RantWoman is called to banish most of the yucky topics festival of her binge blog hyperawareness month. RantWoman means to spin a yarn about having fun with trivial pursuit even when the online version is less than accessible and the topic is something RantWoman knows nothin about. See RantWoman's other blog and probably not tonight.
Meanwhile, RantWoman appreciates this photo of Sadako in the park across the street from....
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| Sadako in Peace Park |
30th
Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act
(RantWoman)
NPYM Virtual Annual Session 2020
IG 61, Friday
July 24, 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm
Welcome and a
few minutes of worship
Intros
Name, where you are from
Choose at least one of:
Pronouns
What you are wearing
Any access needs
A Fun Fact about you,
maybe disability-related
Something you hope to
take away from this interest group
A specific question
related to ADA issues
Anything on your heart
that seems relevant
Recording and Transcript: Yes / No
Zoom and flow of Interest group.
If you have video,
please turn it on while speaking
Please use Raise hand which is *9 on phone
Please be sparing about
chat to everyone.
Suggesting resources is cool
Saying goodbye if you need to leave early is fine
If there is someone who can only use the chat, listen.
Brave
Space / Confidentiality / Narrative Theology
A short history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990
Important concepts
Public
accommodations
Reasonable
Accommodations
Minimum
standards vs good practices for inclusion
Today
Ask Friends for examples and thoughts about how these
terms apply to specific situations
Closing worship
Community and Disability: the language we use
IG 70 Saturday July 25, 3:30-5:00 pm
(RantWoman)
NPYM Virtual Annual Session 2020
Welcome and a few minutes of worship
Intros
Name,
where you are from
Choose
at least one of:
Pronouns
What
you are wearing
Any
access needs
A
Fun Fact about you
Something
you hope to take away from this interest group
Anything
on your heart that might be relevant to this interest group
Recording
and Transcript: Yes / No
Zoom
and flow of Interest group.
Please
use Raise hand which is *9 on phone
Mark
is host and will also help recognize people waving hands
Please
be sparing about chat to everyone.
Suggesting resources is cool
Saying goodbye if you need to leave early is fine
If there is someone who can only use the chat, listen.
Brave
Space / Confidentiality / Narrative Theology
Community is a core Quaker value but what exactly
does community meane especially when community needs to embrace difference and
work with people’s varying gifts and challenges, address matters of privilege
and structural inequality?
The terms we started with (Ask for help finding a
definition off the internet)
Allyship
Solidarity
Spiritual
Accompaniment
Ask Friends for examples and thoughts about how
these terms apply to specific situations
Closing worship
Dorene’s
Access needs:
Pay attention to others’ access
needs. For example,
People who lip-read can
leave Zoom in active speaker mode.
Please remember to turn
video on before speaking if possible.
I cannot see faces very well especially in Gallery
View. So let’s all watch for each other and help hold moments of distress.
Screen share visual accessibility is very limited
for me so I always like or files shared in the chat.
I am unlikely to use screen share myself. I use 4x
screen magnification which I can turn down if needed. However, even at 2x, me
moving around on the screen can give other people vertigo. But I am happy to
email people before or after with what I have presented.
Why do I ask what people are wearing?
I have been going to a series of webinars called
CripCamp. Crip Camp is about the intersection of disability and BIPoC issues.
All sessions have both ASL interpretation and a live transcript. They now use a
model for chat of write in questions, someone reads and then presenters answer.
I
have discovered that one of the most fun things about the panel intros at the
beginning of the session is when people describe what they are wearing. So as
another way to connect, let’s try it.
I only want to know that you
are zooming in your sleepwear if there is something really interesting about
your sleepwear.
For myself, I have been
Zooming all week with the American Council of the Blind virtual convention. So
today I am wearing last year’s state convention T-shirt which is black. The
front has yellow lettering that says WCB on top and We Are Community under a
picture of 3 different-colored hands grasping each other around a circle. I am
also wearing a denim skirt because wearing skirts cuts down a little bit on
getting misgendered in public. And I am wearing awesome compression socks with
a grey, red, and white design because who says compression socks have to be
boring and because good shoes and socks are a vital part of my transportation
infrastructure.
RantWoman is seizing on #pandemic time to do a bit of cleaning out, in this case of her drafts folder. RantWoman intended to post this in October during, among other things, LGBT... history month.
