DisabledOnline Los Angeles

by Ben Mattlin

A local-ish disability-awareness hero was in the news last week–Jonathan Mooney.

If you’ve never heard of him, don’t worry.  I hadn’t either.

Mooney is the author of “The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal” and co-author of “Learning Outside the Lines,” two books about learning disabilities.

Last Friday he spoke at the Ability Awareness Day festivities at California State University, Northridge.  The school, which is known to be very accommodating of students with disabilities, hosted the event to “raise awareness.”  It was attended by more than 150 students from area high schools and other members of the community.

Mooney used himself as an example.  Because of his dyslexia–or rather, because of his school’s inability or unwillingness to accommodate it–he couldn’t read until he was 12 years old, about two years after his dyslexia was diagnosed..  In between, he was also diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.  By his own admission, he couldn’t sit still or keep his mouth shut.  Needless to say, he got in trouble a lot.

Nevertheless, he graduated with honors from Brown University with a degree in English literature.

That might sound pretty heroic.  But get this: the Centers for Disease Control alleges that 1 out of 7 kids in the US has been diagnosed with a learning disability.  (Who knows how many more go undiagnosed?)

So this isn’t an us-and-them thing or, really, a story about exceptionalism (despite that the Ability Awareness Day was co-hosted by a group called the Student Council for Exceptional Children).  It’s all very ordinary, simply a part of life.  Which, after all, is sort of the point.

“The idea that there’s only one way to be smart is wrong, and I had to move past that in my life,” said Mooney.

To learn more about his life story, visit http://www.jonathanmooney.com

To learn more about CSUN’s Ability Awareness Day, and what Mooney told the assembled masses there, go to http://sundial.csun.edu/2012/05/students-with-disabilities-visit-csun-for-ability-awareness-day/

***
LA-based journalist Ben Mattlin, who was born with SMA, is the author of MIRACLE BOY GROWS UP: How the Disability Rights Revolution Saved My Sanity, available now for pre-order from Amazon.com and BN.com–for more info, go to www.MiracleBoyGrowsUp.com

Dancing Veterans, a Righteous Mayor Defends the Disabled Against Ex-Cons, and Physically Challenging the Non-Physically Challenged

by Ben Mattlin

Various news items that might have slipped through the cracks–they certainly did for me (and after reading this, you’ll probably wish they’d stayed lost):

Last week, the national president of Paralyzed Veterans of America–a.k.a. Bill Lawson–announced that he’s coming to LA to “bust some moves” with Ellen DeGeneres. If you don’t believe me, there’s a video at www.pva.org/vetdaresellen

The motivation for this is to focus public attention on the issues facing disabled veterans and their families. In case you didn’t know, many of these national heroes are suffering from not getting on Ellen’s top-rated TV talkshow! No, wait.

Here’s Lawson’s explanation, in the press release: “More people need to know that there are no barriers on the dance floor, nor should there be in life, for people with disabilities and those of us who use a wheelchair every day.”

For the full story, click on over to www.sys-con.com/node/2241194

At the same time, another organization has a markedly different approach to spreading awareness and raising consciousness and all that good stuff. It’s the “Wheelchair for a Day” challenge from NextStep (I guess “step” is supposed to be sort of ironic), a non-profit that’s dedicated to enhancing the lives of people with paralysis and other physical disabilities.

Yes, nondisabled folks will be challenged (physically challenged?) to take a load off and ride around on wheels for a day, documenting the experience on video. Celebrity participants have yet to be announced. The campaign is scheduled for next month and, if all goes well, will be repeated annually.

Maybe I’m just being snide, but do you think this kind of thing is a good idea? I mean, yes, it may engender empathy. Or sympathy. But does having a celebrity or other gung-ho volunteer cruise around in an Invacare or Quickie for a day REALLY simulate having a disability? That’s an honest question. I’d be interested to hear your answers.

NextStep, part of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation’s NeuroRecovery Network, has a rehab/physical fitness facility in Los Angeles. The full press release can be found here: www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nextstep-presents-wheelchair-for-a-day-2012-challenge-144408205.html

Finally, in the city of Lancaster–about 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles–the mayor is defending people with disabilities against ex-cons. Really.

Mayor R. Rex Parris publicly criticized his town’s board of supervisors for voting to allow parolees and those out on probation to be eligible for subsidized housing under Section 8. He felt it was wrong to have these people potentially displace people with disabilities and senior citizens who need and deserve these residential units.

Obviously, Mayor Parris is more afraid of people like us than he is of felons. (For more, go to losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/04/09/war-over-section-8-lancaster-mayor-blasts-vote-to-expand-benefits-to-parolees/)
***
LA-based journalist Ben Mattlin, who was born with SMA, is the author of MIRACLE BOY GROWS UP: How the Disability Rights Revolution Saved My Sanity, available now for pre-order from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. www.MiracleBoyGrowsUp.com

by Ben Mattlin

This isn’t exactly a disability story, but it is very much a Los Angeles story.

It concerns marijuana. The weed has been legal in California for the past few years, as long as it’s used for “medical” purposes.

Now, many people with various kinds of disabilities do say that marijuana helps ease some of the more troubling symptoms. The LA Times recently quoted a man from Long Beach (about a half-hour South of downtown LA) who has Tourette’s, for example, as claiming that pot “helped tamp down the tics he suffered.”

What’s become clear this week is, this man is one of a growing number of “master” cannabis growers. As the weed has come out of the shadows, a mini industry has developed around it. And apparently consumers are becoming more particular, demanding high-quality stuff instead of just taking what they can get.

The commonly drawn analogy is to fine wine. “Pot connoisseurs can talk about the complexity of cannabis…,” said the Times. “They detect sweet flavors, and musky ones, and hints of berries, sandalwood, citrus, mint, pine and almond…”

But just as pot growers are trying to professionalize their standards and business practices, the dispensary workers are trying to unionize! “Workers at more than a dozen Los Angeles pot shops have formed a labor union in part to help ward off a proposed citywide ban on dispensaries,” the Times reported earlier this week, in a separate article.

Yes, the city is trying to weed out the unsavory weed stores. If it’s legitimately medical, that’s one thing. But if it’s one of those joints (pun intended) that’s represented by a scruffy dude on the Venice boardwalk who goes around in a white lab coat carrying a sign that says “the doctor is in,” well, that may be another thing entirely.

Is this the future of the reefer? Are we going to institute a hierarchy for different types of potheads? And perhaps more importantly, is pot still fun if it’s become so mainstream, so businessy and bureaucratic?

Of course, fun pot is still illegal, right? It’s only medical marijuana that’s allowed. That is, no-fun marijuana. Perhaps the state ought to issue marijuana placards like it issues disabled parking placards. You’d have to prove a need and get a doctor’s prescription to be awarded a pot placard.

If you think the sought-after parking placards make having a disability a cool and desirable thing, just think what a pot placard could do for us!
***
LA-based journalist Ben Mattlin, who was born with SMA, is the author of MIRACLE BOY GROWS UP: How the Disability Rights Revolution Saved My Sanity, available for pre-order now from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  www.miracleboygrowsup.com