When the wheels make the man, part 3

From the Sunday Mail in the UK, we get this headline:

Wheelchair pervert David Bennie jailed for decade of child abuse

No, the man was not being perverted with a wheelchair. He just sits in one, though the brief news story does end with the suggestion that he's faking his disability:

A WHEELCHAIR-BOUND paedophile has been jailed for four years for a decade of sex attacks.

David Bennie, 47, won three children's trust before subjecting them to depraved attacks.

The widower would strip during "naked nights" at his home and urged the youngsters to do the same.

He abused two sisters from when they were 12 until they turned 16.

Bennie also tried to force a 16-year-old boy to have sex with another man.

He showed hardcore porn to the children at his home in Irvine between 1996 and 2007.

The ex-railwayman was jailed at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last week after being earlier convicted of lewd and libidinous behaviour and sexual assault. He was put on the sex offenders register indefinitely.

Bennie was wheeled into court by relatives but one victim claimed it was a sham and that he chased her upstairs and into the garden, stopping when he feared being seen on his feet.

Of course, use of a wheelchair never precludes the total ability to walk -- many, many people use wheelchairs because they help with various details of mobility, not because they are incapable of walking at all.

Because you are nothing without your assistive equipment. See parts 1 and 2 of this series.

Lame Duck

Image description: A color cartoon drawing of a white duck with George Bush's head and one hand, but a duck bill for a mouth. He's holding the red hotline phone and there's a cast on one duck foot. The cast has the seal of the president on it.

Like most people I know, it's been a refreshing change these past couple weeks to see how mostly toothless Bush appears after so many years of his callous destructiveness. But I tire of hearing the term "lame duck." It is ableist, of course, yet so ubiquitous most people don't think about it.

A "lame duck" is, literally, one that cannot keep up with the flock, and the primary definition provided by Merriam-Webster is "one that is weak or that falls behind in ability or achievement."

According to The Phrase Finder, the earliest recorded use of the term as a metaphor dates to 1761 and investors in the London Stock Exchange who couldn't pay their debts. Along with "bull market" and "bear market," "lame duck" was part of 18th-century stock trading lingo. How that came to be may or may not have something to do with the British game cricket:

In Horace Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, 1761, we have:

"Do you know what a Bull, and a Bear, and a Lame Duck are?"

In 1771, David Garrick, in Prologue to Foote's Maid of Bath wrote:

"Change-Alley bankrupts waddle out lame ducks!"

In 1772, the Edinburgh Advertiser included:

"Yesterday being the settling day for India stock, the bulls had a balance to pay to the bears to the amount of 23 per cent. Only one lame duck waddled out of the alley, and that for no greater a sum than 20,000."

We are still familiar with the terms 'bull market' and 'bear market', referring to rising and falling markets respectively, but 'lame duck' in the specifically stock trading context is now little used.

Why should someone who has no assets be called a 'duck'? Could it be related to the cricketing term, 'out for a duck' - used when a batman is out without scoring any runs? It seems not. That term is much later and refers to the zero on the scoreboard being similar to a duck's egg. First used in 1867, in G. H. Selkirk's Guide to Cricket Grounds:

"If he makes one run he has 'broken his duck's egg'."

The term made its way to American politics, with the first reference here in 1863 and the first presidential reference about Calvin Coolidge in 1926. Back then, out-going politicians had about 60 days longer to wreak havoc before newly elected representatives took office. The 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, also sometimes referred to as the Lame Duck Amendment, shortened that time to it's current length, with new Congressional members taking office on January 3 and the president on January 20 following November elections.

"Lame duck" is particularly ableist since its current use refers not only to the decreased political power of elected officials who are slated to be replaced but also to the lack of accountability those politicians face. The daily "Quackitude" report on The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, for example, covers both instances where Bush seems to be conceding his position to Obama already and the executive orders that reveal a gross misuse of power by bypassing legislative approval of things like uranium mining along the Colorado River.

I love Maddow and her show, but here's the relevant part of the November 7 show transcript that puts it all together under "Lame Duck Watch":
MADDOW:

We elected a new president this week, but there are still 10 scary weeks left of the Bush administration when anything can happen and most likely will.

And so we are back with another installment of our public service series, the RACHEL MADDOW SHOW "Lame Duck Watch" because somebody has to do it.

On the agenda at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, in the last couple days, nearly nobody watched. Scrapping Mid-East peace. Now, there's an idea. About a year ago, the Bush administration invited officials for nearly 50 countries to Annapolis, Maryland for a meeting with Israelis and Palestinians to try to forge peace before the end of the Bush era.

It widely considered the president's attempt to save a sliver of his otherwise, rather soily international legacy. At the time, those talks were deemed a success by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. And the administration vowed to keep working on this until Bush left office. They said they would get a deal before the end of the year.

Well, yesterday, the administration announced, forget it. They called off plans for any further talks before the end of the year. Legacy shmegacy. We've got an environment to wreck while we still have a chance.

They didn't say that thing about the environment, but yes. President Bush's Interior Department is busy relaxing environmental protection rules on mining for uranium within three miles of the Grand Canyon, you know, where the Colorado River runs, the one that provides drinking water for Phoenix, Vegas and L.A.

"Mommy, I didn't ask for lemonade. It's not lemonade, Sweetie. It's the seepage off those radioactive tailings. How much better would it be if January 20th were like tomorrow?

Daily, Maddow links impotent power with irresponsible use of what power Bush has left. So does everyone else. So being a "lame duck" is not just about being ineffective (which is ableist enough by itself), it's also about being an asshole.

Friday Music Mix Tape

I'm trying something new, thanks to Grace. I did it for me, but then I thought I'd share it.

The above image of a cassette tape (with a vintage black-and-white photo on it from Warm Springs Institute of five women with polio using wheelchairs, each with one arm vigorously upraised in a wave to the camera) is a clickable link to a ten-song audio mix tape of former Friday Music artists. It's not all the same songs as featured before, and the clickable image isn't accessible for vision impairments. Below are alternative links to YouTube -- also not particularly accessible for various impairments, but the songs start there when the page loads so it's an alternative way to get the audio or see the artist.

Here's the playlist:

The Dresden Dolls - Girl Anachronism
Ben Harper with the Blind Boys Of Alabama - Take My Hand
Nina Simone - My Baby Just Cares For Me
Sinéad O'Connor - If You Had A Vineyard
Neil Young - See The Sky About To Rain
Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding
Kristen Hersh - Your Ghost
Warren Zevon - For My Next Trick I'll Need a Volunteer
Joni Mitchell - A Case of You
Chavela Vargas - Paloma Negra

Ahem: I haven't posted on Neil Young yet. I shuffled posts around to accommodate the Thanksgiving weekend holiday and my reluctance to spend it typing much, but Young will be the very next Friday Music post.

