So, in April I joined an interest specific geek message board. Since it is related to gaming, the first thing (after the mandatory forum newbie/intro threads) I went looking for was disability stuff. Here is what came of some of my interaction there. I have redacted links and whatnot because I do not hold the site owners responsible for what a handful of assholes do on their board. I do hold web site owners responsible for leaving bigoted stuff up without a least a nod to the fact that the bigotry is not acceptable.
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There Goes the Warm Fuzzy
So I was reading a thread about handling disabilities while playing {custom game type}, and that had me feeling pretty good. Folks were honest about ability level, trading tips on helpful gear, and there was zero acrimony. Then I saw this: Abused Handicapped Permits {link redacted}.
Wow. Just wow. What the hell is wrong with people?
"Since I cannot determine your level of ability myself on one single, few second viewing you should not be parking there! Walk your fat ass!" I know that this sentiment is not restricted to this forum, or to gaming culture - that it is rampant throughout USian society. It still makes me sick every time I see it. I was really, really hoping not to see it here.
PSA for Fools: Some disabilities are "invisible." No, no one has to justify their parking tag to you. The documents have to be filled out by the patient, certified by a doc, and approved by the DMV - they are not nearly as easy to fake one's way into possession as you think. {While the specifics can vary, the generalized procedure here is a good guide-line.} I could have read Penn & Teller the riot act over their ADA episode. It was so full of ignorance as to boggle the mind. And if you have a relative with a tag, and you believe them to be able-bodied then you should take a long hard look at yourself - they probably did not want to tell you that they now belong to a group you are bigoted against. Would you do so in their place?
Oh my, the all-you-can-eat buffet of fat hatred. First off, noneyadamnbusiness. Seriously. If your disgusting, self-important curiosity must be satisfied, consider this: how on earth do you do full-body cardio from a damn wheelchair or scooter? Never mind that several conditions (and numerous medications) cause weight gain. Never mind the obvious lack of physical ability. If you must make your putrid assumptions, keep them to your damn ignorant self. Even if none of that applies, and one of my fellow 'wheelers has decided that food is one of the few unimpeded pleasures they have, then more power to them!
I say all this as a wheelchair user also at her "ideal" spot on the BMI (which is crap, anyway). Which, by the way, helps earn me the damn “WTF, lady, you aren’t disabled!” stares when I use a handicapped parking spot or my wheelchair.
There's also the ageism, which is disgusting. Old people should not drive! Hahaha! Oh, please, tell me another, won't you? Oh, oh, can you tell me a funny "old people should never have sex joke" too please? I wish you long life, so you can deal with the same bullshit discrimination.
When your TAB ass parks in one of those spots - that is abusing the privilege. With the hell you people put us through with your stairs and your clunky room transitions and your high tables and counter tops and your narrow doorways and your no ASL interpreter services and your jokes about Braille ATMs and your stupid, stupid bathrooms and your dumbass handling of assistant animals and your disregard for the ADA and your broken elevators and your blocked handicapped parking spots and your putting your baby strollers in the wheelchair spots on buses and your I know disability when I see it attitudes - it is a wonder we put up with any of you at all.
Ahh, I see! You all built those high cabinets for job security - very clever.
The disabled are one of the fastest growing demographics on the planet - live long enough, you will likely join our ranks.
You get the whole rest of the damn world - leave us the wildly insufficient blue parking spaces and the occasional bathroom stall. The disabled are one of the fastest growing demographics on the planet. Pray you do not get old or fat or crippled and have to deal with someone like you were thirty years ago.
Heh.
Whew, that rant felt good. This was probably not the best time or place for this kind of journal entry, but there it is none-the-less.
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So there is a bit of what comes out when I am disappointed enough, frustrated enough, and just a little angry. Yes, just a little.
I am PatientC. Welcome! This is a disability oriented blog where issues and intersection are discussed at my whim and with varying degrees of humanity, snark, and intensity. Content can be adult at times, farcical at others.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Avoidant
For all the writing I have completed about labels, you (Future You that has read them once I finally posted them) might think that I enjoy labels in general and enjoying collecting them to myself specifically. That would be entirely wrong. Labels are simply shortcuts to explaining aspects of a situation, place, or person. I do not like them at all, but I cannot avoid acknowledging their usefulness.
I want to write to you about another label.
I am avoidant.
What does this mean? It means a lot – it means I do not like you, Gentle Reader, not at first anyway. People (more specifically strangers) wig me in the way some people are wigged by spiders or airplanes or elevators or ladders. I do not trust you. Not yet. I might learn to trust, eventually. I do not trust you not to judge too quickly, too harshly, and without adequate data. I do not think you will be fair.
