HOLY COW!!!

This just barely still being child life month I thought I would point my readers towards a very timely entry from Micropreemie Twins from a week ago. The post doesn't mention child life at all, but it is about a kid in a hospital having surgery. I wouldn't be surprised if that hospital has a good child life or therapeutic rec or creative arts therapy or whatever you want to call it department because what 5 year old kid says that their surgery went "GREAT!"? Can I have my next 2 surgeries (whenever they are) at that hospital? My usual response is that I feel like death.

Pet Therapy at Dayton Children's

This is my last post in my series of weekly child life videos commemorating March as Child Life Month. Of course I saved the best for last. There is nothing better then a dog in a hospital :-)

Past Posts:

• Go back in time at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario
  
• Closed circuit TV at the Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital
  
• Medical play & hospital bingo at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center
  
• Language use and giving choices, Sherry Schlagle from Cooper University Hospital
• The Adventures of Bernard, the Hospital Puppet (pre-op teaching) from Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center
  
• Procedural prep, Courtney Hubbard from All Children's Hospital

For more information on child life, visit the child life council.

The Orange on the Seder Plate

As researched by my Rabbi

In the early 1980s while speaking at Oberlin College Hillel, Susannah Heschel, a well known feminist scholar, was introduced to an early feminist haggadah [the book containing the story of Passover] that suggested adding a crust of bread on the Seder plate, as a sign of solidarity with Jewish lesbians. Heschel felt that to put bread on the Seder plate would be to except that Jewish lesbians and gays violate Judaism like hametz [foods forbidden during the holiday] violates Passover.

So at her next Seder she chose an orange as the symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. Each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out--a gesture of spitting out the homophobia of Judaism. She writes:

"Somehow, though, the typical patriarchal maneuver occurred. My idea of an orange and and my intention of affirming lesbians and gay men was transformed. Now the story circulates that a man said to me that a woman belongs on the bimah [where the leader of Jewish services stands to lead the congregation in prayer] as an orange on the Seder plate. A woman's words are attributed to a man, and the affirmation of of lesbians and gay men is erased. Isn't that precisely what's happened over the centuries to woman's ideas?"

Happy Passover everyone!

What's Said in the Group...

stays in the group. Unless it's about me and I don't use any names that is :-)

Wednesday I did something unusual during my 2-3hr break between class and OOO. Instead of spending the whole time blogging, I only spent part of the time blogging and then I went to the gym for something over an hr but less than an hr and a half.

Then I rolled directly to OOO. Did not pass go, did not collect $200. Or should I say, without changing out of my gym clothes. I had jeans and a bra in the bag hanging off the back of my chair, but I had just quickly changed my shirt and was somewhat concerned about the smell, weighing it against everyone's sheer excitement at the fact that I made it to the gym at all, and thus their lack of concern about my B.O. I had decided I would rather get there and change in the bathroom there, but then seriously questioned the effort of changing for the purpose of just 3hrs. Questioned out loud.

I really need to decide if I'm changing or not.

Without looking up from what he was drawing and without much of a pause, a friend somewhat absentmindedly opened his mouth

Cheryl, you've already changed.

I looked at him quizzically. He looked up from his drawing and said very sincerely

I've noticed a lot of changes in you over the last couple of months.

If that isn't a warm fuzzy, I don't know what is...

Hurtful Words Part 1

Something came up in class yesterday that brought up one of the most hurt situations I have ever experienced. This happened roughly 5 months ago, and at the time I had opted not to make it public on the internet. You have to be careful what you put out on a a non-passworded blog, even though I choose not to divulge my last name and thus am not googable by my name (I check every so often). I have not thought about it since the incident because I think it is poinless to ruminate on a person who will never change.

In class I said something ultra brief but then decided to send an email to this professor, whom I trust, going into great detail. This time I am choosing to post it here, as I would appreciate multiple opinions, and also thought this is perfect of BADD.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The second time I took psyc 403 [child psychology], my adjunct professor (a full time school psychologist who adopted a son years ago who has significant psychological disabilities) started in on how Drs are keeping premature babies alive earlier and earlier. In doing so they are taking advantage of parent's vulnerability, he says, for their own personal professional gain (so that they can publish the case study) and NOT looking out for the best interest of the child. He also believes that if there becomes prenatal testing for psychiatric disabilities it should become the norm to perform preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Society would be saving those babies from a life of constant suffering, not just physically, but because of how pervasive ableism (he didn't use that word) is in this society. Forget about working to change society, just kill off those people. Reintroduce eugenics [my interpretation, not his wording].

