Global Crisis

Every year on March 1st, the disability community gathers to mourn people killed by their parents and caregivers. We mourn all untimely deaths, of course, and there are far too many deaths by accident, stranger violence, police violence, and more.But there is something specific to...

Last night I had the pleasure of watching one our nation's great writers, Ta-Nehisi Coates, give a talk on the case for reparations at my university. The content of the talk was based on his recent major article for The Atlantic, which you should read. His thesis is that for 350 years, in an ongoing fashion, African-Americans can and are being plundered...

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) today awarded the 2015 Nissan Sentra a “Top Safety Pick” vehicle safety rating. The Institute’s “Top Safety Pick” award recognizes passenger vehicles that excel in protecting passengers in moderate overlap front, side, roof strength...

All the news lately on Bill O'Reilly has focused on his chronic exaggeration of his records as a reporter on war. The short story is that while has has seen violent things here and there, he's not a war reporter, but it's not likely Fox News or their audience will care.What I don't...

Today is National Adjunct Walkout Day. Around the country, adjuncts have organized walkouts and rallies and donation funds and many other efforts to bring people together and insist on fair wages.And they are right to do so. As a tenured faculty member, I stand fully in support with...

Pretty much everyone agrees that fostering creativity is one of the most important things you do for a child. Skills are all well and good, of course, but the ability to imagine and create matter so much to overall development. One way to foster, of course, is by reading to them...

Wisconsin has good rules for independent review of police killings, at least partially as told through this story in Politico. The author tells the story of his son's death, the lawsuit, and then the campaign to get an independent review law passed. He concludes:Finally we began to get some movement, helped by a friendly Republican legislator, Garey...

This is one of the worst essays I have ever read on disability. An abled person informing the disability community that inspiration porn is a good thing. She even has the audacity to cite Stella Young. Here's the piece, then a commercial that I think does a better job. There’s a debate raging on the internet right now about whether or not it’s cool...

Hey, so someone playing disabled won an Oscar last night. Later today I am going to write about the worst example of able-splaining I've seen in a long time, in which a non-disabled person tells everyone why inspiration porn is great. But first, here's a disability-related critique of Theory of Everything. Short version - it's about making albed people...

One of the things many of us EV drivers are guilty of, is plugging in whenever we have the opportunity to. We may not even need the extra range, but if there is an available 240V EVSE, or even a simple 120V outlet, and we're going to be at that location for a while, it's just too...

The Autistic Self Advocacy Network has just alerted me to an ongoing issue in the state of New Jersey. Amazing, New Jersey has come up with a great new plan to move away from group homes and institutions and bring real support into the communities.That model threatens providers'...

I've missed a few Sundays, mostly because so much has been going on that I can't stop writing long enough to breathe and assess. I'll try to do better. Here's the week.Published - Facebook and Fear: The story of one woman's decision to keep her child with Down syndrome, facilitated through some quick Facebook messages.My posts: Anti-Women, Anti-Information:...

I had the opportunity to ride around town in the Lincoln Navigator while I was in LA attending the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Event. I was very impressed with this vehicle because its smooth and powerful and comes equipped with a Twin-Turbocharged 3.5L V6 EcoBoost Engine.Second-Row...

A few weeks ago I wrote about an anti-choice bill in Indiana that was designed to drive a wedge between disability rights and reproductive rights activists. I argued:As we head into the 2015 legislative session, we need to be prepared for anti-choice filed a bill last week to prohibit...

In Spokane, a woman stabbed her autistic son in the neck. Here is 100% of the information on the victim (link here):Court documents say the 17-year-old son had several cut marks on his neck and throat, but officials say his wounds were not life threatening.The rest of the piece is about how hard life must have been on the mother, building sympathy...

OPINIÓN: No debemos temerle al síndrome de Down http://t.co/3YRfPluotm pic.twitter.com/zKsFTjcSgO— CNN en Español (@CNNEE) February 19, 2015I have a new piece up at CNN (here's the English language version. I've just never, to my knowledge, been translated before, so sharing this!)....

It started, as it so often does, with a family member calling 911 for help for a loved one in mental health crisis. Lavall Hall was outside, in Miami Gardens, when police arrived. He had a broomstick. Miami Gardens police officers Peter Ehrlich and Eddo Trimino fired their Tasers...

The front storage compartment (Frunk) of my i3 after driving a few weeks on the salt-covered winter roads of New Jersey - yuck!First, let me begin by saying I was one of the people who really didn't mind the fact that the i3's front storage compartment (affectionately called the...

This is the 500th post on How Did We Get Into This Mess? I started the blog as a place to dump essays that I couldn't sell, as I was new to freelancing in May of 2013, and caught up in the rush of public writing. I wrote, and wrote, and wrote, and pitched and landed about 1 in 10,...

The top-selling police vehicle in America is getting a major update, and Ford is offered the first look at the Chicago Auto Show. Since its debut three years ago, the Ford Police Interceptor Utility has quickly become the law enforcement community’s vehicle of choice, built with...

Open a new browser window and do an image search for boys. Here's what I got.All but two images in the first four rows are, in fact, boys (there are two adult male actors in row three).Now do the same thing for the word "girls."It's breasts and butts and lace and sexualized poses....

In America, an English-language Jesuit magazine, Mary Berth Werdel (a prof at Fordham) has a powerful essay about church and her autistic son. She begins with diagnosis and all its complexities, a story I've heard many times from many parents (which doesn't make this story less important or well-written!), but I really want to focus on the church issues.In...