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THE BEACON for [dis]ABILITY™
World Association of Persons With Disabilities [WAPD]
A Non-Profit, Non-Political-Association
The Beacon of Knowledge & Refuge for the World's Largest Minority
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July 6, 1998 BOOKMARK: <http://www.wapd.org>
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A free newsletter sent to 22,000 subscribers around the world.
Feel Free to forward this newsletter to interested associates.
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"Let us be among those who renew this world
and bring prosperity & solace to creation"
_ Zarathushtra.. about 1738 B.C. _
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In This Issue:
Expect to Win
1. Letters to Editor
2. So... You Always Wanted To Go To Harvard
3. Resources
A. Alamo City P.C.
4. ABOUT WAPD
A. A Special Hello
B. "Leeder O. Men"
5. Very Interesting
6. Theatre Firm Sets disAbility Precedent
Subscribe/Unsubscribe
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EXPECT TO WIN AND YOU WILL.
When you believe in your innermost being
that you will achieve what you set out to do,
it opens the way for miracles.
Expecting something to happen energizes your
goal and gives it momentum.
You'll find that life responds to your outlook.
What you expect to happen, happens.
Your expectation opens or closes the doors to
your supply.
If you expect grand things,
and work honestly for them,they will come to you,
as your supply will correspond with your expectation.
There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great,
and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something
tomorrow.
You can't succeed beyond your wildest expectations
unless you begin with some wild expectations.
The dreams you believe in come to be.
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IF IT'S GONNA BE...IT'S UP TO YOU!
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[-LETTERS TO EDITOR-]
Dear Editor,
I'm a Chinese journalist working for a newspaper
agency in Qingdao, China. Unfortunately I was
injured in my spinal cord during a traffic
accident on Feb. 13 1998.
I was operated within 6 hrs. At that time, I
could not move my legs,there was no feeling below
my waist and I could not control urinating and
bowel movements. After a period of treatment and
training I can control my urinating and bowel
movement, my two legs can feel touching and heat
but still cannot move. It seems very difficult to
get a little progress.
I am 37 years old. I still young, how could I
face to my rest of my life in the future? I deeply
love my husband and my son. I deeply love my
job. I don't want to sit in a chair all day long.
I got to know from the INTERNET that I could get
help here. Would you kind enough to help me? I need
your help. My family need your help. What should I
do to improve my abilities quickly?
Thank you very much!
Hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely yours,
Li Jie, a nearly desperate person
<[log in to unmask]>
--------------
Dear Editor,
I have a sister in Austin Texas who I haven't
seen in 24 Years. The reason being that my little
brother pulled a knife on my husband one day
when we both came to visit, to introduce my husband
to the family. I felt really scared and refused to
visit my family. I mustered enough couarage to call
her on the phone in March and I found out that her
husband had divoriced her and then he moved in with
another women. A few years later he died. Now she
is receiving food stamps and her son is disabled
because he lost the use of his left arm. The son is
35 years old and lives with his mom who is my sister.
My sister tells me that he just wants to lay around
the bed all day and not do anything . I feel that he
is depressed and going out of his mind with boredom.
I wish you would be so kind to provide me with
information on how he might be able to get the Army
to pay for a computer so he can learn Accounting, or
some other computer skills so he can get a decent
job and lead a productive and happy life. I wish I
could help but I am still in college and dont have
a job either. So, my husband and I are not
financially able to help them. My sister and her
son live in Austin Texas I hope to hear from
someone who cares.
I thank you in Advance,
God Bless You
Mrs Williams
<[log in to unmask]>
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Dear WAPD,
I am writing from Peru, Michael Urtecho Medina,
I'm Master in Chemical Sciences, I am 28 years old,
I have spinal muscular dystrophy, I haven't been
able to walk in my whole life.
As you can imagine I've had to overcome many
obstacles to arrive to where I have and above all
overcome problems in an underdeveloped society such
as mine, I am currently working for a government
agency in Communications.
Cruising the INTERNET I have located you to request
the following: I have many goals that I still want
to reach, I feel able to accomplish many things,
among them to join the faculty at a university, if
all goes well I will be applying for a position this
year, I want to start my own business and above all
begin a family, but for all of that I need a lot of
help, an electric chair, I have seen a couple in
catalogs but they are unreachable because of their
price, there is one that is appropriate for me. I
don't know if you are the right agency, I hope so,
otherwise I would beg you to indicate the way as to
who I should contact to obtain a donation or some
support and reach this chair. As of now I promise
a monthly contribution of some amount.