I was sitting in my chair in class that day. It was very unprofessional for him to use those words and in hindsight I wish I'd gone to the psyc dept chair. I was too depressed to figure that out at the time. Do you think it is too late? Offensive language can come in many forms and and this is much more hurtful to me then calling me a cripple, invalid, spaz, retard, a wheelchair (what, am I not a person?). 0-60 in 10secs flat.

My interpretation of what he said is that I shouldn't have been sitting in that room; that I have nothing valuable to contribute to society; that my parents should have killed me off; that people like me and his son should have been aborted. I mean, really, I have a double curse if you want to view me that way.

My life is certainly hard, but so are a lot of other people's. I asked him if he had also adopted a typical son would he love that one more? He said that he had not said that babies should be aborted or that he does not love his son [he didn't] and that I went too far in assessing what he had said. How could I not have? I'm not going to change his opinion, some people are beyond help, but people in these types of professions [professors] should know when to keep their mouth shut. I almost feel like I should address this issue now, but I almost feel like 5 months later the moment has passed... Should I?

Part 2

Aimee Mullins ON DISABILITY

IT'S EVEN CAPTIONED! Found through the blog Born Just Right, and then a few days later on Ryn Tales Book of Days, and then Terrible Palsy. It seems to be floating around mommy bloggers lately. I have no comments, this needs none; it should speak for itself.

Hope & Recovery

Monday I stopped by Susan's blog and found out that Hopeworks Community, a blog that is new to me, posted a Voices of Recovery series that is great and worth checking out, so I thought I would give them a plug! Go over there! Now! :)

Child Life's Been Around Awhile...

at Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Canada. This video is from 1978. I think some of it got cut off, as is often the case on you tube, but usually there is a part 2. Can anyone find it?

This post is part of my Child Life Month 2010 series. Past Posts:

• Closed circuit TV at the Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital
  
• Medical play & hospital bingo at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center
  
• Language use and giving choices, Sherry Schlagle from Cooper University Hospital
• The Adventures of Bernard, the Hospital Puppet (pre-op teaching) from Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center
  
• Procedural prep, Courtney Hubbard from All Children's Hospital

Fore more information about child life, visit the child life council.

PLEASE Sponsor Me!

[Yoshiko Dart at last year's funrun with Justin Dart's wheelchair and iconic cowboy hat]

I am writing to ask you to sponsor me in the ADAPT fun*run for disability rights on April 25th. My goal is to raise $2000 and so far I have raised $670 to date. Half of the money goes to national ADAPT and the other half goes to the newly formed Maryland ADAPT which currently has no budget.

You might not know that ADAPT helps EVERYONE! It is an organization that fights to change legislation that benefits people with all types of disabilities and senior citizens. Everyone will get old so everyone benefits from the legislation we're fighting for. Did you know that ADAPT is responsible for the ADA being passed, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary on July 26th 2010?!?!

If you don't need our help now perhaps someone in your family has already been affected by the budget cuts in the current economy. As co-organizer of the newly resurected Maryland ADAPT I am asking that you consider making a pledge by visiting http://www.adaptfunrun.org/sponsor.php?id=7

Even if you can only afford to donate a small amount, every penny helps in our fight to FREE OUR PEOPLE! To borrow from Mike Ervin, this years national funrunner "Giving the bad guys a pie in the face actually costs a lot of money. Help keep ADAPT strong! Please sponsor me. It’s easy to do and it’s tax deductible."

To learn more about ADAPT and what we do visit http://www.adapt.org

Therese & Cheryl ON CREATIVITY & MOOD DISORDERS

Oh how I hate transcribing videos, but since I'm not responding to the whole thing I thought I would.

Starting @ 2:30:

I was so afraid to take medication 20 years ago when I was first diagnosed with depression because I thought that it would take away from my creativity. I thought that I would no longer be able to write. But I agree with so many doctors that have said not only does it make my concentration better, it makes me a better writer. It's just that the subject matter sometimes isn't death and doom and despair. It can sometimes be about children and friendship and all the graces that I experience on a daily basis.

Starting @ 4:10:

... medication isn't the end of creativity. It's not the end of being an artist, a writer, an actress, it's the beginning. It's the beginning of a life--of a better life. Of a treatable mood disorder. So I guess I just wanted to encourage all those artists and creative people out there that treatment isn't our enemy, it's our friend, and it works on the side of life.