Autism in Minnesota Somali community

I'm spending the day with family, but here's something interesting, controversial and meaty to read "On Autism, Somalis Feels the Chill in Minnesota," from Age of Autism. It's controversial for a number of reasons, including that the site is sponsored by a pharmaceutical company and because there is much discussion of vaccines and their relation to autism. Read it for info on one of the largest Somali communities in the U.S.

And then go read up at Autism Vox about the "cluster" of autism reported above. Or read more in depth there about vaccines and how there is no evidence that they cause autism.

7 Wheelchairs reviewed by NYT

Image description: Color photo of Gary Presley's book cover for "7 Wheelchairs: A Life Beyond Polio." A close-up photo of one back wheel of a manual wheelchair.

Gary Presley's new book, 7 Wheelchairs: A Life Beyond Polio, receives a rave review from the New York Times:

Those who prefer their miracles in subtler and more secular form might turn instead to Gary Presley’s extraordinary memoir of a life after polio. No one rises from a wheelchair and walks again in this book, yet the miracles clearly abound.

Mr. Presley was part of the last generation of polio patients in the United States: he became sick in 1959, right after receiving a booster shot of the old Salk vaccine. Whether the illness was from the vaccine or despite it was never clear, and in the end made little difference: within a week both legs were paralyzed, both arms drastically weakened, and he could not breathe.

The primitive respirators of the time saved his life. For months, an iron lung encased him like an oversize Tin Woodsman’s costume, doing the work his own muscles could not do. He was flat on his back, his world limited to what he could see in a small mirror affixed to the top of the machine. (With the mirror tilted correctly, he could watch “noitartnecnoC” and “drowssaP” on television.)

Eventually he graduated to a smaller, more portable lung — a metal carapace that let him sit upright. At night a rocking bed turned him violently on his head and back again to force air in and out of his lungs. Then the hospital sent him home to a small isolated Missouri dairy farm. He was 18 years old.

Mr. Presley writes with candor and precision about every facet of the next five decades. He learned to breathe without machinery, but he never walked again. A voracious reader, he skipped college and settled into a clerical job in a local insurance office. His wheelchairs became faster and sleeker, but his parents helped him dress and bathe until they died. As for toileting: Mr. Presley’s chapter devoted to the mechanics of urination and defecation in the face of paralysis is a tour de force that should be required reading for all.

Who could predict that, finally living on his own in his late 40s, he would fall in love with one of his hired aides? Or that, now approaching 70, his anger and depression faced and pretty much conquered, he would be happily married, healthy, vigorous, productive, in his words, a lucky man? A miracle, indeed.

Congrats, Gary!

Things that crack me up #48

Image description: A color photo posted to Flickr by Trevor Coultart shows a white rectangular sign with the black image of Wheelchair guy inside a red circle. To the right, the direction Wheelchair Guy faces, is one word: "HIDE!" also in red.

There are a few pellet gun holes in the sign all around the Dude, who is either fleeing or chasing, I can't tell which.

New book on Buck v. Bell

Image description: The cover of Lombardo's book shows sepia-toned photographs of two women and an infant. Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell by Paul Lombardo

A new book by legal historian Paul Lombardo explores, in depth, the 1927 U.S. Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell in which Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously declared "three generations of imbeciles is enough." This was the case that legalized involuntary sterilization of the "feeble-minded" and gave great credibility to the American eugenics movement.

Lombardo details not only the needless cruelty of Holmes' statement, but also it's utter inaccuracy. As described by USA Today science columnist Dan Vergano:

The three generations in the case, Carrie Buck, her mother, Emma, and daughter, Vivian, it turns out weren't imbeciles; Carrie was an average student and Vivian, taken from her mother and placed in the home of the family whose nephew had fathered her, made the honor role once in her short life.

"Buck earns a place in the legal hall of shame not only because Holmes' opinion was unnecessarily callous but also because it was based on deceit and betrayal," writes legal historian Paul Lombardo of Georgia State University in Atlanta, in his just-released book, Three Generations, No Imbeciles: Eugenics, the Supreme Court, and Buck v. Bell. Scientists and lawyers, including Carrie Buck's defense attorney, conspired against her, Lombardo finds in old records.

The inaccuracy wasn't an accident. Carrie Buck was used and betrayed at every turn:

In reality, Buck was at the [Virginia Colony for Epileptics and Feeble-minded] because she had been raped and impregnated by the nephew of her foster family the year before. The family sent her to the colony, where her mother resided, to escape scandal. [Physician superintendent of the colony, Albert] Priddy "quickly began collecting information to demonstrate the hereditary defects he was certain linked Emma and Carrie," writes Lombardo.

The Buck decision was popular in its time and as a public policy even encouraged the eugenic Nazi philosophies of racial health and purity. From Vergano again:

It wasn't until national publicity about sterilization abuse in the 1970s that the practice ended. In 1942, the Supreme Court struck down involuntary sterilization of inmates, but the Buck decision has never been repealed.

"Eugenics still fascinates today," says Lombardo, invoked in debates over genetics testing, abortion and the future of medicine. "The attitudes are still around that fostered eugenics. They aren't going away."

Things that crack me up #47

Image description: A color photo of a modern, high-backed wheelchair all in a shade of light gray similar to office computers. The seat pictured is one option -- with a cut-out in the middle to acommodate the toilet underneath. The whole seat, with high back, headrest, and slim minimal armrests, looks a lot like modern office furniture with foot platforms attached and a different wheel base.

So, there are some cool things about this "high-tech wheelchair" called the Home Chare. It's a design project, I believe, not something actually being manufactured anywhere yet. The concept is basically a chair for everything but sleeping -- it can lie flat so as to be a level transfer height from a bed, it can detach from it's wheeled base and attach to a stairway lift, and you can poop in it by simply wheeling the chair over what looks like a standard size toilet.

Though for that last to work, as noted at Student Tech News, the wheelchair user needs to be pantless. That's the part that has me giggling:

"I have a modern new wheelchair! But there's one catch: I will no longer be wearing pants of any kind!"

In all serious, there's some design genius and also some serious flaws here, unless this is still meant to be an auxiliary chair to a person's main power wheelchair as even the large back wheels of a manual chair have to be attached for this to be maneuverable from a sitting position. Like the wheel base that accommodates a toilet beneath it, large wheels that a user can touch and turn while in the chair seem to be an accessory rather than a built-in feature, and since there's no motor or power mechanism of any kind, this is a chair to be pushed around in rather than to use for oneself. It's for ease of care-giving, not the ease of a wheelchair user. And that's fine if this is an auxiliary chair to the one the person can use independently.

Other possible flaws that I see include the tiny armrests, which I would try to lean on or use to shift my weight and find myself on the floor because they are not big enough to keep anyone who needs support from flopping out. Also, while this would make an awesome shower chair -- or poop chair, I guess -- I do not want to spend all the hours of my day in a chair lacking cushiness. Disabled people's asses, what I know of them, are rarely impressed by very modern, thin seating, even if it does include gel cushion. Padding everywhere, please, if I'm sitting here all week.

