My Dear Ones:
I hope this holiday season finds you in good health, and that you are happy
and living a fulfilling life.
My cat kids are doing fine. Same as always. Magic is still mischievous, but
sweet. Mari-gold is the sweetest angel, always wanting more to eat. The gods
gave us a wonderful five foot climbing structure that we cleaned up and put
new rope and carpet on and the girls just love it! Now maybe Magic won't claw
the recliner!
My father also has two cats now. He adopted a brother and sister orange and
white kittens. They're adorable!
This summer and autumn passed well for me. I participated in a protest of
Ringling Bros. Circus as they still use live tigers, lions and elephants in
their shows. I just really believe that since there are now zoos in nearly
every town, and many TV programs about animals, that the circus parking lot
is no place to keep such big, magnificent animals in this day and age. So, I
handed out leaflets on cruelty to animals when the circus came to Oakland. I
figured that even if kids could not read the leaflet, they would say, "Mommy,
why are they protesting the circus?" And they will remember, and their
awareness will be raised, and hopefully when they are old enough to make a
choice of their own, they will choose not to support such things.
My assistant Lace and I took part in the big San Francisco demonstration
against Bush's proposed war in Iraq. I was happy to see so many others in
wheelchairs at the BART station. True to form, one elevator broke down and a
dozen of us had to get back on the train and get off at the next stop. This
put us at the head of the huge wave of people marching. We were escorted by a
dozen motorcycle cops and whenever they stopped, we had to stop and wait and
breathe in the yucky exhaust they were producing. Anyway when we finally got
to the park, it was packed solid. It was a beautiful, inspiring day.
I have decided to let my membership to my iti business go. I was not happy
with the way the company was going: for example, supporting WorldCom, and
selling out-rageously priced nutritional products. While I didn't mind
writing ads, I hated having to subscribe to a bunch of advertising listservs
and emailing ads every day, and then having to delete literally hundreds of
ads from other businesses each day.
We Shall Overcome
I have decided to go back to school and complete my BA degree which was a
major in Creative Writing with a minor in Women's Studies. Then I want to get
my Master's in Disability Studies and History. I may go to CSU Hayward for
the BA and haven't really decided about where to get the degree in Disability
Studies, however I do know that the Univ. of Chicago at Urbana has such a
program offered on-line. The reason I want this degree is so I can write
informatively about the history of the challenges that people with
disabilities have come from, and rebuke those narrow-minded, able-bodied
bio-ethicists who say that babies who are going to be born blind or with
other disabilities should be aborted. Some of these people make me so mad! I
eventually want to write a book about the subject if there isn't already one.
My book will be titled: The Beauty of Disability.
Commissioner Raine?
I have applied to Mayor Jerry Brown to be on the Oakland Commission for
people with disabilities, specifically on the topic of transportation and
mobility. I am tired of not having reliable paratransit, or any accessible
taxis with ramps. Several programs are already in the planning stages in
Oakland, and I want to see that they are carried out in a way that works for
everybody.
Recently, those in the Bay Area disability community have noted a drop-off in
the way those of us in wheelchairs, or those with mobility concerns are treat
ed. It's like most of the funds are going for other things rather than
physical accessibility. A college in Los Angeles has posted a new law, people
in wheelchairs can't go more then four mph! Come on! Get real! Every time I
go out, I have to keep my eyes open for people reading the paper while they
are walking, or talking on the cell phone, or just plain not paying
attention. I believe we are seeing the trickle-down effect of the Supreme
Court's decisions to undo the ADA bit by bit. Stores are just not complying
with keeping their aisles 36 inches wide and unobstructed with boxes, etc.
Sometimes I have ideas of constructing a project where we would take one side
of a street and put blocks of cement of varying sizes on the sidewalk, and
posting "Able-bodied Only" signs on that side, and really making it tough for
anybody to walk down that sidewalk, and then posting "disabled only" signs on
the other side of the street and not let anybody who is able-bodied walk on
that sidewalk. I would also post signs that say "disabled only", or
"able-bodied only" on entrances to shops, restaurants, and the like. And,
yes, it is just like segregation before the changes in the 1960s.
You have no idea how it feels to be relegated to enter a place from the back
or the side of the building. It just disgusts me. Or hearing a local used
bookstore owner say that she's exempt from putting a lousy ramp in to get
over the single step, because she "was here before 1990" Oh yeah? Go read the
law, Lady, you've had eleven years to put in a stinkin' ramp.
