KPFA - Pushing Limits

Sharon Rae Robinson who lived with memory loss, Christina Hanson, a 27 year-old woman who used a wheelchair her entire life because of Spina Bifida, and other disabled people were among the 42 who died in the Northern Calif. fires in the last ten days.

Among the 20 thousand humans evacuated in Santa Rosa were people from numerous assisted living and supportive group homes, including 240 people from the Sonoma Developmental Center, 450 people from Oakmont assisted living facilities, and both Sutter and Kaiser hospitals.

A private school for autistic students of mixed income in the Wells Fargo Center burned down.

We talk about the fiery disaster with Lake Kowell, a staff member at Disability Services and Legal Center.  Ms Kowell, who lives with a spinal cord injury, has spent many days working in the Local Assistance and Evacuation Centers.

Some of the information we discuss in this program:

Produced by Adrienne Lauby.  Hosted by Shelley Berman and Adrienne Lauby.

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There has been a great deal of coverage of the alt-right neo-Nazi movement since the civil unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia but, despite the Nazi murder of 70 thousand people with disabilities in the period leading up to the Holocaust, little has been said about alt-right, neo-Nazi attitudes toward people with disabilities.

In this program, Nadin Abbott, from the website Reporting San Diego, an expert on this shadowy world, talks about the impact of the resurgent white supremacist movement on people with disabilities.

In May of this year, a nineteen year old man sexually assaulted a mentally disabled black teen in a football locker room.  He was given just 300 hours of community service with probation.  The case ended up on the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the organization which monitors hate groups and other extremists throughout the U.S.  How many other assaults, reported or not, are a result of the rise of alt-right?

Ms. Abbott holds a master’s degree in history from San Diego State University.  She was born and raised in Mexico City and is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor.

Mark Romoser and Sheela Gunn-Cushman produce and host the program.

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Tenants gathered at a Statewide Renters Assembly in Alameda over the weekend.  Ava and Fernando Nadal were there, gearing up to lead an attack on the landlord demon law, Costa Hawkins*.  This, despite the impending loss of their home and Fernando’s upcoming major

surgery.  Adrienne Lauby talks with them.

If you’ve been asked to “tell your story” to a funder or politician, stick around for Sheela Gunn-Cushman’s essay.  If you’ve ever asked a consumer, client or constituent to “tell your story,” you must listen as Sheela explores the grueling, degrading and thankless nature of this activist tool many of us rely on.

*Costa Hawkins is a state-wide law that limits the number, type and age of homes that can be covered by rent control.  It was passed in the late ’90s at the request of landlord and realtor groups.  Local groups working for rent control and just cause eviction find it a major barrier to success.

Protest of AirBnB

Hats off to a coalition of advocates for disabled people, seniors and tenants who rallied at the San Francisco headquarters of Airbnb on Oct.19.   Despite Airbnb’s $30 billion dollar market value, Airbnb’s hosts routinely discriminate against people with disabilities.   There’s nothing innovative or disruptive about discrimination, and there’s no law protecting a ‘platform’s’ right to embrace it.” Bob Planthold said, “Airbnb is a dominant player in the travel industry. It’s past time for the corporation to assume responsibility for ensuring all travelers have access to its accommodations.”

For more on this issue, contact Senior and Disability Action in San Francisco. Their phone is (415) 546-1333.

IHSS Draconian Restrictions

Due to new Federal requirements in the CURES Act, California will soon monitor the coming and going of In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) recipients and our care providers with some form of a call-in system for monitoring and tracking when an IHSS recipient’s care provider arrives to clock in and out for work, verifies the presence of the IHSS recipient, verifies or tracks the location of the recipient, and demands to know the services (tasks) rendered or delivered to the IHSS recipient during the providers’ working hours. There will be a series of stakeholder meetings in Sacramento to help plan these changes.  This is the first one:

Axis Dance

Hold the last weekend of Oct. The disabled and non-disabled, mixed-ability group, Axis Dance, is celebrating their 30th anniversary with performances titled “Onward and Upward.” It’s a program of three dances, including one by their new Artistic Director, Mark Brew. That one was created in collaboration with JooWan Kim, artistic director of the Hip-Hop Orchestra. That’s Axis Dance performances — the last week of October.

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This program produced and hosted by Sheela Gunn-Cushman and Adrienne Lauby.

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Police march down the boulevard chanting “Whose Street? Our Street,” and Oklahoma City police gun down Magdiel Sanchez, a developmentally disabled deaf man, despite neighbors who yell, “He can’t hear you.”   All this in a week when the Republican congress hopes to pass a health care bill that will radically restructure and deeply cut Medicaid, health care for poor and disabled people.

Afraid yet?  It’s time to take a stand for ourselves and for each other.

This week, we’ll talk to two women with disabilities who work for justice:  Helga Spizman, a activist holocaust survivor, and Anita Cameron, an ADAPT organizer who is headed to Washington D.C. this weekend to protest the Cassidy-Graham health care bill.

Young Helga Spizman spent World War II look for hiding places as her father obsessed about his decision to move to England, which he expected to be overrun by the Nazis.  After the Trump election, she attended the Women’s March and pussy hats emerged from her knitting needles like flowers popping up in the spring.

Anita Cameron, whose blog is called “Musings of an Angry Black Woman”, has been arrested a heroic 129 times in the non-violent struggle for justice. An organizer for ADAPT, the disability movement’s civil disobedience arm, she’s been involved in social change activism and community organizing for 36 years.

We talk to these role model women about their fears, their history and their expectations for something better.  And, we’ll talk to you about supporting Pushing Limits by becoming a member of KPFA.

Produced by Shelley Berman and Adrienne Lauby.  Hosted by the Pushing Limits collective.

The post Taking a Stand: Helga Spizman & Anita Cameron appeared first on KPFA.

Trump has something special in mind for poor people and the disability community as he moves into the Federal budget season with a tax reform agenda. Cuts!

We’re not talking about the paring knife slices you usually notice over time.  It’s bayonets, weed wackers, bulldozers and tanks — that kind of cuts.

What cuts Trump can get from his right wing, but fractured, majority in the legislature is an open question. But, we need to know what he plans for the disability community and who is making plans to stand up to him.

We talk to Lindsay Baran, policy analyst with the National Council on Independent Living in Washington, D.C., for the answers.

With thoughts about AC Transit, the Alameda County bus system, from Josh Elwood.

Produced and hosted by Mark Romoser and Sheela Gunn-Cushman.

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