Finally, I kind of like wearing pants.

Slumgullion #49

The U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear an appeal by Californian Jarek Molski on whether he is a "vexatious litigant" no longer allowed to sue businesses over disability access without first seeking court permission. I've written about Molski in the past, here and here.

Popular Mechanics magazine includes a wheelchair design in its Top 10 Innovations of 2008. The winners, California Institute of Technology engineering students, have started the non-profit Intelligent Mobility International and are currently trying to lower the cost of their wheelchairs from $150 down to $40. (For the unaware, a folding lightweight manual wheelchair bought by any major vendor in the U.S. can easily cost a couple of thousand dollars.)

Rebalancing the scales of justice -- Columnists at the Guardian details how the U.S. Supreme Court has dismantled consumer protections against health insurers and what Obama must do to halt and reverse the damaging effects. Here's the up-shot, but see the column for details of what the Scalia Court has done to consumer health rights:

As the new president rolls out new proposals for ensuring health and economic security, he should not ignore the court's drive to roll back existing safeguards. If he acts fast, he could score some significant early wins, and send a clear signal that the new sheriff in town is serious about justice for ordinary citizens. Early in this Congressional term, it could be possible to legislatively "fix" decisions that distort major laws like Erisa (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act) and the Civil Rights Act equal pay guarantees upended in the Ledbetter case. His agency heads can rescind the mass of Bush administration regulations and policies that pre-empt vital state legal protections. His justice department can press the federal courts to faithfully construe laws in line with their original reformist purposes, and stop importing stealth deregulatory designs recently in vogue. Most important for the long-term, the president, together with allies in the Senate, can sensitise new judicial nominees to the priority of robust enforcement of guarantees protecting Americans' pocket book needs.

The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit recently ruled that driving is not a "major life activity" under the ADA. Kellogg v. Energy Safety Services Inc. originates in rural Wyoming, where as stated at Workforce Management, "public transportation is virtually nonexistent and distances between towns are measured by hours rather than miles." The same conclusion about driving was reached back in 1998 and 2001 by the 2nd and 11th Circuit Courts, respectively, but passage of the recent ADA Amendments Act means that the logic behind this ruling should no longer apply to similar cases in the future.

Disabled rabbit gets a wheelchair -- The article says the American company that makes pet wheelchairs sells some for disabled pet skunks too. This will be something I ponder now and then for a while.

Woman in wheelchair sued after being hit by truck -- Apparently her being hit (while attempting to cross at an intersection that didn't have a crosswalk) caused a couple thousand in damage to the truck. The comments to this article aren't for the faint of heart: The prevailing sentiment seems to be that a woman in a wheelchair has no business in the street.

British film censors label new film with the warning that it contains "disability themes" -- Imagine any other group of citizens being considered troublesome enough to warrant a warning label: "Women doing girly things" or "Beware: Black folks!"

British teen wins right to refuse heart transplant -- One of a number of news stories out of the UK recently that focuses on assisted suicide and the "right" of people to die.

"Noel, is life really not worth living?" -- Ouch podcast host Liz Carr addresses Noel Martin, a man paralyzed in a 1996 attack by Neo-Nazis, who plans to travel to Switzerland to commit suicide. Carr says:

I know when people read your story, many will agree that yes, if they were in your situation then they would want to die too. Most people are so scared of illness, of disability, of getting older, that wanting assisted suicide is seen as an entirely rational desire. What scares me is that views like these will also be held by the doctors, the media, the courts, the government and all the others who have the power to decide if we live or die.

I'm sure by now you know how I feel about assisted suicide. Until the day when good quality health and social care are universally available regardless of age, impairment, race, gender or location, I believe there is no place for legalised assisted suicide.

I just think it's too easy for a society to promote assisted suicide as a right rather than work to overcome the barriers to supporting older, ill and disabled people to live fulfilled and valuable lives. Forget the right to die, isn't it more urgent that we campaign for the right not to be killed?

See also Bad Cripple and Secondhand Smoke for more on Noel Martin.

Then read a contrasting story, also out of the UK -- Sue Garner-Jones, a British teacher who has been paralyzed since an automobile accident 34 years ago, responds to the much publicized Swiss suicide of a former rugby player called Daniel James. By Swiss suicide, I refer to Switzerland's practice of legalized assisted suicide that an estimated 900 Britons avail themselves of each year. Garner says:

People make their own decisions about how to live their life. But there’s a lot of talk about bravery and courage for people who were opting out of living their lives. I didn’t like the inverse of that.

To call this action ‘brave’, ‘courageous’ and ‘selfless’ implies that those of us who battle on are ‘cowardly’ and ‘selfish’, which is unfair and untrue.

Here's the skinny on Daniel James. All this has been huge news across the pond. We've been a little self-involved with our elections, I suppose.

Friday Music: Warren Zevon

Warren Zevon would be an appropriate music post on The Gimp Parade because he was a well-known musician with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or because he was dogged by alcoholism for much of his adult life, or because he died in 2003 of mesothelioma (a cancer associated with asbestos exposure) after documenting his decline in health with a final album and a VH-1 documentary. But really, I just love his music.

This YouTube video of a 1978 live studio performance of "Werewolves of London" is intercut with brief shots of a werewolf man dressed in a tux and cape. Zevon plays a grand piano and sings while a four-man backup band stands in the background.



The lyrics:

I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand
walkin' through the streets of Soho in the rain.
He was lookin' for the place called Lee Ho Fooks,
gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein.

Chorus:
Aaahoo, werewolves of London
Aaahoo(2x)

Ya hear him howlin' around your kitchen door,
ya better not let him in.
Little old lady got mutilated late last night,
werewolves of London again.

Chorus 2x

He's the hairy, hairy gent, who ran amok in Kent.
Lately he's been overheard in Mayfair.
You better stay away from him, he'll rip your lungs out Jim.
Huh, I'd like to meet his tailor.

Chorus 2x

Well, I saw Lon Chaney walkin' with the queen, doing the werewolves of London.
I saw Lon Chaney Jr. walkin' with the queen, doin' the werewolves of London
I saw a werewolf drinkin' a pina colada at Trader Vic's
And his hair was perfect.

ahhhooooo, werewolves of London
Draw blood

Zevon's wiki reads like a Who's Who of famous musicians, actors, and authors. His career sort of died several times, and he made come-back albums several times as he worked through addictions and other personal struggles. When he learned he had cancer, he began one final album and spent his last year recording it with good friends in a kind of long, public goodbye. He appeared as the only guest on The David Letterman Show about 11 months before his 2003 death, candidly discussing his short future and singing some of his best known songs.

YouTube video of Zevon on stage playing guitar and singing "My Shit's Fucked Up." Here are the lyrics, which he wrote several years before his cancer diagnosis:

Well, I went to the doctor
I said, "I'm feeling kind of rough"
"Let me break it to you, son
"Your shit's fucked up."
I said, "my shit's fucked up?
"Well, I don't see how--"
He said, "The shit that used to work--
"It won't work now."