Anxiously hoping for an answer from you I close.
Sincerely,
Michael Urtecho Medina
[log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
[WAPD NOTE}] The above letter was translated from
Spanish to English. If you can write Spanish and wish
to respond to Mr. Medina we would suggest doing so
in Spanish...but if not we imagine he can have your
response translated.
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Dear Editor,
I feel that your readers will enjoy the below.
The Dash
I read of a man who stood to speak
at the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
from the beginning...to the end.
He noted that first came the date of her birth
and spoke of the following date with tears,
but he said what mattered most of all
was the dash between those years.
For that dash represents all the time
that she spent alive on earth...
and now only those who loved her
know what that little line is worth.
For it matters not, how much we own;
the cars....the house...the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
and how we spend our dash.
So think about this long and hard...
are there things you'd like to change?
For you never know how much time is left.
(You could be at "dash midrange.")
If we could just slow down enough
to consider what's true and real,
and always try to understand
the way other people feel.
And be less quick to anger,
and show appreciation more
and love the people in our lives
like we've never loved before.
If we treat each other with respect,
and more often wear a smile...
remembering that this special dash
might only last a little while.
So, when your eulogy's being read
with your life's actions to rehash...
would you be proud of the things they
say about how you spend your dash?
-------
Jennifer Perry
<[log in to unmask]>
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IF IT'S GONNA BE...IT'S UP TO ME
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SO... YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO GO TO HARVARD...
Most of the brain specimens donated to the Harvard Brain
Tissue Resource Center (Brain Bank) at McLean Hospital are
from individuals suffering from the major neurobiological
disorders including Alzheimer, Parkinson and Huntington
diseases. The availability of large numbers of these
specimens for scientific investigation has helped foster
a great interest in these diseases and, thus, has helped
encourage young brain researchers into these fields of study. Unfortunately,
the severe mental illnesses of schizophrenia,
bipolar, and OCD and depression have not received comparable
public and scientific attention or adequate federal and
private funding. This inequity is due, in part, to a severe
long standing shortage of brain tissue donated from
individuals diagnosed with these severe mental illnesses.
I was horrified when I learned that in the twenty year
history of the Harvard Brain Bank an average of fewer than
10 brains a year were donated from individuals diagnosed
with severe mental illness. As a result, only a handful of
laboratories throughout the country could be supplied with
the tissue necessary to support their postmortem scientific
investigations. In spite of some significant gains in our
understanding about the origins of mental illness that are
being realized from this kind of research, the pronounced
shortage of appropriate human brain specimens has
contributed significantly to the overall slow progress in
postmortem research.
Our families and consumers that struggle with the cyclical
nature of mental illness must understand that we bear a
unique responsibility for providing the neuroscience
community with a very valuable brain tissue resource that
is necessary for continued investigation. Please support
this crusade for educating families with severe mental
illness about the value of brain donation. For more
information please call 1-800-BRAIN BANK or visit the
Brain Bank web-site at : www.brain bank.mclean.org:8080.
I am doing this for my brother who is diagnosed with
schizophrenia and for my young nieces who are well. Who
will you be doing this for? And oh, by the way,
"Don't worry, we're in no hurry!" Always remember, from
knowledge will come a cure!
Jill Bolte Taylor, Ph.D. <[log in to unmask]>
the "SINGIN' SCIENTIST"
National Spokesperson for the Mentally Ill
Past member of: National NAMI Board of Directors.
[WAPD NOTE] Above was posted to our Bulletin Board at:
<www.wapd.org> and we received responses that it is in
poor taste and other comments. When you have, first hand,
experience with mental illness you fully understand the
"tongue in cheek" way that Dr. Taylor wrote the above. It
is VITAL to have more knowledge...NOW!!!! We cannot hide
our heads in the sand when something like "schizophrenia"
is taking such a tremendous toll on people each year....
Folks we MUST think of the living! This is a very serious
disability....Donors are very much needed!!!!
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KEEP ON KEEPING ON!
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[-RESOURCES-]
Alamo City P.C. ( Wow! )...We Rate ( 10+ )
WAPD is very happy to announce that we have
found a SUPER computer manufacturer that will
build a custom computer for less than almost
all of the "over the counter" units being
offered today "On-Sale" or Otherwise....PLUS,
a reputation for Superior Service and Quality
that is the trademark of the firm that really
cares about each and every customer....
