GNARLYBONE NEWS 3/7/03--10 Items

[Guest guest]

From: GnarlyBone@...

Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2003 18:50:14 EST

Subject: GNARLYBONE NEWS 3/7/03--10 Items

This issue of the ever more sporadic Gnarlybone News is brought to you by the

rapidly aging in an excessively boogered up bod personhood (yes, S. I

am a person) of Cheryl Marie Wade. To subscribe or unsubscribe to the GBN

email Gnarlybone@... and say so.

" To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance " .-- Wilde

" To be ill-adjusted in a deranged world is not breakdown. "

---Jeanette Winterson

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1. MTV WANTS YOUNG, HIP WHEELCHAIR-USING CRIPS, Deadline: ASAP

MTV is currently seeking participants for a documentary about the trials

and triumphs of young people who must use wheelchairs to get around.

They are searching for individuals who would like the chance to tell

their story on camera and show other young people what it's really like

to go to school, work, and hang with friends while using a wheelchair.

Write to MTV as soon as possible at wheels@...

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2. GRANTS FOR YOUNG WOMEN ACTIVISTS, Deadline 4/1 and 11/1

Third Wave Foundation Offers Support to Young Women Activists and Their

Organizations, Deadline: October 1 and April 1, annually

The Third Wave Foundation provides resources through a variety of programs

to support the cutting-edge work of young women activists. The foundation's

grantmaking provides direct financial support to young women activists and

the organizations they lead. The foundation accepts proposals for projects

that benefit, target, are devised by, and led by women between the ages of

15 and 30, with an emphasis on low-income women, differently-abled women,

women of color, and lesbian and bisexual women.

Grants are offered in the following areas:

The Organizing and Advocacy Fund supports organizing and activism work that

exists to challenge sexism, racism, homophobia, economic injustice, and

other forms of oppression. Grants are provided for both specific projects

and general operating support.

The Scholarship Program is available to all full-time or part-time students

age 30 and under who are enrolled in, or have been accepted to, an

accredited university, college, vocational/technical school, or community

college. The primary criterion for funding is financial need.

Within the scholarship program, the Woodlake Fund provides scholarships for

young women of color who prioritize social justice and the work done in the

spirit of justice and equality over academic performance and who integrate

social justice into all areas of their lives. Students applying for grants

should also be involved as activists, artists, or cultural workers working

on issues such as racism, homophobia, sexism, or other forms of inequality.

Scholarships range in amount from $1,000 and $5,000 each.

The foundation also is offering a special fund through the end of 2002 to

provide support to young women working toward social justice in the

political and social aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and

the Pentagon. Funding is available for activist work that broadens the

range of responses to the 9/11 tragedy. (Proposals for the September 11th

Emergency Fund must be received before the last Monday of each month.)

For complete application guidelines, see the Third Wave Foundation Web site.

RFP Link:

http://www.thirdwavefoundation.org/default.htm

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3. CRIP LIT A SURE HIT

" Personal inclination made me a historian. Personal encounter with public

policy made me an activist. "

K. Longmore. _Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability_

(Philadelphia: Temple University, 2003), 288 pp.

This wide-ranging book shows why Longmore is one of the most

respected figures in disability studies today. Understanding disability

as a major variety of human experience, he urges us to establish it as a

category of social, political, and historical analysis in much the same

way that race, gender, and class already have been. The essays here

search for the often hidden pattern of systemic prejudice and probe into

the institutionalized discrimination that affects the one in five

Americans with disabilities.

Whether writing about the social critic Randolph Bourne, contemporary

political activists, or media representations of people with disabilities,

Longmore demonstrates that the search for heroes is a key part of the

continuing struggle of disabled people to gain a voice and to shape their

destinies. His essays on bioethics and public policy examine the conflict

of agendas between disability rights activists and non-disabled policy

makers, healthcare professionals, euthanasia advocates, and corporate

medical bureaucracies. The title essay, which concludes the book,

demonstrates the necessity of activism for any disabled person who wants

access to the American dream.

" Longmore's sharp and cogent criticism has always sought and found

the soul of the disability rights movement. But these essays go far

beyond activism and constitute a cultural document for a people adrift.

Longmore's refreshing views represent an intellectual Ellis Island for

people with disabilities, hampered by bureaucracy, myth and sentiment,

trying to find a place in America. "

Hockenberry

NBC News

" Longmore is simply the best historian now writing about

disabilities. This volume collects a series of major essays that have

shaped the academic and public discourse about disabilities inside of and

beyond the university. From the unwritten history of disabled people to

questions of assisted suicide, and the public face of disability culture,

Longmore writes intelligently, compassionately, and readably. Read these

essays and learn! "

Sander Gilman

Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences and of Medicine

University of Illinois at Chicago

K. Longmore is Professor of History at San Francisco State

University. He is the author of _The Invention of Washington_ and

the co-editor (with Lauri Umansky) of _The New Disability History:

American Perspectives_.

In the series American Subjects, edited by Dawidoff.

