tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19201167542759953782024-03-12T18:19:43.099-07:00Girl With The CaneGirlWithTheCanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13462575804450092656noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1920116754275995378.post-14007861163077031392022-10-31T18:01:00.000-07:002022-10-31T18:01:33.573-07:00Bad Reasons To Take Away Voting Rights<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbHV-TsitwPq1eil8hvMaG46TyreFFT8b0sQQ-nOwFZlKjNuUMZiXGrr9R2ez6jB6H7qhrZ83h8VK3n-AucDvSTm-q7D6cX0lpqhYKgZsStZN4a323_lPBYguSjlu5wm7oQVnJeOf46DSEIA_3DR4YZYLrizIViZber7qOY18uLx6FbcU4-xU0DS-g/s1600/vote.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbHV-TsitwPq1eil8hvMaG46TyreFFT8b0sQQ-nOwFZlKjNuUMZiXGrr9R2ez6jB6H7qhrZ83h8VK3n-AucDvSTm-q7D6cX0lpqhYKgZsStZN4a323_lPBYguSjlu5wm7oQVnJeOf46DSEIA_3DR4YZYLrizIViZber7qOY18uLx6FbcU4-xU0DS-g/w400-h225/vote.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>I had one of my disability "hot buttons" pushed while watching one of my atheist call-in shows the other night.</p><p>"The Hang Up" is a weekly YouTube show hosted by American atheist and activist Matt Dillahunty on Jimmy Snow's "The Line" channel. I rarely miss it. It's always fun to see Matt spar with theists, like he did weekly for years on the Atheist Community of Austin's "Atheist Experience" show on Sundays (and on a whole bunch of other shows/debates/channels), but there's the added fun on this show of seeing him talk freely about American politics - his politics, other peoples' politics, what he thinks about other peoples' politics...</p><p>It's exhilarating. One of the things that I love about atheism is that when you take the religious...stuff...out of thorny issues of our day and approach them logically, they get un-thorny very quickly. When the cloud of religion indoctrination sits over everything, it's difficult to see how that could work. But once it starts to lift, it's amazing how clear it all becomes. I never would have believed it, back in the years when I was religious.</p><p>Now, when Matt Dillahunty starts talking about issues like church and state separation, bodily autonomy rights, First Amendment issue, how the US handling the "the Backstreet Boys Reunion Tour" (his code for COVID-19 on channels where he couldn't explicitly talk about it), etc. I find myself cheering, because most of the time I agree with him right down to the soul I don't believe I possess.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Voting Rights and IQ</h3><p>He doesn't talk about disability a lot. But the other night he addressed a comment that had come in on the YouTube live chat while he and Jimmy Snow had been talking to a caller, about how the voting age should be restricted to people with an IQ of over 100, over the age of 25. </p><p>"That's such bullshit," I said, as Matt said. "It's an awful idea. It's a deplorable idea."</p><p>When I worked with intellectually disabled people, I remember telling colleagues that we should really be more to include the people we supported in the voting process at all stages, and not just because, at Matt explains, IQ tests say more about how well people complete IQ tests than they do about a person's level of intelligence:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Matt doesn't mention (although I'm sure he's aware of the issues) concerns about <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/do-iq-tests-actually-measure-intelligence" target="_blank">IQ tests being biased</a> in ways that cause performance differences along a number of lines, including racial and ethnic. </li><li>The assumption that a higher IQ guarantees that a person's vote is based on an informed stance on the candidates' positions is a dangerous one. Plenty of people who have lower IQs can understand a political party's platform well enough to determine, for the issues that concern them, what candidates believe, and vote based on those determinations, while plenty of people with higher IQs will vote for their brother-in-law regardless of which party he belongs to and whether they agree with its platform. </li><li>Even independent of IQ, the idea that only people who are "smart enough" should be able to vote is ableism at its purest and (arguably) most dangerous. It's an idea that says, "Even though the US believes that all adults have a say in how their government is run...it doesn't apply to people who aren't smart enough." Once that sort of restriction based on intellectual capacity starts happening, where does it stop? </li></ul><p>It's a shame it's still so hard for people to see that ideas like restricting the vote based on IQ are a giant fucking step backward for any country.