How did I get this way? Well, my therapist said that it was the way I was raised. Frankly, I was amazed that a steady diet of inequity could lead a child to expect inequity through the rest of her life. I also developed a more-than-healthy level of sarcasm, as you can see. I was also aware of my own actions and my own feelings – but even then, giving them a name made things somewhat easier.
Why was I talking to a therapist? Well, it was early in the lupus mystery. I knew something was wrong, but we had not reached a point where my doctors agreed with me. We had "ruled out" a number of possibilities, and had yet to find the right course to peruse. So I was subjected to a battery of tests along with interrogations every time I saw a lab coat. My therapist’s job was to find out if I was malingering, a hypochondriac, suffering from Munchausen’s or anything other than genuinely physically ill.
She, the therapist, bless her, found out that not only was I not lying about my symptoms, but that I have a condition that meant there were few things I could do that would be more painful to my own psyche than to seek out strangers which I would then have to share personal details of my life and body. That each time I went to see a stranger such as a doctor or lab technician, I was causing myself great distress.
I owe her a lot – my doctors took me a lot more seriously after they were informed of her determination. Parts of my own life made more sense to me. I finished my course of therapy with her, and am not currently treated for my avoidance. I get by, though – through one other personality trait (flaw?): there is nothing that I hate more than fear. So I push myself into situations that I fear in order to conquer that fear
This is part of why I share details of my life with you, Dear Reader. I do not know you therefore I am scared of you and expect you will treat me badly. More importantly, I have things to say and cannot abide my own fear… So here I am.
I want to write to you about another label.
I am avoidant.
What does this mean? It means a lot – it means I do not like you, Gentle Reader, not at first anyway. People (more specifically strangers) wig me in the way some people are wigged by spiders or airplanes or elevators or ladders. I do not trust you. Not yet. I might learn to trust, eventually. I do not trust you not to judge too quickly, too harshly, and without adequate data. I do not think you will be fair.
How did I get this way? Well, my therapist said that it was the way I was raised. Frankly, I was amazed that a steady diet of inequity could lead a child to expect inequity through the rest of her life. I also developed a more-than-healthy level of sarcasm, as you can see. I was also aware of my own actions and my own feelings – but even then, giving them a name made things somewhat easier.
Why was I talking to a therapist? Well, it was early in the lupus mystery. I knew something was wrong, but we had not reached a point where my doctors agreed with me. We had "ruled out" a number of possibilities, and had yet to find the right course to peruse. So I was subjected to a battery of tests along with interrogations every time I saw a lab coat. My therapist’s job was to find out if I was malingering, a hypochondriac, suffering from Munchausen’s or anything other than genuinely physically ill.
She, the therapist, bless her, found out that not only was I not lying about my symptoms, but that I have a condition that meant there were few things I could do that would be more painful to my own psyche than to seek out strangers which I would then have to share personal details of my life and body. That each time I went to see a stranger such as a doctor or lab technician, I was causing myself great distress.
I owe her a lot – my doctors took me a lot more seriously after they were informed of her determination. Parts of my own life made more sense to me. I finished my course of therapy with her, and am not currently treated for my avoidance. I get by, though – through one other personality trait (flaw?): there is nothing that I hate more than fear. So I push myself into situations that I fear in order to conquer that fear
This is part of why I share details of my life with you, Dear Reader. I do not know you therefore I am scared of you and expect you will treat me badly. More importantly, I have things to say and cannot abide my own fear… So here I am.
Interaction with others is often a trial by fire event. Each interaction, each post, each place I visit, each person I meet is a triumph of sorts. One that often cost me peace of mind, sleep, and peace.
Note: being sick and/or in a lupus flare kind of kills (sedates? Mollifies? Subdues?) the “Fuck Fear” philosophy and I am far less likely to be social or post while in such a state.
Note: being sick and/or in a lupus flare kind of kills (sedates? Mollifies? Subdues?) the “Fuck Fear” philosophy and I am far less likely to be social or post while in such a state.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Slurs Are Slurs But Are Not Other Slurs
So, Glee is doing things again – or so I thought. Sigh. I have not talked about Glee here because I do not watch it. Yes, I am aware of it as a subcultural phenomenon. That fact actually upsets me somewhat – I find their treatment of the issues of people of disabilities to be atrocious and disgusting. I know stupid, hateful people I can hang out around if I want to feel that way, thank you very much. So no Glee here, outside of watching clips to share solidarity with the people that are hurt when they watch it.
On Twitter I saw that Elon James White had tweeted about an article describing Glee’s latest screw up.
I completely agree that these slurs are not equal.
Now normally I am in the first wave of people to jump on Glee’s ass and point and laugh at the hole. This is not Glee’s project, though, it is the R-word’s project, part of the foundation that supports the Special Olympics, so I took a breath, went to their site, combed through it, and thought about it some more…
My brain pan, let me open it for you.
