By Professirx
Take a look at these 3 videos. This is what inspired me to write this blog.
http://www.facebook.com/l/38c78;www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OyrXd-uZRE
http://www.facebook.com/l/38c78;www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ1Z9-Hdmrs
http://www.facebook.com/l/38c78;www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbD8QVNuXZM
OK,I said, ”Let me check out this movie, finally someone with a disability is in a box office smash.” Boy was I wrong. I spent 2 hours waiting to get to the point of why this paraplegic was involved in this virtual world. Was he going to find a cure and walk at the end. Why did he even have to be paralyzed for this story. I never got to understand the impact his paralysis was going to inspire. Oh sure, I must be a hermit because I didn’t even know this guy has been in other movies and to my surprise, he can walk.WTF . I need to watch moves more. Yea right. Outside of the disability issue in the media, the movie is pretty dam good but this is bullshit. The actor is a great actor, but the role could of been played by a real paraplegic. Sigourney Weaver was suffice enough to draw an audience.
But Professir X, if the actor was really paralyzed, how could he could do all that running and jumping.
Dude, it was a computer generated image, the flesh and blood man only spent 10 minutes in this film. Did you not see the video where Christopher Reeve walked, that was superimposed.
OK my point is this. with today’s technology, anything’s possible, able or disable. I don’t know about you, but disability is the new Black. The media is discriminating us from our human rights to get a fair chance. I Rallied for Stem Cell, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Act and other causes , I found an organization who’s mission is to help aspiring disable actors get into the media. I wrote them last year, haven’t received a reply yet, hey give them some time , they may be busy on their own agenda huh.
Well 2010 wasn’t a year I wait on a phone to ring before I move. I will always rank as soldier, Christopher Reeve will forever be General, but my mission for 2010 is to collaborate with as many others as possible. Make our own and share it all over the world. We have the Internet, you can get a camera for under 200.00, get you ideas on video and upload it all over the web. I truly have to thank the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, they made it possible for me to continue to bring awareness for Spinal Cord Injury. I also thank Leroy Moore for his work with Krip Hop. Bringing aspiring artist together and not waiting on a so called Hollywood decision.
If anyone with a disability is interested in collaborating. Read this article and send me your material.
http://www.facebook.com/l/38c78;communities.kintera.org/REEVE/forums/thread/68794.aspx
Tags: actors, Avatar, Christopher, Dana, Disability, Foundation, krip, Leeroy, moore, movies, paralisys, Reeve, videos
Blogroll, Creative Ideas, Disability, Disability Advocacy, Independent Living, Living with a Disability, media | professirX | 
January 14, 2010 8:54 am | 
Comments (0)
I was born in the 60′s in the South Bronx, NY. There was no home computer, cell phones, Internet or any wide screen televisions. Pretty much they way we lived then, we still managed to survive. Back then until 1987 when I was paralyzed, I never knew what paralysismeant or how it effects our ability. Even after being paralyzed until 2005, I wasn’t involved with spinal cord injury issues. Since 2005 until now, December 2009, about 5 years, I have experienced more greed, discrimination, nonsupport and holly-wooding, a term that means someone says something you want to hear when they’re just trying to brush you off. This experience in our ownSCI community. Am I shocked, even though I know your own brother can turn on you like Cain and Able. Yes I was. Sometime I feel in order to gain support I had tothimble myself and kiss butt. WOW, among my own SCI community, the people I suffer this pain with. Make no mistake I hold an grudges, in fact as I follow Jesus and the path He lived, sometime mankind can do things and not know what they’re doing. I’m no angel, I’m not perfect, I don’t think what ever I been told I do for othersSCI like myself deserves an award, all I’m expressing is something I feel is going on we can change.
