It seems there needs to be some redactions of things previously said by certain borderline bi-polars, namely this one.
First, the name of this little corner of the world wide is such, as it was something (and still is) something I tell people who treat me like I am some kind of fucking child, or other form of dolt, just because my legs are monuments to atrophy. It in no way is designed to hurt a single disabled person's feelings, rather it is designed to shame people who are in no way disabled or infirmed. Ignorance still does not count as a disability in this country.
Second, my personal view of 'person first' language and political correctness are my own, and I do not feel the need to apologize, but more to clarify my position. The spirit of person-first is unarguably pure, but I would rather just be a person. That isn't about to happen, since we, The American People, feel the need to label everything, so I would rather be called the medical term for what I am, which is: Cripple. Get over it.
Rather than fighting to be known as people who are lacking something, which is literally what 'disabled' means, we should be fighting to be seen as people. Just people. On an equal ground with other god-damned people. In fact, most of the supposed disabled people I know would beat normal people in an intellectual ass-kicking contest, and I am baffled at the position that being known as disabled people is somehow worth fighting over. I am in no way belittling the victory of person-first language, but, I don't like what it has made of us. We are people. Only people. People who want equality. So go get it, but remember that you aren't disabled.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Politically Correct
Today I was informed, however gently, that my blog title is offensive and politically incorrect. I can suppose this is true, I can. But, I think political correctness has gone too far. It has made us too demure and passive. The notion of political correctness, at its heart, and in theory says we should put people first. It says I am not a disabled person, but that I am a person with disability.
This movement (meaning political correctness) has done, in my opinion something much more sinister, and unintended. It has taken the teeth away from saying we have a problem. No longer can we say 'this is fucked up because of x,y,z' because that's somehow offensive. You can't point fingers, because that is also somehow offensive. I can't call myself, or my compatriots cripples because that term is somehow derogatory.
In my mind the 'politically correct' terms for people like me are offensive, in fact, more offensive than the word I just used. I am not 'physically challenged' and neither are you. Nor am I 'handicapped'. What the fuck does that even mean? You know... someone once told me that was what Germans called panhandlers and beggars. Does that sound like you? I didn't think so. Doesn't sound like me, either.
I am also aware that some of you out there might consider the word cripple to be inflammatory, even if you are disabled. I pose to you that it's no different than a black person who calls himself a racial term. If a word has a negative power over you, or over me, or over any other group, then take the power away from it. Don't let people tell you what you are, or what you aren't be a goddamn cripple. Be a fucking gimp, and don't you dare apologize for it.
All of my life people have told me this crap line about playing the hand you're dealt. I didn't understand that, until I started playing cards. When you're at a poker table, you gotta know when to hold and fold and walk away, sure. But, if you can't walk you might have to make due with that seven-two, and if you have to do that, you shouldn't play that gently. If you have a bad hand, and you have to play it, then play it with balls.
When you have to play the gimp card, when you have to fight for what Olmsted and the ADA guarantee you, then you shouldn't go in there and use the most vanilla language you can. If you wouldn't apologize for introducing yourself, don't apologize for your wheelchair. Being 'politically correct' is doing just that.
This movement (meaning political correctness) has done, in my opinion something much more sinister, and unintended. It has taken the teeth away from saying we have a problem. No longer can we say 'this is fucked up because of x,y,z' because that's somehow offensive. You can't point fingers, because that is also somehow offensive. I can't call myself, or my compatriots cripples because that term is somehow derogatory.
In my mind the 'politically correct' terms for people like me are offensive, in fact, more offensive than the word I just used. I am not 'physically challenged' and neither are you. Nor am I 'handicapped'. What the fuck does that even mean? You know... someone once told me that was what Germans called panhandlers and beggars. Does that sound like you? I didn't think so. Doesn't sound like me, either.
I am also aware that some of you out there might consider the word cripple to be inflammatory, even if you are disabled. I pose to you that it's no different than a black person who calls himself a racial term. If a word has a negative power over you, or over me, or over any other group, then take the power away from it. Don't let people tell you what you are, or what you aren't be a goddamn cripple. Be a fucking gimp, and don't you dare apologize for it.
