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Liz and all: I've been following this thread off and on, and I have been quiet so far, because well, my cup's a bit full at the moment, but I must say that I get a little tired of this divide between academe and grassroots that you and others seem to be delineating here and in other posts. 1) It seems to me false to somehow presume that those of us in ivory towers as it were, do not face similar (or different) discriminations in our own careers and lives. For example, in the U.S., if you have full time employment, you are often not eligible for disability benefits, etc. that help pay for caregivers, medications, etc., which is a sizable bite of one's income if you do this all on your own. And yes, I spend much of my own time dealing with my impairment, that others who are not disabled, don't, to have this life. To say nothing about the still, at times, inaccessible environment. Most folks on the street or in the stores who say crap to me could give one whit about me being a professor or not. I also know many academics who are also activists. The two are not mutually exclusive. 2) This is not to say that my experience mirrors someone with, for example, developmental disabilities, working in McDonalds. Nor do I claim that. Nor am I suggesting that Supercrip stance of "Look at me, and all I've accomplished, so should you." But to suggest, even implicitly, that somehow those of us who have this career, should somehow apologize for having it, is not something I should do I think. If the "movement" is about self determinism and emancipation, than I should have the right to choose this life. 3) You are perhaps, right, Liz, in worrying about "academise" jargon, however, I'd like to point out that in order for us to keep our positions, however tenuous, there are "games" that we must also play. And there's audience too to consider: Mark Sherry's report on Hate Crimes, for instance, was likely written the way it was so he could get a job after his postdoc. That report seems to me to have been written for the FBI and similar organizations that are in positions of power to afford change, which it seems to me, was how and who it should have been presented to. Does that mean that "grassroots" organizations don't need that info? No, but then again, most disabled people I'd bet, don't need a report with pie charts to let them know that hate crimes exist! They, sorry, we, know that already quite intimately. It's the organizations like the FBI that don't keep accurate stats on that kind of stuff who do. Best, Johnson ________________End of message______________________ Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List are now located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.