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Not About Brain Development</h3>Raising the voting age to 25 is problematic as well. I agree with Jimmy that it comes from the oft-repeated statistic (I found it <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621648/" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=1&ContentID=3051" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="https://www.lawscot.org.uk/news-and-events/legal-news/brain-not-fully-developed-until-age-25-research-reveals/" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/evolutionary-advantage-teenage-brain" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="https://sites.duke.edu/apep/module-3-alcohol-cell-suicide-and-the-adolescent-brain/content-brain-maturation-is-complete-at-about-24-years-of-age/" target="_blank">here</a> with a simple Google search) that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621648/#:~:text=The%20development%20and%20maturation%20of%20the%20prefrontal%20cortex%20occurs%20primarily,helps%20accomplish%20executive%20brain%20functions." target="_blank">the human brain doesn't finish developing until age 25</a>. It's not false, but Jimmy and Matt have got this one right, also: Increases in maturity during that gap between 18 and 25 are also products of experiencing and dealing with new events and situations. It's about life experience, potentially more than physical brain development, and you can't guarantee how rich everyone's life experience will be in those seven years. The highest-stress periods of my life happened between 18 and 25, but by no means will they be that way for everyone! <p></p><p>Assumptions (beyond assuming that people have the capacity to learn and to make responsible decisions based on that learning) hurt, bottom line. Some people may need support to participate in the voting process, but it should be provided to them. Human rights are human rights, not ones that some humans get and others don't - once we start forgetting start, we start losing our own humanity. </p><p>(My opinion only, of course.) </p><p>American friends, please vote on November 8th! </p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bttxnkfiU8" target="_blank">Watch this discussion on YouTube</a>, from 1:15:00 to 1:17:00</p>GirlWithTheCanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13462575804450092656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1920116754275995378.post-47094139740785054902022-09-27T16:32:00.000-07:002022-09-27T16:32:49.616-07:00Nova Scotia Hasn't Got a Timeline on Closing its Institutions for Disabled People<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRYqqvzw23xx5f7ik4NFmxWAHMZDGgw4bLbL2Le-81ll6-c-8IvclWg25sBUIY2SrDp4XJqXp3E1ni4H3AZPpaSr7ZUS2FhKuvGSNeoocRUuO7VV0Q9EoDw9cIf3cyhYdZUwU-0FRvq5Nb8csFw1t_BVQe_iRggbzTjBso3fE10eF3aB7DHSeazlCg/s1600/timeforchange.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Text: Time for Change" border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRYqqvzw23xx5f7ik4NFmxWAHMZDGgw4bLbL2Le-81ll6-c-8IvclWg25sBUIY2SrDp4XJqXp3E1ni4H3AZPpaSr7ZUS2FhKuvGSNeoocRUuO7VV0Q9EoDw9cIf3cyhYdZUwU-0FRvq5Nb8csFw1t_BVQe_iRggbzTjBso3fE10eF3aB7DHSeazlCg/w320-h180/timeforchange.png" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p>Some things still shouldn't be happening in 2022.</p><p>A report done for the Nova Scotia government called for the closure of the province's 8 remaining residential facilities for disabled adults by 2023.</p><p>The Nova Scotia government is now saying it can't guarantee when will happen.</p><p>Buckle up. I'm about to rant.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">What's Wrong With Residential Institutions?</h2><p>Nothing, if you like living in denial that the Canadian government lets epically fucked-up stuff happen to specific groups of Canadians (adults and children) for reasons it can't even remotely justify.</p><p>The fact is that the era in which institutional living was thought to be the best option for disabled adults and children is a dark period in Canada's history. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-developmental-school-rcmp-1.5021316" target="_blank">It's too easy to find shocking allegations from former residents</a> of these overcrowded, chronically understaffed facilities of: </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>All types of abuse - physical, sexual, emotional</li><li>Neglect and restraint use</li><li>Unsanitary living conditions and forced labour</li></ul><div>Read about the histories of the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-developmental-school-rcmp-1.5021316" target="_blank">Huronia Regional Centre</a> and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-developmental-centre-class-action-1.4898001" target="_blank">Manitoba Development Centre</a> (both now closed) to find out more. (Triggers for extremely unsettling content of all kinds on these stories; please be safe.