I had a dream
Ah, shucks, oh, well
Now it's all fucked up
It's shot to hell

Yeah, yeah, my shit's fucked up
It has to happen to the best of us
The rich folks suffer like the rest of us
It'll happen to you

That amazing grace
Sort of passed you by
You wake up every day
Hang your head and cry
Yeah, you want to die
But you just can't quit
Let me break it on down:
It's some fucked up shit

YouTube video of Zevon on a stage alone with a guitar singing "Lawyers, Guns and Money" from a 1994 BBC Christmas program titled Words and Music: American Writers.

YouTube video, in four parts, of the one-hour David Letterman episode with Zevon as his sole guest, just short of a year before his death. Parts one, two, three, and four. Sorry, I don't have a transcript, and I don't have the typing ability to whip up this length of dialogue here. I can offer the brief description from Wikipedia:

On October 30, 2002, Zevon was featured on the Late Show with David Letterman as the only guest for the entire hour. The band played "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" as his introduction. Zevon performed several songs and spoke at length about his illness. Zevon was a frequent guest and occasional substitute bandleader on Letterman's television shows since Late Night first aired in 1982. He noted, "I may have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." It was during this broadcast that Zevon first offered his oft-quoted insight on facing death: "Enjoy every sandwich." He also took time to thank Letterman for his years of support, calling him "the best friend my music's ever had". For his final song of the evening, and his final public performance, Zevon performed "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" at Letterman's request. In the green room after the show, Zevon presented Letterman with the guitar that he always used on the show, with a single request: "Here, I want you to have this, take good care of it."

Other sources:

Review in the NYT of I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, the posthumous biography published by Zevon's ex-wife.

A interesting list of famous people with OCD

Action Alert -- Update on Ray Sandford's forced electroshock "therapy"

Image description: A color photo taken by a concerned citizen who visited Ray Sandford after hearing about his forced electroshock treatments. Ray is a 54-year-old white guy with wire-rimmed glasses and a neatly-trimmed, graying beard. He's wearing a blue knit earwarmer headband.

According to MindFreedom International, the source of my post last week on involuntary outpatient electroshock in Minnesota, Ray Sandford's doctor has decided to "skip" a week of the torture. Here's the full update, posted as offered at MindFreedom International:

Ray Alert #3 - 16 November 2008

First the good news.

Within days of MindFreedom launching its Ray Campaign on 7 November 2008 to stop the weekly involuntary outpatient electroshock of Ray Sandford, his doctor has decided to "skip a Wednesday."

Ray says that this coming Wednesday, 19 November 2008, for the first time in months, Ray will not be escorted against his will, under court order, from his Minnesota home out in the community to his 34th involuntary outpatient electroshock.

So there's a reprieve for Ray.

For one week.

The bad news is that Ray's doctor said Ray's forced outpatient electroshocks will resume on Wednesday, 26 November 2008, the day before the USA holiday of Thanksgiving.

Ray said his involuntary shock will then continue every other week.

We don't know if the one-week reprieve is because of the MindFreedom campaign, but we know MindFreedom News readers are having an impact.

Since the MindFreedom first alert went out nine days ago, on 7 November 2008:

• Many people from all over the world have e-mailed and phoned the offices of the Governor of Minnesota, along with social service agencies, media, and the hospital where Ray receives his electroshock against his expressed wishes.
  
• For the first time, thousands of people are now aware of the existence of IOE -- Involuntary Outpatient Electroshock.
  
• A few national and local media are now actively investigating.
  
• Several advocacy agencies and human rights organizations are expressing concern and getting involved.
  
• Several volunteer attorneys are now in touch to provide assistance.
  
• Volunteers are visiting Ray and sending him their support, and Ray tells us he is grateful. One volunteer took the photo of Ray shown here.
• MindFreedom's "Zapback" e-mail list is coordinating the campaign.
• A disability professor and her class of students have called up Ray and are taking on his campaign as a project.
• And more.
  

Thank you, everyone.

Keep up the pressure and the support!

First, keep phoning and e-mailing, especially if you have not so far. Show there is national and international concern!

Here are the links to the original two MindFreedom alerts, which have information about how to e-mail and phone the Governor of Minnesota, and how to write or visit Ray:

7 Nov: Alert #1
http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/ray-sandford

12 Nov: Alert #2 - Governor Phone-In Campaign
http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/pawlenty-electroshock

Second, help MindFreedom answer the main mystery.

Despite all this public interest the question remains, "What is Governor Pawlenty's position on Minnesota laws allowing involuntary outpatient electroshock?

Is this Governor, who campaigns for "limited government," for such laws or against them?

Unfortunately, the Governor's office has not responded to any of the many e-mails or phone calls requesting his policy position. The Governor's office is immediately forwarding citizen inquiries to a voice mail, and then not replying to the voice mail.

We need media to ask the Governor for us. Please forward this alert to all media, small and large, from newspapers to bloggers.

Media can direct questions to:

Brian McClung

Director of Communications for Minnesota's Governor

phone: (651) 296-0001.

Media ought to ask, "What is Governor Pawlenty's position on Minnesota laws allowing involuntary outpatient electroshock?"

Sometimes the Governor's office is re-directing calls to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights. At first that sounds good. But this office says it is only focused on determining whether narrow discrimination complaints are legally valid. A spokesperson said this department makes no statements about policy.

This Minnesota agency said they are planning a major one-day human rights conference and forum on 5 December. One barrier is the "forum" costs $200.

For information on this Minn. Dept. of Human Rights, and their "forum," click here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/shield/ray/minnesota-human-rights-conference

You can also keep up with some of the latest developments about the Ray Campaign on the MindFreedom blog by MindFreedom director David Oaks, here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/mfi-blog

Disclaimer: Because the State of Minnesota won't reply, portions of these alerts are based on Ray's personal statements. By Ray's own admission, he now has severe memory problems. Therefore, journalists and others may want to find a second source to confirm accuracy.

*****

And a suggestion from me:

After you call or email the State of Minnesota (numbers provided by MFI):

From anywhere in the world phone (651) 296-3391.

From inside Minnesota phone toll free: (800) 657-3717.

You can leave a message at any time. You can reach staff any non-holiday weekday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm Central Time.

Call any day, but especially call on Wednesdays.

Add Ray Sandford to your holiday card list:

Ray is open to visitors and supportive postal mail:

Ray Sandford
Victory House
4427 Monroe St.
Columbia Heights, MN 55421-2880 USA

Things that crack me up #46

Is this cute or disturbing?

Image description: A color photo posted to Flickr by geekmama76 of a sign on a restroom at a wildlife park in Perth, Australia. It's a 3-D sign, I believe. It's of a creature, like a groundhog (or a badger?), with a bandage around it's head and it's hind legs and back half resting in a tiny little silver wheelchair.