( The Dell's, Packard Bells, Compacts, IBM's
and others better look out..Alamo City is here!)
Believe It or Not.... after searching half-way
around the USA for a good computer manufacturer
that will provide top service throughout the USA
for our staff that is largely all over the North
American continent... Computer TechReps at IBM
introduced Alamo City P.C. to WAPD and we are
very happy that they did!... We will use them
to build and upgrade our PC's.
NO!..they don't have a Website yet because
they have been focusing on taking care of
their rapidly growing customer base..but you
can e-mail David Toedt, President, of Alamo
City at: <[log in to unmask]>
As soon as the Alamo City Website is available
we will let our readers know..
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SUCCESS IS A JOURNEY NOT A DESTINATION
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[-ABOUT WAPD-]
A SPECIAL HELLO TO:
City of Cambridge (Mass) Commission for Persons
with Disabilities. We were happy to hear from
one of the members, Bet MacArthur, this past week
and salute their continuing work for people with
disabilities..
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"Leeder O. Men"...
Another adventure depiction of "Leeder" by the
famous California cartoonist John Lytle.. shows
him underwater in his wheelchair at the inaccessible
San Antonio, Texas "RiverWalk".
The WAPD Texas State Chapter is hearing from folks
all over the world that are helping to keep "Leeder"
breathing... Please let them hear from you!
<http://www.wapd.org/chapters/texas/sa/river/index.html>
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The Worst Bankrupt In The World Is A
Person That's Lost Their Enthusiasm!
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[-VERY INTERESTING-]
If we could shrink the Earth's population to a village
of precisely 100 people. With all existing human ratios
remaining the same, it would look like this:
There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the
Western Hemisphere (North and South) and 8 Africans.
51 would be female; 49 would be male 70 would be
nonwhite; 30 white.
70 would be non-Christian; 30 Christian.
50% of the entire world's wealth would be in the hands
of only 6 people and all 6 would be citizens of the
United States.
80 would live in substandard housing.
70 would be unable to read.
50 would suffer from malnutrition.
1 would be near death, 1 would be near birth. Only 1
would have a college education.
No one would own a computer.
When one considers our world from such an incredibly
compressed perspective, the need for both tolerance and
understanding becomes glaringly apparent...
[WAPD NOTE] Twenty (20) of the above persons would
have a disAbility to add to the above stats...If you
want to figure exact areas they woud be in..have at it!
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Specially Adapted
Alternative
Manufactured Homes
Soon Available Throughout the USA
<http://www.samh.com>
Take a good look!
Mid South Home Center
==========================================================
THEATRE FIRM SETS [dis]ABILITY PRECEDENT...
The USA's largest movie theater chain has agreed to
remove barriers to disabled people from its theaters.
Carmike Cinemas Inc., headquartered in Columbus, Ga.,
agreed to resolve a complaint filed with the Justice
Department by a movie patron in Des Moines, Iowa, but
the company's agreement affects all of more than 510
theaters in 36 states. Carmike's theaters have over
2,700 screens.
"We are pleased Carmike's is stepping up and doing
the right thing," said Assistant Attorney General Bill
Lee, head of the department's civil rights division.
"For movie-goers with disabilities, one of the greatest
coming attractions is access."
A patron complained that Carmike theaters in Des Moines
violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by having
inaccessible entrances, rest rooms, ticket windows and
parking lots plus inadequate wheelchair seating.
Carmike also agreed to conduct a nationwide review of
all its theaters and developed a 20-page survey that
will be completed by the manager of every theater it
operates. The results will guide the company's
barrier-removal program.
ADA law requires public accommodations, such as movie
theaters, to remove barriers to access when they can
readily do so. "People with disabilities should be able
to go to the movies like anyone else," Lee said.
Technically the largest North American chain, with
2,700 screens, Carmike is about to drop into second
place behind Regal Cinemas, based in Knoxville, Tenn.
[WAPD Note] We expect all of the larger firms to quickly
follow suit with this great precedent. Negative publicity
is NOT good business!
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You Cannot Discover New Oceans
Unless You Have Courage To Lose Sight Of The Shore
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The WAPD BEACON for [dis] ABILITY is a newsletter
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Copyright© 1998 World Association of Persons with Disabilities
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