As usual, the post is likely to be half content and half observations about the conversation venue(s).RantWoman does not want to scare anyone out of the conversation. RantWoman has other process concerns which mean she will address aspects of the conversation rather obliquely. This conversation came with some verbal acoutrements which RantWoman thinks could be worth weaving further into the conversation except that RantWoman can make plenty of the pieces that stick out for her.
This is a really interesting article.
The article is about someone making a movie. In the course of making the movie he spends a lot of time looking at the lives of tennis stars (and famous lesbian role models) Billy Jean King and Martina Navratilova. RantWoman does not have much of a head for professional tennis, even less than for softball which "all" lesbians in good standing are supposed to care about. (Does the sport involve a ball smaller than RantWoman's head? Is one supposed to hit the ball? Are attributes such as depth perception and basic agility an advantage? If the answer to any of these questions is "yes," RantWoman is already out of there.)
But RantWoman digresses. What interests RantWoman more is public figures and image. Navratilova apparently caused great controversy by hiring Dr. Renee Richards who is transgender as her trainer. The prevailing view seemed to be "we helped you escape Communist Czekoslovakia and you should show your gratitude by not doing anything controversial." Navratilova, on the other hand embodied an "I'll take my freedom on my terms, thank you very much" point of view.
Another point that sticks in RantWoman's mind is about body image: Navratilova over time acquired a very masculine appearance. It might occur to RantWoman to explore the question of whether the choice to do this had anything to do with gender identity or whether that also came from a professional sports culture in Czekoslovakia. RantWoman has no idea whether doping was as widely taken for granted in the Czekoslovakia of the day as in the Soviet Union or East Germany, but if RantWoman had extra time to graze in odd info streams, RantWoman might think to read more in connection with this question.
Third point of controversy: RantWoman is going to make readers read the whole article to digest Navratilova's views about fair competition, hormones and when people should be allowed to compete in sports events corresponding to their gender identity. RantWoman has not really thought through the issue well enough to have an opinion, but here the voice of someone who has been dealing with a transgender identity for a long time including in school where questions of fair competition loom very large. Here RantWoman apologizes: she sort of aspires to have a more cogent opinion, but so far, thiking of many public school realities RantWoman has not been able to get past "Gee, it could be kind of hard trying to be a supportive parent of a transgender child." RantWoman is going to leave this reflection there with one note: one of RantWoman's college housemates announced on Facebook awhile ago that her middle child has come out as transgender. So now RantWamn has ALL kinds of questions.
RantWoman meant to get this posted during her October binge blog. The theme tie-in is the article recommendation about opinion bullies. The piece seems topical to many quests for paths to respectful disagreement and thoughtful discussions. In Light and Faithfulness, RantWoman
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| Two Enormous Candy Corns |
Five ways to protect yourself from opinion bullies
RantWoman's #DEAM #PedestrianSafetyAwarenessMonth Domestic Violence Bullying Domestic violence Arts and Humanities Awareness / Celebration Month daily binge blog promises are proving a little too daunting. So if offerings look even less polished even than average, please remember this is blog as quaker journal. If readers want polished....
That said, here is some commentary RantWoman penned in an email.
RantWoman is just going to dump this item for historical record.
White Cane Day Facebook Events organized by the Department of Services for the Blind.
A couple queries to find things RantWoman has written
searching on White Cane day
RantWoman has several white canes. All of them are named Thwack or more formally Ambassador Thwack. For more on RantWoman and the Thwacks see Searching on Ambassador
October Binge Blog themes: Arts and humanities. Also #NDEAM even though RantWoman is not called to spell out how.
First, ENJOY SOME ART. This painting is by a lovely woman who attends.... |
| Venus Ascending Helen Drummond |
Next check out the annual Women Painters of WA show, this year all virtual at Wenatchee Valley Museum
 |
| The postcard image for the show |
If you just want to look at and think about cool women doing cool art, stop here. If you yearn for further treks on Planet RantWoman, Please READ ON!
RantWoman, MUST YOU turn perfectly lovely occasions like a wonderful art exhibit by a number of different interesting women into more Snit Fits?
Why do you think RantWoman penned the content warning above. If you really don't want to read the snit fits AND you have no vision of snit fits being transformed by art or otherwise, then bye!
