From the Editor….

In this issue we have contributions from many of the top writers in the disability community. Once again, Mike Ervin gets the cover story. No More Excuses concerns Ervin’s insider report on the ADAPT campaign, and its actions and achievements this past month in Washington, D.C. Deborah Kendrick interviews Kristen Cox, candidate for lieutenant governor in Maryland. Kendrick also provides us with an interesting perspective of Disability Employment Awareness Month (October) in a piece we call Understanding Our Own Before We Take it Outside.

Another nationally known writer and advocate, Kathi Wolfe, joins us with two submissions. The first is a commentary on the importance of voting: Vote: Your Life Depends On It. The second piece is titled James C. Dickson: Don’t Mourn: Organize! an in-depth conversation with “Jim” Dickson, head of the American Association of People with Disabilities Disability Vote Project. We are proud to introduce Eleanor A. Cantor, a writer from Michigan, whose article is titled Medicare is Forty Years Old: America’s Own Forty-Year War. Another newcomer is Susan Cohen, from New York State, with NYS Making Dreams Come True, a precursor to Money Follows the Person.

Amy Halloran is back with another look on how children in the “Sandwich Generation” help their aging parents. The sentimental piece we titled Family Vacations: The New Good Old Days, is about planning a vacation to a familiar place but looking it from the perspective of accommodations for someone with a disability.

In this issue we start a column named For Directors Only. This feature will cover issues surrounding managing a CIL, or not-for-profit organization. Ronald B. House, Ph.D., an experienced IL management trainer, currently is the CEO and executive vice president of the American Disabilities Institute for Research and Training, Inc. He first became involved with the independent living movement in 1980 in Houston, Texas, developing a management-training simulation for CILs.

Several new contributors help make this issue diverse. Getting Clean from Old Attitudes is a private and personal account of Leslie Underwood’s experience in substance-abuse treatment programs. A newcomer who came around very quickly is Kimberly R. White, who wrote My Habitat. With the great need for accessible affordable housing for people being freed from institutions, My Habitat, describes an alternative to increasing housing options for people with disabilities. Kimberly writes on how she got her house built by Habitat for Humanity. Mike Reynolds examines the history of Disability in the Movies.

Our news roundup is provided by Dave Reynolds from Inclusion Daily Express. This roundup provides selected news items for the last two months. The complete document may be viewed at the Independence Today Web site, www.itodaynews.com.

A special thanks to Tom Olin for providing photographs on the ADAPT actions.

Finally, we have Part II of my cryptic commentary on how the service-delivery system evolved from voluntary agencies to Centers for Independent Living. This section is titled Revelations.

We would like to thank all the directors of CILs, state councils on independent living, associations, governmental agencies, and agencies serving the aging population for their assistance in distributing this publication. We encourage, and welcome, your support so that we can make this publication community owned.

Patricio “Pat” Figueroa, Jr.

Publisher/ Editor

Click here for Main Page