Brother Wease: The follow up – and this time it’s good news!
Posted on February 24, 2009
By Chris Hilderbrant, Director of Advocacy
After the eruption yesterday regarding Brother Wease’s apparent dismissal of our community’s protest of Jerry Lewis, Brother Wease was quick to seek us out to meet and clear the air. We met this morning in CDR’s office. The meeting was focused and productive and I don’t think I could have asked for better outcomes.
Attached to this blog, you can find a letter from Wease apologizing to the disability community for his remarks. Wease explained in our meeting and in the letter that he was not aware of the realities of the protest or the decades of nasty remarks by Jerry Lewis when he made his remarks on local media.
Please give the letter a read. Read more
Filed Under Advocacy, Attitudes, Chris Hilderbrant, Independence | 8 Comments
Bulletin to Brother Wease: Free Speech is Different than Hate Speech
Posted on February 23, 2009
By Chris Hilderbrant, Director of Advocacy
Jerry Lewis has said some awful things. Rochester radio personality Brother Wease is now sticking up for them.
Lewis is known to have said that Jews are really only ‘half a person.’ He also said that women ‘cannot go into the workplace. There’s nothing they can do.’ And when criticized, he famously said, that African-Americans are ‘bitter at the bad hand they’ve been dealt…They want me to stop now? F*** them. Do it in caps. F!!! THEM.’
OK, Lewis did say those things, but not about those oppressed minorities. He said all those horrible and indefensible things about people with disabilities. (He has had some choice words regarding people in the LGBT community as well.) Read more
Filed Under Advocacy, Attitudes, Chris Hilderbrant, Independence | 9 Comments
Report from Jerry Lewis Action
Posted on February 23, 2009
By Diane Coleman, Assistant Director for Advocacy
CDR is about solidarity. We’re part of the national Disability Rights Movement (aka DRM), and our brothers and sisters around the country know that we will be there to deliver the message loud and strong. As a long time member of Jerry’s Orphans, I’ve been on the steering committee of The Trouble With Jerry which organized this weekend’s protests of the “humanitarian” award being given to pity monger Jerry Lewis. (For more on the history of the issue, see my blog entry last week.
Last night, Oscar night, CDR was there at the George Eastman House to join in national protests. To be specific, outside after dark in the bitter cold and snow in Rochester, nine people joined me to make sure that the message of “No Pity” was received: Carolyn Benway, Dorrie Budd, Bruce Darling, Stephen Drake, Kevin Figler, Cindy Hancock, James Scarola, Pam Taggart, and Pat Taggart. Read more
Filed Under Advocacy, Attitudes, Diane Coleman, Employment, Independence, Self Help, Voting | 3 Comments
Opposing a bill to legalize assisted suicide
Posted on February 19, 2009
By Diane Coleman, Assistant Director for Advocacy
Many people know that CDR is active in advocacy on the national level, and provides support and technical assistance in other states. That is also true of Not Dead Yet, which now has its national headquarters in CDR’s Rochester offices. Today, February 19, 2009, the House Judiciary Committee in New Hampshire held a hearing on HB 304 (http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/legislation/2009/HB0304.html), which is titled “AN ACT relative to death with dignity for certain persons suffering from a terminal condition.” In case the wording leaves you in doubt, this is a bill to legalize assisted suicide.
This particular bill is broader in terms of who would be eligible for assisted suicide than any similar bill introduced in the U.S. so far. Other bills limit “eligibility” to people diagnosed to have less than 6 months to live, but the NH bill actually expands the definition of “terminal” in a way that makes virtually anyone with a significant disability or chronic condition “eligible” for legal help in killing themselves. You can find an analysis of this element of the bill at the Not Dead Yet blog at http://notdeadyetnewscommentary.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-hampshire-poised-to-redefine.html. Read more
Filed Under Activism, Advocacy, Diane Coleman, End of life decision-making, Physician Assisted Suicide, Take Action!, Voting | Leave a Comment
Rochester Disability Activists Join National Protests Against “Humanitarian” Award for Jerry Lewis!
Posted on February 18, 2009
By Diane Coleman, Assistant Director for Advocacy
Many people are surprised to learn that is a long standing movement of people with disabilities, including former “Jerry’s Kids,” who oppose what Jerry Lewis has done with the Annual Labor Day Telethon for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Among the most prominent disability activists who have spoken strongly against Lewis’ pity-based approach are Evan Kemp, former head of the EEOC under the Bush Sr. Administration, attorney Harriet McBryde Johnson, Mike Ervin, who founded the activist group Jerry’s Orphans, and Laura Hershey, leading the current campaign to protest a “Humanitarian” award being presented to Lewis at the Oscars on Sunday, February 22, 2009.
Like them, I have a neuromuscular disability. I was raised to believe that Jerry Lewis was a friend of people like me. My mother volunteered for the Telethon every year. I was never an official state or national “poster child,” but was often put in front of a local TV camera during the Telethon where I grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. In my late teens, I began talking about my education and plans for work, trying to put forward a positive disability image, but I know now that my two minutes on camera was twisted and overwhelmed by everything Lewis said and did. Read more
Filed Under Advocacy, Attitudes, Diane Coleman, Independence, Take Action! | 4 Comments
REFORMING LONG TERM CARE SERVICES IN NEW YORK STATE CENTER FOR DISABILITY RIGHTS POSITION PAPER
Posted on February 10, 2009
FEBRUARY 5, 2009, VOL. 6
IMPROVE STATEWIDE CONSISTENCY OF SERVICES.
By Leah Farrell, Policy Analyst
There are vast disparities in services offered from community to community across New York State. There is little State enforcement of regulations and the counties make inconsistent decisions, sometimes directly in violation of federal and state mandates. The disparities in the system affect the information disseminated to consumers, the hours of services provided, and the programs and service options available in each community.
VIOLATIONS OF STATE MEDICAID PLAN
New York State’s Medicaid Plan requires all counties to offer all services listed in the State Plan to satisfy the federal requirement of “statewideness.” However, with limited state enforcement, counties seem to be able to choose to offer only selected services—directly violating the federal rules. For example, Personal Care Attendant Services (PCA) is on the list of mandatory services in the state plan, however PCA services are not currently offered in Monroe County.
CORRECTION Read more