KPFA - Pushing Limits

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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Our guest, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, (she/they) is a queer disabled non-binary femme writer and cultural worker of Burger/ Tamil Sri Lankan and Irish/ Roma ascent. Her work has been widely published, most recently in The Deaf Poets Society, Glitter and Grit and Octavia’s Brood.  Her memoir, Dirty River: A Queer Femme of Color Dreaming Her Way Home was praised as a “gritty, glorious, multi-layered story of homecoming and self-healing.”

Currently a lead artist with the disability justice performance collective Sins Invalid, she teaches, performs and lectures across North America.

Primarily, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarashinha is a self-described weirdo who writes about survivorhood, disability justice, transformative justice, queer femme of color lives and Sri Lankan diaspora while sitting in her room.

Well. . . perhaps we will get some “weirdo” crip conversation when guest Leah Lakshmi teams up with Pushing Limits producer Eddie Ytuarte for this half hour interview.

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Phoebe Fico, a disabled woman, is playing one of the classic disability theatrical roles, that of Laura in Tennessee Williams, “The Glass Menagerie.”  The production by Cal Shakes utilizes a multi-racial cast to portray the conflicts of this thinly-veiled autobiography set during Williams’ younger years.

A disability activist and poet as well as an actor, Phoebe Fico will discuss the disability implications of the role as well as its relevance to family life today.

“The Glass Menagerie” is the story of Williams’ conflict between the need to care for his sister and his desire to move into the larger world. It became his breakthrough play. After Williams left home, his sister was lobotomized and lived in an institution for the rest of her life. What might have happened if he had stayed?

Williams was white but this refreshing multi-racial cast forces us to consider these questions as they play out in communities of color.

We talk to Phoebe Fico about these and other issues, and have a chance to hear some of her poetry.

“The Glass Menagerie” is in its final weeks at the beautiful outdoor Bruns Amphitheater in Orinda, California. It plays every day except Monday through July 30 with a generous sprinkling of matinee performances. For tickets and other information, go to www.calshakes.org

Produced and hosted by Adrienne Lauby

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The Myth is that homeless people are older white men with addiction problems.  The Reality is that nearly half of homeless people (in Sonoma County – 41%) live with a disability.

The Myth is that homeless people travel from place to place looking for the best deal from local communities. The Reality is that most homeless people (in Sonoma County – 79%) live in the place where they once had a home.

The Myth is that homeless people just want to party and don’t want to be responsible people.  The Reality is that most homeless people (in Sonoma County – 71%) are homeless because they can’t afford the rent.

Sonoma County, California.  Wine Country, as it’s known to the tourists.  Sonoma County:  One of the richest counties in the richest country on earth.  Sonoma County:  Where three thousand people are homeless.

We talk about Sonoma County’s and Santa Rosa’s innovative local-sized attempts to improve the lives of homeless people as they increase enforcement of so-called anti-camping laws and clean up a long-time homeless encampment.

We give you ways you can do something positive for the homeless in your local area as well as examples of inhumane activities you’ll want to stand against.

Guests:

John Creager, a member of a local church congregation who worked to bring a sanctioned homeless encampment to church property. John is also a member of Homeless Action!, a local grassroots activist group.

Produced and Hosted by Adrienne Lauby

Statistics from the Sonoma County Homeless Census of 2017.

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If you were inspired last week by the disability activists who sat in Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s office until they were dragged away from their wheelchairs, you’ll want to hear Anita Cameron of ADAPT talk about the deep history, the strategy and the future plans of these protesters.  Her website is called Musings of an Angry Black Womyn.

President Trump and the Republican Party are coming closer to the destruction or extreme weakening of the Affordable Health Care Act, which includes ObamaCare & Medi-Cal.   California leaders say their success would deny health insurance to between five and ten million people, including many poor people and people who live with disabilities. click here to go to Bridgeway Care and Rehabilitation.

Anita Cameron, a veteran activist with ADAPT, talks about the resistance in the disability community to these Republican efforts.  She has been involved in social change activism and community organizing for 36 years.  In 1986, Cameron joined ADAPT, a national, grassroots disability rights organization.  She’s served as a national organizer, strategist and police negotiator and has been arrested a heroic 129 times in the non-violent struggle for justice.

Disabled protestrs were removed from outside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office on Thursday, and images from the protest have become some of the most compelling of the health care debate so far.

According to NBC Washington, about 60 protesters, many of them disabled, gathered outside McConnell’s office to protest the newly unveiled senate health care bill on Thursday morning. Capitol police made about 43 arrests and were seen dragging uncooperative protesters out of the building.

The sit-in was organized by a group called ADAPT, which advocates for disability rights and for government help to be able to purchase their living tools such as wheelchairs and other quality mobility tools, Check this out . To get tips of surgery click site,here you will get the all details of surgery.

Video and photos of the arrests quickly made the rounds on social media, including one striking image of former Ms. Wheelchair Texas Laura Halvorson, in a wheelchair and breathing mask, being escorted out by an officer. Other protesters were physically lifted and carried down the hallway.

The Senate health care bill, which comes after years of Republican members of Congress vowing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, makes deep cuts to Medicaid, ends the individual mandate and repeals a number of Obamacare’s tax increases.

The bill also creates a new system of tax credits to support those buying private insurance.

Eddie Ytuarte produced and hosts.

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