If I had my way, I'd make every politician, every public employee and their
kids use wheelchairs for a month. Come to think of it, all students of
architecture and design too. I remember how rapidly President Horn of CSU
Long Beach ordered changes made after he went around campus in a wheelchair
for several weeks. Personal experience breeds empathy.
Speaking of wheelchairs, those of us who are receiving services from Regional
Center, are in very peculiar spot. Our involvement with Regional and our
service provider, (in my case, EBI) means that we are supposed to be out in
the community doing everything that other people take for granted. However a
contradiction arises when we need new power wheelchairs. Medically speaking,
some of us do not need a power chair in our homes, but we are certainly not
able to push ourselves around town, and not every assistant is physically
able to push us around town in a manual chair as the world and our cities are
not flat.
In order to get power chairs so that we can be out in the world going to
school, working, walking in nature, shopping, whatever, we need to justify
power chairs medically to Medi-cal, or Kaiser, or whatever insurance program
we have, so that they will pay for it. The result is that we end up with
chairs that are not weatherproof, not designed to be used outdoors, and if,
God-forbid we break a chair because we hit a curb or got stuck on a busted
sidewalk, Medi-Cal or Kaiser will not pay for the repairs! I mean come on!
You wouldn't tell an amputee that he should just use his prosthesis at home,
would you? My power wheelchair is my most important piece of equipment. It is
my independent means to the world, my legs, my feet, my freedom. We need to
change this out-dated medical model to the Community Model and Independent
Living model that EBI and Regional are based on.
I am available to do business as a writer, editor, reporter, graphic artist.
I can now make business cards & greeting cards, and I really enjoy it. I have
had several articles with my photographs published in the United Cerebral
Palsy newsletter, which you can look at on their website;
www.ucpgg.organization/newsletters They pay me nicely too!
Tamar's Lakte Recipe
3 large peeled and pre-soaked potatoes, grate like hash browns, or if your
kids are bored, grate as finely as you wish, but your results may vary. Never
use a blender to do the potatoes, as it will result in being too watery! In a
separate bowl, add the next ingredients and mix well, then add in the grated
potatoes slowly.
---------------------------------------------------------------
1 tsp. cream of tarter, 1 tsp. baking soda,
1/2 tsp. Salt, 3 tablespoons flour,
1 half cup of sour cream, 1 half cup milk,
2 eggs, Peanut oil to fry in
Fry to your taste, salt to your taste, add apple
sauce or sour cream when served. Eat!
(This made about 18 laktes!)
Go Piedmont Springs!!!
On the bright side, at my request, the local hot tub management got a
portable ramp so I wouldn't use up battery power to fight the gravel they
have that separates the massage rooms from the hot tubs. I give them a good
bit of business every year. The hot tub seems to be the only thing that helps
relax my tight hip muscles. Now, if only one of their tubs was below ground
so if a person can't walk, they could take advantage of the hot tub.
It Bears Repeating;
Dawn rises languidly,
Slowly her colors
fill the sky,
Velvet tinged clouds
Patiently, as she has done
Since time began…
Slowly, the light reveals
A city in ruins,
Is it an Afghan village?
Is it Ireland?
Is it New York City?
Is it the Gaza strip?
Mothers weep, Babies cry,
Men dig through rubble,
Little girls and boys
wander lost.
It matters not which city,
It matters not which battle,
The stench of human remains
is the same
throughout the world,
The same salty tears streak women's faces,
Stomachs rumble with hunger pains,
Blood is always red.
The nightmare continues;
Buildings burn, schools crash,
The name of God is abused,
Bullets ricochet against glass and brick,
Each group claims they are
the righteous ones,
The war on terrorism is just another excuse,
The sun pours streams of sunlight
As one autumn day,
A singer bays out,
"My City's in Ruins."
Can not we learn another way,
A way more noble?
What would Gandhi say?
What would Jesus say?
Did not Moses set God's laws in stone,
Did God not say, Thou shall not kill.
Must we settle disputes
By showing our military might
By flexing our enormous pectorals?
Must we visit more horror on our enemies?
We, in America should never forget 9-11
For in that day we learnt exactly
what it feels like to be bombed.
Bombed, shattered, broken,
Why would any rational human being
Want to go do that to anybody else?
Tamar Magenta Raine
Winter, 2001
Happy Holidays, everybody!
The State budget has hit us hard:
To donate to Easy Bay Innovations, send a check to:
East Bay Innovations
440 Grand Ave. Oakland CA 94610
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If you use Ebay to shop online, you can shop Ebay from my website!
www.itilink.com/traine.iti
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