home from the funeral
hands in the dishwater suds
sister-to-sister
black panites–
she lifts one leg,
then an eyebrow
estate auction–
can’t get my hand back out
of the cookie jar
“schoolBrooks” Randy Brooks, from School’s Out
(Press Here, 1999)
by dagosan:
home from the wake —
a robin perched
on the newly-toppled tree
[April 8, 2005]
potluck
All Things Considered had an interesting piece yesterday on”What Defines Disabled?”
It was spurred by news reports that Janeal Lee had her title as Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin
rescinded, because — although she has muscular dystrophy and primarily uses a scooter to
get around — she is able to stand. Lennard Davis disagrees, saying that definitions of disability
need to become less stereotypical. and you can find an audio of his commentary here.
(also: Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, Hey, sorry, you just weren’t crippled enough, April 7,
2005)
Davis has written numerous books, including Bending Over Backwards:
Essays on Disability and the Body (NYU Press 2002). He is a pioneer
in disability studies and believes that it provides an entirely new way of thinking
about the body in its relation to politics, the environment, the legal system,
and global economies.
Davis’ ATC commentary reminded me that persons like myself — with
an “invisible disability” [a medical condition making significant, consistent
employment impossible that is not apparent to by looking at me] —
are often not considered disabled enough by traditional “disability advocates,”
who seem to have a much narrower test. When I was trying to see if I could
handle part-time employment a number of years ago, I applied for a
minimum-wage position at a disability housing advocacy group — they
wanted someone to accompany their clientele to hearings. I figured that
two decades as a lawyer (one of them as a children’s advocate) might make
me suitable. However, at my only interview for the position, it was quite
clear that I wasn’t disabled enough — or that they were not willing to take
a chance with someone whose disability needs special accomodations
other than the traditional physical ones.
ABA discipline survey. Bob, like myself, disagrees with Norm’s notion of
sanctioning clients for “frivolous” complaints. Bob also believes we should “throw
open” all client complaints “for all to see.” As my Comments state at Bob’s
site and Carolyn’s I think we need to give the problem more thought before making
all complaints readily available to the public.
Where was Eliot when I needed him? (Oh yeah, in high school.) The latest
Harvard Law Bulletin has an article on NYS AG Eliot Spitzer (“The Equalizer,” Spring 2005).
I had to smile when I read Spitzer defending himself against the charge that there are
too many agencies, state and federal, jumping in to stop corporate corruption. Eliot
responds “Competition works — even in law enforcement and in government.” My
smile was from remembering a Washington Post editorial from about 1979, which derided
a presentation by the then-Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition to a Congressional
committee, giving the same rationale for having both the FTC and DOJ enforcing antitrust
laws. The Post said that redundancy might be good for NASA, but surely wasn’t for
antitrusters. The Post editorial was particularly interesting to me at the time, because I
had written the Director’s testimony. Balkanization-Schmalkanization.
George Wallace has been known to handicap wines and film, and today he
posts about the documentary, Mondovino. — “Most commonly described as “the Fahrenheit 9/11
of wine” — which may or may not be a compliment .” Interesting.
“tinyredcheck” Along with a nice pointer to our post on e-shaming, Don Hawbaker at The Construction Law Blog added some choice words on the topic today:
“I think it was Mark Twain who said something like, “a lie travels half-way around the world before truth gets its pants on.” In our technologically advanced world, the truth has closed the gap considerably. That’s the good news.
“The bad news is that if you create a public record that’s embarressing or unflattering, your name is likely to get mentioned on some site or another that feeds Google or some other monstrous search engine. And the entry of your name alone may for a long-time lead to a reliving of that event again and again. Someone’s 15 minutes of fame, whether for good or bad, may now last for years.
So, did Don’s Mom: “And I definitely recall that it was my mother who told me ‘live your life like what you do may be a front-page article in the newspaper.’ That’s still good advice.”
