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Sunday, April 24, 2011

Disabled Confronting Further Cuts In The Future

Where Does All Our Tax Money Go?
The new information coming out is that the government agency, the Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, will work to take resources from tens of thousands of people who are dependent on the services it provides this coming year. This New Year could set tens of thousands away from help; Quadriplegics, Paraplegics, mentally handicapped, and other non-able bodied individuals are going to be effected.  The organization is proclaiming that the finances will have to see an increase of tens of millions if they are not provided exactly the same appropriations.  Federally mandated Medicaid programs which cover those whom are significantly impaired, who live in institutions and the ones with mental retardation or head and spinal cord traumas who obtain scientifically essential therapy, will be spared.  Many applications that might be reduced are daycare type programs for all groups, childhood testing for problems that can lead to developing afflictions and treatment for many who have sustained mind or spinal-cord injuries.  I hope these details get to everybody in need of assistance that is terrifying info.

I will hope that many resources continue to pop up to help out those in needs.  I could not imagine what this is gong to mean for so many.  I think back about my father and how this would effect his treatment.
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Monday, April 18, 2011

His Abilities Never Stopped Amazing Me


Mouth Painting - Dennis Flynn Stinson III
 His abilities continued to amaze me every day.

My father was always talented. He was a very unique man. He was self taught in everything and became very accomplished in most of what he set out to do. He was technically minded, but he had the soul of an artist.

Unfortunately, my father did not leave a lot of time in his able-bodied life to explore what he might accomplish with his artistic abilities. He spent most of his days and time, when not working, with his family, playing with us kids, getting into mischief.

Once my father became a quad, there was an abundance of time. He began to explore more in depth those things that he seemed to not have the time for as an able-bodied man. It saddens me sometimes when I think about what he (and my mother for that matter) gave up in their personal lives to be amazing parents to us.

Now that I am a father, I look to my parents as examples. I find myself in the same contradiction, facing the laundry, cleaning the house, getting ready for one of her events, and finding little time to continue to explore the areas of interest that I have. I would not have it any other way, and I believe truly that is what my father felt, which without fail, lifts my spirits when I begin to think of what he gave up in his able-bodied life.

As a quadriplegic, my father grew greatly in his art. I am in the process of capturing digitally all that he did. He became a painter, worked with glass, and stamped out images on tin. He made cards for all seasons, and began to teach himself perspective drawing.



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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

The Abilities Expo - L.A. Convention Center

E3 exhibitionImage by wili_hybrid via Flickr
The Abilities Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center

So, who is going to be attending this event!  It starts on the 15th and ends on the 17th!

This is going to be a great place to see all the new technology out there.  A place to learn, a place to watch great events, and attend great workshops!

If you are going to the event, I would love to hear from you and your reports of the event itself!

I look forward to seeing you out there!

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Monday, April 4, 2011

The Hardest Thing to Do with A Quadriplegic is Leave

fairy tale picImage by Kjirstin via Flickr
Leaving was always the hardest


Every time I had to leave my father’s bed was difficult. A surge of emotions would wrap me up like a straight jacket.

I had a unique relationship with my father, a mirror of that with my mother. I tell everyone that truly I believe I had a fairy tale child hood, minus the million dollars – although, I do not know that a million dollars would have made us any happier as kids. See, my father and I were best friends, much like my mother and I, but not without the loss of parenting. As a child, I was still reprimanded and disciplined as a son by both, but I would rather, for most of my youth, go and hang out with my father or parents for that matter than my friends.

My father and I would get up early on the weekends and go get into trouble, often times with my Uncle, who has always been in my heart and mind, my dad as well. We would get into new stuff all the time, the trio, my brother as well. I am unable to remember much of my youth without my father and Uncle in it.

As my time with my father on any particular visit ended, it became chokingly hard to leave. I would begin to remember all the days he and I were together. All the times he spent at my side if I was sick or hurt. All the sacrifices he made. I would start to lay the guilt on myself. How can I be leaving right now? Am I really giving him, this man that gave me everything he had, my full heart, time and attention. The answer of course was yes, he knew that, and anyone that knows me knew it. However, a convicted heart can be hard to talk with.

Of course, most of this stems from my underlying guilt that I created the issue that sent my father into his transformation.
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