I'm shooting myself in the foot writing this. I know this is something that's going to get thrown in my face again and again, every single time I dip into a decent depression and start doing stupid things (or I should say stop doing smart things). But I guess that's sort of the point, isn't it? For someone (as long as it's not my mother) to grab my shoulders and shake me and go

Cheryl you idiot. What do you think you're doing (or not doing)? YOU SAID IT YOURSELF, you like being functional, you hate when your head feels so heavy that your blog's filled with crap. I printed this out and saved it and stapled it to the front of your chart so I could find it in a flash. WTF are. you. doing? Get dressed for starters...

Not that my current therapist would ever speak to me like that (my last one would) you'd laugh hysterically at the thought if you ever meet her, but I am henceforth giving her permission to do so.

I think that a lot of people think that medication dulls who they are. I think that's a common perception, but I wonder how many people that is true for (I'm sure there are some) and how many people experience a "placebo effect." While I wasn't alive back in the day, from what I gather the really old school stuff does dull personality. But as far as Therese and I feel, there is other stuff out there that can balance you out to the point of being appropriately creative and not dull. To borrow from OOO rules, these are our experiences and I am in no way stating that they are yours. My advice is that if your medication does make you feel dull, pressure your psychiatrist until you get it right.

I don't know about you, but my creativity makes me feel alive. My creativity makes me proud of myself. My creativity got me noticed by New Mobility magazine (check out the April issue) and got me a spot on a panel presentation during the upcoming OOO of MD annual conference. My creativity brings focus to successful Cheryl as opposed to utter failure Cheryl. Both sides of me are equally accurate, but which side would you like to focus on when you wake up in the morning?

While of course mania makes me super creative, my experience of bipolar is one of prolonged depression that sucks all of the creativity out of me. My depression doesn't manifest itself in a way where I write about "death and doom and despair," but I feel so disconnected from my writing, from my creativity, from the good parts of me.

So like Therese, I have advice for all you creative bipolar people out there. My advice is to take your medication. My advice to myself is that I take my medication. The point is not for the bottle to sit and look pretty. The point is to strive to be the person that you could be, instead of the person you are. I like that person better.

Chicken or Egg?

There was an article I read awhile ago, Too Much Internet Linked to Depression. Hmmm... I am definitely addicted to the internet. Ask this shrink or the last one. I also have a predisposition to pretty bad depressive episodes. Ask this shrink or the last one. Or this psychiatrist or the last 2. Or my physiatrist. So... which came first? The chicken or the egg? Do I go online because I'm depressed or does being online so much make me depressed?

Kara has 2 posts that talk about how blogging can increase social support. Even CNN says so. But this article isn't talking about blogging, it's talking about porn and gaming. It is possible to be an honest to g-d internet addict and not be into porn or gaming. I'm living breathing proof.

I think though that I am still using the internet just as much as I did when I was depressed all fall. The difference is that when I really have to go somewhere I go. Instead of checking my email making me late to class I now rush to school to check it there before class. The level of panic and urgency surrounding checking my email is still the same as it was, but I've gotten to the point where my brain now sees the panic and urgency surrounding getting to school on time as equally distressing. So I check my email at school instead of in my apt. If I were to get to school too late to do so I would lose it. That is where the addiction comes in.

I think an addiction is an addiction plain and simple, mood disorder or not. My mood disorder keeps me from being able to get up, dressed, and out. My addiction does not. So now instead of just sitting like a bump in front of a screen 24/7, it's when I don't have to be somewhere that I'm online now. I don't have to be at the gym. I don't have to be in bed at 10. I can be in bed at 12. I don't have to do my assignment early, I can finish it 12hrs before it is due. It's still done. I may be online until 2mins before class and then possibly as soon as 2mins after class. This still impacts my life to the point of being disruptive, even though I appear to be pretty functional. It's just that instead of preventing me from being able to get out or even dressed and showered, it's putting me into a sleep deficit. My bipolar didn't cause my addiction, but it does change its manifestation. Not if it impacts my life, but how.

An addiction is like a mood disorder in the "cousin" sense. Very similar but different enough. Just like my mood disorder, my addiction has always been and will always be in my brain. But my addiction is not bipolar. I don't think it was caused by anything in particular, I think it just is. It is not depression or mania; it is compulsion. I don't believe that my addiction and my mood disorder are a matter of 1st and 2nd, cause and effect. They aren't a vertical progression. They're horizontal. Does that make any sense?