First, I think that both the creators of the clip and some of the people decrying it seem to be ignoring all of the intersections at play. There are people with intellectual disabilities or neuroatypical lesbians, gays, Germans, Latina/Latinos, and blacks; I want to acknowledge that here.
Second, I went through their available content, and I think their point is poorly made but valid. The point is not a moral equivalency, but a resultant equivalency, I think. I believe that what they wanted to do was show people that may not otherwise consider it that this slur also delivers that sick, just punched in the gut feeling. That this word instantly conjures up a history of discrimination and oppressive so odious that even now people refuse to acknowledge that it even exists... if they even know about it in the first place.
Third, it is hard not to feel alienated by the line of reasoning used by some critics. Apparently, some folk feel that “retarded”, and likely also “lame,” “gimp,” “crip,” etc., are just not “as bad.” This is exactly the same wrong reasoning the commercial itself uses! The fact that there is no moral equivalency works both ways – it is hate speech. It hurts. That purpose is to wound. Do not try to feed me that “Oh, but I don’t mean it that way!” bullshit – if it was not meant negatively, you would not be using it to describe something you view negatively, okay? Okay.
For those of you thinking that “retard” and “retarded” simply do not have the same impact because they lack history, you are mistaken. Retard is a word that went from a specific diagnosis to slur in our most recent century – but discrimination against folks with mental disabilities has a long and sordid history. This is just one of the more recent slang insults used in conjunction with a fear and hatred that is so old and so widespread that the origins of it may never be found (the above link sites the first technical writing about it to 5 B.C.E.).
(I am not even going into all the bullshite that still happens today to people with disabilities: the discrimination, the forced treatment, the "good cripple" and super-crip memetic weapons, the "mercy" killings, the astonishing rape, abuse and murder statistics, "angel babies," and so on and so on... The fact that this is still mostly invisible disgusts me.)
People perceived as being outside of some generally accepted social norm of mental capacity and thought have been discriminated against forever – tactics have extended to banishment, forced sterilization, torture, and even death. And until fairly recently (historically speaking) other “trouble makers” such as homosexuals, uppity women, and political minorities (to name but a few) have been labeled mentally incompetent in order to silence and discredit them while also subjecting them to the same treatment.
Forth: remember what you learned about the Holocaust? Do you remember learning about the six million Jews, a terrible atrocity that should have never been allowed to happen, right? Right. But you should have also been told that the grand total of people slaughtered was closer to ELEVEN TO SEVENTEEN MILLION. I am not even going into the military and civilian deaths caused by the war itself; just about purposeful exterminations at this moment. All those other people included, but are not limited to the following: homosexuals, political dissidents, other religious dissidents, Romani, and… people with disabilities! It is a sorrowful thing to see all of those people forgotten almost every time the Holocaust is mentioned. I will never, ever degrade the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust – I want people to remember that they were not alone.
Are disability slurs the same as racial slurs? No.
Are sexual orientation slurs the same as disability slurs? No.
Each slur is unique, designed to hurt one specific group of people in specific ways - to justify atrocious treatment with little to no guilt on the part of the abuser.
Do they all carry long, dark histories of discrimination, oppression, and murder? Do they all carry the inherent intent to dehumanize, to "other", to separate?
Yes.
They are all wrong.
Thank you for sticking with me through this piece, I appreciate it. Please do not see my limited linking above as a indicator of sparse information - there is plenty out there if you make even a basic effort to look for it. I am just out of spoons...
On Twitter I saw that Elon James White had tweeted about an article describing Glee’s latest screw up.
I completely agree that these slurs are not equal.
Now normally I am in the first wave of people to jump on Glee’s ass and point and laugh at the hole. This is not Glee’s project, though, it is the R-word’s project, part of the foundation that supports the Special Olympics, so I took a breath, went to their site, combed through it, and thought about it some more…
My brain pan, let me open it for you.
First, I think that both the creators of the clip and some of the people decrying it seem to be ignoring all of the intersections at play. There are people with intellectual disabilities or neuroatypical lesbians, gays, Germans, Latina/Latinos, and blacks; I want to acknowledge that here.
Second, I went through their available content, and I think their point is poorly made but valid. The point is not a moral equivalency, but a resultant equivalency, I think. I believe that what they wanted to do was show people that may not otherwise consider it that this slur also delivers that sick, just punched in the gut feeling. That this word instantly conjures up a history of discrimination and oppressive so odious that even now people refuse to acknowledge that it even exists... if they even know about it in the first place.
