It takes a team

USA wins Gold with the help of a young man coming from one of New Jersey’s Urban Communities

I remember reading a great comparrison story written by my friend Starr Santina Muha on Why It’s Like Being Paris Hilton, comparing her life to Paris’. Ironically enough after watching the news one day before the 200I8 Olympics which had a phenomenal intro, I was inspired by a young man named Cullen Jones on the USA Swimming team. Although what I went through as a young man with goals outside what the streets had, staying away from drugs, guns and violence wasn’t always far from reach. That’s an issue many do not understand, in an environment filled with negative options, you can refuse things negative but they are still at hand reach.

It’s all about being a team, I think the bigger a more positive team the stronger you are. Cullen Jones had to first succeed in surviving and avoiding some of the most designs of community obstacles that may keep you from perusing your dreams and goals. Then having to share a pressure to represent not just where he comes from but also the country he’s from.

Therefore in comparison to his short journey I’m seeing my long journeys as I’m still swimming in rough waters but like many sports , there wont be a victory without a team. Advocacy, Music, Journalism and Video my 4 person team. Paralysis wouldn’t be considered the best way to show I’m coming to pass out of the rough community although my path from the community that had part in my paralysis also laid the stones of my address to change. My paralysis, my pain and my struggle didn’t end the problems developing around me, they just seemed to increase.

So once I stroked in the waters of success, my team had to swim together. Every athlete needs a couch and dedicated teammates or the game will be hard to win. Weather it be the advocacy, journalism, music or video this team needs multiple players. Someone to assist, someone to coach and others to cheer you on, you support and motivation to keep you going. If you lose one it’s like starting all over again. I compare that to everything I do, being paralyzed requires a team, if I can’t control the devices I use, someone has to push the buttons, if my status is unknown to a place I want to capture a story, I need a pass to obtain any information and the rest goes on to video and advocating.

Cullen Jones, his teammates, his coaches, family and support made up one big team, so what was their Gold Medal in compression to how we swim. It’s clear to me now, it’s going to take UNITY, no one payer can be in charged and although many people want to lead us to a cure or a being called the King or Queen of something, there’ll be nothing long lived if we just don’t become one team. So as I watched the Olympics every country get’s a chance to be in a competition where every player is more likely to come home. But in War there are no more then likely to come home , in your community your fighting may take an innocent life, and at home your domestic disputes mat leave orphans or broken families, sure not every player will get along, some may even get caught in an illegal act but the game must be played by a team in order to complete a mission.

So fresh and So clean

What an experience for both Santina and I to feel fresh and so clean. As we explore this atmosphere of friendly cosmetic doctors, hair dressers, nail filers, body massagers and a clientele of some of the finest women I seen, being there from 11 AM to 8 PM documenting the place for a purpose to inform and bring awareness to what’s out in the world for not just individuals in the wheelchair but all. But the main objective is Santina and I combined forces a long time ago to seek pleasurable accessibility and bring my last Blog about institutionalization a past practice and see who is out here with enjoyable life experiences. designed for those walking or rolling.

As Santina states, being the more investigative comrade at the time, I was too busy looking at legs, lol. She states how terrible it feels not just for a woman but a man who just got spinal cord injured to spend almost a year in hospitals and rehabilitation centers stuck in bed and not feel so fresh. I remember when I was first injured, only hand washes, hair can’t get properly washed, mouth dry and pasty, a disgusting feeling for 2 months in a hospital before I was even sent to rehabilitation.

As Santina explains, there is so many people right now laying in a bed not feeling so clean and don’t get the experience she felt in just one day because all someone may hear about is life after the rehab that’s just rehab.

So as I’m watching Santina having her hair washed, nails cut and seeing old friends from school, the smile on her face was priceless. Look fellow roll on friends and others, it can’t just be about the Knife. We need to know what is the future to end this physical challenge but in the meantime life must go on. Another comrade of mine, Louis Torez base his whole platform on the life you live now, not just to sit back and wait for cure and that’s why I love my advocacy because I just don’t support and fight for a cure but enjoy my life the best way I can. Enjoying life is knowing what’s out there accessible for the wheelchair.

I went to document the place, which has wide doors, very roomy and very relaxing. The accessibility level I give this place is high because there’s not only enough room for your chair, they’ll make more room. I got my nails cut, yea yea I did but see the pampering and view of so many beautiful ladies made my experience not retro but hetro. Anyway, for both men and women, don’t just sit in that house after possibly years of just sitting in the house doing nothing, go get them years of feeling not so fresh, not so clean washed away.