The American Subjects series, edited by Dawidoff, will introduce

readers to unfamiliar areas or figures in American culture. All of the

titles in this series will be the first on their particular subject. Each

will tell an unfamiliar story and will emphasize the cultural side of how

Americans have lived and what they have created or thought.

paper: $22.95, Mar 03

ISBN: 1-59213-024-0

Not Yet Published Preorder

cloth: $69.50, Mar 03

ISBN: 1-59213-023-2

Not Yet Published Preorder

Call toll-free in the United States

1-800-621-2736

For international orders, call 733-568-1550

Please have your credit card handy.

Fax the order form:

Download the order form from our website <www.temple.edu/tempress> and fax

it to:

1-800-621-8476 (United States)

733-660-2235 (International)

Mail the order form to:

Temple University Press

c/o Chicago Distribution Center

11030 South Langley Avenue

Chicago, IL 60628

Make Checks Payable to Temple University Press.

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4. SPINAL NETWORK: GREAT WHEELCHAIR-USER RESOURCE

When the first edition of Spinal Network hit the streets in 1988, readers were

amazed. It had style, it had sizzle--it had life. It also had an incredible

amount of practical information.

Now in its 3rd edition, Spinal Network: The Total Wheelchair Resource Book is

as

vibrant as ever with 586 pages of profiles, articles and resources on every

topic of interest to wheelchair users. Subjects include health, coping,

relationships, sexuality, parenthood, computers, sports, recreation, travel,

personal assistance services, legal rights, financial strategies, employment,

media images and much more. Plus: Wire binding is quad-friendly!

Says Callahan: " Mindbendingly, breathtakingly comprehensive! I only wish

there had been a resource like this when I was newly disabled. "

To order Spinal Network, call 888-850-0344, x 209, or log on to

www.spinalnetwork.net.

To pay by mail, send checks for $49.95 plus $7.50 s/h to Nine Lives Press, PO

Box 220, Horsham, PA 19044.

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5. A ZANY ZINE FOR/ABOUT QUEER CRIPDOM

'dis'n'tangle' is here to rock some assumptions, especially those nasty little

rumours about disabled people not being sexual. This zine is about

accessibility and breaking down barriers for disabled people who are queer.

" Tell us what's close to your heart! We know we're out there, now what do we

want...send us your comments, rants, reviews, comics, drawings, poems, quotes,

collages, ideas, stories, manifestos, resource lists, fiction, strange but

true

stories and lies... "

Some of the things they are hoping to cover might include sex and dating

stories, body image and identity, comments on popular culture representations

and the ones we are working on or would like to bring about, declarations of

sexual liberation and oppression, disability culture and expanding definitions

of activist strategies, confronting horizontal oppression, how we support each

other, sex/queer/disability positive resources, references, making connections

and communication, personal reflections.

For further information please

contact dis'n'tangle 2, c/o <dispride_zine@...> , 50 Cowan Ave.,

Toronto, Ontario, Canada. m6k 2n4.

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6. BOOKS BY RAYMOND LUCZAK

The Tactile Mind Press presents SILENCE IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD: ON ART &

DEAFNESS

http://www.thetactilemind.com/

SILENCE IS A FOUR-LETTER WORD: ON ART & DEAFNESS is my call to arms for deaf

artists everywhere. I use a cross-platform approach--a short story, a series

of rapid-fire mini-essays, a short play, and a self-interview--to illuminate

my points. I hope that my meditations on what makes art " art " and deafness

" deaf " will enable artists everywhere to rethink observations on their work

and live differently. For more information about this book, click here for

some excerpts taken from the book:

http://www.raymondluczak.com/silence

THIS WAY TO THE ACORNS: POEMS is a collection that has nothing to do with

deafness. (Gasp!) I return to my childhood where I spent days and seasons

exploring the woods " across the street. " There, I encountered unexpected

guests such as a scraggly fox, a starving doe, and other animals. For a few

sample poems, click here:

http://www.raymondluczak.com/acorns

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" Making a living is not the same thing as making a life. "

--Patti LaBelle

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7. CRIP WOMEN " SHARING OUR STORIES " ONLINE

This is an invitation to join the Sharing Our Stories Project Collective's

electronic list.

This project was started as a mechanism to share the audacious realities of

women like us who have learned, by grace and guts, to tip their hats and

walk through the fire of fear to find or create their own place in the sun

on the other side of insane dread.

The two most important words in the English language are " I am " , because

they necessarily precede the words " Me too " . Audacity is the foundation for

unity.

A Place in the Sun: where audacious women with disAbilities meet to share

our stories. What it was like, what happened, and what it's like today:

that's what we aim to share.

Being a woman and having a disAbility (or two, or three) makes us neither a

saint nor a martyr, but it does necessarily challenge us to be adaptable.

Society was not initially constructed to include those of us who are not

flawlessly able. It has been our duty to ourselves to find the back doors

and shaded windows of opportunity, scaling walls of resistance, all just to

reach or build a barrier-free place where the sun shines equally on us all.

