Ed none

Recent Activity

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  Ed signed the petition | 28 days ago

  Massachusetts Representatives: Please Stop Painful Electric Shocks on Students at JRC in Massachusetts!
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  Ed signed the petition | almost 3 years ago

  Urge House to Pass Anti-Horse Slaughter Bill
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  Ed signed the petition | almost 3 years ago

  Tell Craigslist to Make REAL Change in the Adult Services Section of Craigslist!
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  Ed commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Violence and Bullying: What happened to Sean Carter

  I recognise that comment. Ed wrote that. :)

  
  

  Maybe some independent outside source could be set up to hear from those who have been abused. The schools themselves or the people who the school gets to do this (who have the same invested interest in hiding what's going on) is how the cycle gets repeated. That's been the problem with government agencies who claim to be protecting people. They don't just not understand enough, they are motivated to prevent the truth from being told.

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  Ed commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Reporting School Abuse

  I really think these groups are a step in the wrong direction. It's not just that they help some but not enough, it's that those people who work for these agencies don't really have the opportunity to say how their agency is really failing. They end up protecting the agency by continuing to sacrifice the rights of the victims.

  
  

  There are a lot of subtle as well as overt ways that staff members in these agencies are allowed to discourage those who have been abused from reporting it. It's important to remember that no matter what type of abuse it is, the victim first has to deal with their own shame. That's what abuse does. It makes the victim feel ashamed.

  
  

  That means that the opportunity to report what has happened to them won't be enough. They need to be in an environment where they are encouraged and empowered.

  
  

  One of the ways they can be encouraged is when the someone who works for these agencies they were taught to trust will take responsibility for the abuse that's happening and admit to the victims that their agency shouldn't have been trusted. Otherwise what the victim sees (and rightly so) is a repeat of the abuse by these people downplaying how severe the problem is and glossing over how much they will really need to do to change things.

  
  

  People with disabilities have many sources that teach them that what they say will not be respected if it's even heard. The goal should be to have disabled people given REAL encouragement to speak up and show them a system where what they say is more important to those listening than the protection of the agencies that are commiting and/or allowing the abuse.

  
  

   

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  Ed signed the petition | almost 3 years ago

  Deaths of 30 cats pursued and being prosecuted, Thank the Prosecuters!
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  Ed commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Homelessness & Disability

  That's a good question but I don't know that there is any way to tell. In some cities there are sometimes (or at least there used to be) incentives to bring more of the homeless in on occasion just for them to be counted. If people have been abused and/or threatened by the law enough they won't trust much.

  
  

  The landowners in States like California and Texas have too much of a financial investment in hiring mainly non registered migrant workers to be asking any more questions that they are. When these people are in between jobs and sometimes even when they are working they are homeless.

  
  

  In cities like D.C. (where I've been homeless) I would estimate that over half of the homeless people are not accounted for anywhere. Lots of teenagers won't stay in the same shelters regularly to avoid being counted. Most who have been in state funded mental institutions don't want to be on record anywhere either.

  
  

  There are still others who can only go to shelters when they're sober and many who are afraid of having a criminal check made on them if there name or social security number is known.

  
  

  I hear all the time of more big cities where the police destroy tents and beat people in the park. This doesn't encourage people to trust that the system wants them to do better.

  
  

   

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  Ed commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Homelessness & Disability

  The number of homelessness in the United States (based on the typical definition of the word,) is MUCH higher than any statistic has ever shown.

  
  

  The goal of SSI and SSDI is not to aid people in overcoming homelessness. The best way this is shown is by looking at how few who are provided SSI or SSDI ever go on to aquire other services that would supposedly bring them out of poverty. These services aren't geared to help at all.

  
  

  Unfortunately, since very few people who are involved with providing these services or looking at who these services do and don't serve, the exclusivity and discouragement of these programs is rarely if ever recognised or accepted. The people who would be served by a closer look at these programs aren't seen as worthy of such an investment.

  
  

  Homelessness and poverty are hard work. Unfortunately, those who serve as societies excluded are playing too much of a crucial role in the scheme of how exclusivity and privilage are maintained and protected for those who recieve the benefits of this system to provide opportunties for them to be anything other than what they are basically employed to do.

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  Ed commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  Stereotypes About Not Working

  It's much easier to assure that your applicants can perform the task of driving a car by being in a place where only those who can will be applying, than it is to write the question on the aplication form and risk having it said that you are discriminating.

  
  

  Overt discimination is thought to be unsophisticated and unsympathetic while discrimination that is cleaverly disquised is seen as practical to the survival of industry.

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  Ed commented on the article | almost 3 years ago

  The Finer Points of Employment Discrimination

  Anti-discrimination laws, after they are passed, usually take their place in the "impractical" file. Even agencies that are supposedly designed for helping people fight discrimination know they have obligations and compromises that are their first priority.

  
  

  As long as there are corporate demands that our government believes they must honor to give corporations the incentives to continue, many agency claims of discrimination are falsely advertising that they have the power to be of much assistance in these matters. They have the least power to help those who need it the most.