

~Montgomery Gentry..

Dear Barack and Roy :: Straight jacket..? Not so much........

Caught up with M.S. Bellows, Jr.,'s/Jr.'s (how does one punctuate that, anyway..?) latest, Former Clinton-Gore Campaign Chair: "This Race Is Over, Over.", over at Huffington Post just now.. Not sure quite what to think..

Yes, as the receiver of the endorsement, Barack Obama is not in full control of the comments appended to the why-fors of people choosing him over Hillary Clinton..

But.......

Straight jacket..?:

This nation is evolving. Colorado is one of those states you call a red state... [but] I don't think Colorado is the same state it was 20 years ago. I think we need to get out of the straight jacket, 'this is a red state, this is a blue state'.... We need a candidate who can appeal to the evolving nature of U.S. politics."

Oooh.. It just got that much better.. First time 'round, I got so hung up on just seeing "straight jacket" tossed about so nonchalantly, I missed that they're recognizing the World is indeed changing..

Most respectfully, word to your camps: Disabilism.. Using terminology like "straight jacket" when you (at least from here on out) know it is offensive to many because of the post-traumatic stress visions of in-hospital abuse and torture it invokes..

Won't go there here, but I can guarantee to you that, betweenst you and I, I'm sure that we could insert in its place something ethnic-based or sexist-based, and you'd suddenly take heed of the comparable pain induced to other sets of demographics.. Works exactly the same for people with disabilities..

They call it dadgum basic Human respect for and acknowledgment of the circumstances of another.. It's not hard to do if it is indeed who you genuinely are deep, deep, down inside.. And when you willingly put yourself out there in politics, it additionally becomes a permanent part of your job description..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock..

Blogging Against Disabilism :: Still Waiting.. ITMT, Edwards and Obama Schmooze..

Before And After :: About These Images..

Immediately below are two printscreen snippets recently grabbed from the BarackObama.com website while disability self-advocates were asking for inclusion of disabilities under the website's "People" listing.. The lefthand snippet reflects where there was no general disability category under "People".. The righthand snippet was taken last Friday after Seth D. Harris, a member of the BarackObama.com website, shared with us that Disabilities now will indeed receive a demographic representation under the "People" listing.. Yay..!

Before I get started back up on my soapbox and so as not to seem woefully ungrateful, I would very much like to once again sincerely, publicly thank the Barack Obama campaign people for addressing the concerns of those of us who wrote repeatedly to them and about them having persons with disabilities (PWDs) listed for a long, long time only as "Issues", translation: "Problems", and not as "People".. It was the Number One first thing I know I noticed when initially patronizing their website:

• Butterfly :: Funny how rhetoric can sidetrack a girl.. :)..

Success was broadcast this past Friday, May 9, 2008, in the form of emailed correspondence from a gentleman named Seth D. Harris and addressed to multiple BarackObama.com disability topicked groups stating that we were indeed now seen also as People First via the new addition of an "Americans With Disabilities" category within the "People" listings on the Obama presidential campaign's official website..

'Tis good the addition of AWDs for, until this very week, "Labor", "Environmentalists", and "Kids" were among all the other demographics and special interests of people visually holding value to the Obama campaign.. Value by association, or the lack thereof, is subliminally perceptual, through the action of addition and/or omissions to such a list.. Highlighting that "minor" detail had been a must-gots-to-do-soon on this kid's upcoming blog agenda as a matter of fact.. :wink, grin:

Now, about all those huge news stories breaking today about Senator John Edwards publicly announcing his political endorsement of Obama as the candidate to beat during the 2008 presidential elections:

• Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) :: John Edwards decides to endorse Obama; Associated Press, Published 05/14/08
• The Huffington Post :: John Edwards Endorsing Obama; Published May 14, 2008
• Google Search :: edwards endorses obama..

All this flagrant media hyped grandstanding conspicuously reaching out to grab the attention of America's perceived "middle class" voters begs me to most respectfully inquire:

Whose hand is slated to be embraced to garner the confidence of the some 50+ million persons with disabilities across these, our United States..?

Embraced so passionately as to garner the confidence of PWDs such that they will never again feel the stigmatic pain of yet again being left out and behind, endlessly segregant even as others rally and celebrate.. in Unity.. just beyond the Disability Community's societal ordained reach..

With untold numbers of persons with disabilities in long term care (LTC) facilities (i.e. nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, hospitals, et al[l]) to date silently left out in the cold with respect to the recent, albeit admirable, Vote For Change nationwide voter registration campaign, some, for lack of a better word this sec, "schmoozing" in their direction is seriously in order..

Too.......

To date, disability self-advocates have had to champion just to be recognized as People First and not purely issues or problems within certain political circles.. Fodder for another day is us having to then face abusive verbal retribution purportedly from fellow PWDs within that same camp for us even daring to negatively engage in such an action..

And now we see this.. Importance reaped once again on the almighty dollar as one representative of the Democratic political party, the party that notoriously appeals to those with threadbare pocketbooks, seeks to ostentatiously rope in the middle class vote.. Doing so presents the appearance of Choice, one of more monies over less, middle class over lower class, since some sizable number of the Disability voter base is living hand to mouth in the true sense of the old adage, if not literally living on the streets because of their Life-induced circumstances..

Yeah, not hard to tell these Fingertips are still a little bent about the Disability Vote not hitting the radar of the Vote For Change nationwide voter registration drive, well, not in my state, anyway.. I was told firsthand that, well, maybe next time, basically.. "Maybe next time" wearies on these Fingertips as still more people jailed away, incarcerated against their Wills in long term care centers across the country have died while we all wait to be included.......