This is obviously an original piece of signage art. What I find disturbing -- or hilarious? -- is that it looks like a stuffed animal -- an actual animal, dead, but stuffed -- attached to the disabled access restroom door.

Sign language in Sia's videos

Sia, an Australian pop singer perhaps best known for her song "Breathe Me" which played during the closing sequence of the Six Feet Under TV series finale, has released a music video for her newest single "Soon We'll Be Found" that features American Sign language throughout:



Video description: As the music begins, Sia, a blonde woman, is in what seems to be a warehouse. She walks up to a bowl filled with milky white liquid and dips both hands into it. With a full-body view of her, she begins signing the lyrics (though I don't personally know how accurately). Editing cuts between close-ups of her hands signing and the full-body view. Then the room darkens around her and she stands in a spotlight while the editing back and forth continues. When the chorus is reached, the lights come back on and here are people dressed in black lined up, three to either side of her. They each have had their hands dipped too, but in a variety of colors. They all sign the lyrics together, their hands standing out colorfully against their black clothing. As the next verse begins, the camera shifts to follow Sia's signing in shadow on a wall where her hands are joined by the shadows of many others, some signing and some forming shadow puppets on the wall -- animals, trees, a Garden of Eden with a shadow puppet snake slithering by. A jumble of gracefully waving hands and arms eventually overwhelm the lighted wall and fade it to black. Then Sia dances alone in a blacklight, her white clothing, painted face and green hands showing brilliantly in the black with dozens of bluish hands -- just hands -- around her, as stairs beneath her feet, as a halo around her body. She continues to sign the lyrics while the halo hands flutter and editing cuts between close-up and full body views. Then the hands scatter and while she signs the chorus they appear as bluish streaks signing with her, indistinctly seen in the black. Then her hands and the disembodied ones begin painting in the blackness, a little like a toy LiteBrite -- a sun, trees, clouds, a landscape of colorful flowers. Blue hands perch as birds in the painted trees against the black background. Then suddenly Sia is in the white-walled warehouse again. The six people are gone but black clothing lays in piles where each once stood. Sia looks up and smiles as disembodied blue hands fly like birds into the rafters.

The lyrics to "Soon We'll Be Found":

Come along it is the break of day
Surely now, you'll have some things to say
It's not the time for telling tales on me

So come along, it won't be long
'Til we return happy
Shut your eyes, there are no lies
In this world we call sleep
Let's desert this day of hurt
Tomorrow we'll be free

Let's not fight I'm tired can't we just sleep tonight
Don't turn away it's just there's nothing left here to say
Turn around I know we're lost but soon we'll be found

Well it's been rough but we'll be just fine
Work it out yeah we'll survive
You mustn't let a few bad times dictate

So come along, it won't be long
'Til we return happy
Shut your eyes, there are no lies
In this world we call sleep
Let's desert this day of work
Tomorrow we'll be free

Let's not fight I'm tired can't we just sleep tonight
Don't turn away it's just there's nothing left here to say
Turn around I know we're lost but soon we'll be found

The music video has circulated fairly widely as it was a free download at iTunes a few weeks ago. On the making of the video, Sia says:

I’ve always been obsessed with the beauty of sign language. The movement and expression just appears, to ignorant-hearing-me as a dance… a beautiful, emotive dance. But the real beauty is that, hidden in these perfect shapes, is communication.

I'm always curious how Deaf people feel about their language being used as art by hearing people, particularly in video format where the full view of the person signing seems to me to often be mangled in order to make it artsy but, ironically, useless as communication. I don't know that the ASL is useless in this video, but its use has been discussed at The Deaf Edge where it's raised conflicting emotions and opinions.

Whether it's to her credit or just an interesting obsession, Sia also uses a bit of sign language in an older song, "The Girl You Lost to Cocaine":

Wheelchairs in modern furniture design

David Pompa, an Austria-based designer, has created a collection of office furniture called Surreal Minimalism that includes eight chairs created by combining a variety of upholstered seats with different metal bases. Some of the metal bases are lifelike shiny metal human legs and feet, and other bases are wheelchair-like.

The first photo here shows a red seat attached to a metal base that is a minimalistic take on what a manual wheelchair looks like, with two big rear wheels and two small front wheels. It's not clear if the wheels are functional, but I don't think the back wheels would turn and while all the wheels are, of course, round, none of the edges anywhere appear to be rounded to accommodate gripping and pushing with hands.

Created as a project for his graduate studies at Kingston University in London, Pompa says, "Interaction is often reduced to a functional basis; this collection is an approach that objects and humans can interact on an emotional level with the aim of stimulating creativity."

The second photo here shows the same red seat with a metal base that looks like two silver human-shaped calves and feet that rest on short metal strips that look a little like truncated skis. From this angle you can better see the bright red seat which looks a little bit like a Lego with a cushy inner seat carved out of it. The armrests are the same solid unyielding plastic-like material as the rest of the seat's shell, and from this angle you can see it would be impossible to reach around these sharp-edged arms to push oneself with the wheelchair-base. By "sharp-edged" I simply mean the edges of the seat are not rounded off anywhere but are perpendicular corners. The top is blocky and the bottom is human-shaped.

At dezeen, Pompa clarifies in comments that the "objects are not meant to be comfortable, aesthetic, or usable furniture. the objects are symbols to question the stereotypical situation many people face in their office enviroment. there is no intention of putting these objects into an office enviroment and i am still at the beginning of their design process."

This third photo is of an entire room with several pieces of furniture that have regular furniture legs combined with either wheels or human-like legs. The furniture is either yellow and white or pink. A long oval yellow conference table has ten different "legs," one pedestal leg, several large round posts of varying styles and several that are either clearly human-shaped or mimic the organic curves of the human-shaped but lack an actual foot at the bottom. The chair at the table is like a basic dining chair with upholstered seat and back, and wooden arms and front legs. The back legs are replaced with yellow-tired wheels complete with handrims. Against a far wall is a chaise-like yellow upholstered sofa where the two back legs are replaced by slightly scaled-down versions of the yellow-tired wheels. A pink easy chair with ottoman looks quite comfortable. The ottoman has a metal pedestal base with four legs to the pedestal. The chair has half of that metal pedestal and is balanced in the back by pink-tired wheels with handrims. Between these last two pieces is a lamp that has small wheels (about the size of the front wheels on a manual) as part of its base. Obviously these chairs would not roll unless you lifted the half without wheels off the floor, but these are clearly images of a basic manual wheelchair worked into otherwise classic-design furniture.

Do you like what you see and how Pompa uses the wheelchair in the same way he uses human form in these designs? I wasn't sure how I felt about them until I read this analysis at notcot:

why do we always think about functions when we talk about inclusive design? design icons are icons for an exclusive range of our society. why?

I'm not sure if that's a writer at notcot or Pompa further explaining his design, but I like that very much. I think that inclusiveness is still not nearly a big enough part of even design discussions about function if the design of everything around us is an indication of what's being talked up, but hey, I'm all for inclusive design icons too.

