When the wheels make the man, part 7

From newsday.com, we get this headline:

Woman accused in wheelchair death faces homicide charge

Yeah. The death was actually that of a human being, a man using a motorized wheelchair. It was a hit-and-run. The woman appears to have been intoxicated. Also, the man who died, Ranford Beckford, 51, was driving his wheelchair on the road's shoulder about a mile from his home.

My personal opportunities for driving along a roadside usually were caused by either lack of curb cuts or lack of adequate, accessible transportation. Or both.

Because you are nothing without your assistive equipment. See parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 of this series.

When the wheels make the man, part 6

For the first time in this series, the wheelchair makes the woman instead of the man. Not really an improvement.

From the Australia Courier Mail, a headline about a man stalking a woman:

Man, 82, accused of stalking wheelchair woman, 65

Actually, both people in this report use wheelchairs though the headline characterizes only her as a "wheelchair person." If the news report can be trusted more than the headline, the woman's request in court to have the man designated as a stalker is based on one experience where the man "drove straight at her, swerving away only at the last moment."

That's understandably frightening. But in itself it could indicate the man's lack of driving ability of own wheelchair rather than stalking. The report doesn't indicate he followed the woman or repeatedly drove at her. If malice was intended, that would be reason to mention a wheelchair in the headline, with respect to the suspect and not the victim. It would be nice, when a news agency covers a story, if they'd not selectively use one person's status as a wheelchair user as a de facto indicator of victimhood.

Because you are nothing without your assistive equipment. See parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this series.

When the wheels make the man, part 5

From Dayton, Ohio, a man who uses a wheelchair burgles a restaurant four times in one week. Naturally, the headline about it reads:

Wheelchair burglar raids restaurant four times in week

It wouldn't have to read as if the man was stealing wheelchairs too. In fact, it wouldn't have to mention the wheelchair at all, except that is apparently what makes this crime newsworthy.

Here's an actual, alternate headline:

Police: Man In Wheelchair Is 4X Burglar

The body of both stories is exactly the same AP report.


Because you are nothing without your assistive equipment. See parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this series.

Things that crack me up #51

Image description: A color photo of a nice little sign for restrooms showing a female figure, Wheelchair Dude (I consider "Dude" gender-neutral -- dooooode), and a male figure, all in variations of the classic access symbols. The sign has a brown wood frame and is in shades of brown, green, black and white. The female figure wears a brimmed hat and a brown and green dress. The male figure has brown pants and a black top with a white button-down shirt underneath. Wheelchair Dude's chair is white and she's dressed in black. Both Wheelchair Dude and the male figure wear sombreros. Arrows underneath the figures point, presumably, toward equally charming restrooms.

Photo posted to Flickr by mwboeckmann who also posted Viking Wheelchair Dude.

Things that crack me up #50

Image description: A color photo of a sign that has Wheelchair Dude and several other access symbols in a row above writing in an Asian language, with English below that. Along with Wheelchair Dude there's a person with a cane in profile looking about to sit down, though there's no chair behind her. Also, there's an adult holding a child's hand and a pregnant woman. The English translation of the Asian writing reads simply "Please Use Anyone."

h/t to Shiva of Biodiverse Resistance

Tomorrow is Wednesday again

It's also International Human Rights Day.

Wednesday is, you may remember, the day on which, most weeks, Ray Sandford of Columbia Heights, Minnesota, is woken up early and taken to a nearby hospital for forced electroshock treatments. Here are some things to know about Ray, from an extensive FAQ provided at MindFreedom International:

Ray is a 54-year-old Minnesota resident who has regularly been receiving "Involuntary Outpatient Electroshock."

Like all other USA states, Minnesota has loopholes allowing citizens to receive electroshock over their expressed wishes.

Ray says the weekly forced electroshock is "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?" Ray asks.

