Right on Shelley. I think it's one of the problem that we fall into the
trap that only academics can debate academics. There are many many
disabled people out there academic or not who have read Singer's stuff and
can debate him. Many of the wholes in his arguments can be debated and
detected without any academic philosphy background.
And there are many who done so like the germans debate Singers ideas since
1989 at least. One of the leading ones Theresia Degener is by the way in
the moiment in Berkeley.
And there is a Down Syndrome person who writes beautiful stuff regarding
bioethic issues. Her name is Astrid i think
Cheers
Gregor
On Fri, 15 Oct 1999,
Shelley Tremain wrote:
>
>
> Lennard,
>
> I find it quite interesting that none of the individuals you name below
> have cognitive impairments, given the fact that infants with cognitive
> impairments are usually the most readily targetted for arguments of the
> sort Singer makes. Perhaps what needs to be questioned is what counts
> as "good in public" and "can handle an audience," who gets to make these
> judgements, and according to whose criteria. I suggest that the
> assumptions which, to me, seem embedded in your remarks below evince the
> sort of unacknowledged privileging of certain behaviours and skills in
> Disability Studies which excludes some members of disabled
> constituencies, members who have much at stake in arguments against
> Singer. Until those in Disability Studies become self-critical about
> the ways in which their own discipline reproduces the mechanisms of the
> academy that delegitimize and discredit people with cognitive
> impairments, they will be complicit in those oppressive practices.
>
> Best regards,
> Shelley Tremain
>
> Lennard Davis wrote:
> >
> > I'd love to debate with Singer. I spent all day yesterday driving from
> > Binghamton to NYC having my own private debate with Singer. Judging from
> > the response in my car, I won. But I WAS the only person in the car.
> >
> > This discussion only reiterates what I've been saying that we need to have
> > a PR/speaker's bureau. I can think of any number of people to add on to
> > Adrienne who would be able to argue Singer into a corner....Paul Longmore,
> > Tom Shakespeare, Rosemarie Thomson, Simi Linton, Harlan Hahn, Nancy
> > Mairs....there's no shortage of persuasive argumentive sorts amongst us.
> > And there's no reason we should not get pro-active about finding people who
> > like to argue, are good in public, can handle an audience, and then
> > assembling a list of would-be speakers. I hope that people will take this
> > issue up at SDS this year. I know there have been others who have
> > backgrounds in journalism, rhetoric, public speaking who have been
> > advocating this.
> >
> > In the meantime, I'll look into things like getting The Nation to host a
> > debate on this subject. If anyone has a venue they think would be
> > appropriate, perhaps we can stage further debates.
> >
> > Best,
> >
> > Lennard J. Davis
> > Professor and Graduate Director
> > Department of English
> > Binghamton University
> > Binghamton, NY 13902
> > 607-777-2770 Fax: 607-777-2408
>
Dr. Gregor Wolbring
Research Scientist at the
Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Faculty of Medicine
and Adjunct Assistant Professor
at the Dept. of Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies
Faculty of Education
both University of Calgary
Phone 1-403-220-5448
Fax 1-403-283-4740
eFax 1-603-761-3704
e-mail [log in to unmask]
webpage: http://www.thalidomide.ca/gwolbring
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