That third photo above clarifies for me how furniture design could naturally incorporate the iconic wheelchair image so typically used as a symbol of inability and pity into design without it looking medical or unwelcoming. That's far more interesting to me than the first two chairs or the other variations in the collection that can be seen here.

Browsing Pompa's website, I found this last image of the design for what looks like a fashion show or possibly a nightclub. It's a big room with many tables, seating perhaps a couple hundred though there are no people in the photo. There's a bar seen dimly at the very back and a long runway or stage through the center of the room. Above it is some interesting angular architectural design. There are several stairs at each end of the long runway stage, but angling off from the stage's center are wide ramps that slope into the audience at either side. The ramps are a natural part of this whole angular stage and design above it. A half dozen big globe lights hang over the runway as a contrast to all the crisp corners and angles. Everything is white and stylishly accessible.

Still more links

I mentioned these additions in comments to the last link love post, but these blogs deserve their own announcement too:

Followed Lingling as She Gave Lymphoma a Beatdown
The Sakurako Chronicles
Three Rivers Fog
Whose Planet Is It Anyway?

Disability Blog Carnival #49 at I Hate Stairs

Check out the latest Disability Blog Carnival over at I Hate Stairs where the theme is "Lists."

And contribute to the upcoming carnival at The Life and Times of Emma where the theme will be "I am." The carnival happens on Thursday, November 27, which is Thanksgiving in the U.S., and the submission deadline is the Monday before -- November 24. Submit a blog post through the carnival website or avoid the CAPTCHA thing there, if you wish, by submitting links via comment at Emma's, emailing Emma at emma @ wheelchairprincess . com (remove spaces) or through carnival organizer Penny at Disability Studies, Temple, U.

When the wheels make the man, part 2

Each incarnation of an ugly news story out of Darwin, Australia, continues to boggle my mind. A 26-year-old man had sex with his disabled, wheelchair-using mother who, when able to get away, told her doctor about the assault.

The first story I saw on this had the lovely headline "Desperate man had sex with wheelchair-bound mum." Apparently, he was so distraught that the ladies don't fancy him that he became "desperate."

And now there's this headline:

Wheelchair incest man jailed in Darwin

Note for clarity's sake that no one committed incest with a chair. Note also that the man was not a chair-user. It's his mother, the victim of sexual assault, who is reduced to being a modifier for her son's act: "wheelchair incest." And finally, note that the man is serving time for incest (because it's illegal to have sex with a close relative), but not for sexual assault or rape.

Because you are nothing without your assistive equipment. See similar post here.

Okay, more link love for blogroll

My friend Amanda asked in comments yesterday if I could point out any cancer blogs because my sidebar blogroll is a bit intimidating in length. When I started this blog about four-and-a-half years ago and started building that big blogroll, I tended to not choose blogs that were mostly about posting on what drugs the blogger was taking and how much energy they had that day. I was looking for expressions -- even homey ones -- of disability as a social/political condition.

Specifically, I remember passing by a number of blogs by people with MS where the posts were almost exclusively about medications being taken, dosage, side-effects, effectiveness, etc. I wanted to hear whether or not their apartment was accessible or if coworkers were cutting them some slack when they were weary, if they were passing as nondisabled or revealed their condition at work and to family. If the diagnosis was accepted and believed.

But writing about many of those details presumes that the writer connects their illness or condition to the state of the environment around them and not just to the imperfect state of their body. And that doesn't always happen, or doesn't happen for a long time, for a number of good reasons. Often it's not the most pressing, consuming issue. It can take some time out there on the ground, in the streets, to notice what the social/political dimensions of disability are, especially if you are passing fairly easily. And many people (maybe most) resist joining up as one of "the disabled" because of what it means to their self-perception. There are quadriplegics out there who are okay with talking about social discrimination and the limitations of their physical bodies, yet they deny being "disabled," either semantically or categorically. I don't understand that latter, but I've also never been interested in arguing the point with those folk, so they tend not to make the blogroll either.

So, for those reasons and also my own blogroll-building shortsightedness, my blogroll is pretty lacking in some areas. Cancer blogs is one of those areas, though there is some scant representation:

Two of my favorite bloggers (and favorite online people), Sara of Moving Right Along and Jana of Pilgrim Steps each have amputated limbs because of cancer. You can see how my bias works right there -- they're part of my blogroll and daily reading because I relate to how they write about mobility issues and the social aspects of that. It just happens -- to me, though it's quite central in the story to each of them, I am sure -- that cancer was their path to disability awareness.

Now I think on it, I'd be pressed to name the diagnoses of most people on the blogroll, if it isn't clear in their blog's name. I'm more aware of particular impairment details of who uses a wheelchair or prosthesis, is autistic or blind, is bipolar or otherwise focused on mental health issues. I'm not uncaring, though clueless might be an apt accusation. The philosophy behind my sidebar means it's not particularly useful to anyone looking for a blog about a specific impairment or medical concern.

Another of the many failings of my sidebar is that it was set up to privilege the voices of disabled people writing about disability, and generally places nondisabled bloggers who also write on disability in a separate listing ("gimp parades" and "other parades"). Except for some nondisabled people who focus solely on disability issues and come to the topic as parents or college students. It's a muddy plan that fails to acknowledge Daisy or Feministe, for example. I'm not sure what to do about that because the list is too long to not categorize it in some manner, and since I won't divide people up by diagnoses (that won't happen), commitment to writing to the issue seems best.

Yet another sidebar dilemma, by the way, is my atrociously disappointing index. It's workable in a limited sense, but I hate having terms like "amputee," "blind," "dwarf" there. Is this a necessary evil to make the archives here accessible? Any suggestions on how to create a useful index that feels less like reducing people to diagnoses or labels would be appreciated. If someone has an index you like, leave a link to it, please.

Anyway, back to Amanda's comment. Here's a little link love for four blogs of people who have or have had cancer and are already on my sidebar:

As The Tumor Turns -- No longer being updated because of a successful prognosis.

Moving Right Along -- I can't say Sara writes about cancer, but she writes about her life and the four-year ride since it entered her life. She specifically began her blog because when she faced amputation of her leg, she went looking online for reasons to do the surgery and keep living. (That's the basic exploration of all disability blogs, imo: How do we, individually and as a society, do... all of this?) Also: bundt cake recipes and the occasional Mad Science Sunday.

My Private Casbah -- Bint has written some about cancer, though perhaps significantly, there's no clear path to that topic in her indexing. What she excels at most is intersectionality, ally-work and writing critically about the social justice issues of disability, race, sexual orientation and gender while generously engaging opposing viewpoints in comments.

Pilgrim Steps -- Again, cancer is not the point of the blog but part of the writer's history. Jana also takes incredible flower photos. And recently she's written eloquently about her Mormon heritage and Prop 8. And this is a must-read on how some Mormon elders equate homosexuality with disability because both groups are just too broken to marry and attain full stature in heaven.

