From the Editor
AN INVITATION
When we started this publication more than two years ago,
we wanted to make it something different, something that would appeal to people
with different disabilities and with all the problems and successes that life
brings. We named it Independence Today, more a political statement than
a newspaper name. Since it was my brainchild, I refused to add any of those
“dis” or “able” prefixes. I hate labeling anything as if it
were meant for only one group.
If we want things to change, we must speak to all segments
of our community, not just people with disabilities. As a veteran of the
independent living and disability rights movements, I embedded into the
publication the CIL philosophy of cross-disability inclusion, a progressive
approach and a dedication to diversity. Independence Today was not to be
mainstream like WE Magazine, and not solely for people who use
wheelchairs or people who are blind, like some other publications. And, yes, we
wanted to communicate to the public at large and be understood by the
mainstream.
With little money and high ambition, we launched it. We
recruited some of the best writers and journalists in the disability community.
We decided to use CILs as our distribution network. And why not? There is at
least one center in every major city and even some out-of-the-way places. We
had earmarked about 20 copies for large centers and 10 copies for small
centers. We assumed not only staff, board members and consumers -- the
disability community -- would read the publication but also non-disabled
people.
We expected some positive reaction and some negative. Most
of the e-mails we received were very positive and encouraging. Some questioned
why we didn’t just use the funds available to create this publication for
other purposes. But then there were those not-so-positive and downright
discouraging e-mails. One was from a center in the Northwest that did not want
the paper because the writer said it only contained articles from New York
state. Although we did carry a few articles on New York concerning the Help
America Vote Act (HAVA), it turns out the gentleman had us confused with an
“able” -titled publication. But it was all right because we had other
takers, many more than we had copies for.
Then came the e-mail from the center in the Appalachian
region: “Please send us only one copy. Ten are too many. We don’t get
ten people here in a year.” "Wow," we thought. "This is real bad." In a
reply, we asked, “You mean you receive $275,000 from the federal
government every year and you don’t serve 10 people a month?” The
center's return e-mail confirmed that.
That reply really got under my skin. So these people our
wasting precious resources, and they don’t give a damn about it. Wasting
taxpayers’ money is not something I rail about only when the Pentagon or
Halliburton does it, but also when my so-called allies do it. We decided to
stop sending that center copies of IT. How pitiful that no one was doing
anything about this. As the year progressed, we found similar situations, even
one in our own state of New York. This is a failure on the part of both state
and federal governments. Those centers getting more than a quarter of a million
dollars a year and not serving people should be closed and the money given to
centers that are overwhelmed. Or, better yet, the money should be given to
ADAPT, so that group can help place our brethren in the community. What a
disappointment the people who run those centers are to the entire movement.
Because there are some very large and well-financed
centers in the country, and even some small, not-so-well financed centers doing
incredible work, we are inviting you to help us spread the word as to how you
got where you are or about your success story. A center’s success, among
other factors, may be lie in its place in history, its particular region, the
era in which it was started or contributions by staff members no one remembers
anymore. The bureaucratic phrase “best practices” does not
necessarily cover the spectrum of reasons why a particular center has had good
outcomes, a multimillion-dollar budget or is unique in other ways. This is an
opportunity, an invitation, to let other centers know what you’re doing,
how you’re doing and how effective you are. We call this
‘peerism” -- centers helping other centers.
In the near future, we will be bringing you more
opportunities to participate not only to this newspaper but to our Web sites,
too. Independent Living-USA, or www.ilusa.com, is one of the most visited
disability sites on the Web. You can provide your constituents with appropriate
news and other content, such as the ILC searchable database. If your center has
not updated its information recently, we recommend you do it. People are
looking for you not just locally but abroad, too. Put a link to
www.ilusa.com on your Web site, and give
your community a porthole into what is happening nationally and
internationally. Plus, www.ilusa.com
provides a link to the newspaper’s Web site,
www.itodaynews.com , and other national
advocacy Web sites; such as NCIL and AAPD, along with other allied sites, such
as www.familiesusa.org.
Learning from each other is how this movement got off the
ground, and that is the only way to keep the network strong. |