I met Leroy Moore a few years ago. Leroy is to disability as Kool Herc and Africa Bambatta is to Hip Hop. He’s a soldier, a general and leader of creating a nation of supporting each other. He seeks out artist who are disable and ask them to send him their audio to be put on acompilation CD. Leroy reminds me of what Hip Hop was all about and how it was treated like I stated earlier about the experiences of greed, discrimination, nonsupport and holly-wooding that I took part in. Every thing Hip Hop was, was designed to save young lives, not to make a dollar. Contrary to what some may think, gangs, crime and wars existed before Hip Hop. Hip Hop didn’t create what already existed in mankind. Hip Hop was made to change the gangs, crime and wars and turn it into an art where talents went to battle without putting others into coffins. Therefore although you may see violence, greed and sex in Hip Hop videos, it’s no different then seeing the same thing in a block buster famous actor movie. What is the difference is unlikethose block buster movies, many of the artist lives are genuinely real. They don’t have laser beam vision or can shoot web out they’re wrist but their expression of art can sometimes only afford to create fantasy from their own reality, not a 100 million dollarCGI description of their art. Everything needs money event our dreams as aspirations. You can find ways through literature and book writing but most artist want to see their art on film not just on paper and if it means just picking up a camera and recording it the best way they can, an artist will do that.
I felt to write this blog because I had my last straw to hearing the statement Shameless Promotion. Most disable people can’t or may not be working. If durning their days at home they find a talent in them and begin working on it, if they decide their art can also help them pay for medications,supplies, hospital bills and rent because they’re not as finacially lucky like someone rich, is it wrong for them to try to use their art in their survival. From what I experienced, many have proved it to be. I think what’s shameless is when, you yourself living with a disability or you are anorganization who’s mission is to help disable people, to call their only means of self promoting shameless it’s very like friendly fire.
When man vs SCI becomes man vs man vs SCI, the war may never end. Everything man needs to live, like food and warter, God provides but some how mankind made a way to monopolize things we need to live and make us pay for it. So when many of us aren’t lucky enough to have major deals , we may chose to sell our art instead of robbing you. When you don’t provide options, sometimes others will chose negative options when the good ones aren’t helping them survives. Sure their naturally are bad individuals who no mater what will do wrong but there are many out there that genuinely want to do right. When wealthy companiescommercialize their products we accept that because they’re paying to promote their product, but if a unwealthy person who doesn’t have the money to promote their product we call their means of self promotions shameless. Spamming and Scams has also assisted in the obstacles for a true inventor. That’s about why things stay the same.
The classes can’t change if the masses wont change.
Tags: art, Disability, hip, hop, krip hop, moore, music, rap, sci, support, survival, work
Blogroll, Community Inclusion, Creative Ideas, Disability, Disability Advocacy, Living with a Disability, art | professirX | January 3, 2010 8:02 pm | Comments (0)
“Down Under” Care
Australia as an example for health care reform in the United States?
Yes, as surprising as it may seem, Australia is taking major steps to reform its long-term care and support system for people with disabilities. A federal policy wonk by the name of Bruce Bonyhady, who has two sons with Cerebral Palsy, has been pushing for a compulsory National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) that would be publicly-financed and would cover people with all kinds of disabilities.
The major problem in Australia is that the “safety-net” for people with disabilities is incomplete. An Australian with a disability does receive financial support in the case of a disability that results from a workplace or motor vehicle accident. However, for other people with disabilities, there is no such security. There is the threat of being institutionalized, if one’s family is unable, both financially and emotionally, to care for the person with a disability.
The NDIS would help to cover the expenses of various areas of daily life, including healthcare, education, and employment. This proposal is being studied by the Australian federal government’s Productivity Commission and recommendations are due in July 2011.
This begs a question: Why are Americans with disabilities stuck with the prospect of the CLASS Act program? The CLASS Act program, as mentioned in a blog by Paula Span of The New York Times is voluntary long-term care legislation that is primarily a middle-class benefit and is meant for disability that may occur down the line. To explain it further, the CLASS Act only provides benefits for those working for five straight years and for those who receive a large enough salary to afford to pay monthly premiums. Lastly, you need to understand that the CLASS Act will only cover a maximum of $100 per day, depending upon the severity of one’s disability.
Yes, that’s right. The CLASS Act would still leave people with disabilities with some expenditures toward long-term care and definitely wouldn’t be enough to cover 24-hour care either.