And I'm adding these two cancer blogs to my sidebar. Other recommendations welcome:

The Assertive Cancer Patient
Not Just About Cancer

A little bit of link love

My sidebar needs a lot of updating, but here's a start. Ten new links:

Amber Tracker
Autist's Corner
DeafRead
Inside the Little Plastic Castle
Laura Hershey: Writer, Poet, Activist
Life of John
Media Dis&Dat
PhilosopherCrip
Special Needs Truth '08
Suela

Forced electroshock in Minnesota

I've copied the following in its entirety from The Trouble with Spikol:

URGENT: Forced Electroshock

MindFreedom International — 7 November 2008
Human Rights Alert: Involuntary Electroshock

by David W. Oaks, Director, MindFreedom International

The past Wednesday morning after the historic USA election what were you doing?

I know what Ray Sandford, 54, was doing.

Each and every Wednesday, early in the morning, staff shows up at Ray’s sheltered living home called Victory House in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, adjacent to Minneapolis.

Staff escorts Ray the 15 miles to Mercy Hospital. There, Ray is given another of his weekly electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatments, also known as electroshock. All against his will. On an outpatient basis.

And it’s been going on for months.

Ray says the weekly forced electroshocks are “scary as hell.” He absolutely opposes having the procedure. He says it’s causing poor memory for names such as of friends and his favorite niece. “What am I supposed to do, run away?” Instead, Ray phoned his local library’s reference desk to ask about human rights groups, and the librarian referred him to MindFreedom International.

Ray called me at our office here at MindFreedom International about two weeks ago. At first I wasn’t sure I believed him.

Of course, MindFreedom International has documented proven cases of electroshock against the expressed wishes of the subject all over the world, including in the USA. MindFreedom succeeded in having the United Nations World Health Organization call in writing for a global ban on all involuntary electroshock.

But this is the first time I’ve been on the phone with someone getting court-ordered forced shock while living out in the community, on an outpatient basis.

This is the ultimate double whammy. I confirmed Ray’s story by calling two staff at Victory House as well as his court-appointed conservator, Tonya Wilhelm of Luthern Support Services of Minnesota.

Ms. Wilhelm said, “We are following the letter of the law.” She said the State of Minnesota had secured a variety of court orders that require Ray to have forced electroshock against his expressed wishes. Ms. Wilehlm says it’s all legal and she can’t do anything about it.

Krista Erickson, chair of MindFreedom’s Shield Campaign, sees it differently. “This is terrible. This is a serious human rights violation that should stop. I hope MindFreedom members and supporters speak out. Even if Minnesota is following the letter of the current law, the law ought to be changed. And Ray has not had the legal power to appeal to higher courts.”

I pointed out to Conservator Wilhelm that the public — when they find out about forced electroshock — is passionately opposed to their taxpayer money being used to force such brutality on citizens. Ms. Wilhelm did let slip that what is happening to Ray — involuntary outpatient electroshock — is not that uncommon in Minnesota.

But when Ms. Wilhelm found out we at MindFreedom are issuing one of our public human rights alert to you and others, at Ray’s repeated request, she said something chilling.

Ms. Wilhelm claimed she had a legal right to stop MindFreedom! Ms. Wilhelm told me, “Only I can give you permission legally to say anything publicly about this.”

I pointed out we are not a medical facility, and that if she falsely claims we’re doing anything illegal then this is defamation. Which really is illegal. Ms. Wilhelm laughed loudly in the phone, said “let our lawyers talk,” and hung up on me. I hope she hung up to read the First Amendment.

Let’s disobey Ms. Wilhelm!

Spread Ray’s alert far and wide! Speak out against this electrical torture, now!

Because… Remember… While the world marvels at the power of USA democracy:

If it’s Wednesday morning, then Ray Sandford is being led from his home — which is supposed to be his castle — to get another weekly forced procedure that can cause brain damage and wipe out memories.

Want to do something? Follow the jump.

Mind your freedom. Disobey Ray’s conservator now!

Forward this alert to all appropriate places on and off the Internet, IMMEDIATELY!

And take the *below* actions. Thank you. Ray and I are counting on you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

* * * ACTION * * * ACTION * * * ACTION * * *

You can do this in a moment. It’s free! DO IT NOW!

E-mail your firm but polite message to Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.

SAMPLE MESSAGE — your own words are best:

“Investigate the weekly involuntary outpatient electroshock of Ray Sandford. Every Wednesday morning, MindFreedom says Ray is brought from Victory House in Columbia Heights, Minnesota to Mercy Hospital for forced electroshock. Stop all forced electroshock today! Taxpayer money should not fund torture!” [Your name/contact.]

