Anne Mitchell has been a popular guest blogger on United Media Now and a regular commentator. Her insight into disabilities and our acceptance into society has always piqued my interest. Please join me in welcoming Anne once again as our guest blogger where she will talk about an exciting workshop she will be holding in Indianapolis on June 11 & 12. Welcome Anne……… We often think that creating a culture is something that just happens in societies or is somehow outside our personal control or contribution. Yet “culture”, (as defined by http://www.dictionary.com :the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, …
Forced Down Narrow Pathways
We stood there. Her hand felt warm in mine. Our eyes moved up the wall of the building. It was big….intimidating. We were told, “trust us” and we did, because these people were genuinely nice and their motives were absolutely pure. “Trust us.” The two simple words reassured us we should be there, even if our nerves told us we should run. We slowly walked through the double doors. It looked safe…. so we proceeded. There were smiling happy kids everywhere….. They were saying “hi” as they ran past us and it felt so good. A few of the girls …
Teaching New Dogs the Old Tricks of Special Education
When will it change? A few days ago, I had a conversation with someone who is finishing up her last few months of schooling to become an Occupational Therapist; she is my age, but went back to school to start a new career. She was excited to tell me that she had worked in the schools the last few weeks for her clinicals and really enjoyed her time there. She liked being in the elementary schools but really loved being in the life skills class in the high school. She proceeded to tell me how they had taken the class to Home …
How the Pro-Choice Movement May Save our Babies
I promise…. my last blog on this subject. It’s just that in all my research for my other three blogs, I have stumbled upon something that is truly quite amazing. Maybe even a little reassuring so I felt I had to share it with my readers. It was when I got into the nitty-gritty of articles on fetus selection, written by scientists instead of passionate family members or biotech companies, that I realized our fate could be far worse if scientists did not support pro-choice. Now when you read papers written by scientists on this subject, the writing is emotionless, …
The Holocaust Began with the Disabled
My very good friend told me what happened over a cup of coffee last week. “You know,” she said, “The Holocaust started with the killing of the disabled.” I looked at her in disbelief. “Are you sure?” I asked. “Yes.” She had gone to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC and they had an entire display on this very subject. She went on to tell me a personal story of her encounter with a group from Austria in the 1980′s, who were in America to see how we provided services to adults with disabilities. Eventually, after the …
Sorry – No Guarantees!
My blog post from Tuesday about the MaterniT21 blood test really resonated with my readers; the viewership broke every record - exponentially. During all the excitement, my husband decided to remind me, “You better follow up with something good on Thursday.” Thanks honey. The fact is, I can’t follow it up. There are volumes of emotions and hidden innuendo in that blog post and it takes the perfect storm to bring it all together. Perhaps, however, I can follow up on the message with a little insight. Yesterday, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about why 90%+ choose to terminate a …
MaterniT21 – and other lies about Down syndrome
(A conversation overheard at an office near you.) “Thanks everyone for being here today. We have a lot of work to do, so let’s get started.” “First item on our agenda. We need a catchy name for the new blood test for determining if a fetus has Down syndrome.” “Oh, Oh, I have a great name, let’s play off the triplicate of the 21st chromosome and call it MaterniT21 Plus. What do you think? Get it? T21? Trisomy 21, get it? We will add the ‘Plus’ because the test is so much more accurate than the one before.” “That is …
Valerie Strohl: You are doing great, Becky!...
Becky Beaubien: Perfect sense. I already understand how much I need to believe in her ...
Anne Mitchell: Wow. Powerful images, thoughts and feelings Val.
I wish I could ...
