Category: Current Affairs

Like everyone else, I woke this morning to the news that Paris Hilton, the American Hotel heiress and "celebpar excellence" has been returned to jail by the judge. I don’t care whether she deserves 45 days in the slammer for DUI or other assorted traffic violations: what matters is that she is now as of this morning a prisoner in America’s largest psychiatric facility, which is the Los Angeles County Jail. The mental health system in the United States is a disgrace. If you even dimly suspect that Paris Hilton may not belong "there" imagine all the youthful offenders who became adult offenders who hail from families that never had medical insurance or proper treatment for serious mental illnesses. Imagine the third rate care such prisoners receive in the L.A. jails. This is the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night. Our nation’s health care crisis is in my view the most serious threat to our nation’s future. Period. S.K.

I received the following e-mail this morning by way of Irwin Hott, who is President of the Ohio Chapter of the American Council of the Blind. The note he is passing along is from the ACB’s "sister" organization, the National Federation of the Blind. Note that there are specific phone numbers you can call to express your opposition to the current funding proposal that would, effectively, jeopardize the continued existence of books for the blind.

S.K.

Here is more on funding of the Talking Book program:

From: Hartle, Jesse
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 4:55 PM

Urgent action is needed to respond to the House’s Legislative Branch Subcommittee’s proposed appropriations bill relating to the fiscal year 2008 budget request of the Library of Congress. As you all know the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) has been working on a plan to convert the Talking Books program to a digital format. The cost of this needed transition from analog cassette to digital technology is $76.4 million over a four-year period ($19.1 million for each of the next four years). The House Legislative Branch Subcommittee has only included $7.5 million for this project in the bill, which passed the subcommittee yesterday. The subcommittee also voted against an amendment raised by Congressman Ray LaHood of Illinois that sought to include full funding for the NLS upgrade. Not only is this amount just a third of what was requested by the Library of Congress, but the subcommittee further gave the Librarian of Congress the power to transfer all or part of the funds from the Books for the Blind program to other upgrades for the Library. Essentially, if the Librarian of Congress chooses to transfer funds from the $7.5 million allotted for the digital conversion program, the Talking Books program will be killed due to a lack of equipment to repair broken tape players and the simple fact that all aspects of cassette technology will become obsolete in the next four years. The Legislative Branch Appropriations bill will now be presented to the full Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday, July 12. It is imperative that we flood the offices of Committee members and the office of Subcommittee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz before July 12th to urge them to include the full funding for the digital upgrade and to protect these funds from being shifted within the Library of Congress to meet other needs. The Talking Books program is the largest and most essential available source of information for blind people as a whole, and we need to protect this information source with our greatest effort. Included below is a list of the members on the Appropriations Committee and their office numbers. Please contact their offices, and let them know how important the Talking Books program is to the blind. I will update you with further information on this initiative, but your calls should start immediately.

