Andrea and Zac have been training for a marathon to raise funds for Global Water. The marathon is this weekend!
Can you make a small donation and help send them on their way? We did!
Author: stevekuusisto
Poet, Essayist, Blogger, Journalist, Memoirist, Disability Rights Advocate, Public Speaker, Professor, Syracuse University
In Memoriam: Lawrence King
We at Planet of the Blind received the following e-mail from the
Society for Disability Studies. The post is by Professor Warren J.
Blumenfeld of the Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Since the
intersection of disability rights and all human rights is not far from
our thoughts I wanted to share Dr. Blumenfeld’s post with our readers.
We do so with his kind permission.
S.K.
In Memoriam: Lawrence King
By Warren J. Blumenfeld
Listen to Steve's Interview on Iowa Public Radio's "The Exchange" with Ben Kieffer
Thank you, Ben Kieffer, for this opportunity!
An interview with University of Iowa Professor Steve Kuusisto. He’s an author, educator and advocate for people with disabilities. Blind since birth he says sometimes even those working to help people with disabilities consign the disabled person to a second-class, defective status. That thinking is something Kuusisto is working to change. |
Morning on the Bus
I rode the bus to campus this morning and overheard a conversation between the driver and a passenger. The two men talked ardently about the distinction between theology and religion or religious practice. The bus rumbled through corn fields and housing developments on a cold, snowy Iowa day and these two unassuming guys had a smart conversation about Zen Buddhism and the parables of Jesus and then, as the bus pulled up alongside the big shopping mall downtown they promised to get together for coffee. Some days it’s nice to live in a college town where everyone is most assuredly not what they appear to be. I mean that in the best sense. I mean this the way Walt whitman meant it when he said: "Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself." I wish more Americans had the luxury to live out their contradictions with curiosity and support from their neighbors. Why then we would be free of course. Why then we would be free.
S.K.
Run! It's Brother Nader!
As I type these words Ralph Nader is appearing on NBC’s "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert to announce that he’s decided to run for the presidency. I greet this news with the neurological equivalent of a foot cramp.
Ralph Nader is the monk who none of the other monks will sit next to in the monastery. It’s not that he smells bad. It has nothing to do with his ideas.
No, the problem for Brother Nader is that post-industrial global-corporate society actually wants him to run. And he of course doesn’t possess enough personal irony to sense this.
Ralph, Ye Hardly Knew Ye.
S.K.
TV Land Strikes Again
TV Land Redux Redux
So last night Connie and I were channel surfing while eating dinner and between the game show where the husband and wife are asked to disclose the kind of sound their bed springs make and the prison show where we’re asked to become complicit "gazers" as underprivileged and undereducated people are incarcerated—between these shows we found ABC’s program 20/20 (their version of Dateline) and lo and behold they were doing a segment on people who have serious genetically transmitted birth deformities and neurological illnesses. What caught my attention was the "framing language" that the producers were using: one woman’s illness was introduced with a sinister analogy: "Like a poisoned apple from a tree, (insert patient’s name) this illness befell her, etc." The implication is of course layered with cultural meanings. Like Eve this woman ate the taboo apple? Like Snow White she ate the poisoned fruit? I couldn’t believe my ears! Genetically inherited diseases do not manifest themselves like the fruits of superstitions or biblical narratives. The uncomprehending television viewer, hearing this without analysis would be inclined to think that genetic misfortune may be a kind of divine punishment. Doesn’t this sound familiar? Tobit, in the Old Testament is blinded by the Lord. Tiresias is blinded by Hera in Greek mythology. Certainly if you have a disability you’ve done something wrong where the gods are concerned. I was absolutely dismayed to see ABC using this kind of nonsense as a framing device for their story about real people. Thank God the phone rang! Perhaps the phone rang like a poisoned apple falling from the tree of life?
S.K.
Mutant Fly
Oh my gosh!
It’s the middle of February. In Iowa. There is a foot of snow on the ground. It has been "unseasonably" cold for weeks now, or so I’m told. (This is not a great "first year experience" for those of us who have just moved to Iowa.)
A fly has suddenly appeared on the lampshade in my study, not four feet from where I’m sitting. Out of nowhere I tell ya.
What could this possibly mean?
~ Connie
How I Spent This Day
Talking of course. A friend called from New York City. Seems her mother is on a ventilator. Although she’s still conscious—"aware of what’s going on" etc., apparently the woman’s son—my friend’s brother—wants to pull the plug on Mom.
My cell phone was crackling. Our conversation was like old radio traffic far at sea. Somewhere out to the east there was a gibbous moon.
We must fight for every breath in this world. Who shall say the lives of others are inconvenient?
The brother was filled with what he called "ethics"—as in: "It’s terrible to see her this way. She’s probably suffering. She might not ever get better. Etc."
Like a million other Americans, "the brother" thinks life is simply about the absence of pain.
I tell my friend that I tend to side with conservative types around the issue of terminating human life.
But then again, I’m more consistent than conservatives because I oppose the death penalty.
I believe that Terry Shiavo was murdered.
I believe that Frank Zappa was right when he said America is turning into a "fascist theocracy".
I want to kick a badly manufactured thing: a tin lunch box with a picture of Mr. McGoo on the lid.
I want to roll through the day like a wheel on fire.
I realize that I need to stop talking for a time and read some poems by Pablo Neruda.
I went out into the sub-zero afternoon with my guide dog.
Nira, a yellow Labrador, who is only two years old, met her first goose just outside the University of Iowa’s student union.
The goose was eating pellets of salt from the sidewalk.
Students walked around the goose, ignoring it, talking to their friends on their cell phones.
People in this country are no longer living in the present tense.
S.K.
Superman Bolsters This Super Disability Blog Carnival!
Whew! It’s not too late to enjoy the SUPERMAN! Disability Blog Carnival posted on Emma’s blog.
And the equally good news is that you don’t have to be faster than a
speeding bullet to get there on time! Enjoy it at your leisure – and
enjoy it you will.
Cross-posted on Blog [with]tv
How to Write Able-ist Prose
I once knew a disabled (insert "Man" "Woman" "Child" HERE).
He was always (insert "upbeat" ""grateful" or "a real inspiration" HERE).
He or She never had a problem like (insert topical news story—e.g. "being dumped from a wheelchair" or "losing a job because of impairment" or "being denied access to a public facility" etc.).
Illustrative disabled person never understood (insert "these mooches and leeches" or "whining addicts of victim hood").
Illustrative disabled person would often say: (insert "Everything’s okay if you keep a song in your heart" or "I don’t know what ‘these people are griping about.")
Finally, you say: "There you have it. My disabled friend (who was a cross between Mr. Rogers and Tiny Tim) was always, until his last day on earth, dismayed—no more than dismayed, he was ‘gob smacked’ by the insufferable voices of the rest of them. Amen."
Final note: You will always find a major newspaper or magazine outlet for this essay. It works every time.
Final final note: You don’t really have to know a disabled person to write this. In fact it’s an impediment. It’s always best to draw cartoons. (Insert "Mr. McGoo" HERE).
S.K.
Planet of the Blind 