E-mail address: tim.pawlenty@state.mn.us

Or use this handy web form

~~~~~~~~~~~~

* * * ADDITIONAL ACTIONS TO SUPPORT RAY! * * *

1) E-mail a complaint to Luthern Social Services of Minnesota (LSSMN) about Ray’s conservator.

Sample message:

“Investigate allegations that LSSMN employee Tonya Wilhelm tried to stop a public human rights alert by MindFreedom International about her client, Ray Sandford, who is receiving weekly outpatient involuntary electroshock at Mercy Hospital in Minneapolis. If verified, please reprimand, fire and replace Ms. Wilhelm, and please place this in her permanent personnel record. Please support human
rights.” [Your name/contact.]

Use LSSMN’s web page

Or phone Luthern Social Services at: (218) 726-4888

You can copy your message to headquarters of The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA):

info@elca.org

From ELCA’s web site about their church: “It’s a story of a powerful and patient God who has boundless love for all people of the world, who brings justice for the oppressed.”

More right here

2) E-mail a complaint to Allina Hospital and Clinics, owner of Mercy Hospital.

Sample message:

“Investigate allegations that your patient Ray Sandford of Victory House is receiving involuntary outpatient electroconvulsive therapy against his will each Wednesday at Mercy Hospital.”

Use this web page

Or phone: (763) 236-6000

3) Ray is open to visitors and supportive postal mail:

Ray Sandford
Victory House
4427 Monroe St.
Columbia Heights, MN 55421-2880 USA

MindFreedom will print out and mail to Ray some of your e-mail messages to the Governor and others, and put some on the web. E-mail a copy of what you write to news@mindfreedom.org.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

AND ONE MORE THING!

Say “no” to mental health system censorship!

Disobey Ray’s conservator now!

PLEASE forward this public human alert to all appropriate places on and off the Internet, IMMEDIATELY! Thank you!

Aging with AIDS

I saw Magic Johnson on Larry King Live last week after Obama's victory. I hadn't seen him in a while and it made me happy to see him looking so healthy. I worked for a college paper in 1991 when the news came out that he had HIV and I remember what a big deal it was, not just a sad news item, but the bigotry, homophobia and misinformation about AIDS. My God, remember all that?

It hasn't gone away, though we hear less about it now.

Anyway, a recent story in the New York Times, "Speaking out for a group one unheard-of: Aging with AIDS," reports on aging Americans with AIDS, some of whom (like Johnson) have lived a long time on anti-retrovirus drugs, but also elderly who catch the disease from lack of safe sex information and/or easy access to condoms:

In fact, 29 percent of those infected with H.I.V. are over 50. And because the immune system deteriorates with age, the virus is all the more aggressive in older people....

There is also an alarming rate of infection among older Americans. In 2005, 15 percent of new H.I.V. and AIDS diagnoses were among people over the age of 50, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet government recommendations call for routine AIDS screening only up to age 64, omitting the elderly population.

“What about people 65 and older?” Mr. Gold asked. “They’re having unprotected sex, they’re using drugs.”

He says that is why he continues his advocacy for people with AIDS and for stronger prevention efforts. He sits on both the New York and national boards of the nonprofit group Association of H.I.V. Over 50, attends City Council meetings and has spoken before Congress and the New York Legislature.

Not long ago, he visited a senior center in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn to discuss safe sex practices. The women who attended, “all over 80 years old,” he said later, rushed toward the table afterward for the free condoms he was distributing. (“They said to me, ‘It’s not for me, it’s for my grandson,’ ” he said.)

Politicians don’t like to talk about the spread of AIDS among the elderly, Mr. Gold says; nobody wants to hear about Grandma’s sex life. But he adds that change cannot happen without open discussion.

h/t to Beth Haller at Media Dis&Dat

Slumgullion #48

Just a few good links. That's all you need, right?

Bush cuts outpatient Medicaid services -- You heard about this parting gift from our Commander 'n' Thief? The Wonk Room at Think Progress has the details:

After arguing that legislation to cut over-payments to private insurers would “harm beneficiaries by taking private health plan options away from them,” President Bush, on Friday, “narrowed the scope of services that can be provided to poor people under Medicaid’s outpatient hospital benefit.”

In which the Netherlands endangers reproductive freedom -- Sylvia at Problem Chylde writes about a proposed bill that wants any woman deemed unfit to parent to be forced to take contraception for two years or any children she bears will be taken away from her at birth. I followed one link backward from Sylvia to a column for the Toronto Star to a blog post at Disaboom -- isn't it nice to know someone at a major daily reads a crip site?

Where neurodiversity meets feminist theory -- Lindsay at Autist's Corner has a three part series where she assesses an article by Kristin Bumiller titled "Quirky Citizens: Autism, Gender and Reimagining Disability" in the summer issue of the women's-studies journal Signs. Interesting writing from a blogger I hadn't found until now.

When the wheels make the man

The Desert Sun of Palm Springs, California, ran a short story last week with this headline:

Wheelchair stabber's sentencing delayed

The news is about a man convicted of stabbing and killing a friend over a dispute about a bicycle. No wheelchair was stabbed. No man in a wheelchair was even stabbed. In fact, it's the guy using the wheelchair that committed the crime.

Nice, eh?

Paralympics special airs today on NBC

For Americans who didn't have access to what happened at the Beijing Paralympics this summer (and that would be all of us who don't have easy cable access to foreign TV where coverage did exist), there's a 90-minute special on NBC this afternoon that has gotten some good reviews.

If you want more of the same four years from now, the network needs to know:

It will be aired the (NBC) National Broadcasting Company on Sunday at 2:30 P.M. Eastern Standard time.

And also the Universal Sports Television Network on beginning Monday, Nov. 10th though the 16, at 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time.

It is important that you tune in to these games because it is perceived as a test by these networks. It will be a test to see if Americans will watch disabled athletes compete in the same events as non disabled athletes.

Those reviews above are positive and supportive of better Paralympic coverage. They also try to be self-aware about the "inspirational" stereotype of disability, with varying success.

If you catch the show, post your thoughts on it in comments. Or, if you had access to coverage back in August and recall your favorite moment or athlete, post that and we can compare notes.

Things that crack me up #45

I love me some variations on Wheelchair Guy.

Image description: A color photo posted to Flickr by clagnut shows a pale blue spray-painted Wheelchair Guy on a brown wall in a London bar. Wheelchair Guy's hands are upraised, with the right one holding a big wrench and the left one holding a large spoon.

Details from clagnut: "The Gents' symbol was displayed with kitchen utensils and the Women's was displayed with tools. Hence the combination for the unisex Disabled loo."

On the language

I want to go back to that acceptance speech Obama gave Tuesday night and how it began:

If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.

It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.

It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.

It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.

I especially like that he phrased our inclusion as "disabled and not disabled" instead of "disabled and able-bodied" or some other variation ("special needs and average needs" "handicapable and... what?"). My preference for "nondisabled" over "able-bodied" is based on semantically addressing several problems with the (inevitably-problematic) dichotomy:

"Disabled" and "able-bodied" are not opposites, both because disabled people are not "unable" and because some disabilities are developmental or psychological more than physical, which "able-bodied" implies. And for that matter, "disabled and able-bodied" is a lop-sided comparison when you understand the difference between impairments (actual conditions of an individual or body) and disability (the social phenomena). Also, the double prefix of "nondisabled" (or "not disabled") inclusively centers disabled people in a way that "disabled and able" cannot.

It's interesting that Obama mentioned "not disabled" people in the same way he mentioned "straight" people, as a complement to "disabled" and "gay," the historically marginalized groups. Putting "gay and straight" together in rhetoric is pretty common, but "disabled and nondisabled" really isn't that common -- we usually stand alone with lack of disability so presumed as the norm that it needn't be juxtaposed at all. That phrasing and inclusion in the list of marginalized groups felt really good in and of itself, even separate from where it leads in an Obama administration.

So often we never come up.

I was looking for this

I Googled "Obama wheelchair" earlier tonight in hopes of perusing pictures of Obama meeting disabled Americans on the campaign trail, but I couldn't find one. Just a cartoon of McCain in a wheelchair driving himself off of a cliff -- apt but ableist. (Yes, I know a wheelchair is not representative of all people with disabilities, but it's the quickest way to find a visual and it does represent my physical impairments.)

A similar search for "McCain wheelchair" shows that same cartoon repeatedly, McCain feeling up a seated guy's face (presumably faith-healing a military vet) and pushing his wife Cindy's chair after she had a minor stroke back in 2004. There are also McCain-less photos of disabled people getting arrested outside his Washington, D.C. office earlier this year when they tried to impress upon him the need to support our freedoms with the Community Choice Act.

So Google didn't much help me feel very represented.

And then I wander over to The 19th Floor and Mark has a photo of himself and then-Senator Obama from 2005. Image description from Mark's post, but go check out the photo, if you can:

a February 2005 photo of me and then-Senator Obama taken in the tunnels under the Capitol building in Washington, DC. Obama is standing to my left in a charcoal suit, leaning forward slightly and smiling at the camera. I'm wearing a leather jacket over a shirt and tie, my facial expression entirely too serious.

Excellent. Now I can back slowly away from the computer and go to bed.