ON THE OTHER HAND, here is a glorious and sacred invitation to walk alongside RantWoman about all kinds of transit-dependent, completely impatient with car culture twitches, trip chaining travel patterns and blunt reminders of ways other people's fantasies disproportionately impact and in RantWoman's mind place undue burdens on RantWoman.
RantWoman reminds readers that one VERY important point of Sundays and seeing people in person / on Zoom is to see a whole bunch of people who are dear to RantWoman but who all live at different two-bus distances from RantWoman. The Friend who sent R antWoman the painting is one of them. RantWoman considers Sunday bus rides to Meeting part of sacred preparation. RantWoman cannot though fit a lot of individual two-bus distances into the rest of her week. And RantWoman has NO sympathy for people who don't want to see RantWoman and cannot appreciate that there are people RantWoman does want to see.
And while RantWoman is stuck on gender-specific hiccups in the space-time continuum, RantWoman would say that demanding FOR MONTHS to meet in person when RantWoman wanted to meet by conference call is another exciting moment of utter ableism. RantWoman was TRYING not only to avoid undue burden on herself but also to save someone else the need to drive around in the local traffic mess. But sure, Friend, if you LIKE being stuck in traffic everywhere.... Maybe there are circumstances RantWoman does not understand, but RantWoman thinks it can also be perfectly fine for everyone to be on the same footing visually. Plus now there is Zoom so there is another set entirely seeing hearing other accessibility issues....
RantWoman, chill. Look at some art. Write some other stuff. Write an email to the non-commute transportation forum where the trip chaining AND the Travel to Sunday worship topics came up. Save thoughts about transportation and racial justice for ... webinar... another blog.
RantWoman has decided that recent reads about Supreme Court appointee JudgeAmy Coney Barrett fully qualify for the #NDEAM LGBTQ bullying prevention #HealthLiteracy threads at least of RantWoman's binge blog effort.
RantWoman is of course, um, concerned about the Supreme Court, but RantWoman just cannot get her underwear in a wad nearly as unambiguously as many commentators. Various reasons:
--RantWoman values strongly held faith even when...
--RantWoman imagines some possible lively dialogues among the court's Catholics about theology.
--RantWoman values geographic diversity on the Supreme Court. RantWoman is grateful at least that 2 of President T's 3 nominees are from the west (Neil Gorsuch) and now the midwest (Amuy Comey Barrett).
--RantWoman realizes it is unQuakerly to bet, but RantWoman would bet with anyone willing that if the Affordable care Act gets thrown out in the middle of a pandemic, there will be a groundswell of support for #MedicareForAll. All the more so if the Presidential offspring keep, to RantWoman's ear, caterwauling about how much they are afraid of people in the US having access to healthcare. Just imagine, if the US took better care of people who are actually alive, the country might maybe possibly rank higher than currently among industrialized nations on measures such as infant and maternal perinatal mortality. RantWoman is a fan of comprehensive sex ed, but if women had better support for prenatal care and while raising children, perhaps there would be even less demand for abortions. But RantWoman is getting carried away in her "God is versatile and gets things done all kinds of ways" rambles!
Reuters / Sojourners summary of Day 2 hearing
RantWoman's thoughts about Judge Barrett's use of the term "sexual preference:" Ma'am, you maybe don't get out much? RantWoman has no idea when the phrase sexual orientation took over in the lexicon, but it has been quite awhile.
Interview with Laura Wolk, first blind woman to clerk for a Supreme Court justice
Then Prof. Barrett's intervention with Notre Dame to get their IT department to, rant incoming, DO THEIR job about purchase of accessible software impresses RantWoman. #NDEAM. Plenty of students with disabilities could really use professors willing to advocate on their behalf. Plenty of students with disabilities manage to get an education regardless!
Elections and confirmation
RantWoman recently enjoyed a lively conversation about possible election consequences of the rush to confirm Judge Barrett. Financial Times article
On the other hand, 88 current and former leaders at Notre Dame have written an open letter encouraging her to ask to delay her confirmation until after the election on what seem to RantWoman VERY moderate grounds. RantWoman somehow clobbered the link and has not been able to find the article again with her search engine. RantWoman thinks many readers have better eyesand might search faster. If anyone finds the link, please send a comment and RantWoman will post.