Ray has been in and out of the mental health system for more than 30 years, with a diagnosis of "bipolar." According to his mother, the mental health system mainly tried psychiatric drugs on Ray, and when those didn't worked they turned to electroshock. Apparently, other alternatives have not been offered to Ray and his family beyond psychiatric drugs and shock.

He is not being forcibly shocked for any criminal justice reasons. According to more than one authority, Ray has no serious criminal convictions, at least for the past number of years.

The bottom line is, there is no good reason to forcibly electroshock anyone, it is inherently intrusive, traumatic and brain damaging. Despite his experiences, Ray remains crystal clear that he does not want his forced electroshock, and he wants to tell the world. Especially, forcibly shocking someone out in the community makes everyone even in their own homes unsafe.

After months of forced electroshock, Ray got desperate. Ray phoned his local public library's reference desk and asked about human rights groups. The reference librarian referred him to MindFreedom International.

Taxpayers are paying for Ray's electroshocks, including the more than a dozen personnel -- such as conservator, guardian, judge, psychiatrist, court-appointed attorney, anethesiologist, attendants and more -- who surround Ray. Other proven alternatives beyond psychiatric drugs and electroshock tend not to get as much funding.

The national media speculates that Governor Pawlenty may have higher political aspirations. He has campaigned for a "get government off our backs" philosophy. He has been Governor since 2002.

What can you do to help?

It is time to take the Ray Campaign up a notch, peacefully but strongly!

Let this become a top issue in the Governor's office.

Telephone Governor Pawlenty's office *NOW*:

Call any day, but especially call *before* Ray's scheduled electroshock next Wednesday, 10 December 2008.

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

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

You have the best chance of reaching staff from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm Central Time weekdays.

Read more about Ray at MindFreedom International and read the only local (or national, really) news coverage on Ray here.

New books on theology and disability

I haven't read a book on disability and religion since The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Disability by Nancy Eiesland came out in the mid-'90s. That's a great book, by the way, but it's exciting to see three brand new books on disability and religion -- and a thoughtful review introducing them over at The Christian Century.

The three books discussed by Brian Volck are:

Theology and Down Syndrome: Reimagining Disability in Late Modernity by Amos Yong,

Spirit and the Politics of Disablement by Sharon V. Betcher, and

Vulnerable Communion: A Theology of Disability and Hospitality by Thomas E. Reynolds.

Volck looks at each book separately but here's an excerpt on his general thoughts on the topic:

These authors present twin challenges to theologically informed, able-bodied Christians. First, they challenge us to move beyond the relatively easy tasks of redesigning church sanctuaries and striving for visible diversity in liturgies and committees, and to begin engaging the far more difficult mystery of desiring and entering into communion with one another. What liturgical and ecclesial practices can we embrace that will make clear our human interdependence in Christ without allowing us to merely collapse into trivializing sentimentalities like, "Everyone is handicapped in their own way"? We may face greater challenges in becoming interdependent with persons who have intellectual disabilities than with those with physical disabilities. The practices and experience of Jean Vanier's L'Arche communities have much to teach us in this regard.

Second, disability raises thorny questions about traditional interpretations of Christian doctrine: Does God will severe disability? Does salvation through faith imply personal intellectual assent? What does it mean to be formed in the image of God? Does disability persist in the resurrection of the body? Once again, severe intellectual disability may present the greatest challenge.

Yong, Betcher and Reynolds do not present systematic theologies of disability. Instead, they offer stepping-off points for theological reflection. More important, they challenge readers to interrogate their own lives and assumptions, moving discussions past the self-satisfying mantras of inclusion and diversity and into new, potentially frightening and grace-filled territory.

While you're over there, check out an article on musician Curtis Mayfield, the legendary Chicago bluesman who was paralyzed in an accident while on stage in 1990 and died in 1999.

Friday Music: Neil Young

Image description: From 2007, a color photo of Neil Young from the waist up. He's giving the peace sign while standing at a microphone dressed all in black save for a silver bolo tie.