This would work well for employed, middle-class people, when they retire, for instance, and need some help with daily tasks. However, the CLASS Act does not eliminate the dependence on Medicaid faced by lower-income, younger people who have severe disabilities and, therefore, need immediate care, which they cannot afford on their own. Let’s remember that this dependence on Medicaid forces people with disabilities to impoverish themselves.
It’s time to be honest: As good as it may sound, we’re not all moving to Australia. Also, no one can predict when the next time to make significant changes to our health care system will be, with all of the controversy and money involved in doing so. When health care reform passes this time around, let’s be sure that we, as people with disabilities, can truly celebrate it. We need true long-term care coverage in the United States now.
Tags: 2011, 24, Act, Americans, Australia, Bonyhady, Bruce, care, Cerebral, CLASS, Commission, Disability, hour, Insurance, July, medicaid, National, NDIS, Palsy, Paula, Productivity, program, Scheme, Span, States, United
Disability, Disability Advocacy, Health, Independent Living | Andrew Levinson | December 28, 2009 8:14 pm | Comments (1)
My wife Marge, Foxy and Me
The radical physical and mental changes I went through following my accident were overwhelming. My mental rehabilitation lagged behind, slowed by two major thoughts. I had retired seven months prior, at age 55, looking forward to spending the years ahead pursuing the recreational activities I enjoyed so much. One of my biggest concerns adjusting to my new life was the belief that I would not be able to return to the activities which provided me with quality of life. I also feared my most productive days were behind me and I would simply exist for the rest of my life. The change in my outlook began during a recreation field trip to the Denver Zoo. I was accompanied on this field trip by my daughter and two grandchildren. As I watched my grandchildren running around and listened to their questions and the talk of others around me, I began to realize I still had much to share.
The ongoing process of mental recovery was greatly influenced by my former association with the martial arts and Project Adventure. The martial arts stress the mind body connection, focusing one’s mental energy and looking at issues as challenges to be solved rather than problems with which to be dealt. Project Adventure “… is a challenging outdoor personal development and team building activity which usually consists of high and/or low elements. Low elements take place on the ground or only a few feet above the ground. High elements are usually constructed in trees or made of utility poles and require a belay (being a attached to a safety line) for safety.” (wikipedia.org/wiki/Ropes_course) PA helped me understand what success and failure mean, including commitment and alternative ways of solving problems. The importance of the mind, the thought process and one’s attitude facing challenges became very clear to me. When trying to accomplish a task I believe it is human nature to rely on a method which has been successful in the past. This often encourages us to use only limited means to accomplish a particular goal. If I asked 10 people, most anywhere in the United States, to catch a fish chances are almost all of them would grab a fishing pole since this method has been successful and therefore widely used in our culture. Initially when dealing with the challenges placed on people by a disability, I think they often try to solve problems using the same skills they used before their impairment. This approach can create extreme frustration and an acute awareness of the limitations placed on them by their condition. In reality, if we think about it, there are usually many ways to solve a particular problem. If I presented the same challenge of catching a fish to 10 people who were selected from different cultures around the world we would probably see a wide variety of approaches to accomplishing this task. Fish might be taken with a spear, bow and arrow, casting a net, using a gill net, with fish traps, use of hands (one hand method is called Noodling) or use of another animal like a cormorant. With this example it becomes apparent that there are a lot of different ways to accomplish a given task. So learn to think outside the box and experiment with different approaches.
My introduction to adaptive equipment began one day when I dropped a piece of paper on the floor. Because of my level of injury I was constantly dropping things and then having to call my wife or nurse to pick them up for me. I knew something had to change. How would my attitude toward picking up that piece of paper affect me? If I decided I could not pick up the paper, chances are it would foster a negative feeling of defeat which then could further my disability. It took me quite awhile including a lot of failure and frustration to reach the point where I am today. If at first you don’t succeed try, try again. How many times have we heard that? I have learned over the last ten years that if you have an open mind and an active brain you can always find different ways or methods to solve most of the challenges we face. It is just a matter of how much thought, time and perseverance you are willing to commit to the process. Check out my website www.handihelp.net for some of the methods I have come up with.
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