ACB article
And there's the motherhood angle
Vogue article about ACB and motherhood
RantWoman's fave line from this article, something like "...the tone was noticeably softer...Barrett unlike Kavanagh has not been credibly accused of sexual assault..."M'kay...it's a low bar, but...
On still another hand, an article about two lawsuits by prisoners sexually assaulted by guards.
Unconscionable cruelty article
In the first case discussed, the court including Judge Barrett ruled against a woman who was sexually assaulted multiple times while pregnant. The jail at least provided training materials saying sex between officers and inmates is a crime. Curiously, the court echoed that stance, ruling that sexual assaults do not fall within an officer's duties and therefore a lower court ruling was overturned.
RantWoman is very relieved that sexual assaults do not fall within officers' duties!
RantWoman's further kneejerk reaction, ableist language and all: it's a pretty lame law if it provides no recourse when assaults happen anyway! But RantWoman's impression, not being a lawyer, is that many times people get upset when the Supreme Court tells the legislative branch "Well, if you want different rulings, write the law differently."
Judge Barrett did change her mind for a later case. In that case, a different county provided jail officers NO training about sex with inmates. And there were hundreds of assaults and multiple victims. So the court unanimously ruled in favor of the plaintiffs.
Maybe Judge Barrett is going to surprise everyone. Maybe she could turn out to be a backstop against what RantWoman expects to be a flood of rulings needing to be overturned from all the incompentent appointments the Senate has been packing into lower courts. Well it COULD happen.
Again from the newsletter with the headings
RantWoman MUST YOU interact so intensively with EVERY article. Well, not every... but...
The article as it appeared:
Amanda Franklin
I am deeply and increasingly afraid of November 4, November 5 and all the time leading up to and following Inauguration Day. As I have held my fear in prayer, I’ve had a result I’ve experienced before: a call to apply what was already clear in another part of my life. I have found guidance in a very odd place: people who have fled to the United States to seek political asylum here.
One way that I coped after the 2016 election was to up my volunteer hours. In particular, I found an opening peculiarly suited to my gifts, including experience with serving kids in foster care and survivors of sexual abuse, at Refugees Northwest, a consortium of Harborview, Lutheran Community Services and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. I provide pro bono psychological evaluations for asylum-seekers, which the seekers may submit to immigration court to support their claims of severe harm or anticipated harm if returned to their home countries.
What asylum-seekers have brought into focus for me is the trauma of people who run afoul politically of governments or regimes. I have talked to people who have experienced rape as an act of warfare, political torture, gruesome imprisonment, hid while watching or hearing a loved one being killed, and tried to flee from drug cartels as either a former member or as a victim.
I offer the simple humanity of listening with an open heart and all my intellect. I see that some of these asylum-seekers do not show a diagnosable mental condition, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, that speak to internal scars. These are some things I have learned from these resilient survivors, which prayer has brought to the center of my mind:
• The resilient survivors all named something higher than themselves to which they pledged allegiance. For some, this was an unshakable faith in God, which they drew on between torture sessions, or even in the midst of torture. For others, it was a similar faith in a political or social cause, particularly one which they believed would bring justice and relief to their community (whether that be opposition to an unjust government, or women’s rights in a part of the world where these are unlawful, or helping their LGBTQ brothers and sisters). They could seek comfort and meaning in this faith even at the most unimaginable times.
• The resilient survivors also typically felt well-loved and well-supported by their closest circle of family and friends, even when separated by continents and even when they had not had any contact for far too long. Our closest attachments are there to be clung to when we are most alone.
• Even the people who showed me their physical scars – some by asking my permission and then lifting up a shirt, some by talking through tears or from the far end of a thousand-yard stare – often had access, an hour later, to their sense of humor. Laughter really helps. And laughing with others intensifies its frequency.
• These resilient people had hope which had not been cut or drowned or burnt out of them. Hope can flourish in inhospitable soil, like a detention center, or a cramped apartment a world away from loved ones or stowed away in a container that is slowly crossing the sea. These were people who tended their hope, who nourished it with their memories and their vision of the future, even if they did not know if they had a role in their imagined future scenes. If faith is remaining true to what is at our core even when letting go of it seems easier, and if charity is remembering love and acting in love’s spirit even when the warm glow is not there, hope is hanging on and keeping the vision alive. It is a virtue every bit as muscular as the other two, which get more friendly press
• Paradoxically, these are people who seem less attached to outcome. The religious observers talk about accepting God’s will for their lives, and the political believers know all too well that some of them have to suffer and die. Although I only spoke with asylum-seekers who deeply want asylum, none of them could be certain of the outcome, and they had a lack of desperation which touched me: what will happen will happen.