Maybe next time.

The following quote was a huge part of what kills me about the Vote For Change campaign.. The Barack Obama presidential campaign's OWN correspondence regarding building steam for the voter registration drive last weekend boasted:

The goal of this campaign has always been to reach out to people of all races, ages, and backgrounds and bring them back into the political process.

Right now, there are thousands of qualified voters in every state who are not registered to vote -- and they need someone to help make their voices heard.

Yup. Some other time, kid.. Just not now when they're trying to stir up the most interest via their well-publicized Vote for Change voter registration drive kickoff event..

Voter rights for persons with disabilities in long term care centers..? Still not to be even when the push is on so hard to help enable that Right for EVERY single other one else.. The message remains loud and clear that the Disability Voice continues to be viewed as counting naught for squat..

Here's to bumping up each, our own voter registration efforts just to show them the genuine passion behind one of my favorite mantras:

Feel The Power of The Disability Vote..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock.. :wink:

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Acronyms used in this piece.....

• PWD :: person with a disability
• AWDs :: Americans With Disabilities
• AJC :: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• LTC :: long term care
• ITMT :: in the mean time

Definitions On The Fly :: "Every"..

From Dictionary.com, in part, comes the following definition of "every":

• adj. Constituting each and all members of a group without exception.

Stay tuned.......

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock.. :wink:

Blogging Against Disabilism v4.0139652 :: The Obama Campaign: Will They Will..?

Turns out there may be something to be said for waiting until the 11th hour before submitting one's entry in the now annual Blogging Against Disabilism Day.. Between a(nother) bad battle with a bout of "depression" and my left hand progressively going 1/2 numb so as not to be able to feel the keyboard, I had instead spent the last couple of days toying with ideas..

Stalling.. Basically just stalling, waiting for just that one right idea to tickle these fingertips..

Namely at first, I had been looking, leaning a little more towards bearing a media bias slant.. The media's continued incessant use of persons with disabilities "suffering from" playing Tiddly Winks in my Head was the primary culprit..

Just now once again did an Internet search on "disability" and "suffering" together.. In the news.. In the last 24 hours.. Wholly an unscientific slice without going through each and every single webpage returned, but sufferin' succotash if there aren't 374 opportunities laying in wait..

Hm.

Then I thought..... eh, not so much..... how about..... let's compare disabilism returns, just the word "disabilism" versus "sexism" vs "racism", each also by themselves in the news (such as it is represented online) in the last 24 hours..

Sigh...

Sexism in the Google News search engine's eyes in the last 24 hours :: 2,781 returns..

Racism in the Google News search engine's eyes in the last 24 hours :: 14,074 returns..

Disabilism in the Google News search engine's eyes in the last 24 hours, nope.....

Wait, in the last week, perhaps..?

Nooooooo.....

Ok, I know..

In..... The last month.....

Drum roll, please.....

1.

A great big heaping, bleeping grand total of One.

And it was an ad.. An honorable one, to be sure, but still "just" an advertisement..

Hats off to Scope in the United Kingdom for running their Guardian.co.uk website ad that was the only return in Google's News search engine and that made it there because it, in part, stated:

Scope is a national disability organisation whose focus is on people with cerebral palsy. Our mission is to drive the change to make our society the first where disabled people achieve full equality.

We campaign to banish disabilism and we deliver a wide range of services to support disabled people and their families in achieving choice and control over their lives.

Ahhhhhhh, but what of that post subject that so far has nothing to do with the above, the one that says, "THIS is why you wait until the absolutely unbearable last second sometimes..":

Will the Obama campaign camp or will they not.....

INCLUDE the untold feasibly hundreds upon hundreds of thousands in long term care facilities across the United States in their brand newly announced.....

Vote For Change voter registration and mobilization drive..?

The email correspondence that triggered my query was pumping up constituent support for the same, and, in part, states:

From the beginning, our goal has been to reach out to people of all races, ages, and backgrounds and bring them back into the political process. We must use the rare opportunity we have right now to bring people together and make this a better country for all Americans.

That's why I'm excited to announce a 50-state voter registration and mobilization drive we're calling Vote for Change.

Beginning with a nationwide kick-off on Saturday, May 10th, more than 100 Vote for Change events will take place in every state, organized by our dedicated volunteers who are leading this campaign for change in their own communities.

With each new arrival of the same this evening, I got more curious and finally took another timeout from the great hunt for acts of disabilism across the Net.. In opening the email and seeing the above, it occurred to me to ask of one individual forwarding it on a local list I've joined:

Do you know what their plans are for registering those who are in long term care facilities, i.e. nursing homes, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, et al(l)..?

Wait, make that two individuals received the email from here and are now wholly aware, in one sentence or less, of where these fingertips now stand in their quest for genuine Change in our America..

Like I said.. Will the Obama campaign camp or will they.....

Not INCLUDE the untold numbers of persons with disabilities jailed away beyond their control in long term care facilities across the United States..?

To not do so upon announcing this incredibly grand gesture of registering every single American possible so they may enjoy their constitutionally given Right to Vote would be.....

DISABILISM on a scale beyond one's wildest imagination fathomable..

Only feedback from the inquisitive email I redirected to Info @ BarackObama.com, purportedly coming straight from Mrs. Michelle Obama's own inbox, will tell for sure..

And now.....

It's YOUR turn to ask her..

Too.......

Info @ BarackObama.com Contact information correction: Online Contact Form..

Nothing about Us without All of Us..

Peace, Love, Liberty, and Social Justice For Us ALL..

Cyber hugs from Talking Rock, Georgia, USA.. :wink: