Author: stevekuusisto

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

News from Mobility International

 

Forwarded from MIUSA:   

Greetings from Mobility International USA (MIUSA)!

On behalf of MIUSA, I am delighted to share the announcement below, and the attached flyer, about MIUSA’s upcoming U.S./Spain: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Disability Rights Leadership Exchange Program, travelling to Madrid from June 24th-July 5th, 2012.

MIUSA is now accepting applications from young adults with disabilities from New York City, between the ages 18 – 24, for a 10-day scholarship program travelling to Madrid, Spain, focusing on youth leadership and cultural perspectives on disability rights!

Deadline for applications is March 15th!

To ensure that young adults with disabilities learn about this international opportunity, we wish to kindly request that you circulate the announcement below and attached, through your office, organization and/or contacts.

We know that with your assistance, young adults with disabilities from New York City will have the opportunity to pursue their dream of traveling abroad, discovering new cultures and strengthening their leadership skills in order to create positive change in the world.

Thank you in advance for your support, and for assisting us to recruit a dynamic group of young adult leaders with disabilities for this year’s exchange to Spain.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me, Megan Smith, at msmith@miusa.org or 541-343-1284.

 

Sincerely,

Megan Smith

Exchange Program Assistant

Mobility International USA (MIUSA)

132 East Broadway, Suite 343

Eugene, Oregon, USA

Tel/TTY: +1 (541) 343-1284 Ext. 32

Fax: +1 (541) 343-6812

Email: msmith@miusa.org

Web: http://www.miusa.org

 

MIUSA's Music Video: Loud, Proud and Passionate! (SM) Goes Live! Watch and share the YouTube link 

 

Celebrating 30 years of empowering people with disabilities to achieve their human rights through international exchange and international development.

 

 

 

 

Kick off your 2012 summer by travelling to Madrid, Spain

with Mobility International USA (MIUSA)!

 

2012 U.S./Spain: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Disability Rights

Leadership Exchange Program

  

                                          Madrid, Spain       

 

June 24th –July 5th, 2012

 

MIUSA is now accepting applications from young adults with disabilities from New York City, between the ages 18 – 24, for a 10-day scholarship program focusing on youth leadership and cultural perspectives on disability rights.

Apply Now! – Deadline March 15, 2012

Application (PDF) / Application (Word Doc)/ Application (Rich Text RTF)

 

Young adults with disabilities of diverse backgrounds from New York City, especially those who are first-time international travelers, are encouraged to apply.

 

PROGRAM DETAILS

 

When:                   

June 24th– July 5th, 2012

 

Where:                 

Madrid, Spain

 

Program Activities:

·         Learn about the disability rights movement in Spain and Europe while indulging in tapas!

·         Meet with students, disability rights leaders and community members to learn about the cultures, food, languages and traditions of Spain.

·         Learn Spanish and Spanish Sign Language and create bonds of friendship with our Spanish hosts.

·         Dialogue with Spanish college students while visiting one of Spain’s most beautiful and accessible cities!

·         Develop leadership skills and build self-confidence while participating in a cross-disability and cross-cultural program.

 

Program Cost:       

Sliding scale $220 – $1,100, based on need (refer to scholarship application)

 

This covers all: round-trip international airfare from New York City to Madrid, Spain; travel health insurance; pre-departure orientation; accessible ground transportation, lodging, meals and activities in Madrid; disability related costs, including sign language interpreters, materials in alternative formats, and funding for personal assistants. 

 

Scholarships Provided!                          

Please complete the scholarship application provided in the program application.

 

Application Deadline: March 15, 2012

Late applications considered as space permits.

 

ELIGIBILITY

 

Participants must be:

U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents

From New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island)

Ages 18 – 24 by July 2012

Individuals with a disability: MIUSA programs include people with all types of disabilities and from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Download the Application – Deadline March 15, 2012

Application (PDF) / Application (Word Doc)/ Application (Rich Text RTF)

Sponsors:

The 2012 U.S./Spain: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Disability Rights Leadership Exchange Program is funded by the New York Community Trust / Wallace Fund for Youth, established in Community Funds by the co-founder of The Reader's Digest Association. For the past 16 years, MIUSA has received the generous support of the DeWitt Wallace/Youth Travel Enrichment Fund, established by the founder of The Reader's Digest Association, to provide an educational travel opportunity to U.S. young adults with disabilities from diverse communities.

 

 

TV Progress?

"How rare to see a sparkling and spirited representation of what it’s actually like to walk through life with bipolar disorder. So let a thousand conversations bloom." –Jamie Stiehm in today's NY Times

It is rare to see any kind of disability portrayed on TV with honesty and integrity. Perhaps the tide is starting to turn with shows like "Homeland" and Marlee Matlin's "My Deaf Family" –we can only hope.

Lyric Poetry Class

 So I’m about to meet my lyric poetry class for the first time. Here is one of my favorite examples of LP, by the Estonian poet Jaan Kaplinski, as translated by Sam Hamill:

The washing never gets done.

The furnace never gets heated.

Books never get read.

Life is never completed.

Life is like a ball which one must continually

Catch and hit so that it won’t fall.

When the fence is repaired at one end,

It collapses at the other. The roof leaks,

The kitchen door won’t close, there are cracks in the foundation,

The torn knees of children’s pants…

One can’t keep everything in mind. The wonder is

That beside all this one can notice

The spring which is so full of everything 

Continuing in all directions–into evening clouds,

Into the redwing’s song and into every

Drop of dew on every blade of grass in the meadow,

As far as the eye can see, into the dusk.

More Again about Newton

From today's New York Times:

 

"If only they were more willing to be janitors! Asked by Mr. Williams why he has frequently suggested that poor children be employed as school janitors, Mr. Gingrich said his daughter worked as a church janitor at age 13 and liked earning the money and that it would be a good way for poor students to learn the value of work. But, he suggested, Mr. Obama doesn’t want them to work at all because liberal elites prefer to “maximize dependency.”

Don’t try to follow any kind of logical thread of why the president wouldn’t want the jobless rate to decrease; there isn’t one. This trumpet was sounded to feed the prejudice of people who already believe that blacks and other poor people don’t really like to work and to deflect the growing public awareness that the Republican Party’s highest priority is protecting the rich from higher taxes."

**

You know, I've been involved in higher education all my life–I grew up on college campuses, my father was a college president. I have no idea who Gingrich is refering to when he talks about "liberal elites" since I've never really met one. I think Thorstein Veblen was a liberal elite but "he gone".

 

 

 

 

 

Huffington Post: South Carolina Shows How Far We Have to Go

 

South Carolina Shows How Far We Have to Go

The next time you attend a graduation, remember that the
gowns worn by the graduates are likely to have been made by South Carolina prison labor.

 

Stephen Kuusisto 

Director

The Renee Crown University Honors Program 

University Professor

Syracuse University

Watching Newt Gingrich is Like…

Analogy fails. Gingrich is like Ayn Rand but he’s less meretricious and more the braggart. He’s Bull Connor but with more social Darwinist claptrap. He’s Updike’s Satan in “The Witches of Eastwick” but less sexy. 

He’s the puff pigeon of right wing intolerance. In this way he’s like the canary in a coal mine, revealing toxicity. But of course he’s less interesting to watch.