Thanks in advance for all of your hard work.
Jesse Hartle
Government Program Specialist
NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, MD 21230
(410) 659-9314, ext. 2233
jhartle@nfb.org
House Committee on Appropriations
Full Committee – June 7, 2007
FL D, Schultz, Rep Debbie Wasserman, 202-225-7931
(alphabetical by state)
AL D, Cramer, Rep Robert E. Bud, Jr., 202-225-4801
AL R, Aderholt, Rep Robert B., 202-225-4876
AR D, Berry, Rep Marion, 202-225-4076
AZ D, Pastor, Rep Ed, 202-225-4065
CA D, Farr, Rep Sam, 202-225-2861
CA D, Honda, Rep Mike, 202-225-2631
CA D, Lee, Rep Barbara, 202-225-2661
CA D, Roybal-Allard, Rep Lucille, 202-225-1766
CA D, Schiff, Rep Adam, 202-225-4176
CA R, Calvert, Rep Ken, 202-225-1986
CA R, Lewis, Rep Jerry, 202-225-5861
CT D, DeLauro, Rep Rosa L., 202-225-3661
FL D, Boyd, Rep F. Allen, 202-225-5235
FL R, Crenshaw, Rep Ander, 202-225-2501
FL R, Weldon, Rep Dave, 202-225-3671
FL R, Young, Rep C. W. Bill, 202-225-5961
GA D, Bishop, Rep Sanford D., Jr., 202-225-3631
GA R, Kingston, Rep Jack, 202-225-5831
IA R, Latham, Rep Tom, 202-225-5476
ID R, Simpson, Rep Mike, 202-225-5531
IL D, Jackson, Rep Jesse L., Jr., 202-225-0773
IL R, Kirk, Rep Mark Steven, 202-225-4835
IL R, LaHood, Rep Ray, 202-225-6201
IN D, Visclosky, Rep Peter J., 202-225-2461
KS R, Tiahrt, Rep Todd, 202-225-6216
KY D, Chandler, Rep Ben, 202-225-4706
KY R, Rogers, Rep Hal, 202-225-4601
LA R, Alexander, Rep Rodney, 202-225-8490
MA D, Olver, Rep John W., 202-225-5335
MD D, Ruppersberger, Rep C. A. Dutch, 202-225-3061
MI D, Kilpatrick, Rep Carolyn Cheeks, 202-225-2261
MI R, Knollenberg, Rep Joe, 202-225-5802
MN D, McCollum, Rep Betty, 202-225-6631
MO R, Emerson, Rep Jo Ann, 202-225-4404
MS R, Wicker, Rep Roger F., 202-225-4306
MT R, Rehberg, Rep Dennis, 202-225-3211
NC D, Price, Rep David E., 202-225-1784
NJ D, Rothman, Rep Steve, 202-225-5061
NJ R, Frelinghuysen, Rep Rodney P., 202-225-5034
NM D, Udall, Rep Tom, 202-225-6190
NY D, Hinchey, Rep Maurice D., 202-225-6335
NY D, Israel, Rep Steve, 202-225-3335
NY D, Lowey, Rep Nita M., 202-225-6506
NY D, Serrano, Rep Jose E., 202-225-4361
NY R, Walsh, Rep James T., 202-225-3701
OH D, Kaptur, Rep Marcy, 202-225-4146
OH D, Ryan, Rep Tim, 202-225-5261
OH R, Hobson, Rep David L., 202-225-4324
OH R, Regula, Rep Ralph, 202-225-3876
PA D, Fattah, Rep Chaka, 202-225-4001
PA D, Murtha, Rep John P., 202-225-2065
PA R, Peter son, Rep John E., 202-225-5121
RI D, Kennedy, Rep Patrick J., 202-225-4911
TN R, Wamp, Rep Zach, 202-225-3271
TX D, Edwards, Rep Chet, 202-225-6105
TX D, Rodriguez, Rep Ciro D., 202-225-4511
TX R, Carter, Rep John R., 202-225-3864
TX R, Culberson, Rep John, 202-225-2571
TX R, Granger, Rep Kay, 202-225-5071
VA D, Moran, Rep Jim, 202-225-4376
VA R, Goode, Rep Virgil H., Jr., 202-225-4711
VA R, Wolf, Rep Frank R., 202-225-5136
WA D, Dicks, Rep Norm, 202-225-5916
WI D, Obey, Rep David R., Chair, 202-225-3365
WV D, Mollohan, Rep Alan B., 202-225-4172

I

I was reading student essays as required by my professorial duties when I came across the following sentence:

"The Elephant Man was big in his day, but not because of his head."

I love the authoritative "brio" of the assertion because this is the stuff of poetry.

"April is the cruelest month…" Poetry asserts. It feels right. Even when it isn’t true.

This is of course why politicians love poetry. 

I wish we had a little more poetry in the presidential debates.

I would really like it if Wolf Blitzer asked each candidate to recite aloud his or her favorite poem. This would be revealing I think. And much more useful than hearing about their respective faith in God.

I, by the way, always spell God with a big G because "she deserves it.

