Hi Nathasha,

I want to respond to, or at least riff off, your commentary on Obama. You brought up some salient points, I think, and I’d like to write about a couple of them.

You’re right, obviously Obama can’t walk on water! (you know, though, I did see some kids sliding around on the reflecting pool during the inauguration….I’m not sure what the symbolism is of that, if any…). I’m not a staunch Democrat: I’m a staunch left-winger, which often puts me in conflict with the centrist Dems, but I’m also aware politics is compromise.

My heart was closest to Kucinich, but he didn’t have a chance. I supported Edwards because I believed he had the most compassionate domestic agenda. Of course I would have supported Clinton, if she’d won the nomination. After all, she was the first loud clear voice in years calling for universal health care. Obama…well, he’s Mr Charisma. At the Democratic convention in 2004 it was obvious he was a comer. I worried because he comes out of one of the most truly corrupt state political machines in the country, and I wondered if he was a political adventurer rather than a serious and responsible contender for the presidency. I’m still concerned about the latter: you know the old saying, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t true.” Time will tell. I think we’re off to a good start, however. Closing Guantanamo and evacuating Iraq are good opening moves. So is saying no to torture.

“Guardedly optimistic,” that’s me.

I’m really not sure about the costs of the inauguration; I have a hunch the inaugural expenses may be as mythical as the $73 per hour supposedly made by auto-makers. I know that the formal costs of the 2005 Bush inaugurals didn’t include security costs and that the “estimates” of Obama’s inauguration come from….where? The networks. But nobody knows where the networks got their figures.

Accessibility at the inauguration? Well, I don’t know. If I’d seriously thought about going, I would have been concerned—But, I’d have concerned myself more about the crowds and the cold, neither of which I’m particularly fond of.

I think Obama’s skin color is a plus, but not the whole show. I honestly don’t think he was chosen because of his skin color; it didn’t work for Alan Keyes or Jesse Jackson and I don’t think we’re so easily manipulated. “Identity politics” is an awkward topic; for me, it involves considerations about race, of course, since I’m mixed race myself; about his speaking of us disabled folks: I hope he’ll try to make sure the ADA is applied on a national level? What will happen with transportation and housing and the big one, universal health care?

The Democrats, traditionally, have been more concerned with health care and social justice than the Republicans, since the days of Franklin Roosevelt through Kennedy and Johnson and Carter (no, not so much Clinton!); I’m hopeful this will carry on in actual policy.

I don’t like Obama being called the first African-American president; he’s the first mixed-race, biracial president. That’s a more honest description. I think it’s hopeful. There are more and more mixed-race Americans. We’re a multi-racial country in a multi-racial world. I like our leadership representing that. Almost every previous president has been a descendent of north-western European ancestry. If I was African-American, of course I would have voted for him. The obvious joy of our Black sisters and brothers is completely understandable to me, especially considering the track record of the other party when it comes to race.

Things have looked bleak, for a long time. You remember the song by the Who “We won’t get fooled again!”? (You know I have a black belt in cynicism.) I was ready to give up. I figured if the Republicans won this election we were done for. I was going down to city hall and burn my voter’s registration card. Another eight years of debacles like the fraudulently hyped war against Iraq and subsequent occupation, ricocheting energy costs, Afghanistan’s opium flood, the erosion of health care for people here at home, declining life-expectancy tables, climbing economic misery, rotting highways and falling bridges and crumbling levees…that would be it.

Hope was what Obama’s campaign was dangling in front of us all. Like bait to hungry fish. Of course I rose to it, like a fish to a fly. I had to take the chance of being fooled again, of it being the same old bait-and-switch we’ve all seen for so many years. It’s like love. Without the chance of rejection and hurt, we wither and die; love is about risk. Life is about risk. Hope is about risk.

So, for what it’s worth—that’s where I’m at. Thanks for the opportunity to organize some of my thoughts.

Keep the faith.