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, Nova Scotia's remaining institutions aren't like those two houses of horror were (I'm assuming. I'm hoping.) However, disabled people are still being housed in them against their will, when it's been shown again...and again...and again...that community-based homes meet people's needs in a way that much better supports their dignity, autonomy, and right to be fully-contributing members of their community. </div><div><br /></div><div>More importantly, institutional living as it exists today still violates people's rights. Canada ratified the UN's Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and that means that we signed on to support <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/article-19-living-independently-and-being-included-in-the-community.html" target="_blank">Article 19 of said Convention</a>: </div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">"State Parties to the Present Convention recognize the equal rights of all persons with disabilities to live in the community, with choices equal to others, and shall take effective and appropriate measures to facilitate full enjoyment with persons with disabilities of this right and their full inclusion and participation in the community, including by ensuring that:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Persons with disabilities have the opportunity to choose their place of residence and where and with whom they live on an equal basis with others and are not obliged to live in a particular living arrangement.</li><li>Persons with disabilities have access to a range of in-home, residential and other community support services, including personal assistance necessary to support living and inclusion in the community, and to prevent isolation or segregation from the community.</li><li>Community services and facilities for the general population are available on an equal basis to persons with a disability and are responsive to their needs."</li></ul></div></blockquote><div>Say it loud for the people in the back: Nova Scotia is violating people's rights. </div><div><br /></div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Is Community-Based Housing Perfect?</h2><div>No, it is not. Not by any means.</div><div><br /></div><div>In fact, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nova-scotia-no-timeline-people-with-disabilities-community-care-1.6573950" target="_blank">when the Nova Scotia Court of Appeals asked the Deputy Minister of the Department of Community and Social Services</a> what the hold-up was on all this (I'm paraphrasing, of course) she had a good point when she said that it takes time to develop community-housing options that aren't going to function like mini-institutions; they just want to be sure that when people will be do get transferred into these community living placements, they will be places that they want to live and that can give them all the support that they need. </div><div><br /></div><div>Seriously, it's a good answer. One of my concerns about Ontario's final phase of moving residents out of institutions, as much as I supported it, was that the community supports infrastructure wasn't yet in place to the point where it could provide everything that everyone would need. Thank the God that I don't believe in that I was (mostly) wrong.</div><h2 style="text-align: left;">But How Long?</h2><div>The thing is:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Ontario was asking this question about moving the last group of residents out of its 3 largest institutions in 2009, after starting plans to move people<b> </b>out -<b> in the late 1970s</b>.</li><li>That was about the same time that British Columbia started to think about moving people out of its institutions.<b> Its last institution closed in 1996</b>.</li><li>Nova Scotia is the last province to close its institutions, after receiving the report I mentioned earlier saying, "You should do this!" - <b>in 2013</b>. They've had 10 years. </li><li>The Nova Scotia Court of Appeals said, "Get on this." - <b>last year</b>. </li></ul>And now they're saying, "Well, we won't be done next year, because we want to do it right."</div><div><br /></div><div>Fan-fucking-tastic. Nova Scotia, just how much time do you think you should get to catch with the rest of the country on treating disabled people with the same basic human rights that everyone else has?</div><h2 style="text-align: left;">"I'm sure you understand that these things take time..."</h2><div> This is what I hate about governments and disability-related promises.</div><div><br /></div><div>All the governments are going to change things. But accessibility/funding/housing/supports...whatever... We have to be patient, because these processes move slowly.