A Summary of Closed Circuit TV Programming

Here is a video montage of the programs on the KidZone Channel at Mount Siani Kravis Children's Hospital in NYC. Many large children's hospitals have their own TV channel run by child life / creative arts departments.

This post is part of my Child Life Month 2010 series. Past Posts:

• Medical play & hospital bingo at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center
  
• Language use and giving choices, Sherry Schlagle from Cooper University Hospital
• The Adventures of Bernard, the Hospital Puppet (pre-op teaching) from Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center
  
• Procedural prep, Courtney Hubbard from All Children's Hospital

For more information on child life, visit the child life council.

I Totally Get It

There was this book that came out in the early 90s, Colt, by Nancy Springer, about a 10 year old boy with spina bifida who is forced into a therapeutic riding program and ends up falling in love with the horses. On a tangent, the other day I was getting in the shower and started wondering why it's "therapeutic" riding and not an adaptive sport. Blind skiers, wheelchair track stars, murderball players, are all involved in "adaptive sports" not "therapeutic sports". Are we crip riders not athletes too?

Anyway, back to the book, possibly my all time FAVORITE book (no longer in print). I can't remember how many times I've read it. A crip kid who rides. HEAVEN.

In the beginning of the book Colt, the main character, gets wheeled against his will and plopped in front of a full size horse. Kind of right under his head. And he was scared. So scared he has a panic attack I guess.

My whole life I've always gone to the barn on foot. When I was little with a walker I rode teeny tiny ponies, when I was bigger, bigger horses. Since I was always standing, I was always taller then the horse's back. While I was scared when I was 3, they were never looming over me.

Last Monday was a GORGEOUS day. After snomagedden a month ago, I just had to get out. So I went to the barn. The barn located on another college's campus, only 2/3mi from me. All these years I've lived here, I've never gone over there. So I rolled there of course, a quick trip, and sat in one of the barns with a large horse's head looming over me from way down there.

And I got it. I could see how someone might be scared of horses when approaching them from that angle. They look so much bigger. Especially unfamiliar ones where you don't know their temperament. I could see how someone might be afraid of being whacked with a head or trampled with a hoof.

Never try to pet a horse you don't know, they might try to bite you if they happen to be a nasty horse. Or really scared of a wheelchair if they've never seen one before. One was scared of the clicking noise. So I didn't. I sat and looked up and talked to them until my neck hurt from looking up for so long.

It was a good day.

What Odd Things Do You Do Because of Your Disability/State of Mind?

I was getting into bed last week sometime when I started thinking about this odd thing that I do. I set up my laptop with a Grey's Anatomy DVD (that I know the words of, but that's not the odd thing), make sure it is at the right volume, and then immediately roll over and pull the covers over my head. You'd think I'd want to watch it, wouldn't you? Not so much now that I know the words, but it's not about the words, or even the particular show. I don't know what it is about falling asleep with the TV on, but there is something to it. I was talking to my shrink last week about how I really think there is some biochemical reaction to the glowing screen, but laptops don't flicker, and we think it would have something to do with the slight flickering of old school TVs.

[image description: my pony blanket. my bed never looks that neat...]

I digress though. The odd thing I wanted to talk about was not that I know lines of GA episodes by heart, not that I've been so tired lately from having to get up @ 8am, even on non-school days (I can't wait until the day that my biorhythms readjust to my new schedule), not that I sleep with my computer in my bed (my mom did for YEARS before she got married, so I don't think that's odd at all, glad I have a double bed), but the fact that I sleep with the covers over my head.

It all started freshman year, 7 years ago, when I went through a pretty bad bout of depression. I was unmedicated by direction of my then treating psychologist, and was just in a bad place. One of the results of this, as with most clinically depressed people, was that my sleep schedule was totally off. I was up late because I went to a party school, so I was generally sleep deprived all year to begin with, and a lot of the time slept all day. It was not unusual for me to sleep 14hrs straight. One time I slept until 4:30pm. That really screwed me up. Not to mention how often I passed out in class.

What does that have to do with anything? Often my sleep would be disturbed in the late morning by the bright sun shining through my window. So I would grumble, pull the covers over my head, roll over, and go back into my deep sleep. I was not someone who slept like this before, but the habit has stuck, and now I cannot sleep otherwise, depressed, manic, or stable.