The casually listener and fan may not be aware that Neil Young is yet another famous musician with disabilities. In 1951 at the age of six, Young contracted polio. Since childhood he's also reportedly had diabetes and epilepsy. In 2005 he had successful surgery for a brain aneurysm. He also has two sons with cerebral palsy and in 1986 he and his wife started the Bridge School in San Francisco, a learning center for disabled children. A 1989 alternative rock compilation album raised money for the school.

So, those are Young's numerous "credentials." Here are some fun details:

His song, "Helpless," is about his experience with childhood polio. Here's a link to a YouTube video of an old stage performance (my guess is early '70s), and here are the lyrics:

There is a town in north Ontario,
With dream comfort memory to spare,
And in my mind I still need a place to go,
All my changes were there.

Blue, blue windows behind the stars,
Yellow moon on the rise,
Big birds flying across the sky,
Throwing shadows on our eyes.
Leave us.

Helpless, helpless, helpless.
Baby can you hear me now?
The chains are locked and tied across the door,
Baby, sing with me somehow.

Blue, blue windows behind the stars,
Yellow moon on the rise,
Big birds flying across the sky,
Throwing shadows on our eyes.
Leave us.

Helpless, helpless, helpless.

From the 2002 Salon review of Shakey: Neil Young's Biography:

Everyone who's heard Young's "Helpless" (which means everyone who's been in earshot of a radio or stereo in the last few decades) knows that he comes from "a town in north Ontario." It was in that town -- Omemee -- that Young, now 56, contracted polio when the virus swept through Canada in 1951. It transformed the pudgy 6-year-old and nearly killed him. "Neil got polio and lost all his girlish curves," Rassy, Young's indomitable mother and a central character in "Shakey," tells McDonough. "Damn near died. Gawd that was awful ... Christ, he looked like hell on the highway. Skin and bones. He never got fat again ... We didn't know if he'd ever walk." When he came home from the hospital "fresh from a disinfectant bath, his black hair in spikes," Young asked the adults, "I didn't die, did I?"

I remember when polio was the terror that stalked the nation, when approaching standing water, say, would earn the harshest of parental rebukes. One of my oldest friends got it in '53 and has been crutching it for half a century; another acquaintance of mine spent most of his 49 years in an iron lung thanks to polio. What an experience like that may do to you -- assuming it doesn't kill you -- is radically alter your perspective and imbue you with a certain bravado and fearlessness, not to mention a sometimes trenchant honesty. Once you've been to hell and back, the things the rest of us find anxiety-inducing -- the scary odds against making it as an artist, for example -- aren't all that scary. Pam Smith, a girlfriend of Young's when he was a teenager, recalls, "Neil was insecure as a person -- I think that's why playing music was so good for him. He had all the confidence in the world in that role."

McDonough's exploration of Young's often tenuous physical state -- he's also epileptic and used to have seizures on stage early in his career -- is one of the more intriguing threads in the book and a key, perhaps, to the singer's sometimes irrational confidence and indefatigable persistence even when those all around him -- Stephen Stills among them -- voiced nothing but discouragement about his abilities.

Musical abilities, that is. Young doesn't have a pretty voice, but everyone knows at least one or two (or dozens) of his songs. Here's a live performance of "Ohio" recorded at Massey Hall (a Toronto theatre) and "Heart of Gold," both stage performances from 1971.

From Neil Young Quotes:

Polio fucked up my body a little bit. The left-hand side got a little screwed. Feels different from the right. If I close my eyes, my left side, I really don’t know where it is - but over the years I’ve discovered that almost one hundred percent for sure it’s gonna be very close to my right side… probably to the left.

- Neil Young interviewed by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 22nd April 1988

My favorite fun fact about Young: In the late 1990's Young bought the Lionel Toy Train company to delight his son Ben. According to Rolling Stone magazine, much of Young's 1980s musical output reflected his frustration at difficulties communicating with his son Ben who, along with an older brother, has cerebral palsy.


