Anniversaries

• February 20th, 2007

Last night, once again in an airport bar, Philadelphia this time, and again a flight delay. She came to clean my table, a woman with Downs Syndrome, pretty smile and so efficient as she cleared the glasses from previous road warriors. I thanked her and asked her how long she had worked here as I had not seen her before. She said “I am almost at my 6 month anniversary, so pretty long”. Left to my thoughts and waiting for my drink I started thinking about anniversaries, and how we claim them at certain points , how strange this marking of time. I suppose anniversaries have an element of celebration inherent in the definition, but not always. There are anniversaries of death, loss and tragic events. Anniversaries that force us to remember things we would rather not and of course anniversaries that hold no meaning… or more than our hearts can hold.

I had just spent 10 days working in New Jersey and Philadelphia with various groups of staff members who were dedicating their work life to people with disabilities. They were young, smart and full of vigor and excitement about moving people from institutions in a new and brave manner. The lives they envisioned for people once the system forced itself to really listen to people and what they wanted and dreamed of was moving… weeks like these encourage and motivate my own thinking and memories.

I leave for Manchester, England on Friday, a trip that will offer up the opportunity to spend time with my friends and do work that I love. The dates are marked clearly in my calendar but not the feelings; they are marked in my heart.

As I was paying for my bill I caught her eye and motioned for her to come over, I asked her how she got this job, did she just see an ad, or did someone tell her there was an opening. She smiled brightly and said, “Oh nothing like that, it was a birthday present from Mom, she works here at the airport and she surprised me with an interview here, I was hired on the spot”. So no service system in play here, no righteous philosophy and belief system creating jobs, just a Mom marking an anniversary of birth, an anniversary of celebration.

The Leadership Thing

• February 6th, 2007

Last week I spent a week as a faculty member with the University of Delaware. I was part of a wonderful and innovative division of this University called the Center for Disability Studies who sponsored a week long focus on leadership. Faculty as well as participants traveled from every major region of the country and represented a diverse and talented group of individuals. Throughout the week many common issues emerged in fact some would say the same issues emerged, lack of funding, priority and value for the work we are engaged in, recruitment and retention of creative and enthusiastic staff, and the increasing demand for unique and individually driven supports by the those who are the biggest stakeholders in the whole system, people with disabilities. But something remarkable happened this week, in a word it was hope. Hope ruled throughout the week, it was dressed up as youth, trimmed and accessorized with imagination and a style of bold determination, yep pure beauty on the catwalk of social justice and human rights. Magnificent.

So a week of intellectual discussion, debate and just plain focus on the art of leadership and what it meant to this group sequestered off in a non- descript building on a campus in Newark. During one particular debate among the full group one individual, I’ll call her Julie (since that is her name) a self described self advocate said “We are tired of being polite, we are tired are being patient and not wanting to offend, we have been asking for ten years to close institutions and even longer to be in control over our own lives”. The discussion was lively with many of those in attendance weighing in… except for me. I kept hearing her words over and over again and those words resonated inside me at such a visceral level that I could not speak.

I suppose I have been concentrating for so long about what I am tired of in this system that when Julie spoke it reminded me once again that my weariness pales compared with Julie’s and those in her movement of equality now and in the past. Why does equal treatment and opportunity take sooooooo long, its agonizing to really think about it too much, so I guess that’s why I don’t… until last week as a faulty member in Delaware, where I met a fellow faulty member named Julie, who taught me once again that I know so little.