All of my life people have told me this crap line about playing the hand you're dealt. I didn't understand that, until I started playing cards. When you're at a poker table, you gotta know when to hold and fold and walk away, sure. But, if you can't walk you might have to make due with that seven-two, and if you have to do that, you shouldn't play that gently. If you have a bad hand, and you have to play it, then play it with balls.
When you have to play the gimp card, when you have to fight for what Olmsted and the ADA guarantee you, then you shouldn't go in there and use the most vanilla language you can. If you wouldn't apologize for introducing yourself, don't apologize for your wheelchair. Being 'politically correct' is doing just that.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Life Sentence?
In Washington state, a seventy-seven year old man has had several life saving things done, by the state, to prolong his existence. Big deal. Yeah, until someone tells you this man, with his power wheelchair, who survived a stroke, a heart attack, and skin cancer is in prison for killing someone.
What makes this story a shocking waste of money is not the man's age, or health concerns, or even that he's a killer. Where the issue comes from is he's been there since 1993, and he still has fourteen years left on his sentence. This makes his thirty-one year sentence almost certainly a life sentence. Now, consider this, when someone receives a life sentence, they are sentenced to the term of “no less than their natural lives”. Your 'natural life' means without any extra-ordinary life saving measures.
What do you think? Should the government prolong the lives of people who won't see the light as a free man?
What makes this story a shocking waste of money is not the man's age, or health concerns, or even that he's a killer. Where the issue comes from is he's been there since 1993, and he still has fourteen years left on his sentence. This makes his thirty-one year sentence almost certainly a life sentence. Now, consider this, when someone receives a life sentence, they are sentenced to the term of “no less than their natural lives”. Your 'natural life' means without any extra-ordinary life saving measures.
What do you think? Should the government prolong the lives of people who won't see the light as a free man?
Friday, August 13, 2010
A Matter of Opinion
What you need is a matter of opinion. Not you need an opinion, but what you actually need, that is someone's opinion, and it sure as shit won't be yours.
Today, I went to PSU, and I gave them my information as to what “reasonable” accommodations it might take for me to be a functional college student on their campus. It is someone's call as to whether my assistant who is going through all my classes with me, and going for the same degree, anyway, it's somebody's opinion whether letting her be in all my classes is “reasonable”. Their way of justifying such nonsensical behavior, is that they are not accommodating her. Even though she is my primary “accommodation”. My mode of transportation, and so on.
Their fix for my inability to take a language successfully is equally as ignorant. They offered me (or I should say, they plan to offer me) an adapted spanish course where, get this, the passing criteria can be pretty much whatever they think I need it to be. The course is self-paced, and I was told point blank they've put non-verbal students into it. At this point, why not just let people have the credits. Shit, at least let me. I have taken a whole year of ASL, and two terms of Spanish, already. Putting me in a class like that, in my opinion is an insult. Credit me what I paid for (and passed, mind you) and make me read Dostoyevsky. That should satisfy two requirements.
As for other adjustments, no one seems to understand “maybe”. As in I might need extra time, sometimes. I might maybe need my laptop for some classes. Sure, I could use a note-taker, but until I need one. Instead, it seems like I have to make myself out to be a fucking gimp, instead of who I am, and what I can do.
Today, I went to PSU, and I gave them my information as to what “reasonable” accommodations it might take for me to be a functional college student on their campus. It is someone's call as to whether my assistant who is going through all my classes with me, and going for the same degree, anyway, it's somebody's opinion whether letting her be in all my classes is “reasonable”. Their way of justifying such nonsensical behavior, is that they are not accommodating her. Even though she is my primary “accommodation”. My mode of transportation, and so on.
Their fix for my inability to take a language successfully is equally as ignorant. They offered me (or I should say, they plan to offer me) an adapted spanish course where, get this, the passing criteria can be pretty much whatever they think I need it to be. The course is self-paced, and I was told point blank they've put non-verbal students into it. At this point, why not just let people have the credits. Shit, at least let me. I have taken a whole year of ASL, and two terms of Spanish, already. Putting me in a class like that, in my opinion is an insult. Credit me what I paid for (and passed, mind you) and make me read Dostoyevsky. That should satisfy two requirements.