We are here to tell our stories of the grand expedition from exclusion to

inclusion: to shine a light on those doors, open those windows wider, and

disassemble those walls.

Project website at:

http://dawn.thot.net/sos

Web interface of the " Sharing Our Stories " listserv on groups is at:

sharingourstories/

To Join the E-List, send an email to:

sharingourstories-subscribe

or click on this link:

mailto:sharingourstories-subscribe

warm regards

Barbara and

dawn@...

http://dawn.thot.net/sos

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8. ADAPT DEMANDS APOLOGY FOR INCARCERATIONS OF CRIPS

For Immediate Release

March 7, 2003

For Information Contact:

Bob Kafka 512/431-4085

Marsha Katz 406/544-9504

ADAPT to Demand Federal Apology for Thousands Unnecessarily Institutionalized

Washington, D.C.-At a time when people with disabilities are being

increasingly victimized by state budget cuts and the President's proposed

federal budget, ADAPT, the national disability rights group, is making 2003

the year to put a stop to the forced institutionalization of persons with

disabilities of all ages. Additionally, ADAPT is demanding a formal national

apology for all the years that have been stolen from countless Americans due

to decades of failed Medicaid policy that kept them warehoused in nursing

homes and other institutions.

ADAPT will be in Washington, D.C., May 10-15 to demand the apology in person

from President Bush and the Democratic and Republican Leadership, and to tell

personal stories of the abuses and loss of freedom suffered as the result of

years of forced institutionalization. 750 ADAPT members from at least 30

states will bring a collage to the nation's capitol showing pictures of real

people from every state who won't be able to be there in person, but who want

Congress and the President to hear their stories.

" That collage is our wall of former and current MIAs, " said Alfredo Juarez of

El Paso, Texas ADAPT. " While Washington politics continue to address

" homeland security " , we're going to demand that the government change the

longstanding Medicaid policies that have deprived countless Americans with

disabilities of the security of their own homes. "

The May " Stolen Lives " demonstration will personalize the very real effects

of Medicaid policy that mandates that states pay for nursing homes, but

doesn't similarly mandate providing community-based supports. ADAPT is

determined to change this " institutional bias " in Medicaid by enacting

legislation that provides that " the money follows the person " , thus giving

people the choice to receive long term care services in their own homes.That

legislation, known as MiCASSA, the Medicaid Community-based Attendant

Services and Supports Act, is again being introduced by bi-partisan

partnerships in the both U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.

" We're grateful for the support of Senator Harkin of Iowa, and Senator

Specter from Pennsylvania, and Rep. and Rep. Shimkus, both from

Illinois, " said Mike Oxford, Kansas ADAPT. " Not only have they continued to

advocate the necessity of this legislation, but many of their colleagues are

now recognizing that it's more cost effective to support people than it is to

support the bricks and mortar of institutions. "

The May demand for a national apology for the years of " Stolen Lives " of

persons with disabilities will lead into ADAPT's 144 mile Free Our People

March, September 4-17, from the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to Capitol Hill

in Washington, D.C. The march will take two weeks of laborious wheeling and

walking, accompanied by sleeping in tents on roadsides.

" We may be a mess when we get to D.C., " said Bob Liston of ADAPT Montana,

" but no one in America will doubt our commitment to getting MiCASSA passed,

and to ending America's forced institutionalization of persons with

disabilities of all ages. We're literally marching for our lives. "

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9. FREE WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY EVALUATION

http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/index.html

A-Prompt (Accessibility Prompt) is a free software tool designed to improve

the usability of HTML documents by evaluating Web pages for accessibility

barriers and then providing developers with a fast and easy way to make the

necessary repairs.

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10. SOMETIMES A CIGAR IS JUST A...

A Charlotte, NC, lawyer purchased a box of very rare

and expensive cigars, then insured them against fire

among other things. Within a month having smoked his

entire stockpile of these great cigars and without yet

having made even his first premium payment on the

policy, the lawyer filed a claim against the insurance

company. In his claim, the lawyer stated the cigars

were lost " in a series of small fires. " The insurance

company refused to pay, citing the obvious reason:

that the man had consumed the cigars in the normal

fashion. The lawyer sued....and won! In delivering the

ruling the judge agreed with the insurance company

that the claim was frivolous. The Judge stated

nevertheless, that the lawyer held a policy from the

company in which it had warranted that the cigars were

insurable and also guaranteed that it would insure

them against fire, without defining what is considered

to be unacceptable fire, " and was obligated to pay the

claim. Rather than endure a lengthy and costly appeal

process, the insurance company accepted the ruling and

paid $15,000.00 to the lawyer for his loss of the rare

cigars lost in the " fires. "

NOW FOR THE BEST PART... After the lawyer cashed the check, the insurance

company had him arrested on

24 counts of ARSON!!!! With his own insurance claim

and testimony from the previous case being used against

him, the lawyer was convicted of intentionally burning

his insured property and was sentenced to 24 months in

jail and a $24,000.00 fine. This is a true story and

was the 1st place winner in the recent Criminal Lawyers Award Contest.

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