Lmartell’s Weblog

Thought this may be of interest with all the input on Erin’s article.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008 (7:30PM)

The Michelin Theatre, Discovery Centre, 1593 Barrington Street

Sponsored by Novel Tech Ethics (Dalhousie University) & the Discovery Centre

Admission: Seating is limited. Contact 494-2873 or register at http://www.noveltechethics.ca/site_events.php?page=320 in advance to reserve your free ticket.

As screening for genetic abnormalities becomes more and more prevalent as part of prenatal care and assisted human reproduction, we open up a host of important and contentious ethical questions. Will we be able to change the genetic makeup of our offspring in the future? Should we try to do so now, or in the future? What sorts of genetic conditions should we allow ourselves to seek to prevent, alter or enhance now or when it becomes possible to do so in the future? Why? Who all might be affected, positively or negatively by these practices? What should our way forward be with these technologies? Come participate in a panel discussion lead by experts in the field that will cover issues relating to the science and ethics of reprogenetics.

Panelists:

Catherine Clute, Patient Representative, Meredith Schwartz, Philosopher & Bioethicist, Linda Hamilton, Obstetrician & Gynaecologist

Click here for directions to the Discovery Centre or paste this link you’re your browser: <http://www.noveltechethics.ca/pictures/File/Events_Jobs_Grants/1593%20Barrington%20Street,%20Halifax%20Nova%20Scotia%20-%20Google%20Maps.pdf>

I think that disability rights and independent living movements have accelerated the transmission of disability culture. As I experience more through work and courses I am struck by the common usage and understanding of such terms as “ASD,” “supercrip,” “overcoming,” “medical model,” and such concepts as adversive disablism, normalization, and inclusion. Many of our emotional reactions and beliefs regarding issues such as eugenic abortion, nursing homes, community access, entitlement to accommodation, media images and “special” anything are becoming universal. This is due, I believe, not only to our exchange of more information, but also to our transmission of values about life with a disability.

Maybe “culture” is not the proper term for a set of elements deriving from a mixture of: inherent differences, societal treatment and transmitted facts, interpretations, and preferences. But what better term is there for that collection of common views and expressions that increasingly characterize disabled people everywhere? What else do you call that familiar, comfortable idea of shared meanings that disabled people, even strangers, fall into when they meet? That wide-ranging compatibility is difficult to convey to those outside of their community, however sensitive we may be to disability rights issues.

Disability culture seems to have become a popular term among people whether activist or not, young or old, scholarly or undereducated. I see an underlying claim that goes something like… they have learned something important about life from being disabled that makes them unique yet affirms their common humanity. They refuse any longer to hide their differences. Rather, they explore, develop and celebrate their distinctness and offer its lessons to the world. The world just needs to listen. What can possibly be wrong with that?

This is an actual song. Hard to believe that some people actually think this way! I guess it shows we have quite a way to go.

Fang – Destroy The Handicapped lyrics

Don’t like those wheelchairs
Wanna push ‘em down the stairs
They get in my way
They make the goverment pay
They run into me
They drool all over me
They don’t know how to pee
God help me
Blind people can’t see they bump into me
Deaf people can’t hear, they have defective ears
Line em up against the wall
Thow a grenade watch em fall
They are so fuckin’ lame
They’re scared to run away

“Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” is a song written by Mel Tillis, which was made world famous by Kenny Rogers (First Edition in 1969). The song is about a disabled, dying veteran of “that old crazy Asian war” (The Korean War), who begs his lover not to cheat on him. Tillis based the song on a couple that lived near his family in Florida. In real life, the man was wounded in Germany in WorldWar II and sent to recuperate in England. There he married a nurse who took care of him at the hospital. The two of them moved to Florida shortly afterward, but he had periodic return trips to the hospital as problems with his wounds kept flaring up. His wife saw another man as the veteran lay in the hospital. Tillis changed the war to the more recent Korean War in the song, and departed from the ending that happened in real life: the man killed his wife in murder-suicide. This is however alluded to in the song, with the singer avowing, “If I could move I’d get my gun and put her in the ground.”

“Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” Lyrics

You’ve painted up your lips
And rolled and curled your tinted hair
Ruby are you contemplating going out somewhere
The shadow on the wall tells me the sun is going down
Oh Ruby, don’t take your love to town

It wasn’t me that started that old crazy Asian war
But I was proud to go and do my patriotic chore
And yes, it’s true that I’m not the man I used to be
Oh, Ruby… I still need some company

It’s hard to love a man whose legs are bent and paralysed
And the wants and the needs of a woman your age, Ruby I realize,
But it won’t be long I’ve heard them say until I not around
Oh Ruby, don’t take your love to town

She’s leaving now ’cause I just heard the slamming of the door
The way I know I’ve heard it slam some 1oo times before
And if I could move I’d get my gun and put her in the ground
Oh Ruby, don’t take your love to town

Oh Ruby.. For god’s sake turn around

I felt the need to take disability out of the classroom for a moment. I began to notice that I was only looking at it through the eyes of an educator. I also wanted to shed some light outside the classroom and at different stages of life. What about our aging parents and dementia? We seem to look at that as an illness rather than a disability. There obviously is more to the term disability than the images the average person conjures up. I guess disability itself is a bit of a spectrum and where people fall is sometimes viewed differently. I just wanted to look at the bigger picture. So here is what Canada sees as disability.

