Here’s a major feature on caring for two intellectually and developmentally disabled children in Australia. The parents wanted people to “know what it’s like, to advocate for more resources, more good housing options, and so forth. The critiques of this piece could be many, but here’s the one I want to focus on: The parents,…
Nancy Mairs: A great writer on disability, physicality, sex, pain, meaning, and more has passed away: Here’s the NYT obituary. Ms. Mairs was a budding poet in her late 20s, suffering from agoraphobia and depression — she had once attempted suicide — when she was told that she had M.S. The inexorable progress of the disease…
#BradleyKing, Avon IN. In crisis, armed with small knife, called 911, shot in his backyard. https://t.co/GFUwuGh8ND #disabilitysolidarity pic.twitter.com/h83IIAaNfY — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) December 1, 2016 We see this story too often. I don’t have all the details on this case yet, and sometimes the details better explain the decision to use lethal force. But…
Today a huge omnibus bill that reflects the worst of American lawmaking is going to move through the GOP Congress, probably with wide bipartisan support, and then will be signed by the president. It surely has many perfectly good things in it, but is intended to make it easier for Big Pharma to test drugs,…
Last week I ran a piece on life for PWDs under the GOP majority in Kansas, where the waiting lists are endless (and that’s not even counting the people who have given up and aren’t even on the lists!). Let’s talk Texas: More than a year after lawmakers originally ordered it, Texas announced Monday it…
The Disability Visibility Project (DVP) was created by Alice Wong during the 25th Anniversary of the ADA. With no resources other than a partnership with Storycorps, Wong carved out a critical space in the disability rights movement that has pushed these powerful ideas: Be visible, be present, tell your stories, demand to be heard, support others in…
Focus on Trump’s business. Follow the money. Ignore the tweets. Focus on Trump’s business. Follow the money. Ignore the tweets. Focus on Tru — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) November 27, 2016 So I tweeted this during one of Trump’s latest online spewings. A lot of people shared it. Many responded, “Fuck you, asshole, I can…
I’m thinking a lot about the Left. We’re going to have to collaborate with a lot of fellow lefties who piss us off. — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) November 29, 2016 Plan for fighting Trump. Step 1: Achieve purity on The Left. Step 2: Defeat Trump. — David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) November 29, 2016 There’s…
There’s been a lot of talk about the way ongoing disasters in Kansas presage comparable disasters for the United States under un-checked GOP rule. That’s certainly my fear when it comes to disability. Many conservatives talk eloquently about serving people with disabilities (on a language basis PWDs become objectified, it’s a charity-based model, but that’s…
All of the Trump cabinet appointees are likely to be, in my estimation, bad choices. There are few elite Republicans whose position on the function of the federal government I share in any way. That said, there are two clear types of appointees. 1) Those who are eager to use the coercive power of the…