Wiki on the song "Helpless"

An extensive Rolling Stone magazine biography

Neil Young News -- a blog on everything you could possibly want to know about the artist

YouTube video of an October 2007 interview on BBC 2. It features commentary by a guy who was "converted" to the beauty of Young's music at a concert. He discusses Chromes Dreams II and the evolution of Young's work with the artist. If anyone locates the transcript for this, please link to it in comments.

Famous people with polio

Call for submissions on feminism, disability & activism

From the f word:

The Feminist Activist Forum is calling for submissions for a zine on feminism, disability and activism:

Disability has been treated as an unglamorous side-issue within feminist activism.

We are looking for writing and artwork that addresses attitudes to disability within the UK feminist movement.

• Have you experienced exclusion from feminist groups and events because you have a disability?
• Are there any areas of feminist rhetoric that you find dis-ableist and alienating?
• Do you have ideas about how feminist groups and events can be made more accessible and inclusive?
• Can you tell us about positive experiences of access and inclusion?

Anything else on the subject also welcome!

We are interested in personal accounts, poetry, art, research and practical tips.

Please email drafts, abstracts, ideas, or questions to disability@feministactivistforum.org.uk

Deadline for drafts: 30th January 2009

When the wheels make the man, part 4

Out of Spokane, Washington, news of a man who uses a wheelchair falsely reporting being assaulted. The Washington state TV station KXLY offered this headline on Tuesday:

Police: Man made up wheelchair assault story

No, a wheelchair was not assaulted or even alleged to have been assaulted. The man who made up the assault uses one to get around.

Further coverage has been somewhat better. The Seattle Times reports that depression over the holiday season led Kenneth Koch to stab himself, then lie to a friend who took him to the hospital for treatment of the wounds. From there, police were called and the lie snowballed into media coverage and people offering the man money.

Because you are nothing without your assistive equipment. See parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series.

Things that crack me up #49

Wheelchair Guy becomes an astronaut. The photo from failblog.com shows a parking space with Wheelchair Guy, the international symbol of accessibility, painted in the space. Except the wheel part of the symbol is not under the guy, it's over his head like a big bubble. I suppose the two-piece template for painting the symbol got botched up. Either that or visiting aliens will now be competing for prime parking spots.

Korean girl still to be cared for by family of rapists

Here's the story in its entirety from The Korea Times, the only English-language, non-blogger source I could find for it:

Court Ruling on Rapists Draws Anger

By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

A court handed down suspended jail terms to four family members who repeatedly raped a teenage relative who suffered from an intellectual disability.

The Cheongju District Court Thursday sentenced an 87-year-old grandfather and two uncles of a 16-year-old girl to four-year suspended prison terms for sexually assaulting and raping the girl for the last seven years. Another uncle received a three-year suspended jail term.

The court acknowledged that their crime was ``sinful'' as they used the young girl, who is their family member, to satisfy their sexual desires. But it gave the suspended terms, saying, ``The accused have fostered the girl in her parents' place. Considering her disability, she will also need their care and help in living in the future.''

The court added it took the accused people's old age and illness into consideration.

Citizens strongly denounced the ruling, saying the punishments were too lenient for the grave crime. Internet users said it is absurd to release them to ``take care of her,'' as she needs help from others, not from rapists. They also said those committing such a crime do not deserve consideration regarding old age or illnesses.

Some bloggers are collecting signatures to oust the judge who made the ruling. The prosecution also decided to appeal. ``One of them even has a previous conviction for rape but was given a suspended term. The ruling is unacceptable,'' a prosecutor said.

English-language bloggers in South Korea have been passing this story around for a week now, mostly discussing their outrage at how bad the Korean justice system is at punishing sexual assault. This is juxtaposed against another news story of Korean prosecutors demanding a famous actress be jailed for 18 months for adultery, though bloggers are focusing little on the disability aspect and more on the sexual politics of the Korean judicial system and Korean culture. Disability, in the English-language analyses of this news, is mostly invisible. It's not clear to me how it rates in importance among Korean citizens.

h/t Feministing