So what quirky habits have you developed due to your disability/ies? I know I'm not the only one.

I Just Refound This Video

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

SPAM CASSEROLE

In a bit of a departure from my regular posting, I found this several weeks ago from my gmail ticker and I want someone to try it and tell me how it is. I can't try it, SPAM's not kosher. Here's the link Apparently they have a whole catagory of SPAM recipes.

---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.02

Title: FRENCH FRY SPAM CASSEROLE
Categories: Main dish
Yield: 8 servings

1 pk Frozen french fry potatoes,
-thawed (20 oz)
2 c Shredded Cheddar cheese
2 c Sour cream
1 cn Condensed cream of chicken
-soup (10 3/4 oz)
1 cn SPAM Luncheon Meat, cubed
-(12 oz)
1/2 c Chopped red bell pepper
1/2 c Chopped green onion
1/2 c Finely crushed corn flakes

Heat oven to 350'F. In large bowl, combine potatoes, cheese, sour cream, and soup. Stir in SPAM, bell pepper, and green onion. Spoon into 13x9″ baking dish. Sprinkle with crushed flakes. Bake 30-40 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

-----

Johns Hopkins Children's Center Child Life Specialists Talk Medical Play & Hospital Bingo

This post is part of my Child Life Month 2010 series. Past Posts:

• Language use and giving choices, Sherry Schlagle from Cooper University Hospital
• The Adventures of Bernard, the Hospital Puppet (pre-op teaching) from Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center
  
• Procedural prep, Courtney Hubbard from All Children's Hospital

For more information on child life, visit the child life council.

Quotes From Me

Last Wednesday I had 2 good ones. To set up the first one, I have a standing lunch every Wednesday with a friend of mine that used to come to OOO on Wednesdays but now has a Wednesday night class. I mentioned to her at least once before this that I should get off my butt and get something to drink so that I could take my meds. Then I say,

"I need to get up. I need to take them. I'm really starting to like being functional again."

To which some guy in the room I don't really know says

"What were you before?"

Um, non-functional. DUH! (I said it nicer)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fast forward to the end of OOO when I was tired, my meds were wearing off, and I was having trouble centering my chair so that I could get it on the lift of the paratransit vehicle. In my head I went

Man, I'm such a... [pause while I think of the word] spaz

Which is hysterically funny to my twisted sense of humor, and not at all offensive (why would I offend myself?) because my official diagnosis is spastic triplegia cerebral palsy (or quadriplegia depending on who you ask), it's where the term comes from, and those of us with CP lose motor control when we're tired. Thus it follows logically that I should have trouble getting straight onto the lift. FYI, I decided some time ago that if the word was not going to be removed from the English language it might as well be used correctly, and I am, in fact, a spaz. Literally.

Disability Rights Haggadah

I was in Hillel Wednesday as I have a standing lunch with a friend, when 2 people came in to have a meeting with the director about Passover, which starts the Monday after our spring break. Apparently we are having an official Seder the first night (I will be at my parents) and then for the second night he is paying for food so that people can hold their own Seder that is most meaningful to them. We can do them however we want. He says "I can find you a haggadah for whatever you want. Feminist, LGBT, traditional, chocolate themed, he even offered to buy the Animated Haggadah if a group of people want to watch that and then chow down.

He was saying he could find a text to match any theme, so I looked at him and said, "Can you find a disability rights haggadah? Because we have this whole 'free our people' thing going on." [my free our people drawing is to the left] I was just trying to be tongue and cheek, I did not mean for it to be something taken seriously, but he did. He said if I wanted to host a disability rights seder he would look. I must have had a look of shock on my face. I mean I know plenty of Jews that would be down with it, but students?

Well I looked into it later that day, and I really think there is nothing. There are the picture cards Ricki's Mom made for her and the PECs haggadah below, but nothing about rights.

isaacsrevisedhaggadah

So I think if I am going to do this I am going to take from here and there. I need to look at my ragged edge anthology for some poems about freedom. I can adapt things from the Labor Seder, such as using the poem on page 12 as a jumping off point for a rewrite. The system is broken. I need to take a look at the human rights haggadah and find the UN declaration of the rights of people with disabilities. The 30 Minute Seder is also on my list.