Here are some speculative poetry samples for some of the current candidates:

Hillary: "How strange to give up all ambition." (Robert Bly)

Mitt Romney: "This is just to say I have eaten  the plums that were in the icebox…" (W.C. Williams)

John Edwards: "I sing and celebrate myself…" (Walt Whitman)

Rudy: "Call the roller of big cigars, the muscular one, and bid him whip in kitchen cups concupiscent curds…" (Wallace Stevens)

Barack Obama: "A narrow fellow in the grass…" (Emily Dickinson)

John McCain: "How do you like your blue eyed boy now Mr. Death?" e.e. cummings)

Dennis Kucinich: "Do I dare to eat a peach?" (T.S. Eliot)

You can of course make up your own list of  potential poems for potential potentates…

S.K.

What is it about American television that so distresses me? Forget the advertising and the trivial programs. I believe in "brain candy" just as much as the next guy–heck, I even bought a copy of People magazine last week. Jeez. I’ve even been known to eat "Slim Jims" when I think no one’s looking.

This morning I was switching between NBC’s "Today" show and the MSNBC morning talk program  formerly known as "Imus" and I heard sequentially from Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas who is a Republican candidate for President of the United States, and blip! back on NBC there was Dr. Jack Kevorkian, otherwise known as "Dr. Death".

Gov. Huckabee was talking about the need for America to have good health care. Blip. Dr. Death was talking about the need for America to have good euthenasia. Blip. Gov. Huckabee was talking about getting the government off our backs. Blip. Dr. Death was talking about euthenasia as a human right.

I was shaving. I use the Braun self cleaning electric razor which gives me a superior shave and which smells citrus fresh every morning. I was channel surfing and having a good shave and a cuppa coffee on an ordinary rainy summer morning in Ohio. I was comfortable. I felt good.

I wanted to join the TV Land conversation. Wanted to bring Ann Curry of the Today Show and Amy Robach of MSNBC and Dr. Death and Gov. Huckabee together for a good grape whalloping session. I wanted the TV to reflect a disability perspective. I wasn’t going to get it this morning of course. But I did have a good shave thanks to German technology. And here’s the problem as I saw it while shaving:

Many people with disabilities are distressed by the grassroots efforts to legalize euthenasia for the simple reason that it is conceivable that the disabled will be put to death by a corrupt medical care system. This is a serious concern and that’s why I wanted Dr. Death and Gov. Huckabee in the same room. We can’t guarantee quality of life for our citizens with the present health care crisis in the United States. Until we can provide everyone in a democracy with good health care it seems to me that introducing euthenasia into the current health care system is like rearranging those famous deck chairs on the Titanic. If we can’t deliver health care to over forty million people than we shouldn’t be delivering euthenasia either. I believe what I’m saying. But the thing with TV is that the medium won’t allow for this sort of articulated conversation. And this is why the blogosphere is so compelling these days.

I suspect that Gov. Huckabee is a nice man. I suspect that Jack Kevorkian is a creep. And I further suspect that they are both correct in their respective positions. But the quality of human life is the most important issue and TV doesn’t lend itself to that subject. I wish that it did. Personally, I’d happily pay 7 dollars a gallon for gas like they do in Europe if it meant that everybody had health care and could be protected from H HMO fraud and heartlessness.

This is a "disability" perspective and I suspect that it’s also a mainstream view.

Maybe we need a "quality of life" channel?

S.K.

I was watching "Meet the Press" today and a group of Democratic strategists squared off against their Republican counterparts. They were talking about the ’08 election and what emerged most distinctly for me was a curious sense that both parties are looking for a way to run on the status quo but without saying so. What this means is that what will "really happen" is that we will stay in Iraq for a long time to come. We will likely continue to privatize every single governmental program we can think of. We will fail the nation on health care reform. We will do these things while pretending it’s the other guys fault.

I wish I felt better about this political season. I said earlier on this blog that I think the wrong guy from "Law and Order" is talking about running. I want Jack McCoy in the White House. And I think "Ice T" should be the VP.

It’s hard these days to remember, but even Nixon played the piano and had some occasional charm. Who amongst these candidates has a little charm? I’d like to see all these candidates play the bongos like Richard Feinman and recite improv poetry instead of having more of these dishwater dull debates.

A guide dog can dream can’t he?

S.K.

