Friday, June 20, 2014

Music For A Friday Evening: 25 Years Ago ...


I’ll try to keep my comments from sounding too much like an old fart on YouTube.

It’s hard to describe the mixture of feelings watching old video clips from the 1989 Moscow Music and Peace Festival. First of all, it happened in that really short few years when the Russia was still the Soviet Union, a nominally Communist superpower, but in the process of more or less voluntarily loosening up and generally saying “fuck it” to the whole world domination thing. Then of course there are the hair bands. On of them was Bon Jovi, which is still a going concern, but one of my favorites for a little less than a year was, oddly, Cinderella. Let’s just say I think their music aged a lot better than their look. Two years later, the likes of Nirvana took over everything, and I’m not sorry … but I still sort of get a kick out of these guys once in awhile. And it really does look like those Soviet kids are having a great time. I wish things could have gone smoother for them.

Join The Lexicon Project!

There is something I would like to add to the Disability Thinking Blog, and I’d like some help with it.

One of my favorite blogs for general political discussion, from a particular point of view (generally liberal / progressive), has a three-part “Lexicon”, which gives funny, insightful “definitions” for all sorts of formal and informal terms related to politics, and particularly how politics are discussed on the Internet. You can check them out at these links:

Balloon Juice Lexicon:
What I have in mind is a similar Lexicon for disability-related issues, culture, and Internet discourse. Here are some of the terms I'd like to start with:

Disability Lexicon
Ableism / Disableism
People First Language
Spoon Theory / Spoonie
Handicapped
Differently-Abled
Appropriation / Appropriative
Intersectionality
Medical Model
Social Model
Reasonable Accommodation
Accessibility
Universal Design
Autism Speaks
Neurotypical
Intellectual Disability
Retarded
Advocacy
Center for Independent Living
Assisted Living
Olmstead
ADA / Americans with Disabilities Act
Nursing Home
Home Care
Personal Assistance Services
Sheltered Workshop
Supported Employment
Developmental Disability / Developmentally Disabled
Special Needs
IEP / Individualized Education Plan
Special Education
Vocational Rehabilitation
Physical Therapy
Occupational Therapy
Assistive Technology
Devotee
Microaggression
Stimming

I’d like it if all the definitions could have a somewhat humorous, sarcastic tone, but also be more or less accurate. Or, at least accurate from a more or less “social model”, “crip culture” perspective. For that reason, I have mostly left out disability types, since I can’t really think of any sarcastic things to say about them at the moment.

Would anyone like to take a stab at any of these definitions? Would this even work? Should use a different approach … maybe straightforward, without sarcasm?

Thought Balloons

Line drawing of a cartoon "thought balloon"
Wouldn’t it be great if people in real life had thought balloons you could see while talking to them, especially in tense chess game situations like job interviews? I wonder what we disabled people would read in job interviews if we has such powers, so we could see all that goes unsaid?

"You might be “adequate” for the job, but you can’t really be the best, can you?"

“The last thing I needs is to hire another 'high maintenance' employee."

"I feel awkward and anxious around you."

“If I hire you, sooner or later, I'll say or do something wrong that will get me in trouble."

"You say you can do the job but I don’t think you really know what you’re talking about."

"There’s something strange, something a bit 'off' about you that I just can’t place, and I don’t know how to ask you about it.”

"How can you possibly do this job with the disability you have?”

The next question is, what would employers read in our thought balloons?