Rangel takes heat for ‘disabled’ comment

now again more than questionable use of language
Interviewed by New York television station WCBS Friday evening, the powerful New York congressman was asked why Democrats appear “afraid” of Palin. “You got to be kind to the disabled,” Rangel, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, responded in an answer the reporter interviewing him later called “astonishing.”

and
Shortly after the interview aired Friday night, Rangel issued a statement say his words were “misinterpreted.”

“Sometimes in the heat of a political campaign you choose words that can be misinterpreted,” he said. “Governor Palin is an obviously healthy person who in no way fits the description of disabled. I meant to say then, and I am saying now, that she entered the campaign with a disadvantage in the area of foreign policy.”

read here
My question: what fits the description of disabled? the deficient unable to be a president….?

About How We Talk About Autism

I was able to make it into New York last night and hear philosopher Ian Hacking give his keynote speech on How We Talk About Autism, for the Stony Brook University conference on Cognitive Disability: A Challenge to Moral Philosophy. Some reflections on Professor Hacking’s lecture are here—-the lecture has kind of “jump-started” my thinking for my book on language and neurodiversity.

SHAMELESS: The ART of Disability

For those in the NYC area:

The Council for the Study of Disability invites you to a

Screening and Discussion of the award winning documentary

SHAMELESS:

The ART of Disability. This humorous, passionate film tracks artists with diverse disabilities as they create and present self-representations that transform stereotypes and reveal the complexities and richness of their lives. Discussion with filmmaker, Bonnie Klein and George Stoney.

For more information: http://www.nyu.edu/disability.council/.

ACTUP Oral History Project

 

silence = death

This week we had a real treat in Edmonton in having Sarah Schulman from the ACTUP Oral History Project around for the week. ACTUP–the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power–was the leading activist organization in the US formed to fight on behalf of those with a then-mysterious “gay disease” in the early 1980s that came to be known as AIDS. The Oral History Project has been underway for over five years, and is centred on almost 100 video interviews, one with each living member of ACTUP, New York. The interviews, which run up to 4 hours, can be accessed via the OHP website. There you can view about 5 minutes of streaming video of the 70 or so interviews that have been posted there, and download FULL transcripts of all of these in pdf.