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bullshit. I've always suspected that government can move as quickly as it wants to when something is important enough, and as Vicky Levack, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/nova-scotia-no-timeline-people-with-disabilities-community-care-1.6573950" target="_blank">who has been hospitalized in a Nova Scotia institution against her will for the past decade</a>, points out: the COVID response confirms that. </div><div><br /></div><div>Nova Scotia hasn't closed it's institutions because it's just not a priority. And we're back to my starting sentence:</div><div><br /></div><div>Some things still shouldn't be happening in 2022. Period.</div><p></p>GirlWithTheCanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13462575804450092656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1920116754275995378.post-35353096046278770022022-09-21T20:11:00.001-07:002022-09-21T20:11:39.477-07:00Ableism in London, Ontario - Municipal Election Candidate Jeremy McCall's Sign Defaced with Hate Speech<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheP0MUzi1qtfpjYWB0kdliBJvY5ZBVo8Wz3BfeDYH-CegldsKTey8rpl272FsBnzrvcHLoOom-9gfQBayYvvSdsVPldsISTFZ7zsWtTIKJVwaTBVo9ZbOguQZgjGAAB7Zs9tEv2It7Vlvalf7M1Tzu3gz5XAZzqtviIMQJCY7zz8DFUzOJJ4xWGMU_/s800/StopAbleism.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Young man stands behind old man in a wheelchair. "Stop Ableism" text. Keyword: Jeremy McCall" border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="800" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheP0MUzi1qtfpjYWB0kdliBJvY5ZBVo8Wz3BfeDYH-CegldsKTey8rpl272FsBnzrvcHLoOom-9gfQBayYvvSdsVPldsISTFZ7zsWtTIKJVwaTBVo9ZbOguQZgjGAAB7Zs9tEv2It7Vlvalf7M1Tzu3gz5XAZzqtviIMQJCY7zz8DFUzOJJ4xWGMU_/w320-h220/StopAbleism.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>*Trigger warning for disturbing imagery, ableism and ableist slurs, vandalism, death of disabled people*</p><p>This is such a sad, infuriating story.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Jeremy McCall's Sign Defaced with Ableist Slurs</h2><p>Municipal elections are happening in October in Ontario, the province in which I live. Candidates have their signs up everywhere, including front lawns (with owner permission.) How unfortunate that in the city of London, last Saturday night, some individual(s) felt the need to deface candidate Jeremy McCall's sign with ableist slurs, including:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> "broken"</li><li>"Jimmy McTard"</li><li>"autismaloid"</li></ul><div>I've never heard the second two terms, and couldn't find any reference to them beyond this news story except for <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Autismo" target="_blank">a definition in the Urban Dictionary indicating that "autismo" is a derogatory term for an autistic person</a>; there was no definition for "autismaloid" or "Jimmy McTard" </div><div> </div><div><a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9141605/london-ont-municipal-campaign-sign-defaced-with-slurs-against-people-with-disabilities/" target="_blank">You can see pictures of the defaced signs in this Global News article</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>As I write this, no one knows exactly why the sign was defaced in this manner. According to the Global News article, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9141605/london-ont-municipal-campaign-sign-defaced-with-slurs-against-people-with-disabilities/" target="_blank">Jeremy McCall's community work has brought him in frequent contact with the disabled community, and he expressed concern for families with autistic children living in the area around the defaced sign.</a> He tweeted on Sep 18, "Autism isn't a slur, it's a superpower," and encouraged people to, as he did, respond to the situation by donating to Autism Ontario.</div><h2 style="text-align: left;">Why It's Important to Address This - For Jeremy McCall, and for Everyone</h2><div>It's easy to dismiss this incident as individuals acting out of extreme ignorance, but we need to remember why I put trigger warnings on this post. These slurs are hate speech, and ableism is just as toxic and potentially dangerous as racism, sexism, or any other -ism you want to name. I don't have autism, but the suggestion that, as a disabled person, I'm "broken" cuts right to my core. My brain might function a little bit differently than most people's, but there's nothing broken about me, and I'd wouldn't dream of suggesting to an autistic person (or any other sort of neurodiverse person) that they're "broken." </div><div><br /></div><div>In 2022 to date (Sep 21), 22 disabled people around the world have been murdered by their families or caregivers, as reported by the <a href="https://disability-memorial.org/" target="_blank">Disability Day of Mourning</a> website. This website doesn't report suspicious deaths in hospitals, group homes, or institutions.