He wants us to think of what was meaningful for us when we were children, and to me, the best part of Passover was "quarters." No, not the drinking game, but my Grandpa would get a roll of quarters and sit all of the kids at the table and we had to guess a number between 1 and 100 for a quarter. So I think I would take the multiple choice questions from the back of the PECs haggadah and use them to chuck quarters at people. It's a good opportunity to talk about inclusion.

I don't think I'm going to hold a seder this year. Creating a haggadah from scratch is pretty labor intensive and I don't think I had enough advance notice, but this is definitely a project I want to undertake and complete. So what are the 10 plagues of ableism? I may borrow from the labor seder, such as un/underemployment.

Fact Sheet on The Lorraine Sheehan Health and Community Services Act of 2010

I've been meaning to post facts about the alcohol tax increase bill making its way through the Maryland legislature and it just dawned on me that I could upload this word doc onto my blog through scribd. Feel free to print and distribute. The number of organizations involved is WAY out of date. my friend tells me that the list is now over 70.

FYI the hearing dates are Wednesday, March 10th at 1pm in the Miller Senate Office Building, 3 West Wing 11 Bladen St., Annapolis MD 21401 and Thursday, March 11th at 1pm in the House Office Building, Room 131 6 Bladen St., Annapolis, MD 21401

Please comment here if you would like more info.

Fact Sheet - Feb 5 2010

NCADD Poll Release

Poll Memo Alcohol Tax 3.1.10

Today is Spread the Word to End the Word Day

My post today is two videos that I feel say it better then I could

March Is Child Life Month

Throughout the month of March (every Tuesday) I am going to be profiling different child life departments and techniques in honor of Child Life Month. A lot of people don't know what Child Life Specialists do, and I thought this was the perfect time to bring awareness.

This first video profiles Sherry Schlagle at Cooper University Hospital in New Jersey. The video talks about language use and the importance of giving choices. Did you know that the hospital can be fun? I did.

In July I posted a video profiling Courtney Hubbard at All Children's Hospital in Florida. That video focuses on procedural prep.

In November I posted a video about Bernard the hospital puppet from Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis, TN focusing on pre-op teaching.

For more information on child life, visit the child life council.

A Letter From Mike Ervin

WHY I WANT YOUR SUPPORT FOR DISABILITY RIGHTS!

A Personal Letter from MIKE ERVIN –

2010 NATIONAL ADAPT FUNRUNNER

MIKE’S GOAL IS A “ZILLION” FUN RUN SUPPORTERS

BE ONE IN A ZILLION AND SUPPORT MIKE E!

Dear Friend of ADAPT,

It just recently hit me that I’ve been doing ADAPT stuff for 26 years, which is half of my life. And there’s no end in sight. I’ll be doing ADAPT stuff as long as there is ADAPT stuff to be done (which is forever) and as long as I can still do it.

Why? Because I’m restless. Life is too damn short. I’ve got things to see and people to do. I don’t want to be locked away in some stinkin’ nursing home somewhere. I don’t want that to happen to anybody.

So I do ADAPT stuff. We confront those in power who would just as soon see us locked away. And we say, “Hell no! We won’t go!”

And the best thing about it is we actually win! That’s what I love most about ADAPT. I’m a sore loser. If I’m going to spend a lot of time and energy protesting, I want to win something dammit! ADAPT demanded accessible public transit and we got accessible public transit. ADAPT demanded that the feds and states spend money supporting disabled folk in their homes and communities instead of locking us away, and what do ya know, billions of dollars have shifted toward funding home and community services and supports.

Doing ADAPT stuff is big time fun too. Of course it’s always a rush giving the bad guys a pie in the face. But ADAPTers are the most wonderfully ornery people in the world, which is what makes hanging with them so wild and entertaining.

So when ADAPT leaders asked me if I could help out by running, I said, “Sure, I can do that easy.” I thought they meant by running my mouth. But by running, they meant by being the 2010 ADAPT National FUN*RUNNER.

Every year ADAPT raises most of our money by having our FUN*RUN for Disability Right in Washington, DC right before our Spring Action. This year it will be held Sunday April 25, 2010 in Upper Senate Park.

My job as National FUN*RUNNER is to get a zillion people to sponsor me per lap. I intend to do 10 laps. It will be grueling, pushing my joystick that long, but I’ve already started training.

Giving the bad guys a pie in the face actually costs a lot of money. Help keep ADAPT strong! Please sponsor me. It’s easy to do and it’s tax deductible.Please be one of my ZILLION supporters.

Cheers,

Mike Ervin

To donate please click here