Third, it is hard not to feel alienated by the line of reasoning used by some critics. Apparently, some folk feel that “retarded”, and likely also “lame,” “gimp,” “crip,” etc., are just not “as bad.” This is exactly the same wrong reasoning the commercial itself uses! The fact that there is no moral equivalency works both ways – it is hate speech. It hurts. That purpose is to wound. Do not try to feed me that “Oh, but I don’t mean it that way!” bullshit – if it was not meant negatively, you would not be using it to describe something you view negatively, okay? Okay.
For those of you thinking that “retard” and “retarded” simply do not have the same impact because they lack history, you are mistaken. Retard is a word that went from a specific diagnosis to slur in our most recent century – but discrimination against folks with mental disabilities has a long and sordid history. This is just one of the more recent slang insults used in conjunction with a fear and hatred that is so old and so widespread that the origins of it may never be found (the above link sites the first technical writing about it to 5 B.C.E.).
(I am not even going into all the bullshite that still happens today to people with disabilities: the discrimination, the forced treatment, the "good cripple" and super-crip memetic weapons, the "mercy" killings, the astonishing rape, abuse and murder statistics, "angel babies," and so on and so on... The fact that this is still mostly invisible disgusts me.)
People perceived as being outside of some generally accepted social norm of mental capacity and thought have been discriminated against forever – tactics have extended to banishment, forced sterilization, torture, and even death. And until fairly recently (historically speaking) other “trouble makers” such as homosexuals, uppity women, and political minorities (to name but a few) have been labeled mentally incompetent in order to silence and discredit them while also subjecting them to the same treatment.
Forth: remember what you learned about the Holocaust? Do you remember learning about the six million Jews, a terrible atrocity that should have never been allowed to happen, right? Right. But you should have also been told that the grand total of people slaughtered was closer to ELEVEN TO SEVENTEEN MILLION. I am not even going into the military and civilian deaths caused by the war itself; just about purposeful exterminations at this moment. All those other people included, but are not limited to the following: homosexuals, political dissidents, other religious dissidents, Romani, and… people with disabilities! It is a sorrowful thing to see all of those people forgotten almost every time the Holocaust is mentioned. I will never, ever degrade the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust – I want people to remember that they were not alone.
Are disability slurs the same as racial slurs? No.
Are sexual orientation slurs the same as disability slurs? No.
Each slur is unique, designed to hurt one specific group of people in specific ways - to justify atrocious treatment with little to no guilt on the part of the abuser.
Do they all carry long, dark histories of discrimination, oppression, and murder? Do they all carry the inherent intent to dehumanize, to "other", to separate?
Yes.
They are all wrong.
Thank you for sticking with me through this piece, I appreciate it. Please do not see my limited linking above as a indicator of sparse information - there is plenty out there if you make even a basic effort to look for it. I am just out of spoons...
Thursday, May 26, 2011
On Race (with Fabulous Web Sites!)
First things first – I am white. I am super white. You can see blood vessels right through my sometimes nearly-translucent skin. Yes, sometimes I look like Rand McNally took LSD and decided to get into body painting. I am a shade of white sometimes referred to lovingly as “fish-belly white.”
I am anti-racist.
I am also a recovering racist.
Now, I did not have any of that extra-stupid obvious racism. I was not raised that way, contrary to numerous efforts by my mother’s first husband. (To be honest, I think a lot of that was just to get a rise out of me. That does not change the fact that even being in a position to decide to use racism ironically is okay – it is a glaring sign of privilege.) I had relatives that I almost never saw because they tried to take my toddler self down to our town’s courthouse to attend a Klan meeting – and my mother was completely not okay with that. So I only saw them at family reunions, where they would do things like pass around stickers with an “obviously” African American silhouette enclosed by a circle with a line across it. Yes, some of them are the caricatures of human beings you think of when you think of the classic racist.
So, instead, I grew up virulently anti-racist instead. I can be contrary like that.
So, to even think of myself as a racist means thinking of me as one of those people. That is really, really uncomfortable. When I say I am a recovering racist I mean that I am always looking for and fighting those subtle (to a white person), pervasive pieces of meme that are always ready to steal and keep brain space. You know, the things you can think and still not actually consider yourself a racist: that positive stereotypes are okay, that if no one of a particular group is around then it is okay to smack talk them, that you “don’t see color,” that you got where-ever you are on effort and merit alone, that perhaps “previously” oppressed folks should just get over it and live in the supposed meritocracy of the now, that some people are now unfairly advantaged over white people, that now a days it is all about class (denying racism rather than acknowledging the intersections). I am always fighting the idea that white people are somehow the default, standard human being. This is amazingly present once you notice it, white folks.
I am anti-racist.
I am also a recovering racist.