As for other adjustments, no one seems to understand “maybe”. As in I might need extra time, sometimes. I might maybe need my laptop for some classes. Sure, I could use a note-taker, but until I need one. Instead, it seems like I have to make myself out to be a fucking gimp, instead of who I am, and what I can do.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
The problem is the Solution, is the problem, is a whale, is a grasshopper is a fish
The problem seems to be in the solution, and not that any of us have the equation wrong... well, maybe that too. But the problem is in the solution to the whole mess.
When I went to the ADA 'celebration' I made up hundreds of leaflets for Twisted Strands on printer. Thinking that if people knew there was another solution out there, they would run at it, just like I am running to make it happen. What happened though, is wholly different than what my ecstatic delusion had conceived.
People in my own community seem paranoid of what I am trying to do, one guy refused to take one because apparently every asshole who gives you a piece of paper is trying to lead you to Jesus. Another man told me other people were doing this, and he was a member of six such sites, though he could name none of them. He also promised he would register, if for no other reason than to lead me to these other communities with my vision. He has yet to register. Having all but given up waiting, I set out to find them. My only conclusion is that this fellow is lying.
Out of frustration I sent Twisted Strands material to the Connecting Communities Coalition, and Disability Rights Oregon (DRO), these places sent me rubber stamp style responses which directed me to websites deemed 'comprehensive', all of which have no community forum and seem primarily to be blanket mailing lists.
So, the problem is the solution, is the community, is the problem is a whale, is a grasshopper, is a fucking fish. It's all a big goddamned circle, and if no one is willing to trust the people like me, who only want to change it, it always will be.
When I went to the ADA 'celebration' I made up hundreds of leaflets for Twisted Strands on printer. Thinking that if people knew there was another solution out there, they would run at it, just like I am running to make it happen. What happened though, is wholly different than what my ecstatic delusion had conceived.
People in my own community seem paranoid of what I am trying to do, one guy refused to take one because apparently every asshole who gives you a piece of paper is trying to lead you to Jesus. Another man told me other people were doing this, and he was a member of six such sites, though he could name none of them. He also promised he would register, if for no other reason than to lead me to these other communities with my vision. He has yet to register. Having all but given up waiting, I set out to find them. My only conclusion is that this fellow is lying.
Out of frustration I sent Twisted Strands material to the Connecting Communities Coalition, and Disability Rights Oregon (DRO), these places sent me rubber stamp style responses which directed me to websites deemed 'comprehensive', all of which have no community forum and seem primarily to be blanket mailing lists.
So, the problem is the solution, is the community, is the problem is a whale, is a grasshopper, is a fucking fish. It's all a big goddamned circle, and if no one is willing to trust the people like me, who only want to change it, it always will be.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Happy Birthday, ADA
Today the Americans with Disabilities Act turns twenty. Next year will it not only be old enough to buy its own booze, but it might also see some people who rely on it put in homes. Sound like twenty years ago?
I went to to downtown Portland's ADA anniversary with a weird sense of duality. Here I am praising this huge non-partisan decision that changed not only my life, but the lives of almost everyone around me. Here I am hearing city commissioners and heads of all manner of organizations pledge their ongoing support to the ADA. The Governor even declared this month ADA Awareness month.
Of course this is the same Governor who issued the order to cut nine-percent of the State's budget. A cut that threatens programs started under the ADA. These cuts also fly in the face of the Olmstead decision, which says that no one with a mental or physical disability should be placed in a home unnecessarily.
So, happy birthday to the ADA...
I went to to downtown Portland's ADA anniversary with a weird sense of duality. Here I am praising this huge non-partisan decision that changed not only my life, but the lives of almost everyone around me. Here I am hearing city commissioners and heads of all manner of organizations pledge their ongoing support to the ADA. The Governor even declared this month ADA Awareness month.
