8 GROUNDCOVER NEWS VENDOR VOICES Hasta la victoria siempre! Spanish is a growing language in the United States. It may be your best choice to be bilingual and promote brain and mental health. The English for the title of this article is “towards victory always.” It is a basic slogan of the Cuban Revolution. Even setbacks and outright defeats can be turned towards victory. The July 26 Movement in Cuba was born from the defeat of the attempt to seize weapons from the Moncada Barracks on July 26, 1953. It is similar to the memory of John Brown and Harpers Ferry. Most of the revolutionaries were killed in battle or captured and murdered. Fidel was captured, but even as a prisoner, observed his situation closely and saw one of Batista’s officers was a man of some integrity. Fidel spoke to him and told him who he was. The officer then disobeyed his orders to take prisoners to an execution site and drove through town to the police station. It became known that Fidel was Nhat Hanh, whom King met, and Thomas Merton, the soul brother he did not meet in person, are the basis for a deeper revelation on what needs to be done to maximize the number of survivors of climate change and war. Above all, take notice of the plans for KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 still alive and the Batista dictatorship decided to put him on trial. Fidel got to speak and delivered the now famous “History Will Absolve Me” speech. We are in a different period of history now. The armed struggle is not the focus. The ideological struggle around which ideas work has become central. The impact of Martin Luther King on theory and practice and faith in reality has changed our understanding of who we are. His relationship with Thich nuclear war and the march of the war machine for first strike “shock and awe” by the end of this decade. OREPA, the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, has been organizing demonstrations and civil disobedience to stop nuclear weapons research. They have done vigils every Sunday for 22 years. The writing has been on the wall for decades and we are at the now or never moment. It is time for mind training as the first step as we learn to "compost war and grow peace." We are fortunate to have excellent meditation teachers in our midst. Khenpo Choephel is a new Tibetan meditation master who I met through the Karuna Buddhist Center. I am going back to the basics of following the breath as the gateway for taming the mind and developing some ability to benefit beings. Fortunately the vastness of the task before us begins with simple things. We can do it. When Sakyamuni Buddha was challenged that his awakening was not valid and he was harshly questioned, ”Who is your witness?” He responded by touching the earth. Mother Earth responded decisively. We have the famous statue of Buddha in the earth touching gesture, the inspiration for countless practitioners who are progressing on the path of enlightenment. Many of us begin the day with some focus on the holiness within. Search for the spiritual friends who can help you. Everyone you meet can be a teacher. Choose those who match your stage of development so we can move forward together. If you look you will find enough compañeros to move towards victory. Freedom is calling you! OCTOBER 20, 2023 DISABILITY from page 6 Disability Act of 1946, which was signed by President Harry Truman. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark legislation which was designed to protect racial minorities and women who were often victims of discrimination and prejudice. We have noted earlier that the 1964 law did not include Americans with disabilities. In 1972, two court cases regarding including people with disabilities in educational classrooms were addressed. They were Mill v. D.C. and Park v. Pennsylvania. Congress passed the 1973 Rehabilitation Act which prohibited discrimination based on disability for Federal government programs and any organization receiving monetary assistance from the Federal government. In 1975, Congress passed the “Education for All Children with Disability Act," originally known as "Education for All Handicapped Children Act." In 1978, the nation witnessed a widespread protest known as the “ADAPT Bus Crisis.” Protesters aimed to shut down bus transit services, especially in Denver, to bring attention to the issues of accessibility for the disabled community. In 1986, Congress passed the “Air Carrier Access Act” which would provide equal access and equality of opportunity for air travel. In 1988, major headline news in print and TV noted that Mr. I. King Jordan had been appointed the President of Gallaudet University for the hearing impaired. Gallaudet was founded in 1864, and it took more than 100 years for the school to find a leader who was deaf. In 1999, Title II of the ADA Act was tested in Olmstead v. L.C. The Supreme Court validated the primacy of the ADA. Mr. Whatley described Olmstead as “The most important disability rights case, perhaps, in our lifetime." The High Court has set the precedent for the enforcement of ADA. The most recent congressional action on ADA is the 2017 ADA Education and Reform Act. Helen Keller and Disability Rights Heroes PBS Learning Media presented an important story titled, “Advocacy for People with Disabilities — Becoming Helen Keller.” Keller was generally concerned about employment discrimination against people with disabilities, especially educated women. She also wanted to help address the issues of blindness in babies due to sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea. Helen Keller was blind and deaf but was educated. She became an advocate for job opportunities for women with disabilities who wanted to work in Massachusetts. With the help of friend Charlie Campbell, she appealed to the Massachusetts legislature to expand the civil rights of the blind and to help find employment for the blind. In Helen Keller’s time, more than 100 years ago, women were not allowed to talk about sex or venereal diseases (STDs). A cure was finally found for blindness in babies due to sexually transmitted diseases — a few drops of Silver Nitrate into the eyes of newlyborn babies. Keller was gratified when she visited the Children's Hospital in Boston’s Nursery Ward and found that there were very few babies in the crib who were considered blind. She said, “I think it was the happiest day of my life when I was told that the Day Nursery in Boston — once full — was then almost empty.” Keller and a few friends were invited by the highly circulated “Ladies Home Journal” to write articles about how the gonorrhea STD was unknowingly passed from the mom to the baby. Keller and friends were given very tough writing assignments because sex and STDs were considered taboo in 1903. The Massachusetts Association for the Blind and the Visually Impaired was formed by Helen Keller and Charlie Campbell. Keller expanded her work on disability issues and job opportunities for the blind. She lobbied steadfastly, and the Massachusetts legislature urged the necessity for employment of the blind. Helen Keller said, “It's terrible to be Blind and to be uneducated; but it's worse for the Blind who have finished their education to be idle.” The state legislature accepted Keller’s suggestion to form a commission to reduce blindness in babies. She was asked to be a member of the commission. There was no accommodation for Helen’s deafness while on the commission, so she brought in her own interpreters. She was not able to acquire all the relevant information she needed while serving in the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind. Predictably, she resigned. Conclusion Syracuse University legal scholarFranklin A. Carcamo wrote a March 2020 article in the Syracuse Law Review. The title is “The Past, Present, and Future: ADA and Thirty Years of Progress in Access, Inclusion and Opportunity.” There is no doubt about the challenges and successes of the disability rights movement. The people with disabilities and their advocates will be eternally vigilant. The victories are hard-won, and as battle-tested soldiers for freedom, justice and dignity. The movie documentary “Crip Camp” depicts a youth camp described by Barry Whaler as the “epicenter” of the disability rights movement in the 1960s. Find time to watch the documentary if you missed the screening at Groundcover News. There have been millions of heroes in the American Disability Movement. Barry Whaley of Syracuse BBI mentioned the School of Education Dean, Burton Blatt and a Disability Advocate Fred Kaplan. He also mentioned Ed Roberts of Berkeley, Marc Gold of alternative teaching modules, Fannie Lou Hamer, etc. There are plenty of stories of heroes in every community.
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