Author: stevekuusisto

Poet, Essayist, Blogger, Journalist, Memoirist, Disability Rights Advocate, Public Speaker, Professor, Syracuse University

Veterans Need More Help

From today's New York Times:

 

"The Department of Veterans Affairs says it plans to hire 1,900 psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, clinicians and clerical employees, a 10 percent increase in its mental health staff. That’s welcome progress for a system that is struggling to meet the needs of veterans. But there are questions about whether it will be enough — and whether the department is truly facing up to its problems."

 

See full editorial:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/25/opinion/does-the-va-get-it.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Living with Cats

By Andrea Scarpino

I’m not naturally a cat person. I grew up with an 100lb Standard Poodle names Jacques who was one of the smartest dogs I’ve ever met. When he would eat something he knew he wasn’t supposed to eat, he would punish himself by lying down on the bathroom mat and staying there—in the bathroom—until we had forgiven him. When it was time for me to come home from school, he would wait at the backdoor until my mother opened it, and then run through the neighbors’ backyards to meet me at the bus stop. One of my best childhood memories is of Jacques bounding through knee-deep snow as he ran to meet me.

But in college, when I missed having a pet, the apartment in which I lived only allowed cats. I’d never spent much time with cats, but I figured I would give it a shot. Orion came first, adopted as a tiny kitten from a local shelter, then Lillith, all white and deaf, and finally Kato, named after OJ Simpson’s famous houseguest because Kato also moved in one day and never left.

And while I still miss living with a dog—their glee at spending time with you, how clearly you are their one true everything—I’ve come to appreciate the mysteries of cats. How they mostly couldn’t care if you’re around; they have their own projects, their own secrets. Some people say cats are “independent” but I think it’s more “indifferent”—they have their own lives, and while happy to connect with a human when it suits them, they mostly do their own thing.

A dog will watch you carefully, will learn from your movements and daily routine. Jacques would walk to me from across the room if I made eye contact and nodded my head. Cats are mostly too self-consumed to pay attention to a human’s goings-on. Even though I spend most of each day working in my office with Orion curled up nearby, he rarely shows any interest in actually interacting with me. If I lean down to pet him, that’s great. Otherwise, he’s content thinking his own thoughts.

Right now, our cats’ favorite thing is spending time in Narnia, which is what Zac and I now call one of our lower kitchen cabinets. Kato will stand at the closed cabinet door scratching his paws up and down and meowing incessantly until one of us lets him in. And whenever a cat is missing, it’s a good bet to check Narnia—she’s probably curled up asleep behind the potatoes and flour. Mysterious cat-things happen in Narnia, things no human could understand.

And that’s one of the best things about living with cats: learning to appreciate the mysterious around us, the mysterious inside us; that each of us, no matter how connected to another, holds vast, deep secrets no one else will ever know. Rilke describes something like this when he writes, “But once the realization is accepted that even between the closest people infinite distances exist, a marvelous living side-by-side can grow up for them, if they succeed in loving the expanse between them, which gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky.”

Living with a dog taught me loyalty, joy, unashamed and overwhelming love. But living with cats has taught me boundaries, give and take. Has taught me to be my own person, even in relationship with others, to always have my own projects. That it’s okay to be a little mean sometimes, to show indifference sometimes. Living with cats has taught me the joy of spending time quietly, even if not alone; of living side-by-side; of embracing “the expanse between” myself and others; of trying to see another “before an immense sky.”

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Villanelle in the Morning

When I break apart I really break.

I can’t say what’s coming, this blind day.

I walk to move, sometimes I shake.

Sometimes I laugh, sometimes half the day.

When I break apart I really break.

I don’t recommend it, it’s just my way.

I walk to move, sometimes I shake.

Here’s to blindness, my true brother.

When I break apart I really break.

My brother takes on the coming day,

Sightless, he never looks for cover,

We laugh together, sometimes all the way.

Here’s to blindness, my one brother.

Here’s to laughter, never taking cover.

We walk, sometimes we shake.

When we break apart we really break.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

April is National Poetry Month…

Someone wrote me asking why (I have) not been talking about poetry lately. I think the answer is complicated for its not correct to say that we don’t think about poetry like a caffeinated clock maker reciting Rilke as he works. We think about poetry with every little gear and pin. Daylight disappears and the windows grow dark and we’re still thinking about poetry. We even write poems though we’re less on display than we might be in other seasons. Why are we so introverted when it comes to the drums and snakes of the imagination?