</div><div><br /></div><div>There's still a perception out there that disabled people are implicitly "less" than non-disabled people - less capable, less worthy, less deserving of a wide variety of things. People who believed these things slapped that label on Jeremy McCall's campaign sign, hoping that seeing it there would make people question his suitability for office and hopefully not vote for him. That's insidious enough, but it's frightening to contemplate the cumulative effect of people making statements like these, where a slash drawn across somebody's throat on his campaign sign graphic could indicate a belief that disability makes someone less deserving of basic decency, or perhaps even the right to exist. That's why we need to treat vandalism like this as hate speech and make sure that the people responsible are charged. </div><div><br /></div><div>Mr. McCall, I'm sorry that this happened to your sign, and I hope they find the people responsible. </div><p style="text-align: left;">Readers, if you have any information about who may have done this, please contact London police at 519-661-5670 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). </p><p></p>GirlWithTheCanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13462575804450092656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1920116754275995378.post-10037734293967298222022-09-19T20:41:00.004-07:002022-09-19T20:41:52.906-07:00Republican Candidates Don't Show Up to Texas Disability Issues Forum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO9y5CTd66SIvyvJJBZgJMaEkKmnzu9gYmKbCQW7kybjiN3CAlqF1TGOP5qZpnFdSBSG2qqdWUr3VMBzSxi33CiU49Cr0yQE9bAR860OgIDPar5GO1eh37J4JyTcWxlCZEB7iDrOAuN1WuiVjnxgPWprBrdgO5GF9-c-4JoLBNrdXHnwF8IVT2CoUz/s1600/Texas%20Blog.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Map of Texas" border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO9y5CTd66SIvyvJJBZgJMaEkKmnzu9gYmKbCQW7kybjiN3CAlqF1TGOP5qZpnFdSBSG2qqdWUr3VMBzSxi33CiU49Cr0yQE9bAR860OgIDPar5GO1eh37J4JyTcWxlCZEB7iDrOAuN1WuiVjnxgPWprBrdgO5GF9-c-4JoLBNrdXHnwF8IVT2CoUz/w320-h180/Texas%20Blog.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Today, I was going through the items in disability news that my Google alert for "disability" had picked up over the last few days. I found <a href="https://www.ksat.com/news/texas/2022/09/15/watch-live-candidates-for-statewide-offices-discuss-disability-issues/#:~:text=The%20Texas%20Disability%20Issues%20Forum%20is%20a%20nonpartisan,to%20address%20the%20concerns%20of%20Texans%20with%20disabilities." target="_blank">an announcement that people running in November Midterm Elections in Texas were speaking at a Texas Disability Issues Forum</a>, and that the whole thing was going to be livestreamed.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Who Doesn't Love a Disability Issues Forum?</h2><p>The article drew my attention for a few reasons:</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Past readers will remember that even though I was born in Canada and have lived here my whole life, I'm morbidly fascinated by US politics in general, and the US elections process in particular. Canada's election period, from the day the election is called to the day people vote, usually lasts six weeks, so the length of the US election period alone boggles my mind, but I'm here for it - I watch it all.</li><li>I remember a federal Disability Issues Forum before Midterm Elections in 2014 (I think) but this is the first time I've heard about one at the State level. That doesn't mean, of course, that there haven't been forums of this nature in the past - I just haven't heard of them before.</li><li>Greg Abbott, the Republican candidate for Governor, was invited three times to attend the Texas Disability Issues Forum and chose not to. But Beto O'Rourke, the Democratic candidate for Governor, showed up, as did Susan Hays (Democratic Candidate for Agriculture Commissioner), Rochelle Garza (Democratic Candidate for Attorney General), and Mike Collier (Democratic Candidate for Lieutenant Governor.) Their Republican counterparts (Sid Miller, Ken Paxton, and Dan Patrick) didn't attend. </li></ol>All three points taken together were intriguing enough that when I learned I'd missed the September 19 livestream, I decided to listen to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8byhhAAcUq4" target="_blank">recording that was posted to YouTube</a>. <p></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Good for Texas </h2><p> Texas should be commended for creating this space for its political candidates to speak about what they will do for disabled residents, and for people to ask them questions. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/impacts/texas.html" target="_blank">3.4 million disabled people live in Texas</a> - that's a lot of voters, even more if you consider family, friends, and allies of disabled people who will vote for the party that's going to make safer, more inclusive communities with quality, easy-to-access services for disabled people who need them. Other states should follow Texas' example, as <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/infographic-disability-impacts-all.html" target="_blank">61 million adults in the US are disabled</a>. </p><p>I have been telling people for years that any political party that ignores the power behind a population demographic made up of one in four people (approximately the same in Canada and the US for several years now, making disabled people potentially one of the largest voting blocks in today's election landscape) is simply taking a risk. Disabled people want to live full lives - to work, to volunteer, to travel and spend time out in the world with friends and loved ones. We want to know which candidates are going to do to help us reduce the barriers to fully participating in our communities and in larger society.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Disappointment at the Disability Issues Forum</h2><p>So, when a political party doesn't even send even one of its candidates to a Disability Issues Forum, I don't see how the message to disabled person could be anything but, "These are such non-issues to us that we're not even going to send someone to try and convince the crowd that we care, on the off-chance that we convince a few people and maybe swing their votes our way. That's how little we care." </p><p>I can't vote in the Midterms in Texas, of course. But if I could, I certainly wouldn't give my vote to a party that, when handed an opportunity to learn about my community's needs, can't be bothered to show up. </p><p>Jon Stewart said once, "The Democrats may be feckless, but at least they're trying." I think there's something to that. And I hate seeing what the Republicans are doing to Texas (the whole US, really) generally. It hurts my heart. </p><p>Watch the recording of the whole Texas Disability Issues Forum, if you can. It's interesting - insightful questions, great answers that hopefully translate into effective action. The livestream is brought to us courtesy of <a href="https://www.revuptexas.org/" target="_blank">REV UP Texas</a>, a "Non-Partisan, statewide coalition working to ensure and empower people with disabilities and our allies to get more involved in electoral politics."</p><p>Let's hope for the best in November.</p>GirlWithTheCanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13462575804450092656noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1920116754275995378.post-50709120862081487412022-09-18T20:11:00.009-07:002022-09-20T13:57:27.342-07:00Girl With The Cane is Back<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9NSGjUAaoL0OtadzDNgrVw4Sc0ZZ8OdT3spkUNQP7H49pXmeAP1-Q54DKHDxUVLZkHUe41EZKcHKWm70wVfcjRfa4QeDMVcI6L2jladU1pgWwliThI0C9a8YLvsnw1ve1LdZOICWTkexx3MmU5MG3kittbbQUmr-8jItNZhtmYoqsAznw3kk9GWiO/s125/bannerad.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="125" data-original-width="125" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9NSGjUAaoL0OtadzDNgrVw4Sc0ZZ8OdT3spkUNQP7H49pXmeAP1-Q54DKHDxUVLZkHUe41EZKcHKWm70wVfcjRfa4QeDMVcI6L2jladU1pgWwliThI0C9a8YLvsnw1ve1LdZOICWTkexx3MmU5MG3kittbbQUmr-8jItNZhtmYoqsAznw3kk9GWiO/w320-h320/bannerad.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Remember me? The Girl With the Cane? The disabilities blogger who kept annoying you with her long blog posts and annoying opinions? I'm back. </p><p style="text-align: left;">I last wrote as Girl With the Cane in 2019 on its self-hosted WordPress site. I remember that I stopped writing because it was getting too time-consuming, and because keeping the blog secure from hackers on the self-hosted WordPress server was getting awfully expensive. I saved all the posts in a .zip file and moved on. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The other day, I remembered that while I was writing the blog, I also put a lot of the posts on a Blogspot blog (<a href="https://gwtcarchive.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">which is archived here</a>, if you're interested in reading any of it; not all of the posts are there, but enough.) I'd thought about them so much over the last couple of years, too lazy to open the .zip file, when they were still on the internet the whole time!</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Why Girl With The Cane Again?</h2><p style="text-align: left;">I've decided to restart the Girl With The Cane blog because so many disability issues (so many social issues in general) still don't get the attention they deserve. Writing is the best way that I can help with that. I don't know where it will go, but I never know where anything in my life will go, really. I plan, but things don't always go the way I figure they will (obviously; I'm light years away from where I thought I'd be at almost 45 years old.)