Of course this is the same Governor who issued the order to cut nine-percent of the State's budget. A cut that threatens programs started under the ADA. These cuts also fly in the face of the Olmstead decision, which says that no one with a mental or physical disability should be placed in a home unnecessarily.
So, happy birthday to the ADA...
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Plausable ways to fix the Budget
What I don't understand about this budget crisis, is why we talk about cutting things before we talk about adding things. In this entry we will explore some easy solutions that the government, as well as the state of Oregon can use to help cushion some of their money woes. And, because cuts are all the rage, we can talk about a couple of those, too.
Legalized gambling. There is already something going on the ballot to say that we can build one non-Indian casino. I say fuck putting it on the ballot, and just build the damn thing. If you build it they will come. Even Kevin Costner understood that one. Except when you build a baseball diamond in a corn field, dumb people don't throw money into it.
Government regulated Internet Poker. Note that I did not say gambling, I said poker. Less than a cent worth of ink can change Poker from a casino game (defined as something that is a game of mere chance) to a game of skill (defined as a game which the player has some control over based on his knowledge of the game). Poker is that last one. The player has control over his odds to some degree, because there is no rule that says you have to play every hand. If the government regulated Internet Poker play, they could tax deposits. Say, a ten percent tax on a minimum deposit of twenty bucks. No one would miss that, and it would translate to hundreds of thousands, if not more. If the government owned the sites, then the buy-ins could go into the pool also.
Sales tax. Oh, shut up. If Oregon passed even a five percent sales tax on whatever isn't needed to survive, they would be better off than they are now. I say this because a lot of people who qualify for services, or who are paid by the state, are either tax-exempt, or get all the money they pay into taxes back in their refund. I am no genius, but that translates to a lot of bodies who aren't paying into the pot, but playing anyway. This would also catch some of other populations who aren't paying taxes: drug dealers, illegal immigrants, etc. Make the sales tax fund for ONE thing, instead of the way we do lotto funding. Then it wouldn't have to raised all the time.
Funneling some Lottery money into disability programs. I know the lottery already does good things, including helping fund education, and it can stay doing them. With a little trim here, and a little there to the parks funding, and hey, look at that, you have some extra funds to pay for disabled people's basic human rights.
Less jail time, more fines and community service for petty crimes. I think this should be obvious, but we are in Oregon. If someone steals something, they obviously have no money. Require them to do however many hours it would cost in a federal prison inmates wages to pay for that item in community service.
Now, because I said we would, and because I am a man of my word, I give you (drum roll, please?) plausible cuts!
Soda for prison inmates. I remember some years ago reading an article that said the state paid half a million dollars (or more) to make sure that prisoners had their Coca-Cola. This is ludicrous to me. I can't afford Coke every day, and I have done nothing wrong. Give those bastards Kool-Aid. It's cheaper, and if people need to be in time out like children, maybe they should eat like them too.
Stop paying landscapers to do county work. The way I see it, you have a steady supply of unskilled, manual laborers sitting behind bars drinking Coke and watching cable. Put them to better use. They get work experience, and you don't have to pay them very much. Win win.
Like I said, I am no genius, but I think these suggestions are better, and more what the state needs than cutting people's rights to live in their homes, and a child's right to education. They are a hell of a lot better than saying we should start a rainy day fund when it's raining already.
Legalized gambling. There is already something going on the ballot to say that we can build one non-Indian casino. I say fuck putting it on the ballot, and just build the damn thing. If you build it they will come. Even Kevin Costner understood that one. Except when you build a baseball diamond in a corn field, dumb people don't throw money into it.
Government regulated Internet Poker. Note that I did not say gambling, I said poker. Less than a cent worth of ink can change Poker from a casino game (defined as something that is a game of mere chance) to a game of skill (defined as a game which the player has some control over based on his knowledge of the game). Poker is that last one. The player has control over his odds to some degree, because there is no rule that says you have to play every hand. If the government regulated Internet Poker play, they could tax deposits. Say, a ten percent tax on a minimum deposit of twenty bucks. No one would miss that, and it would translate to hundreds of thousands, if not more. If the government owned the sites, then the buy-ins could go into the pool also.