Now, I did not have any of that extra-stupid obvious racism. I was not raised that way, contrary to numerous efforts by my mother’s first husband. (To be honest, I think a lot of that was just to get a rise out of me. That does not change the fact that even being in a position to decide to use racism ironically is okay – it is a glaring sign of privilege.) I had relatives that I almost never saw because they tried to take my toddler self down to our town’s courthouse to attend a Klan meeting – and my mother was completely not okay with that. So I only saw them at family reunions, where they would do things like pass around stickers with an “obviously” African American silhouette enclosed by a circle with a line across it. Yes, some of them are the caricatures of human beings you think of when you think of the classic racist.
So, instead, I grew up virulently anti-racist instead. I can be contrary like that.
So, to even think of myself as a racist means thinking of me as one of those people. That is really, really uncomfortable. When I say I am a recovering racist I mean that I am always looking for and fighting those subtle (to a white person), pervasive pieces of meme that are always ready to steal and keep brain space. You know, the things you can think and still not actually consider yourself a racist: that positive stereotypes are okay, that if no one of a particular group is around then it is okay to smack talk them, that you “don’t see color,” that you got where-ever you are on effort and merit alone, that perhaps “previously” oppressed folks should just get over it and live in the supposed meritocracy of the now, that some people are now unfairly advantaged over white people, that now a days it is all about class (denying racism rather than acknowledging the intersections). I am always fighting the idea that white people are somehow the default, standard human being. This is amazingly present once you notice it, white folks.
I recognize my race privilege.
I have had fights with people over “gypsy” stereotypes. I have walked away from unacceptable caricatures of people of Asian descent. I have cursed people out over generalizations regarding immigration. I live in a neighborhood with a proud African American history (the first in our county to “allow” black home ownership). My kids are sometimes the only white kids in their classroom. I do not ask the neighborhood moms about their hair, and do my best to answer their daughters when they ask about my daughters’ hair. I remind my husband that to the neighborhood teen boys, he is a stereotypical villain (over 40 white male, heavy, loud and blond). I do not do this for cookies – I do it because it is the right thing to do.
I do it because it is the shit we should never have to do if we truly lived in a US that was not racist.
I am not perfect, and I will fuck up. Hell, I may have fucked up in this very entry. I am, and will be, working on it.
I spend a lot of time on this issue, and there are some places that I want to point you towards so you can too. I know that you cannot walk around all privileged and expect people to be willing to take time out to educate you – but there are folks that put terrific stuff out there, and I appreciate it so much.
Elon James White is amazing, and so is his crew at the Brooklyn Comedy Company. My daughters and I never miss an episode of This Week in Blackness. The BcCo podcasts are so wonderful that they draw a fantastic audience, too: Blacking It Up, the White House, and the JTMSCast.
Dammit, I am out of time to write for now, but I have to get posting again, so I plunge forward. Just know that I am not giving any of these folks the space or accolades that they are rightfully due!
I have read Racialicious for quite a while now, and they address so much that you better settle in and plan on spending some time there. You will leave a better, more educated person for it. I am new to Jack and Jill Politics, and they are really on top of all of today’s relevant news. They talk about a lot more than the intersection of race and politics, and do it all so very, very well. My most recently added must reads include Angry Black Lady Chronicles, which are amazing, and Angry Black Bitch, which is fantastic.
If any of you Dear Readers go to these sites – please use your manners.
Oh, and avoid articles about “black Twitter.” Seriously.
And hey, Team Voltron: shout-out to the chatroom!
I am not perfect, and I will fuck up. Hell, I may have fucked up in this very entry. I am, and will be, working on it.
I spend a lot of time on this issue, and there are some places that I want to point you towards so you can too. I know that you cannot walk around all privileged and expect people to be willing to take time out to educate you – but there are folks that put terrific stuff out there, and I appreciate it so much.
Elon James White is amazing, and so is his crew at the Brooklyn Comedy Company. My daughters and I never miss an episode of This Week in Blackness. The BcCo podcasts are so wonderful that they draw a fantastic audience, too: Blacking It Up, the White House, and the JTMSCast.
Dammit, I am out of time to write for now, but I have to get posting again, so I plunge forward. Just know that I am not giving any of these folks the space or accolades that they are rightfully due!
I have read Racialicious for quite a while now, and they address so much that you better settle in and plan on spending some time there. You will leave a better, more educated person for it. I am new to Jack and Jill Politics, and they are really on top of all of today’s relevant news. They talk about a lot more than the intersection of race and politics, and do it all so very, very well. My most recently added must reads include Angry Black Lady Chronicles, which are amazing, and Angry Black Bitch, which is fantastic.
If any of you Dear Readers go to these sites – please use your manners.
Oh, and avoid articles about “black Twitter.” Seriously.
