Editor's Column
by
Tim Benjamin
March is Brain Injury Awareness
Month. The Brain Injury Association is partnering with Access Press
as a sponsor of this issue. We are running an article describing
what the Brain
Injury Association is all about, and we are doing profiles showing how the
community is integrating individuals with brain injuries.
The article, “Happy to Pay,” sure gives us something
to celebrate. Even though the acceptance and inclusion of people
with developmental disabilities is becoming more obvious, boy, are
these numbers impressive. The self-advocacy movement has played a
big part in achieving this inclusion. That’s an outcome that
makes me realize again how we have to be very careful, as Ms. Powell
says in the article, to empower our friends with developmental disabilities
to make their own choices for their own independence. We can best
play a role by being there in support, not by giving direction. Far
too often, we speak about giving people their own independence but
then our paternalism kicks in and we speak for our friends instead
of encouraging them to speak for themselves.
It’s still very
irritating to me to recognize that we are still labeling as we
do. Granted, there may be some usefulness in labeling but in most
cases, labeling is also assigning a prejudice to a group. Labeling
frequently is nothing more than making generalizations. Over the
years the developmentally disabled have dealt with
a lot of labels, most of them created by external groups. I think
that as a community we need to continue resisting the labels that
others impose on us. Do you have some ideas or thoughts on labeling?
Send in your comments.
President Bush has recommended
cutting funds for traumatic
brain injury research, awareness, and
prevention programs under the Traumatic Brain Injury Act. Can you
believe it? This is our president’s
serious proposal, even while the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is producing
more traumatic brain injuries than our country has ever seen. As
the administration stands firm on cutting funding in many health
care programs, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in our nation’s
capitol, is being investigated as an unfit place for veteran care. “To
think that...all we give them is a dilapidated, rat-infested, run-down
building to recover in is a disgrace,” Sen. Charles Schumer,
D-N.Y., said to an Associated Press reporter. This treatment is in
the news in the same week that our own governor called for an investigation
into the medical neglect and mistreatment at the Minnesota Veterans
Home of Minneapolis. Please contact your legislators and tell them
we can’t treat our most honorable and courageous soldiers with
anything less than the best medical care! Share your thoughts with
them, and maybe a copy of the article.
Have you seen the Access
Press Web site lately? The numbers are continuing to rise, and
right now we’re getting about 7000
hits per month. Your visits should be among the 7000. Pick up the
paper online—no snow to deal with, no empty racks. We’re
always digitally accessible. Click Contact
Us and tell
us what you like or dislike and how the Web site can serve you.
Finally, if your organization
would like more information about sponsoring an issue of Access Press,
please call. Be a bigger part of this vital resource. ![]()
