Let there be one more candle. Me, libera. 

Let the blind find jobs today. 

Let us act as this world requires.

There’s a great post by Oliver Lewis over at his blog Oliver Talks about becoming a human rights activist. I’ll let his excellent post speak for itself but will simply add that it takes a marriage of heart and hope to chart a course on the sea of human rights. 

My friend Joe Blair has written a superb post entitled “The Physics of Hatred” and he’s got me thinking about the warrens and barrel vaulting of human misery. (This is not to say I don’t customarily think of these things, but Joe has me stretching, laying out the chalk lines for a new room in my head.) Backstory: Joe is the father of a son who has autism. He and his wife Deb have lived the cold hydropathy of parents of disabled children—a tribe that’s larger than any other, and one that is customarily used to disappointments, cruelties, toxic hierarchies, and outright hostility. In this way, Joe is an expert when it comes to what we call social psychology in academic circles, and what’s called street smarts everywhere else. His post lays out, expertly, the horrid social dynamics that accompany alienation, by which I mean alienation, for the tale has much to do with late stage, post-industrial capitalism which is vicious and only teaches viciousness. You must read his post to see the emotional intelligence of a terrific writer in action. Back to my chalk lines. 

What we like to call “diversity” in the US, especially in the academy is essentially a larger and more communitarian idea, incorporating class struggle, relief for urban and rural poverty, all the global struggles for human rights. This work is the core, the foundation of what it is to be human—one may think of it as a meal for the soul. We nourish one another by our work. Its really important for North Americans to understand the complexity of nourishment as action. I love what Paolo Freire says in his famous book The Pedagogy of the Oppressed: “True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the “rejects of life,” to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands–whether of individuals or entire peoples–need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world.”  So we’re talking about true nourishment. Some days you find this in poems, other days it resides in standing up for inclusive education—for classrooms where students with disabilities are educated alongside their peers. Sometimes nourishment comes from meeting blind and deaf people in Central Asia and sharing stories of struggle and hope. Lyric writing is the best place I’ve found for combining multiple strains of thought into a moving unit of political consciousness. I wrote a prose poem for my friend Bill Peace who is a disability rights advocate and a wheelchair user. The lyric brings forward several feelings and ideas at once:

Prose Poem for Bill Peace

“Most days, as disabled people, we’re screwed…” (author)

Dear Bill—I’m green in my knees, green ribbed. I spent today alone with a dictionary. Sometimes I find words from the age before newsprint. Catabasis, a trip to the underworld…The Greeks understood: anger increases after death. Odysseus’ mother was the first zombie in literature, hungering for a bowl of blood in the twilight of Hades. I fear the dead are full of sorrows. Meanwhile half the houses hereabouts are crammed with sadness and the strictures of fear. To forgive is not so simple. Dictionary: discourse, utopia, harmonia…Some days words are immanent, warmer than the streets.     

So another way to look at nourishment is that it is the source of imaginative thinking as well as progressive political thought. Thank you Joe Blair. Thank you!

 USICD Celebrates the International Day of Persons with Disabilities!

Today, the global community celebrates the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. In the spirit of this year's theme, "Break Barriers, Open Doors: for an inclusive society and development for all", the U.S. International Council on Disabilities calls on the United States Senate to support the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.  This international disability treaty is designed to promote dignity, human rights, and inclusion for people with disabilities worldwide.

Inspired by U.S. leadership in recognizing the rights of people with disabilities, the treaty serves as a vital framework for creating legislation and policies around the world that embrace the rights and dignity of all people with disabilities. By joining over 130 countries and ratifying this treaty, the United States has an opportunity to have a seat at the table in developing these policies, and to share our model in disability rights, the Americans with Disabilities Act, with other countries creating legislation with regard to people with disabilities.

Marca Bristo, President of the U.S. International Council on Disabilities:  "The International Day of Persons with Disabilities serves as a reminder to all of us that, though there has been much progress, we still have a long way to go towards achieving inclusion for all. Today, the American disability community stands in solidarity with the global community and the millions of people both at home and abroad who need and want the Disability Treaty to be ratified. The strength, diversity, and commitment of the community working in support of this treaty is a testament to the treaty's significance and the broad global reach it could have in breaking barriers and opening doors for people living with disabilities worldwide." 

Jill Houghton, a USICD board member and the executive director of the US Business Leadership Network (USBLN): "The International Day of Persons with Disabilities is a day for celebration not only by people with disabilities, but for everyone who supports opportunity and equality.  That is why we support U.S. ratification of the Disability Treaty.  More than 50 US member corporations have signed on to the USBLN's letter supporting ratification.  Great American companies like Coke, IBM, AT&T, Sprint and Adobe share the vision of a world where there is no discrimination against people with disabilities.  We can be sure it's a day to celebrate."

In spite of widespread support from veterans service organizations, faith, human and civil rights organizations, business, and the disability community, as well as politicians on both sides of the aisle, the treaty fell just five votes short of ratification in a controversial Senate vote last December. Now, as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee engages in renewed discussions of the treaty, the Senate has a rare second chance to do the right thing and vote YES to ratify the Disability Treaty. 

TAKE ACTION on this International Day of Persons with Disabilities! 

CLICK HERE to call your Senators

Learn more at www.disabilitytreaty.org

December 3rd is both #GivingTuesday and the International Day of Persons with Disabilities

Our community is powerful and #GivingTuesday, the national day of philanthropy, is a great time to show it through raising money and our voices. The U.S. International Council on Disabilities invites you to support our work as a leading convener and advocate for global disability issues, ideas and people.  Please support our work by making a year-end contribution.  Together with your support we come closer to realizing our vision!  Please also encourage your friends to make a donation to USICD. 

Thank you.

Poem for the Great Magicians

Refused entry at the bourse you turned money into birds and the birds flew to the high branches in Schlossberg and whistled and children were happy. We all come from the stingy soil. But you dear ones, helped us pace our manias under the sheltering, singing trees. 

Light strikes the kitchen mat and makes a poem. You don’t have to believe me. The world continues “worlding” as it always does. But this morning I saw something imprecise, accidental, and felt good inside my bones. Dark green, black, gold, chance, winter light.