Sales tax. Oh, shut up. If Oregon passed even a five percent sales tax on whatever isn't needed to survive, they would be better off than they are now. I say this because a lot of people who qualify for services, or who are paid by the state, are either tax-exempt, or get all the money they pay into taxes back in their refund. I am no genius, but that translates to a lot of bodies who aren't paying into the pot, but playing anyway. This would also catch some of other populations who aren't paying taxes: drug dealers, illegal immigrants, etc. Make the sales tax fund for ONE thing, instead of the way we do lotto funding. Then it wouldn't have to raised all the time.
Funneling some Lottery money into disability programs. I know the lottery already does good things, including helping fund education, and it can stay doing them. With a little trim here, and a little there to the parks funding, and hey, look at that, you have some extra funds to pay for disabled people's basic human rights.
Less jail time, more fines and community service for petty crimes. I think this should be obvious, but we are in Oregon. If someone steals something, they obviously have no money. Require them to do however many hours it would cost in a federal prison inmates wages to pay for that item in community service.
Now, because I said we would, and because I am a man of my word, I give you (drum roll, please?) plausible cuts!
Soda for prison inmates. I remember some years ago reading an article that said the state paid half a million dollars (or more) to make sure that prisoners had their Coca-Cola. This is ludicrous to me. I can't afford Coke every day, and I have done nothing wrong. Give those bastards Kool-Aid. It's cheaper, and if people need to be in time out like children, maybe they should eat like them too.
Stop paying landscapers to do county work. The way I see it, you have a steady supply of unskilled, manual laborers sitting behind bars drinking Coke and watching cable. Put them to better use. They get work experience, and you don't have to pay them very much. Win win.
Like I said, I am no genius, but I think these suggestions are better, and more what the state needs than cutting people's rights to live in their homes, and a child's right to education. They are a hell of a lot better than saying we should start a rainy day fund when it's raining already.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Twisted Strands
So, how is this for a mission? One man with limited computer knowledge, and issues with patience, building a way to get the disabled community of a large area all in one place. Yeah, it's suicide.
Well, maybe that is being a little melodramatic.
You heard it here first, though. This is my goal. I can go out and share my story until my lips fall off, but it seems like this would be a more permanent solution than not being afraid to stick up for myself. These issues are about more than just me, anyway. I understand the nobility of the few who can fighting for the many who cannot, but there are more who can than are doing it.
For now, and hopefully temporarily, this vision has it's first home at http://twistedstrands.forumer.com. Please register. A rope of many strands is not easily broken. Each side of the disabled community should consider themselves a strand in that rope. The disabled, the mentally and developmentally challenged, and the seniors.
This has been my mission statement. Website coming soon.
Well, maybe that is being a little melodramatic.
You heard it here first, though. This is my goal. I can go out and share my story until my lips fall off, but it seems like this would be a more permanent solution than not being afraid to stick up for myself. These issues are about more than just me, anyway. I understand the nobility of the few who can fighting for the many who cannot, but there are more who can than are doing it.
For now, and hopefully temporarily, this vision has it's first home at http://twistedstrands.forumer.com. Please register. A rope of many strands is not easily broken. Each side of the disabled community should consider themselves a strand in that rope. The disabled, the mentally and developmentally challenged, and the seniors.
This has been my mission statement. Website coming soon.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Fight for YOUR Rights, or don't, and go to a home.
Today I went to a town hall meeting to hear about how the state plans to deal with these budget cuts in the next years, because it's obvious that the disabled community (and the communities we often get boxed in with, the elderly, and the mentally ill). This was nothing short of a joke.
There were no disabled people, or anyone who could plainly be called mentally ill, challenged, or anything other than senile. It dissolved fairly quickly into out of touch elderly people demanding the city and county workers take massive twenty percent budget cuts, and claiming a ten dollar bicycle license fee would fix this whole mess.