I hope these reflections will be of use to someone besides me.
RantWoman, we your adoring public and inquiring minds want to know, what did you do to observe #WhiteCaneDay #WhiteCaneSafetyDay #WhiteCaneDayWA
Today in #NDEAM, etc news
--Warning: RantWoman believes in signs, timing, even when the signs arrive when RantWoman is already psychically discombobulated.
--Warning: this post talks about assault, the police, people who have a right to exist and to ask for reasonable accommodations regardless of ... and generally to look out for each other. Readers who do not want to go near any of this are invited to click away now. Readers willing to invest some spiritual fortitude, thank you for sharing the walk. RantWoman generally now has come to refer to her long connections with the community technology center in her building using terms like Vocational Rehab and "Technical assistance." RantWoman promises to blog further about this terminology when she is less sleep-deprived and hopefully better able to comb verbal tangle into reasonable prose. Please note: RantWoman refers either to the STAR of Seattle or The Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme computing depending on RantWoman's mood and how off-brand RantWoman's meditations are. Stay tuned.
--Around RantWoman EVERY day, EVERY month is #PedestrianSafetyMonth and also a bunch of the Awareness month categories that have come RantWoman's way. Bless your hearts everyone who gets to take breaks from RantWoman realities.
--A 2016 blog item was delivered to RantWoman's email by an enterprising person who would like RantWoman to post a commercial link comment.
Security incident, self-defense...
--All the principles in the events above are white. RantWoman was not there and does not remember whehter the Chief Morale Officer who is African American was there or not. The STAR Center has a two adults rule not only for insurance company best practices regarding children but also because the two adults protects the staff as well. And theChief Morale Officer is invaluable, for one thing because many neighbors will tell her things they will not tell RantWoman.
But RantWoman digresses. The assailant in the story above, an elderly white guy, turned out to be a homeless mentally ill Level 22 sex offender who slept somewhere nearby. RantWoman generally likes knowing that sex offenders are securely housed with whatever resources they need so they do NOT have to come to the STAR Center, threaten staff with scissors, and generally make a scene. RantWoman does not think merely chanting #DefundThePolice will get WA to that point. In fact, RantWoman thinks there should be more funds in general exactly to fund community mental health and supportive housing. and would very much like to be having conversations also about what WA might do to pull itself out of being the most regressive tax structure in the US.
--Discussion question: what do readers notice?
--RantWoman may be written before of advice the officer gave about rearranging the entryway furniture to reduce the chances of anyone else getting trapped in a corner. RantWoman is now both embarrassed and grateful about how that evolved. At first RantWoman did not want to change anything. But RantWoman was not the one who was assaulted and the coordinator REALLY needed to change something. It took RantWoman a couple hours of staring at furniture space and thinking about person flows and then Eureka!
--Does something in the embedded video draw you in?
RantWoman will not run the risk of incoherence tonight and hoepfully will riff further below.
--The link for the product line the commenter would like RantWoman to post. Please note: rantWoman is posting the link. RantWoman in no way endorses any of the products displayed, but RantWoman frequently finds it useful to consider how the people who would endorse such products actually think.
COMMERCIAL link: all kinds of self defense products
In other words, RantWoman's state of mind / excuses for just posting a raggedy outline:
--The world RantWoman lives in, the exciting realm of vocational rehabilitation, (by the way happy #VR100) and ways of surviving there
--Adults with disabilities trying to set responsible coping examples for younger people with disabilities. ALWAYs trying. Succeeding? Ummm
It's COVID. RantWoman is unevenly able to manage appropriate sleep schedules and balance with exercise. RantWoman is vexed by more technological vicissitudes affecting her own equipment; RantWoman is also on an involuntary computer lab technology fast because the building housing The Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing is getting a new roo . RantWoman slept badly last night and did not make it back to bed. Instead after breakfast. RantWoman has plenty of material lurking for really good Dial-a-Tirade moments.RantWoman has now digested that, in addition to RantWoman and disconcerting medical news, RantMOM also has Things percolating. RantWoman gets again to express gratitude for ice cubes, plenty of various ingredients to make a hearty chicken and wild rice soup
RantWoman's post on 2 blogs every day binge blog effort is proving kind of daunthing and a construction project RantWoman has no control over is going to further constrain RantWoman's daytime keyboard time. If RantWoman skips a day here and there and then doubles up on each blog, oh well.
