ABLE is likely to become law in the next few weeks, offering new tax-free savings accounts for people with disabilities. Here’s my article on the bill. Here’s the current language in the House with off-sets (who knew you could save 444 million by not funding erection pumps via medicaid?). Here’s a piece saying that Senator…
On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) took the case of Sheehan vs San Francisco. In 2008, Sheehan, who has schizophrenia, threatened her social worker with a knife, then threatened the two police officers who came after. They called for backup. Before backup arrived, the police broke into her apartment, pepper sprayed her,…
At Thanksgiving dinner, a friend of my parents, A., was the lone non-family guest, as his wife was out of town. At one point, we were discussing dinner and how we had tried to rein in the feast a little (excess rather than excessive excess), and I said, “We tried to pull back from our…
This story was just brought to my attention in the comment from “Mel” in my previous post. In 2010, John T. Williams, a Native Alaskan woodcarver, was walking down the street holding a 3-inch folding knife and a piece of wood. Officer Ian Birk approached him from behind, firearm drawn, and ordered Williams to drop…
Donald Ray “Hambone” Wilson, an African-American man has schizophrenia. This fact was known to the police. He was shot in the chest. In this video, he is surrounded by police as he holds a steak knife. He is clearly in mental health crisis and as the police engage into close proximity, they become in danger…
I have a new piece up at The Chronicle of Higher Education on how academics NOT in critical race theory, African-American studies, modern US history, etc. might teach about Ferguson. My attitude is that if we apply ourselves to the sources, in this case the Grand Jury testimony, we’ll see a lot we can share….
Content Note: Child Murder. I wrote a piece for CNN about the murder of children with disabilities. I wrote it because of the media discourse I saw surrounding the death of London McCabe. I wrote it because that framing was not unusual when this kind of murder happens. I wrote it to provide a…
It’s been quite a week. On Thursday, I woke up and could find neither clip nor transcript of Daniel Handler’s racist joke at the National Book Awards. So I made one and offered a few comments. I said: For a powerful white author to make a watermelon joke when handing out an award to a…
When someone brings up thoughts of suicide to you, you have already done something right. This is a repost with permission. Amy McNally is a musician in Madison and a friend. Please share this. There is someone in your social circle who needs to read this. Originally posted by sweetmusic_27 at International Survivors of Suicide…
This is a guest post written by Ellen Arnold, PhD, Assistant Professor of History at Ohio Wesleyan University. “Perhaps the biggest thing missing from comparisons between Ebola and the bubonic plague, or in fact between any of these large scale tales of epidemic and pandemic disaster, is the human scale.” I am an environmental…