</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Girl With The Cane Update</h2><p style="text-align: left;">For those that read the old Girl With The Cane blog, here are some things that have changed since we last met:</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li> I'm an atheist (as opposed to "spiritual but not religious".) I'll talk more about this.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Both of my cats are gone. They lived long, happy lives, and both did quite well for much longer than anyone thought they would as senior kitties with severe illnesses.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I am more bionic than I was. I fell during the pandemic, and needed surgery to put a plate and screws in my right hip to treat the resulting fracture. The surgery and the seven weeks in the hospital after was ultimately a good thing, though: I learned that one of my seizure meds had caused me to develop osteoporosis, for which I now get treatment, and the rehabilitation process has made me a stronger, faster, and more balanced walker. The scar from the surgery isn't even that bad. Because of the hip fracture and some other fractures I've had in the past few years, and some changes in my seizures, I now get a visit from a Personal Support Worker everyday to check in on me and help me with some chores that are more difficult to do with one hand.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I work for myself, doing writing and social media and a bunch of other stuff for a few clients, totally from home. It took me a long time to build my business up to the point where my business can sustain me It's such a great feeling! I do still get some help from the Ontario Disability Support Program to pay for medications.</li></ul>For those joining for the first time, here's where I was (and still am) in this blog's first life:<ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I am a stroke survivor with a weak left side. I don't have much fine motor movement in my left arm and hand (which was dominant hand before the stroke) so I've learned to do (almost) everything I need to, just using my right hand. I walk with a cane outside for speed, balance, and stability, as I walk with a limp and toe drop and sometimes stumble - on snow or ice, on uneven ground, even over my own feet. I had the stroke 23 years ago after brain surgery to correct an arteriovenous malformation (no longer an issue), when I was 22 years old. The surgery also left some scar tissue that causes me to have seizures, so I don't drive. </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I live on my own in an apartment building in the very small Canadian town in which I grew up. I can pretty much take care of myself, but when I do need assistance, I have an in-town support network of friends, my father, and my Personal Support Workers; my sister and her family and my boyfriend are also both less than 2 hours away (in different cities, but in contact with each other.) </li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I've been working with intellectually disabled people in some capacity (volunteer or employment) since I was 15 years old. Those experiences, my own experience with being physically disabled and having mental health conditions, and conversations with others in those communities, opened my eyes to just how much ableism is still a life of society. It's a priority to me to have ableism recognized as a social justice issue and see more resources dedicated to eradicating it.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I believe in disability acceptance, not cure, which makes my views on advocacy, inclusion, and autonomy for disabled people different from than those of some advocates. That's not to say that if I was offered a treatment that would let me gain some more function in my left hand or guarantee that I'd never have a seizure again, I wouldn't consider taking it; with society structured the way it is now, my brain injury and the way it affects the rest of my body does prevent me from doing some things I'd like to do. However, given that said treatment hasn't yet presented itself, I live the best life I can with the body I have, and surround myself with people who support me in my plans because they know that, even if I have to ask for a bit of help, I generally succeed at what I put my mind to - disabilities and all. </li></ul><h2 style="text-align: left;">Happy to be Girl With The Cane </h2>I feel like I've got some more about disability to write about...even a book, which I'm going to talk about more. I hope you'll stick around and see where this goes. <br /><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>- Sarah <p></p><p></p></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />GirlWithTheCanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13462575804450092656noreply@blogger.com0