When I was a teenager I wanted very much to join the Navy. There was a problem though: the Navy didn’t have any proven need for blind sailors. I was genuinely disappointed by this and so I took up anorexia and by the time I went to college I weighed 102 pounds. On the bright side, I was a very fast 102 pounds and I was able to outpace a University of New Hampshire hockey player in a long distance run. On the dark side, I ran faster than the hockey player but I also ran into a fence. 

Nowadays I counsel everyone I meet to avoid the kind of behavior I once engaged in. But I still have these wild moments. I climb on top of rickety chairs to reach an upper shelf just because I thrill inwardly to the possibility of something orthopedic and dreadful. Women like to call this kind of behavior "testosterone poisoning" but they have it too.

I don’t know what I will do today that will be reckless, but it’s sure to be self evident to others. "Look Mommy, that man over there is trying to catch a bumble bee with his arm pit!"

Or something like that.

S.K.

My friend, the writer and poet Ralph Savarese (whose book "Reasonable People" I have reviewed on this very blog) has a superb op-ed piece in today’s L.A. Times.  Anyone who is interested in the intersection of disability and community in our nation will want to read this important essay.  You can view Ralph’s editorial here

S.K.

Bill likes to stay in touch; he sends us an e-mail every now and then.  Today he had this to say.  I thought it worth sharing…

~ Connie

By now you’ve seen it: George W. Bush remarked yesterday at the White House that Queen Elizabeth II "helped us celebrate our nation’s bi-centennial in 17….1976."  WINK.  The Queen was not amused.  She shot "W" a withering look.  The Prez in turn made a joke about how the Queen looked like a disapproving mother.

And that’s W’s whole problem.  I realized this morning that he’s been pushed around by his mother all his life.  And everybody knows that Barbara Bush is a mean girl all grown up.

A grown up mean girl differs from a teen M.G.in two important ways: 1. She’s outlived her daddy and probably she’s outlasted her tough old mommy too.  So she’s not arguing anymore about how to raise the kids.  And 2: An "old mean girl" believes that Ozzie Osborne’s practice of biting the heads off of live birds is merely amateur behavior.  Back home and in secret the Queen regularly bites the heads off of her kitchen staff and you can look it up. 

When she was First Lady Barbara Bush tried to cover up how mean she was by making her dog write a book.  That’s of course a famous "mean girl" trick: "I’ll be your friend if you do my homework and I’ll even let you stand next to my next best friend at the prom." 

Poor President Bush.  People have speculated that his impoverished speaking style and his apparent inability to grasp details may have something to do with a secret learning disability.  But it’s now clear that he’s an "adult child of an old mean girl"–a largely unexamined condition but one which most likely affects millions of conservative men.  I’ll bet Trent Lott has a mean old Mama.  Can you even begin to imagine Dick Cheney’s mother?

It’s no wonder that George W. Bush stumbled during his introduction what with that archetypal mean old girl looking him up and down.  He thought for a moment that he was back home in Kennebunkport watching Barbara Bush bite the head off a songbird. 

S.K.

Good-bye Mr. Vonnegut. I know you didn’t believe in heaven, or if you did, it was a place oddly without value, replete with angelic children and old Nazis playing shuffleboard together.  But I believe that heaven is where we point our sails and hence I see you with Mark Twain, the two of you on a veranda overlooking the Hudson river, and you are enjoying the telling of an intricate story, the kind that goes forward like a disreputable wagon train that has been forced out of town by an untoward event that took place at yesterday’s circus and the likes of which the locals had never seen before and which in turn the circus folk will tell again and again, and the story will become variously clouded and ill suited to the demands of memory and that will make it better and better.  I see you both smoking good cigars. I hope you tell Mr. Twain the joke which ends with the punch line: "Hold onto your hats, we could end up miles from here."

Oh, and Mr. Vonegut. Get Twain to tell you once again, and out loud his respective diaries of Adam and Eve.  Ask him to introduce you to them by and by.  They will, I think, look strangely like people from Indiana.  Oh, and say hi to Kin Hubbard and the other free thinkers out there.  Remind them please that us terrestrials will never forget them.

S.K.

You’ll appreciate these posts as well…

Why There Are Any Bluebirds Left I Don’t Know

So It Goes

Ode to Kurt

RIP Kurt Vonnegut