RantWoman can easily shoehorn the article linked below into several of her binge-blog categories,
#NDEAM both because of employment issues for anyone with a disability participating int he job market and because of how having a child with a disability impacts both parents' relationship and their workforce participation.
National Domestic Violence Awareness Month if only because of the increased risk of domestic violence when a woman is pregnant and the consequences for any child if the mother experiences domestic violence during pregnancy.
In any case, RantWoman's starting point about abortion:
--The US has one of the worst infant mortality and maternal mortality rates in the world. The pro-fetus crowd along with lots of other people need to do a much better job of taking care of people who are already alive.
--Everyone should have access to comprehensive evidence- and science-based sex education--and communications skill development. No one is forced to have sex just because they know what condoms do, but thought and communications skills also matter.
--Everyone should have access to health care if only so they can make informed choices about what birth control is right for them.
--Abortion should be safe, legal and rare.
--Doctors are sometimes wrong and science advances. RantWoman went to school with someone who had cystic fibrosis. His obituary on Facebook mentioned that by the time he got a lung transplant he had already outlived his childhood physicians' estimates about his lifespan. He lived at least a decade after the lung transplant.
--RantWoman would strongly encourage anyone thinking of aborting a child with disabilities to talk to adults living with similar disabilities or to parents. RantWoman has no idea whether such conversations would shift anyone's thinking. RantWoman absolutely would say such conversations are worthwhile if only because they help one see that what matters to people growing up with disabilities might be completely different from parents' or medical teams' assumptions.
There. Now read the article. The author is WAY more plainspoken and way more of a realist than RantWoman can be easy. That has no bearing on whether or not realism is entirely on point.
The anti-abortion bill no one is talking about
RantWoman particularly cues this item to her binge blog themes about #NDEAM and National Arts and humanities month. RantWoman sometimes just enjoys thinking about "what if a person with a disability is doing that job?" or what all cool things are on the website / in the Facebook event. And Count one's blessings to have the tools and connectivity needed to access content is also popular.
RantWoman is appreciating some parallelism with reading going on around her. RantWoman is tempted to jump up and down about alternate formats, (terminology alert--important term!) the value of accessing THE SAME CONTENT AS EVERYONE ELSE and also ON THE SAME TIMELINE. RantWoman does not even apologize for shouting in a blog post. Please understand, all caps is the best RantWoman can do and should be considered a giant improvement over an urge to shout in person.
RantWoman, use your search engine. Do not harp on WHY use of search engine instead of other community path to information. Just do not go there right now.
John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge Home page
A facebook group event link
Join the John Heinz Book Group reading Braiding Sweetgrass
The Content of the FB Event Page.
Join the John Heinz Book Club in reading Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).
Read along with us and join the conversation on November 17th! For more information or help getting the book, contact Kelly at kelly_quain@fws.gov
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region
Binge Blog theme: #NDEAM. Read on for why.
First, before RantWoman delves too deeply into commentary about Judget Amey Coney Barrett, please permit RantWoman to get a couple rants out of her system:
RantWoman HATES the national discussions hung on the term "Pro-life." The US needs to take better care of whatever babies get born, as in Medicare for All. People, regardless of religious belief need comprehensive sex education. Knowing what condoms do does not preclude people from deciding NOT to have sex. Decisions about abortion are exquisitely personal and no one should get to impose their missionary zeal on others! And RantWoman may at some point go on at great length about eugenics, disability, birth defects and lots of people she knows who are VERY happy to be alive, thank you very much, no matter what ableist tropes they have to swim in all the time.
ACB around Planet RantWoman is "The American Council of the Blind." RantWoman is fine, Fine, FINE with having mentally to edit in favor of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.
RantWoman is sorry to hear that the White House occasion where Judge Barrett's nomination was announced has turned into such a #CoronaPalooza. RantWoman would not particularly want ascension to anyone's Supreme Court position to be marred by this circumstance #Coronapalooza showed up at an event timed already to look, to RantWoman's taste, a little too much like dancing on Ruth Bader Ginsburg's grave.