No one mentioned that special education is being cut to make room for physical education, or how public libraries are closing (thats here nor there, sure, but the level of uneducation was mentioned) or that home-care-assistance being cut so much would force young disabled people like myself out of mainstream society. It was even mentioned that home-care-assistance workers should do extra work, or that people should turn to their families and neighbors for help.
Are you fucking kidding me?
I pose this challenge to my disabled brothers and sisters: get out in force and fight for what's yours, or it won't be yours anymore. We have all heard that slogan of use it or lose it. This works the same way with your vocal chords, and your basic human rights. If you are not out there demanding them, and a bunch of old people are... then there's another slogan about squeaky wheels you should learn.
There were no disabled people, or anyone who could plainly be called mentally ill, challenged, or anything other than senile. It dissolved fairly quickly into out of touch elderly people demanding the city and county workers take massive twenty percent budget cuts, and claiming a ten dollar bicycle license fee would fix this whole mess.
No one mentioned that special education is being cut to make room for physical education, or how public libraries are closing (thats here nor there, sure, but the level of uneducation was mentioned) or that home-care-assistance being cut so much would force young disabled people like myself out of mainstream society. It was even mentioned that home-care-assistance workers should do extra work, or that people should turn to their families and neighbors for help.
Are you fucking kidding me?
I pose this challenge to my disabled brothers and sisters: get out in force and fight for what's yours, or it won't be yours anymore. We have all heard that slogan of use it or lose it. This works the same way with your vocal chords, and your basic human rights. If you are not out there demanding them, and a bunch of old people are... then there's another slogan about squeaky wheels you should learn.
A letter sent to the editor of Willamette Week
I am a disabled Oregonian, and it has recently been brought to my attention that the state plans on virtually abandoning the physically and mentally disabled. Arguably we are some of the state's most vulnerable people, because we do not always get to be heard, or for that matter, taken very seriously. I have been up and down the food chain on this with people I know who are in the know with politics more than me, and the best answer I have received is that 'we are less of a political impact' than cutting things like head start, or low-income daycares.
I am a voter, sir, all of my friends who are disabled are voters, sir. Our families, our friends. None of us will go quietly into that good night, or sit idly by while our basic human rights are taken away to fit into some fucking bottom line. That is what is happening here. They are seriously considering eliminating home-care-assistance hours that relate to my ability to have hot meals and clean clothes. The cuts they are talking about would all but eliminate thousands of home-care positions, and force people into homes. Both of these outcomes are bad for our already screwed up economy, and even an idiot could see that.
People need to know this is happening to us. They need to know what is being done right under their noses. For what? So people can have free daycare? These plans cut some head start program funding, but they cut nearly 75% of home-care providers hours for what is deemed somehow non-essential services, which as I said include meal preparations, clean laundry, and I even heard someone mention bathing.
If these cuts happen, we're not only allowing the suits to make us no better than places like New Jersey (if you qualify for these services there, you go in a home), but we are allowing them to put a price on people's basic human right to live and work, and be independent. Please, sir, join me in making sure this does not happen. Please make our voices heard.
I got no reply.
I am a voter, sir, all of my friends who are disabled are voters, sir. Our families, our friends. None of us will go quietly into that good night, or sit idly by while our basic human rights are taken away to fit into some fucking bottom line. That is what is happening here. They are seriously considering eliminating home-care-assistance hours that relate to my ability to have hot meals and clean clothes. The cuts they are talking about would all but eliminate thousands of home-care positions, and force people into homes. Both of these outcomes are bad for our already screwed up economy, and even an idiot could see that.
People need to know this is happening to us. They need to know what is being done right under their noses. For what? So people can have free daycare? These plans cut some head start program funding, but they cut nearly 75% of home-care providers hours for what is deemed somehow non-essential services, which as I said include meal preparations, clean laundry, and I even heard someone mention bathing.
If these cuts happen, we're not only allowing the suits to make us no better than places like New Jersey (if you qualify for these services there, you go in a home), but we are allowing them to put a price on people's basic human right to live and work, and be independent. Please, sir, join me in making sure this does not happen. Please make our voices heard.
I got no reply.
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