And hey, Team Voltron: shout-out to the chatroom!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
HAWMC Day 2, Word of the Day
Word of the Day Post! Go to dictionary.com and write a post inspired by their WOTD – or grab a dictionary (or any book) from your bookshelf, open to a page, and write about that word. Can you link the word to your condition somehow?
Okay, I can do that!
I picked insidious.
–adjective
1. intended to entrap or beguile: an insidious plan.
2. stealthily treacherous or deceitful: an insidious enemy.
3. operating or proceeding in an inconspicuous or seemingly harmless way but actually with grave effect: an insidious disease.
I believe that the implications of insidious in relation to lupus to be plain. So if it is not, just imagine an invited guest that invites themselves into every aspect of your life, and is almost exclusively bad – very rarely neutral, never a beneficent presence. Every once in a while, your life may level out a bit; maybe even enough for you to think that your guest has perhaps gone away. Oh, no, your guest has simply been painting the exterior of your home a fragrant, organic shade of fresh feces.
Lupus/SLE is insidious.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The Health Activist Writer's Month Challenge (HAWMC), Day 1
HAWMC Day 1:
Health Acrostic Write an acrostic for your condition or the word HEALTH.
Living
Under
Perpetually
Unsatisfying
Situations
Okay, yeah, that works - particularly the aspect of never being able to dependably make plans.
This writing challenge is held by the WEGO Health Portal, and I see it as a really good idea.
I am going to keep up on the HAWMC, as I think it is a great idea, and may help me to find some direction for my writing. I am, of course, getting into it late in the game. I will tackle the topics as I can to catch up. If that is not possible, or I get really sick or something, I will still do them as I can.
Health Acrostic Write an acrostic for your condition or the word HEALTH.
Living
Under
Perpetually
Unsatisfying
Situations
Okay, yeah, that works - particularly the aspect of never being able to dependably make plans.
This writing challenge is held by the WEGO Health Portal, and I see it as a really good idea.
I am going to keep up on the HAWMC, as I think it is a great idea, and may help me to find some direction for my writing. I am, of course, getting into it late in the game. I will tackle the topics as I can to catch up. If that is not possible, or I get really sick or something, I will still do them as I can.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
On Planned Parenthood, O’Donnell, and Beck
So, unless you store your head under a USian rock, you know that Planned Parenthood was, and is, under attack by the right wing here in the US. You also know that the Democrats to an all-to-rare stand on that issue and the EPA. Online, and in the news, there were plenty of well-spoken, well-written testimonies about Planned Parenthood. Out of all of them, I found Lawrence O’Donnell’s piece on The Last Word to be remarkable, and perhaps able to reach both those directly and indirectly concerned with Planned Parenthood.
Blog note: I am an avid (rabid?) watcher of MSNBC. It is on most of the time in our home. I am also someone that often criticizes the station when I feel it gets things wrong, or when it adds to the oppression of some to the benefit of others. I am also one of those never-satisfied liberals that always thinks that we (humans) can and should do better in all things. That the fight to acknowledge each others humanity is ongoing and it is the one fight, above others, that is worth fighting, always. So, potential bias and definite perspective stated, we should move on…
The Last Word piece is here, and you should watch it: “Rewriting Lies on Planned Parenthood.” The original lie came from John Kly, and was definitely worth rewriting. Our host offers up insight on how the echo chamber works, and how it can ruin a person’s perceived integrity. What I noted with great interest was what came next – a reading of a letter from a friend dependent on Planned Parenthood. What was in the letter mirrors the feelings and needs of thousands of women in the US. O’Donnell’s reaction rang true to me and I have great respect for the courage it takes to show those moments of vulnerability. Our culture does not encourage those moments, and actively discourages them from men in particular.
Of course, the piece did not go without some criticism. This is Glenn Beck, and Lawrence O'Donnell’s response to Beck’s response to O’Donnell: “Defending Planned Parenthood.” According to Beck, only “prostitutes” that need “400 abortions” use PP. O’Donnell is able to put that down with ease, and far more grace than I could have mustered, to be sure. Other noteworthy content includes a meta commentary on the nature of commentating on television which would be well worth watching by itself.
Planned Parenthood’s response to Glenn Beck’s hateful claim is here: Planned Parenthood Press Release.
Although I want to dedicate an entry to it shortly, here is my CrowdRise Planned Parenthood fundraiser: Lizz Winstead’s “Planned Parenthood, I am here for you!” Tour.