RantWoman would also be grossed out by the political chicanery associated with votes on the stimulus, the Supreme Court nomination, and the election. Would RantWoman have enough intestinal fortitude to stand up and say "Look. People are suffering. My nomination can wait until after the election. Deal with the stimulus now"? Would RantWoman have the spine just to state in advance that she would recuse herself from all cases related to the 2020 election? Would RantWoman have the fortitude to tell a president who is clearly ill and whacked out of his mind on medication "Thanks but no thanks. Come back and talk to me when you are more obviously of sound mind"? RantWoman is unlikely to face such dilemmas but she has to ask anyway.
Now, to some actual #NDEAM content: RantWoman has been looking for a link about the blind law student at Notre Dame law school who is now famous not only because she was mentored by Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett but also because she is the first blind woman to serve as a Supreme Court Clerk and to clerk for Justice Thomas no less, just in case anyone assumes all blind people think alike.
What I learned from Amy Coney Barrett
RantWoman always, no matter who the subject or what the circumstances, is undecided about phrasing a call to public service or any other action only as "God made me do it." On one hand, faith is always an important motivator. On the other hand, a secular state cannot long exist if people of different faiths cannot establish principled common ground.
Principled Common Ground? For now can we just say a minefield of issues and circumstances tangled up int eh current Supreme Court confirmation process.
For balance, from the other side of the Senate aisle, a statement from Sen. Patty Murray. RantWoman is trying to keep an open mind about Judge Barrett's judicial temperament and what directions her views might evolve with a lifetime appointment. RantWoman is also cross that the moderator for the list this came from takes it upon himself to decide what the rest of the blind people need to read. But that is another problem. In any case read on.
*Senator Murray Stresses the Stakes of SCOTUS Fight for People withDisabilities: “We Cannot Roll Back Access, Inclusion, and Equal Opportunity”*
*On a call, Senator Murray encourages 230 disability advocates to keep up the fight against the Republicans’ rushed SCOTUS nomination*
*Senator Murray highlights how Republicans’ singular focus on confirming another far-right nominee to the Supreme Court would impact people with disabilities’ access to health care*
*Senator Murray to disability advocates:** “Instead of doing anything to help each of you, all Senate Republicans are doing is rushing through the nomination of Judge Barrett to the Supreme Court, a move that could roll back important protections for people with disabilities.”*
*(Washington, D.C.) –* Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, encouraged disability advocates to keep up the fight to slow and stop the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court—and highlighted how Senate Republicans’ singular focus on their rushed confirmation process would harm the disability community and impact their access to affordable health care.
*“We should be working to make health care more affordable and accessible and pass a COVID relief package that ensures people with disabilities get the supports and services they need in the midst of this pandemic. But instead of doing anything to help each of you, all Senate Republicans are doing is rushing through the nomination of Judge Barrett to the Supreme Court, a move that could roll back important protections for people with disabilities. It’s absolutely disgraceful—and that’s why I’m committed to do everything I can to support you in the fight to stop this nomination,”* said Senator Murray on call with 230 people with disabilities, their families, and advocates, hosted by the Association of University Centers for Disability (AUCD).
On the call, Senator Murray stressed that if Senate Republicans succeed in confirming Judge Barrett and dismantling the Affordable Care Act, people with disabilities would lose protections for pre-existing conditions including disabilities, bans on annual and lifetime caps on benefits, and essential health benefits—which require health plans to cover crucial expenses for people with disabilities like prescription drugs, and habilitative and rehabilitative services.
Senator Murray also highlighted how Senate Republicans’ effort to confirm another far-right Supreme Court nominee would have far-reaching impacts for people with disabilities, beyond just their access to health care. Senator Murray noted that Justice Barrett has not been champion for equal rights for people with disabilities—and the upcoming nomination fight threatens to roll back important advancement in access, inclusion and equal opportunity for people with disabilities.
*“Not only do Senate Republicans want to confirm a nominee who would take health care away from millions, and make it more expensive for people with disabilities, but their nominee is also a threat to the rights of workers, including workers with disabilities,” *continue Senator Murray, on thecall.* “Trying to replace Justice Ginsburg—a champion for disability rights—with someone who will not fight for equal rights, is deeply troubling. We cannot roll back access, inclusion, and equal opportunity.”*
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