Peter Webster

Hi Nathasha,
I just wanted to comment on your Obama article. I agree with you 100%. Those who can’t see why he got elected are clueless. To be honest, I’d never heard of him until he annouced he was running. He does seem like a very smart man and thats why he played the race card. He knew this country has been talking about a black president as well as a woman president for the past 10, 15 years and played it to a tee. I didn’t vote for him but I don’t mind he won. He never said his plan really if you think about it and thats why I didn’t vote for him. I don’t care if he was black or not. The only reason he got a majority of the black vote is because all they saw was his skin color. I’m not saying thats why they all voted for him but you can’t help but think that just by watching tv. Its not too hard to figure out. Thats why makes me mad about him being our 44th President. Its all for the wrong reason. If he can dig us out of the hole we’re in then I may change my tune. (I don’t know if anyone can do that). If he can be as smart running this country as he did playing to blacks and people with disabilities while trying to get elected, then he’ll go down as one of the greatest President’s ever. I have my doubts since his lack of experiense but I hope I’m wrong. Thanks for reading.

Steve Alexy

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I loved, loved, loved your article about your father. I could have written it my self. Almost the same exact scenario with my father except no one EVER told me he was sick & I just happend to go visit him & was told he had died. I liked your story because it didn’t make me feel like I was alone in my feelings for my father & in his behavior. I also like what you said about attitudes in dealing or accepting one’s disability. I am amazed at how some people with disabilities have such a high self esteem & move forward & those like myself let their disability hold them back to some extent.

Great article!

Sloane

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Please take me off your mailing list.

I did not work to elect Barack Obama because of the color of his skin – I did so because of his intellect, his vision, his willingness to work with people he disagrees with, and a host of other reasons. But his skin color was not a factor.

You’re entitled to voice your opinion. But you ought to think about the sweeping generalizations you made. I read enough of that from right-wingers who don’t give a crap about people with disabilities or their civil rights. I don’t need to read it in my in box.

Julie Clark

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Hi Nathasha,

I’m sorry to hear about your father’s passing. I definitely got the impression that there were some family issues, least between you and your dad

This semester I’m taking a fourth year social work course that covers Disability Issues. I found it interesting, although unfortunate, when I read in your article that your dad was struggling with the acceptance of Parkinson’s and the fact it was limiting the abilities he was accustomed too. In class, we discussed extensively the difference between being born with a disability, and having a disability as the result of illness or injury. It’s different the mind set that takes place.

Anyways the article reminded me of that class. My condolences girl.

~ Melissa

Tashauna, read your article in Audacity’s December issue, it was so simple and meaningful and put into words better than I ever could how I feel. Keep up the great work. Rick

Richard E. Rettig
Admissions/Rights Officer
The Center Serving
Houston, TX 77019

Hi Nathasha,

Happy Birthday first off. I left you a comment on Myspace. I like Tashauna’s twist on New Year’s resolutions. It’s funny because me and a friend of mine were talking about the very same thing a few nights ago. She talked me into starting a journal and making a list of goals and the time table that I’ d like to accomplish them in.

I’ve never done either one so it should be fun. We believe the same thing about resolutions, it’s really a myth in a way because if you want to change something in your life or start something new, you can do it at anytime of the year. You don’t have to wait until January 1. Why wait anyway? I understand it’s a tradition so-to-speak, but it’s a silly one to me. We all know losing weight is the number 1 resolution.

Like Tashuna wrote, it lasts maybe 2 weeks and then it’s back to the same thing. I really like reading her articles because she writes about the things most of us are thinking. Every one did a good job selecting her as the new full time writer for Audacity. I really enjoy your site and I hope it’s another great year. Thank you.

Steve A.

Nathasha,

That was a great article about the MDA Telethon

I have heard on the news and in the newspapers a few years ago that Jerry Lewis gets a percentage of the money he raises
I have also heard that some of the entertainers get paid.

I speak to many people online
There are people with Muscular Dystrophy who say they are getting nothing from MDA.

MDA is not the only organization that has fund raisers, they all do, some even have telethons
There is nothing as spectacular as the MDA Telethon and no one raises as much money.

Alan Weinrib

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Nathasha,

Jerry Lewis started his Telethons many years ago when people responded best to donating to beggars.

There are still huge numbers of people who like to be begged as that lets them feel superior and benevolent.

That’s a shame.

I agree Lewis’ pathos is sickening, and way outdated, but what we all would really like to know is where has all that donated money REALLY gone over the years.

I wonder if a Challenges Network on the cable schedule would benefit all kinds of people who have to live in a physically different manner. It could be a shopping and info oriented set-up. allowing folks to sell equipment, fashion items, medical helps, crafts and art, music and other things, including books, and the only restriction would be that the items would have to be made and/or sold by the people living with their various conditions.