Blog note: I am an avid (rabid?) watcher of MSNBC. It is on most of the time in our home. I am also someone that often criticizes the station when I feel it gets things wrong, or when it adds to the oppression of some to the benefit of others. I am also one of those never-satisfied liberals that always thinks that we (humans) can and should do better in all things. That the fight to acknowledge each others humanity is ongoing and it is the one fight, above others, that is worth fighting, always. So, potential bias and definite perspective stated, we should move on…
The Last Word piece is here, and you should watch it: “Rewriting Lies on Planned Parenthood.” The original lie came from John Kly, and was definitely worth rewriting. Our host offers up insight on how the echo chamber works, and how it can ruin a person’s perceived integrity. What I noted with great interest was what came next – a reading of a letter from a friend dependent on Planned Parenthood. What was in the letter mirrors the feelings and needs of thousands of women in the US. O’Donnell’s reaction rang true to me and I have great respect for the courage it takes to show those moments of vulnerability. Our culture does not encourage those moments, and actively discourages them from men in particular.
Of course, the piece did not go without some criticism. This is Glenn Beck, and Lawrence O'Donnell’s response to Beck’s response to O’Donnell: “Defending Planned Parenthood.” According to Beck, only “prostitutes” that need “400 abortions” use PP. O’Donnell is able to put that down with ease, and far more grace than I could have mustered, to be sure. Other noteworthy content includes a meta commentary on the nature of commentating on television which would be well worth watching by itself.
Planned Parenthood’s response to Glenn Beck’s hateful claim is here: Planned Parenthood Press Release.
Although I want to dedicate an entry to it shortly, here is my CrowdRise Planned Parenthood fundraiser: Lizz Winstead’s “Planned Parenthood, I am here for you!” Tour.
I had more to say, but I think I am out of spoons.
Monday, April 11, 2011
SmartAss Protips: Eyeglass Donations
This is just a quick hit, because I needed to look this up myself today.
People that wear prescription glasses sometimes have this problem - after a couple of different sets, you have a stack of glasses you will never wear again. What do you do with them? They were costly, you do not want to throw them away. You hold on to your most recent old pair, in case your current ones break - or at least I do, having run into that before! But the rest? Especially if you are part of a family of glasses-wearers, they can stack up.
Well, there are plenty of people that can use your old glasses!
There are several organizations with many, many drop off locations for your used glasses. Some also take sunglasses or non-prescription reading glasses. So if you have old glasses, give them to a organization that will get them to people that need them locally to globally.
Lions Club
One Vision
New Eyes for the Needy
I am taking our old glasses to a library in Indianapolis, as they collect for the Lion's Club and we visit our neighborhood library often.
If you know of other places that take eyeglasses donations, please leave their information in a comment. Thank you!
People that wear prescription glasses sometimes have this problem - after a couple of different sets, you have a stack of glasses you will never wear again. What do you do with them? They were costly, you do not want to throw them away. You hold on to your most recent old pair, in case your current ones break - or at least I do, having run into that before! But the rest? Especially if you are part of a family of glasses-wearers, they can stack up.
Well, there are plenty of people that can use your old glasses!
There are several organizations with many, many drop off locations for your used glasses. Some also take sunglasses or non-prescription reading glasses. So if you have old glasses, give them to a organization that will get them to people that need them locally to globally.
Lions Club
One Vision
New Eyes for the Needy
I am taking our old glasses to a library in Indianapolis, as they collect for the Lion's Club and we visit our neighborhood library often.
If you know of other places that take eyeglasses donations, please leave their information in a comment. Thank you!
Friday, April 8, 2011
SmartAss Review: Pill Glide
This essentially functions as a flavored, sweetened pill lubricant. My theory is that you might also be distracted from the discomfort of swallowing a pill (if that does, indeed, bother you) by the terrible flavor or artificial sweetener. I have no trouble taking pills most of the time (if you do not count the simmering resentment that I must do so), but I thought this might prove of some value – to recommend to folks that do have trouble, or to have handy when I have some plague with sinus drainage.
The directions are fairly simple: “Coat with Pill Glide (2-4 sprays). Place tablet or capsule on tongue. Swallow immediately with water.” This is not supposed to be a substitute for having a drink handy. A lot of us dry swallow when convenient, or when we either have to or go without our meds, I know. I also know that this is not a good thing, as most pills are designed to be taken with fluid. I do not know if this would help with that, but my guess would be that it would. However, if you were stuck with Pill Glide and no drink, I suspect that it would work.
Pill Glide ingredients include the following: purified water, glycerin, sorbitol, xanthan gum, neotame, natural and artificial flavors. Buffered with: sodium citrate and citric acid. Preserved with: potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, and propylene glycol. Yes, this has caused my spell check to tremble with rage! It is a selling point that the product contains no sugar, no dyes and no drugs in and of itself.
I think that it tastes terrible, but I hate artificial flavors and sweeteners, so I can hardly be fair. Honestly, it does taste far better than some pills I have gotten stuck in my throat, or pills I had to cut and therefore tasted when taking. So you will not catching me just spraying this on my tongue for the taste of it, but if I have to cut pills up, or my throat is already sore, I may very well use Pill Glide to make up the difference.
