Submitted by Howard Renensland
May 26, 2008
My intent in starting [with]tv was to create a media home for top of the line programming about the many aspects of disabilities and the people who live with them.
Additionally I hoped to create a welcoming, accessible, and inclusive environment where both my daughters could work. My logic being that people with and people “without” disabilities are inter-dependent on each other. Make sure you get that. You need me and I need you.
Secondly and more importantly I feel the lack of a mainstream, inclusive, accessible cross media voice, that strives to employ at all levels and in all areas all manner of those in our community is the single greatest limiting factor marginalizing people with disabilities individually and as a group globally.
This weekend as I “caught up” on the discussions of many disability blogs, news sources, etc. (for God knows there is scant mention of us anywhere else) I was sorely reminded of this need.
Now this weekend in all the “good God what are they going to try to do to us next” department are two issues of our community that caught my attention. The first is “accessible paper currency”. My life has always been guided by a principle of “where one goes all can go.” So I just see no reason why someone who is blind should have to fold their money into little monkeys, fish, and birdies in order to buy a burger. I don’t, why should you. The issue is not that “the blind can learn this skill”. Certainly they can evidently, or else they would be in an even shakier boat then they now are. I would be inclined to go along with this if whenever we passed currency on to someone who was blind we had to fold the change appropriately. Then all of society would spend a large amount of their free time doing origami, which could be a very beneficial use of time now that I think about it. The benefit to different size, shape, color, or textured bills to all human beings should be obvious. The Europeans recognize this, and meanwhile our own society laments, “Now what do they want us to do? Can’t they just go off somewhere and die?”
Which brings me to my second subject of the post, Louisiana Senate Bills 301 and 330. These bills came out of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy In essence these bills excuse “medical staff” (you know, professionals who are there to help you when you are ill,) from killing you if they feel an impending disaster makes it incumbent on them to kill you. This is democracy at its finest hour, no? Now not just anyone could be killed so don’t worry too much. Just if you are old, have a pretty severe disability (in the mind of that guy holding the needle), and maybe one or two other limited categories. Again I might be able to go along with this if those handling the needles could be guaranteed to have Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Bi-Polar Disorder, be blind, Deaf, utilizing a wheel chair or related to someone who does.
There is a lot of fodder out there for news, information, reality, and serious talk shows, but so much more for satire, drama, irony, slapstick, melodrama, comedy, etc. Lots to look forward to for all of us. Now I have to go try and get some funding for this.
Have a peaceful Memorial Day!