By the way, isn’t it time the word ‘disabled’ was changed to something more positive? Differently Abled, for instance.

Martha V.
Brunswick, Georgia

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Nathasha

“The spaces are closest to a ramp because people who use mobility aids
need access to the sidewalk.”

What about people who have leg weakness and can’t lift their legs
curb-high? Are they not for those people as well?

My mother has multiple sclerosis, and while she can waltz into the mall
pretty steadily, by the time she’s walking out, she can’t always make it
across the parking lot. I don’t see a reason to attack people who are
slightly more abled but still not entirely abled for parking in a spot
that their doctors deem medically necessary. If there’s not enough
handicapped parking for you, maybe you should take it up with the owners
of the lot. Or the government for not mandating putting enough of them
aside. Just because you don’t show up in a scooter doesn’t mean you
couldn’t use one or be better off with one … you just don’t have one,
or you may just not need it on the way in. The disability community
needs unification, not rants like this “more-disabled-than-thou” attempt
at humor. Your idea of putting aside other spots in a different color is
a good one, but until then, this is what it is. Listen to your friend;
invisible disabilities have their own maddening stereotypes … and this
is one of them.

Robyn Heller Gerbush

Hi Nathasha,

I read your article about Telethons with interest. For years in Australia we have had telethons with no protests, but I understand that overseas it is different.

From reading about disaiblity history, many telethons have been protested against, particularly in America, by people with disabilities for their portrayal of people with disabilities as helpless and needing pity. Then of course the non-disabled population (and probably some of the disabled population as well) calls them ungrateful. I don’t really know what the answer is. I know our Channel 7 telethon is quite bad for portraying people with disabilities as helpless, but as you say where does the money come from otherwise? I don’t know what the answer is, but I do know that many people with disabilities dislike the negative stereotypes portrayed by media and telethons.

Yours sincerely

April Dunow
Project Officer
Disability Arts Advocacy Program
Arts Access SA
101 Halifax St
Adelaide, SA, 5000
Australia

The day I received my computer was a complete life changing moment for me. It’s no exaggeration that’s it’s probably saved my life. I have Muscular Dystrophy and don’t get around well. I don’t get out much due to several reasons. I received my computer three years ago this August. I was new to the internet so I didn’t expect much from it. After learning a few things I was set to go.

There were so many things to do and learn. Learning to email, play games, shop, do research. It was neverending. I didn’t make friends right away but that was expected. But eventually I did and more after that. It’s really nice to have something to look forward to everyday. I know I couldn’t meet nicer people even if I did go out. Friends might be scattered around the world but I believe that that makes it just that much stronger.

Over the last year or so, I have wondered where I would be now if I hadn’ t gotten a computer. I never gave up life but it wasn’t too thrilling either. I get to play games with friends, there’s all types of chat options available on messengers, I can email friends and family who I haven’t seen in several years and talking on a microphone is just a blast. And it’s free.

Not everyone can call long distance or if they can, maybe they can’t hold onto a telephone so the computer offers so much for a person with disabilities. I know it has for me and I’m grateful to still be here to experience a new beginning as you might say, a second chance at life and I expect to take full advantage of it.

Hello, My name is Jason and I have Muscular Dystrophy. I’m 30 years old and I live in New York with my family. I’m a happy guy who likes to chat and hang out with my computer friends. Life is too short and I have a second chance as do many others. Let’s take this chance and use it for the better.

Dear Natasha,

I “stumbled” on this site AND your article, “Just My Bellybutton.” I am disabled like you. Unlike your nearly lifetime of OI, my disability (aVM) was sudden, occurring at age 40.

I am divorced now … likely do to my stroke. I have three kids. Two girls and a boy. They were likely yours and your siblings age when your parents divorced, when I also divorced. My relationship with my kids is, I hope, better now that they are older.

Specifically my relationship with my father (now dead) was over-all good without any hang-ups on my part. We occasionally verbally “battled” and he frequently wasn’t there. Sure, there are a few, “I wishes …” now that he is gone.

After reading your article, I am left with mixed feelings. Your dad is too old to change or to meaningfully say, “I’m sorry Natasha.” The change and forgiveness has got to be 100% from you at this point in both your lives.

Sincerely and with aloha to you,
Tim