Surprisingly, I did not feel the edges of the pill as I swallowed, which I usually do. So this throat lube may have actually made it a little easier to do. Now, this was a large ibuprofen, 800 mg. I figured that was the largest I had right now, and probably one of the more commonly used prescriptions and therefore a good landmark. And I could use it right then.
My youngest daughter, 11 years old, said that although she could still take the half pill she takes at night, it was not as bad. The next two days she asked to use it with her nightly half-pill – so I call that a thumbs up. Our 14 year old young lady said she would use it if she felt the need and she does not mind the taste. The D man said that “it tastes like strawberry Jolly Rancher,” but did not notice a difference in the actual act of pill swallowing (only very large pills bug him). Last, but not least (I think he thought he would get out of it!), my G man said that it was indeed slick, with a sickly artificial taste to it, saw no difference (and usually has no difficulty).
Considering the entire house – only one person liked the taste, but we all saw how Pill Glide could be handy if one was having difficulty swallowing pills. So our final verdict is useful, not very tasty, but still better tasting than the tastes it can cover up. So thumbs up for Pill Glide.
Pill Glide’s contact information:
FLAVORx, Inc, MD 21046
http://www.pillglide.com
http://www.facebook.com/pillglide
1.866.370.2337
support@pillglide.com
Pill Glide’s FAQ is here. I bought mine for $5.99 (I think) at CVS. I bought strawberry, but they also had grape. It is also available at Amazon, in a handful of other flavors (strawberry, orange, peach, and bubblegum). Oh, and their homepage has a “live chat” option if you have any questions, but I cannot vouch for that because I did not use it. It did pop up and beep at me, though, so I assume someone was available if I wanted to chat.
Blog note
Haha! I have broken the “Upcoming” curse. Previously, almost every time I have posted about what I have in the pipe for this blog, I end up not posting for a while. So I was nervous about doing so yesterday. And yes, I did get a car, and I am very happy about that.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
On Social Justice Blogging - Jumping in the Pool Head First - Advice
I have thought long and hard about trying to become part of the social justice blogging community. As a reader/lurker over the past handful of years or so, I have watched the public side of some very ugly shit (ableism, racism, fat hatred, identity policing…) going down on various sites. I assume that what went on behind the scenes was much, much worse. I also figure that any community is made up of people, and sometimes people are like that.
Yet, I still have things to say and a desire to say them – even if they are only ever seen by some family and friends. And you!
I think that it is inadvisable to trust someone just because they share a common interest, even when that interest is supposed to be the “tide that lifts all boats.” So I will make what connections I can based on personal observation rather than assuming that someone with an SJ cause is going to know, understand, or care about what I hold dear. I expect to be treated the same.
I know that I will be distrusted by a lot of folks because I am white, and I get that as much as I can. I am also bisexual, disabled (although I pass occasionally), born and raised lower class (not so much now, but that stays with you in ways that are surprising and disturbing), pervy, nontheistic, and poly. This is not an Oppression Olympics entry; I just want to lay it out there here and now. Where I am privileged I will endeavor to be the best ally I can be and promise to improve at each opportunity.
I think that it is inadvisable to trust someone just because they share a common interest, even when that interest is supposed to be the “tide that lifts all boats.” So I will make what connections I can based on personal observation rather than assuming that someone with an SJ cause is going to know, understand, or care about what I hold dear. I expect to be treated the same.
I know that I will be distrusted by a lot of folks because I am white, and I get that as much as I can. I am also bisexual, disabled (although I pass occasionally), born and raised lower class (not so much now, but that stays with you in ways that are surprising and disturbing), pervy, nontheistic, and poly. This is not an Oppression Olympics entry; I just want to lay it out there here and now. Where I am privileged I will endeavor to be the best ally I can be and promise to improve at each opportunity.
At home, I have a saying, "The reason we do not argue when I am wrong is because I think before I flap my jaw and when I am wrong I apologize and shut the hell up!"
What is your advice for speaking your piece with strength, compassion, and integrity while weathering whatever storm may blow?
I may be late getting to comments today. I have a physical issue that is kicking my metaphorical ass and I am going to go look at a car today. Cross your tentacles if you care to do so - I could really use a car! This is the reason for the super early post and my anticipated absence.
Here is a sneak peak at what I have cooking for you, Dear Reader: a vitriolic crip rant I wrote one lonely night, a review of a product called Pill Glide, some thoughts on blogging while avoidant, some more Things That Make My Life Easier (with something catchier to call it, perhaps!), my experiences with Moore and Me, some neato links, and a small series of articles detailing my politics and why I think they are the correct choices for me.
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