Again this is not just about chair users, it’s letting chair users know where normal everyday individuals go that also has the accessibility for others. They not paying me to promote or advertise, I don’t get paid to advocate, my fee is hearing others inspired by my work, I just know being stuck in your house and no knowledge of accessible fun is disturbing when there is places out there accessible for everyone.

Until next time when Starr and Professir X go access hunting, enjoy some pictures. Videos coming soon.

MORE PICTURES CLICK HERE

If you in or ever come to New Jersey come and enjoy not just the acessability but yourself
http://www.tiberiasspa.com/

Institutionalized

Institutionalized

in·sti·tu·tion·al·ize
2. To place (a person) in the care of an institution.

Have you ever been in Bed-Sty Brooklyn in a wheelchair and saw you couldn’t get into them Brownstones or to The Newark Public Library and saw a new addition to the building to allow people in wheelchairs to get inside. I’m sure if you’re walking you never thought about it at all. This is not an I’m bitter because I can’t walk statement because the majority of people in society think people in wheelchairs are bitter and mean , this is not always true but I understand why some people are afraid to approach individuals sitting down because they might be mad at what life has become for them.

I opened up with this question because it isn’t until recently we are seeing our construction built before us being designed with the wheelchair in mind. Every generation after the struggles and fights to have rights, freedom and accessibility seems to forget what it was when they were without. But is it not the new generations fault they don’t know what they are doing. Only the person living for over 100 years can understand and appreciate. I don’t know what it was like to have to take a commode from under my bed and use it, or have to go to an outhouse because in my time of birth, there was plumbing. So imagine after every march to get your freedom and rights, or a vaccine for a disease is found and a lift or ramp put on a bus or building is accomplished the struggle is no longer there for that child born into an era of change, so how can they appreciate something they was never without.

When Hip Hop was delivered by Kool Herc and to a place Known as the South Bronx, To me it symbolized the events of God sending Moses to free the slaves and bring them to a place where they can no longer be in bondage. We remember from movies Moses goes away for some time and returns seeing his people worshiping gold, engaged in out of control sexual activity and doing insane acts. Today we are not far from that scenario. The freedom of the milk and honey somehow made the oppressed become the obsessed. It’s the now being able to have that seems to create the it’s not that important to me right now, I’ll get it later. Doesn’t it seem odd that the struggle causes unity then the unity causes victory that makes the victory cause insanity.

All these statement aren’t rambling, I’m not jumping from one topic to another, everything relates, that’s why it’s important to have diversity because in every cookie there are many ingredients.

So back to the issue on top. What does it mean, where are we today and do we still have a long way to go to end institutionalization. Remember when I asked if you ever tried getting into a Brownstone in a wheelchair. That was a question to what do you know about how history saw the different able. Do you think no one was paralyzed before the construction of our cities around the country. I have encounter many public places not accessible for wheelchairs, therefore before the fight for different able rights, society must have been in a mental state that no one with a physical challenge will need get in this building so the contractors and forman wasn’t looking at blueprints with a wheelchair accesses in mind.

Institutions held those who weren’t normal , ever watched an old black and white cinema or TV show, can you count up to 5 times you seen a wheelchair. May families would send their children, their parents to institutions where they stayed until death. Somewhat today we have institutions , called nursing homes, usually in some rural area out the way. Not saying the quality of care is the same but abuse of a person can come event in their own home, not just in adult care facilities.

Zen Garcia, a good comrade of mine that introduced the generation of a fight to freedom. We had the Women’s Liberation the Civil Rights Movement, the Gay Right Movement and now it seems it’s the dawn of the Wheelchair Exist Movement. But with the wheelchair movement , no matter, sex, ethnic, sexual orientation, anyone can be in a wheelchair. Discrimination of the chair is not always something done in intent but we can’t forget individuals in wheelchairs may want to have a life more then their chair. Zen fights so that no matter if you’re ina wheelchair, if you want to live in your own house, you should be able too and society should be designed so that if nurse care, therapy or personal assistance is needed, it should be available ina persons home if needed. Not everyone want to live in a senior care facility their whole life. The same quality of living should exist everywhere, not a chosen spot.

This is even my theory when it comes to sports and entertainment. Tom Cruise in Born On The Fourth Of July and a movie that’s name I can’t remember where Wesley Snipes played a wheelchair bound person. Neither actor paralyzed but received a role written for a paralyzed individual. A friend of mine made a statement, ”if the role is written for a paralyzed individual, why not hire a paralyzed actor”. Well I’m sure a response would be ”Tom Cruise and Snipes sells tickets, what paralyzed actor you know that famous and besides it’s my movie pal, relax”. Hollywood doesn’t have to follow the rules a bus or train has too, whomever a producer hires to play a role, there’s no law that says their movie should have a number of wheelchair extras or actors in it and shouldn’t have to. I’m not looking for a law, why should you have to force anyone to do what’s humane but history shows you have to force or make laws to make people humane.

