Budgets, and Bodies

There was an interesting piece published recently in the Chicago Sun-Times. We all know nearly every government agency has taken a budget hit over the past few months. "It's the economy, stupid," to quote one of the instigators of this mess, Ronald Reagan.

But governments provide services, one of which in Illinois is paid attendant care for people with disabilities who need such to live independently -- and productively -- in the community.

Read the piece here.

Michael Ervin is waiting to find out if he will be able to get out of bed Wednesday morning.

That's what this state budget crisis means to him and thousands of other residents in Illinois.

Ervin is a Chicago playwright, free-lance writer and community activist. He also happens to be physically handicapped. Without the help of a home service aide, paid for by the state's Department of Human Services, he can't get out of bed.

This local-to-Illinois crisis reflects the need for the incorporation of the Community Choice Act of 2009 into national health care reform.

The uninformed might say, "A nursing home or other institution is the place for people in such circumstances."

That's wrong, both from a civil rights point of view and from an economic point of view. The cost of the attendant care Ervin needs is probably half the cost of incarcerating him in a nursing home -- a place where his life would be regulated rather than productive.

There is a place for nursing homes in our society, but a nursing home is not the place for every person with a disability who requires attendant care.

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Reason, Faith, and Revolution Review Re-published

• On the newjerserynewsroom.com site

Book review: Defending the divine
Monday, 13 July 2009 12:04
REASON, FAITH, AND REVOLUTION: Reflections on the God Debate
By Terry Eagleton 185 pp. Yale University Press, $25.00




Click on cover image for Internet Review of Books site.

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What Am I Doing Here in This Fishbowl?

There's a new greeting card company which now offers cards featuring people with disabilities -- Fishbowl Cards, Inc.

I'm not sure how I feel about the idea. Of course, there seem to be greeting cards for almost every occasion -- divorce, for example -- and I do understand the impetus for dolls and other toys to be offered that reflect the identity of the buyer.

But, the ugly truth be told -- and despite nearly 50-years riding around boob-high to the world -- I would not put disability as the first element of that which makes up Gary.

The card designs are interesting, and fill a niche, all the same, and I wouldn't be offended if someone chose to send me one.

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ACLU Takes on National Identity Numbers

A friend sent me the link to this clever little Shockwave Flash File that leads to the American Civil Liberties Union website. It's a skit about the Orwellian capabilities if and when national identity numbers are mated with persuasive computer technology.

Random thoughts ...

• We already have unique identifying numbers, our Social Security numbers, and I find I'm often asked to recite the last four digits as a semi-password.
• I've found that more than one business establishment knows from where I am calling if I use my land-line telephone.
• Those who complain most about illegal immigration and undocumented workers -- We need action! -- implicitly are calling for something like this because there may be no other way to gain control of the issue.
• It's also intriguing that the ACLU skit refers to a "national health insurance provider," and we are in the process of reordering the medical system in the USA in that direction.
  
• The real push for such identities won't come from the government but rather from international corporations in the name of efficiency.

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Assisted Suicide in Great Britain

There's an interesting article in The Herald wherein the writer, one Anne Johnstone, recounts her epiphany on the subject of assisted suicide. She writes ...

"Why have I changed my mind? The leader writer in me would carefully marshal the intellectual arguments against reform and harvest some key quotes from medical and religious leaders but that would be fundamentally dishonest because this change is primarily heart-felt."

... and goes on to relate the "heart-felt" change came about because of personal experiences.

It's well worth the read, and I finished the essay believing that among assisted suicide advocates once the personal meets the utilitarian there is invariably a change.

Sadly, if we recognize the impetus of the assisted suicide movement is utilitarianism -- an assumption that humans can take control, to direct life along the path of least resistance and most profit for those who can profit -- we find ourselves shouting into a whirlwind.

That understood, it is depressing that those who talk about "death with dignity" can be persuaded that humane and empathetic palliative care is far better than utilitarian disposal only when it influences them personally.

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Crips, Midgets, Language, and Freedom

BROOKLYN, N.Y.: Little People of America is petitioning the FCC to add the word "midget" to the list of what cannot be uttered on broadcast television. The LPA, which represents people with various forms of dwarfism, is urging its 6,000 members to file complaints with the commission over the use of the word in an episode of "Celebrity Apprentice."

There is some discussion among disability activists about the The Little People of America's attempt to move the m-word into the province occupied by the n-word, the r-word, and f-word. Ironically, a good number of people with disabilities have co-opted the word "crip," although not without some controversy within the ranks. I use crip myself, mainly as a way to assume control of a situation.

One thread of the discussion focused on the idea that too many of the individual "ban the word" attempts are counterproductive to the collective disability rights movement. Alternately some worry about freedom of expression.

I find myself in the second camp, even though I truly understand that any language or label that attempts to differentiate often attempts to denigrate. The very incident the LPA points to illustrates the word was used in a hateful and derogatory manner. Think not? There's a simple enough test: substitute the n-word, or even its once-acceptable root word, negro.

I'll make it personal. Even though I don't believe the word should be removed from the language, I don't like being called a cripple, and so I can readily understand that a little person would object to being called a midget.

Funnily enough, I thought that forms of the word "dwarf" were not acceptable, but I note that it appears in the first paragraph of the news release. Apparently, the LPA proposes "little people" to incorporate every person of short stature.

We all know that language, which is both symbolic and defining, is one of the primary elements of self-identification. And people of small stature historically have faced derisive comments. In fact, the word midget has resulted from a negative derivation: midge -- small dipterous insect inflicting painful bites.

When dealing with the perception of disability by those who are not yet disabled, I sometimes think "Anything goes!" is the correct approach, by which I mean humor (aggressive humor) and in-the-face tactics work far better than complaints.

• For more on the issue, I suggest these two short pieces about the word.

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"I'm Going to Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee ... "

Graceland, June 2009

Don't be fooled. Choosing an early hour on a Monday morning in June won't let you avoid the crowds at Graceland, the late Elvis Presley's home in Memphis, Tennessee.

Another thing: telling management that your surname earns you no discount.

Frankly, Graceland was disappointing in many ways. As I think I remember, the family sold the "rights" to Elvis-as-a-legend to a large corporation. That corporation -- or perhaps the family before the sale -- now has 15 or 20 acres across the street which incorporate most of the tourist site. There's an admission area and several gifts shops, and there are exhibits of automobiles and aircraft, one a large 4-engine jet. Both those exhibits are tour'able only for an extra fee. The $100 went spent earned four adults admission to the mansion.

And that required a shuttle ride across Elvis Presley Boulevard, a shuttle that was equipped with a wheelchair lift. In fact, as far as I could tell, only the mansion's basement and the aircraft were inaccessible.

Graceland's living room.

The mansion itself wasn't built for Elvis. He purchased it from a prominent local family. It seemed ... small. Small, at least, compared to the mansions commonly presented on television tours. And having been frozen in time at the point of Elvis' death, Graceland also seemed ... dated. But not in the way we think dated when we tour a Victorian exhibit and marvel at the classic style; instead, it seemed tacky.

Were I cynical, I would say Graceland and its environs gave off the air of being a tourist trap. But it was a hot and muggy day, and I suppose I left the place tired and cranky.

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