Editor's Column
by
Tim Benjamin
Every
one of the 150 or more people who came to the Third Annual Charlie
Smith Award Banquet on November 4, 2005 helped to make the evening
a success. I had a great time, and I’m pretty sure most
everyone else did too. The night took off with the help of Emcee
and Chairwoman of the Banquet, JoAnn Cardenas Enos, and Chairman
of the Board of Directors, Mike Chevrette, who acted as Co-Emcee.
They carried the whole evening without a flaw! Thank you both
for your efforts, and a round of personal applause to the entire
board, Terri Ricci, and all the Access Press staff and volunteers.
Their planning for the banquet, like all their work, demonstrates
their commitment to the paper and their dedication to the advancement
of the disability movement.
The Access Press board
expresses through the Charlie
Smith Award the gratitude of the
entire community to Minnesota Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities
(MN-CCD). The 2005 award was accepted by John Tschida and Joel
Ulland, co-chairs of the MN-CCD, on behalf all the members of MN-CCD.
We are very proud and appreciative of the accomplishments of MN-CCD
in last year’s legislative session.
John and Joel gave very gracious and informative speeches that were
the highlight of the night. It was also great to welcome and thank
the past award winners, Margot Imdieke Cross and Rick Cardenas. Their
efforts continue to serve our entire community.
We have some good news
to pass on to our readers. I’m thrilled
to write that Access Press' website has recently passed the
10,000-visit mark for the year 2005. What really pleases all of us
is that the average number of visits per day is growing—from
an average of 25 per day during the mid-summer to 96 per day now.
And over 30,000 pages have been viewed since January 1, 2005. The
website seems to be gaining momentum.
Lupus is the disease
we are highlighting this month. It’s
a difficult disease to understand and diagnose. It’s one of
the autoimmune diseases that attacks a person’s organs. We
have a couple of good articles about what
lupus is, and a personal
story about its effects.
Christine Miserandino
explains her “spoon theory,” a
way to describe her life with her disability. She uses spoons as
a metaphor for personal life energy. It’s a very cool way to
explain life with a disability. Next time someone asks me about my
disability I’ll be using the spoon theory to explain it.
The National Alliance
on Mental Illness of Minnesota (NAMI-MN) has added a local perspective
to Chuck Campbell’s article, Prisons:
Are They the New State Hospitals? from last month. The article
by Sarah J. Krueger of NAMI-MN shows that Minnesota is doing better
than the national averages, but we are still failing far too many
people in jail and prison who have mental health issues. The best
news is that the Minnesota Legislature has the issues on their radar.
NAMI-MN is doing their best to keep it on the front burner at the
capitol. They’re conducting surveys and collecting solid evidence
of what works and where we need to focus our energy and money to
minimize this problem. Thanks, Sarah. You and the Building Bridges
Project at NAMI-MN are doing great work!
We are very proud and
flattered that the Minnesota State Council on Disabilities presented
Access Press with the Media Award on October 27, 2005. Cliff Poetz
is the first winner of the Council’s
new Governor’s Award for outstanding service to the disability
movement. Congratulations to all State Council’s award
winners.