I’m sure if Christopher Reeve was here, we see more diverse actors in hollywood but human issues was more important , the quality of life, the health and cure of paralyzed individuals was front-line and that’s why to me after Jesus, King and Malcolm, Reeve was a great humanitarian that gave his life for my freedom. So during Christopher’s journey he chose others not Hollywood alone. With power comes great responsibility, what you chose to do with it can determine your front page then what’s inside the book. I respect a man’s choice, even when they can make things possible for others that might share their own challenges but the only famous person that relates to my challenge that use their famous attribute to do more then asked of him is Christopher Reeve.

So tell me if you feel institutionalized by anything in life. What do you feel left out from and what is it that you feel is why you were left out.

What’s Life that makes us say That’s Life

What’s Life that makes us say That’s Life

In 1987 a young man is shot and paralyzed from a gunshot to his neck. His story has become the story of many other. The senseless violence towards one another because of jealousy, greed, lust and hate has put many individuals in a wheelchair or worse.

The Sean Bell Verdict is a symbolization that the system sees our lives as expendable because when you live in a time where gunfire, murder and death is part of our culture that you can’t even walk out your door sometimes without getting caught in a crossfire. The message we give the system is that we don’t even care about each other as neighbors so why should they care about us. A two-year-old boy out for a ride with his family on Easter Sunday was shot and killed when a stray bullet pierced their minivan. Read the article then return – click here.

Living in a time where selfishness is our way of life to the point we can’t control ourselves that our actions lead to a young baby to die is the worse form of inhumanity. Now this child will never know what it’s like to play, read, date or enjoy his favorite food because our society has become selfish to the point we do things without thinking about a child’s life.

Forget my work, forget my passion to stop disease and death, the advocacy, the purpose, well that’s what most do when I promote a video I produce or a song I promote, but it’s OK to watch a commercial our artist are promoting a product or company they don’t own. The more years go by the more we dilute the reality of capitalism. Money , products, trade is just a concept, if your neighbor can design and produce clothes why do we continue to buy from a designer that don’t return that profit to our community.

I went from writing a song about a man who fought for different ability individuals to hearing lie after lie about how much the purpose is more important then the dollar. Hearing how our political leaders are getting caught in sex scandal, using tax payers dollars to give their families trips and money for education while we can’t afford to feed ourselves.

Media has shown only if you fight, do jackass things or insane acts, they will promote it, sell it, use it and as long as we can get fame we agree to it. All I see on TV is the cheating, the you’re not the father, the family fighting and when it makes you famous of course we will do it, because a majority of us are mentally pursued to believe fame equals money even myself.

Do I promote my work because of the purpose to save lives or make myself famous, I think both but some forum think only the later. We are in an era where we can become famous without they major industry, proof has shown we , you the artist if have a selling point can be famous without industry. The internet and digital download has made it possible to say I’m a force of my own. For example SOMAYA REECE who can deny the fact this woman has designed her own destiny with her own attributes and style without bowing don’t to no industry control. Whatever reason some may say how and why she obtained her own fame whatever she possesses physically is designed by God. I give her props and respect for using her talents fulfill her dreams and the others that don’t hurt others to pursue their dreams.

But back to Sean Bell, the little boy slain by a stray and our soldiers in the war. In their memory let’s try stop being afraid to raise our kids, just saw on news a ten year old boy bringing a gun to school and it went off, he had or most likely got it home. We don’t squash it no more, an 80′s slang meaning truce, forgive, let it go, we don’t do that no more, so I’m wondering if we possessed the ability to live and let live at one point, why not now. Why must we live in a world where our kids go to war and not the Governments, can’t bump into someone , say sorry without dying or just feel safe in our homes. Anger begets Hate, hate begets death, Death begets suffering. Seems we don’t do things with I may go to hell on our minds, we just do it like it’s just life. A 2 year old, or a man celebrating his day before marriage getting taken from their loved ones , shouldn’t be the norm.

I forgot I started this synopsis about a documentary on myself, it’s not new, but many of my new friends didn’t see it. This is a collection of life as a quad. In time I’ll make something new.

CLICK HERE FOR DOCUMENTARY

Online Videos by Veoh.com