Sometimes we are affected by a freshet of humility. We’re like the 100 year old monk who we met at a Finnish monastery. We were side by side in the sauna. I said to him: “Do you smell strawberries?” He told me that the smell was from his sweat, that he’d been eating only strawberries for about two weeks.

Have you ever sat with a 100 year old man who was entirely happy?

You see, sometimes poetry asks us to admit we know nothing at all. Try to write about that. Do it with happiness.

Are you happy enough?

Have you given away the proper things in this life?

I promise you that I’m looking always for the answers. I look with my skin. I walk around in the near meadow. I smile at light as it moves over the frozen earth like any blind man. I am lighter by the minute.

And you?

*****

Professor Stephen Kuusisto, blind since birth, is the author of “Eavesdropping: A Memoir of Blindness and Listening” and the acclaimed memoir “Planet of the Blind”, a New York Times “Notable Book of the Year”. He has also published “Only Bread, Only Light“, a collection of poems from Copper Canyon Press. As director of the Renee Crown University Honors Program and a University Professor at Syracuse University, Steve speaks widely on diversity, disability, education, and public policy.

Post originally published on Planet of the Blind

Essay: Russian Tea in Memory

It’s not the real glass of tea, amber colored and tall. Tea of my boyhood. The Strindberg Cafe, Helsinki, end of day, late winter, candles burning, and the imperial drink tossing red on a blind child’s retinas. The real glass of tea vanished long ago. The tea in memory is what’s left, more beautiful day by day, pouring from the samovar of a little boy’s fascinations–tea of beginnings; tea from a wishing well; sunset in his father’s hands.

Not Dead Yet: Dr. Phil Show Promoting Killing People With Cognitive Disabilities

Not Dead Yet: Dr. Phil Show Promoting Killing People With Cognitive Disabilities
(Not Dead Yet)
April 20, 2012

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] Dr. Phil has been on the air for almost ten years. And he's shown a tendency to jump on headlinhttp://www.inclusiondaily.com/es and to exploit breaking human interest stories – and the people at the center of them with enthusiasm.

So I guess it wasn't really all that surprising when Dr. Phil and his staff took notice of the controversy — and attention — garnered by Global News in Canada with its 'Taking Mercy' show which promoted the idea that parents should be able to kill their children who have intellectual disabilities. The show centered around Annette Corriveau, who has two adult children who have a progressive genetic condition called Sanfilippo syndrome. It aired on April 13, 2012.

Since, as usual, the main concern of Dr. Phil and his staff is providing programming that will grab attention, there was no honest exploration of ethical issues when he, in turn, had Annette Corriveau on his show.

In addition to Corriveau, he had Geoffrey Fieger — who not only defended Kevorkian, but also helped him pick out and eliminate 'candidates' for assisted suicide based on what he believed Kevorkian could get away with. Fieger has never criticized any homicide labeled a 'mercy killing' that he's been asked to comment on.

The third 'guest' was a woman identified only by her first name — 'Ruthi' — who is described as having four birth children and three step children; we're also told that three of her children have 'special needs' and suffer from disorders. She is appalled at the idea of killing people with intellectual disabilities.

Entire article:
Dr. Phil: Promoting Killing People with Cognitive Disabilities — And a Close Encounter in 2002
http://tinyurl.com/ide04201207a
Related:
Deadly Consequences (Dr. Phil)
http://drphil.com/slideshows/slideshow/6834/?id=6834&showID=1826

 

People With Disabilities Arrive In DC To Fight For Real Medicaid Reform

People With Disabilities Arrive In DC To Fight For Real Medicaid Reform
(ADAPT)
April 20, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express.] ADAPT, the national disability rights action group known for its direct action tactics, will take the nation's capitol by storm with a three-day series of actions Monday April 23 through Wednesday April 25.

The actions will highlight the failure of the Federal government to protect community based services for very low income people with disabilities who rely on Medicaid. Adding to the Medicaid budget crisis throughout the fifty states, the Supreme Court's consideration of the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act is creating unprecedented tension over the fate of millions of Americans with disabilities.

"The public presence of advocates for Medicare and Social Security is extremely visible, but the voice of people with disabilities who need Medicaid services has been often overshadowed at the federal level," said Bob Kafka of ADAPT of Texas. "We are here to make it plain to Congress and the administration that we want action, not just words."

Hundreds of activists from across the nation will participate in these actions, many of whom currently rely on Medicaid for their independence, health and safety.

Entire press statement:
People with Disabilities Arrive in DC to Fight for Real Medicaid Reform
http://www.adapt.org/main.preactionstatementspring2012