The most comprehensive and up-to-date profile of disability in Canada comes from the 2001 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS), sponsored by the federal government. PALS has categories of disability for adults (age 15 and older) and categories for children (age 0-14).

Types of disability among adults (age 15 and older)

• Hearing
  Difficulty hearing what is being said in a conversation with one other person, in a conversation with three or more persons, or in a telephone conversation.

• Seeing
  Difficulty seeing ordinary newsprint, or clearly seeing the face of someone from 4 metres (12 feet).

• Speech
  Difficulty speaking and/or being understood.

• Mobility
  Difficulty walking half a kilometer or up and down a flight of stairs, about 12 steps without resting, moving from one room to another, carrying an object of 5 kg (10 pounds) for 10 meters (30 feet), or standing for long periods.

• Agility
  Difficulty bending, dressing or undressing oneself, getting into and out of bed, cutting own toenails, using fingers to grasp or handling objects, reaching in any direction (for example, above one’s head), or cutting own food.

• Pain
  Limited in the amount or kind of activities that one can do because of a long-term pain that is constant or reoccurs from time to time, for example, recurrent back pain.

• Learning
  Difficulty learning because of a condition, such as attention problems, hyperactivity or dyslexia, whether or not the condition was diagnosed by a teacher, doctor or other health professional.

• Memory
  Limited in the amount or kind of activities that one can do because of frequent periods of confusion or difficulty remembering things. These difficulties may be associated with Alzheimer’s disease, brain injuries or other similar conditions.

• Developmental
  Cognitive limitations (restricted knowledge) due to the presence of a developmental disability or disorder, such as Down Syndrome, autism or mental impairment caused by a lack of oxygen at birth.

• Psychological
  Limited in the amount or kind of activities that one can do because of an emotional, psychological, or psychiatric condition, such as phobias, depression, schizophrenia, drinking, or drug problems.

Types of disability among children

For children age 0-14:

• Hearing
  Difficulty hearing.

• Seeing
  Difficulty seeing.

• Chronic condition
  Limited in the amount or kind of activities that one can do due to the presence of one or more chronic health conditions that have lasted or are expected to last six months or more, and that have been diagnosed by a health professional. Examples of chronic conditions are asthma or severe allergies, heart condition or disease, kidney condition or disease, cancer, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy, and fetal alcohol syndrome.

For children age 5-14:

• Speech
  Difficulty speaking and/or being understood.

• Mobility
  Difficulty walking. This means walking on a flat firm surface, such as a sidewalk or floor.

• Dexterity
  Difficulty using hands or fingers to grasp or hold small objects, such as a pencil or scissors.

• Learning
  Difficulty learning due to the presence of a condition, such as attention problems, hyperactivity or dyslexia, whether or not the condition was diagnosed by a teacher, doctor or other health professional.

• Developmental disability or disorder
  Cognitive limitations due to the presence of a developmental disability or disorder, such as Down Syndrome, autism or mental impairment caused by a lack of oxygen at birth.

• Psychological
  Limited in the amount or kind of activities that one can do because of an emotional, psychological, or behavioral condition.

For children age 0-4:

• Developmental delay
  Child has a delay in his/her development, either a physical, intellectual or other type of delay.

Sources:
Statistics Canada: Types of disabilities among children
Statistics Canada: Types of disabilities among adults

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/hip/odi/documents/PALS/PALS003.shtml

SCHOOL – 1957 vs. 2007

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.
1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack’s shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.
2007 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counsellors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.
1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.
2007 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey won’t be still in class, disrupts other students.
1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.
2007 - Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbour’s car and his Dad gives him a whipping with his belt.
1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.
2007 - Billy’s dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy’s sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy’s mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.
1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.
2007 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.
1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English, goes to college.
2007 - Pedro’s cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro’s English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane pain t bottle, blows up a red ant bed.
1957 - Ants die.
2007 - BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny’s Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him.
1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.
2007 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy.

Just a few things to think about and to show that things do change with time…not always for the better. I also hope someone got a laugh as many of these blogs are a bit on the heavy side and I had to throw in a bit of “Lorelei”.