What We Need for the Disabled Community by Beth Blick

The more people with disabilities like myself can tell our stories and be involved publicly, the better off we will be at the end of this legislative session.

Hello, and Happy Black History Month!

My name is Beth Blick. I am a disabled Jewish woman and a new columnist for the Minnesota Women’s Press. I live in Saint Paul. Currently I am in a public housing building. I have a seizure disorder that is now largely under control thanks to the help of my neurologist. I also suffer from anxiety and depression on a situational basis, due to certain things in my life and environment that are out of my control at times.

I am a cat lover and a bookworm, and I have been an advocate for peace and human rights for the last 20 years. I am on the board of a number of nonprofits and started my own organization, Able Media, in 2019.

In my first column, I would like to introduce you to some of the important issues being raised in Minnesota and national legislatures that impact people with disabilities.

Home Ownership

When people with disabilities want to become homeowners, there are many things that can get in our way. If you have a representative payee — someone who helps you pay your bills with your own money — some lenders disqualify you for a mortgage. Many also want you to have an “official” paid job for two years, which is hard for those of us who have been underemployed. Many people whose income relies on government assistance, including Social Security, have been legally restricted from owning assets like property.

This year, the U.S. legislature will revisit the asset limit laws, which could open up Social Security as an income source and be very helpful for people with disabilities.

I hope to become one of those new homeowners. I am tired of having someone that I do not know tell me what I can and cannot have. I deserve a house of my own — an investment. I have been renting for too many years from landlords — some of whom care very little about their tenants. That is my income going out to someone else every month for a space that will never become mine. I have been trying to become a homeowner for more than two years. I hope I am finally able to do so later this year.

I am an advocate for Universal Design, which is a way of designing and rehabbing buildings so that they can be as accessible to as many people as possible, with special attention paid to the needs of the disability community. This could mean special paint colors for people with visual impairments, and larger spaces — such as in bathrooms and kitchens — for navigating. It can include lights and doors that are motion activated or otherwise more automatic. It means any light switches or surfaces are accessible at the appropriate height for individuals and can be adjusted for fit.

Health & Parenting

Another change I hope to see is to eliminate the use of chemical restraints on people in nursing homes, group homes, and assisted living buildings. Chemical restraints can be pills and other medicines that are used to tranquillize a person. These restraints can cause problems like tardive dyskinesia, an involuntary neurological movement disorder.

The Hearing Aid Affordability Act is a voucher program being discussed that would help people afford hearing aids.

There is also legislation to help parents with disabilities hold onto their parental rights, navigate parenthood with the proper supports, and live where they want to, as independently as possible.

Nikki Villavicencio, a friend of mine who has been a disability advocate for over 12 years, offered a legislative report for people with disabilities on the most recent episode of my podcast, “Speaking on Ability with Beth Blick.” She serves on the Maplewood City Council and is the chair for the Minnesota Council on Disability.

Nikki worked with her partner and others on a pilot program to help parents with disabilities keep their rights with the supports they need. “Because of our full forward motion of wanting parents with disabilities to have rights,” she said in my podcast, “there are other groups now who have legislation around parenting . . . [such as] the guardianship of people with disabilities,” she told me. When people with developmental and intellectual disabilities become parents, “their parental rights [are] taken away almost immediately.”

The ARC Minnesota and the Autism Society are working together to change this.

Education

Think College at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, is dedicated to developing, expanding, and improving Transition and Postsecondary Education Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities (TPSIDs). They maintain a website of college options at thinkcollege.net.

Currently there are only four institutions of higher education in Minnesota that fully support students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

• Beyond Limits program at Bethany Global University in Bloomington

• Occupational Skills Program at Ridgewater College in Willmar

• BUILD program at Bethel University in Arden Hills

• Occupational Skills program at Central Lakes College in Brainerd.

There is energy to get more schools onboard with such programs this year. The Minnesota Department of Education and The ARC Minnesota are working on bills to combat the disparities in education for people with disabilities.

Inclusive K-12 education will be another important discussion this year. It has been difficult to give the proper supports to students with disabilities when they are learning virtually, as we have seen during the pandemic.

Inclusive Decision-Making

In a future column, I will offer bill numbers and let you know how you can impact legislation. For example, there will be conversation in Minnesota about revamping waivered services for people with disabilities, which are a part of the governmental system of supports.

Waivers can help pay for services, such as Personal Care Attendants (PCAs) or Independent Living Skills (ILS) workers, and home modifications. The process for getting things covered by waivers, however, can be very challenging and frustrating.

We need a fully supported process that helps people on waivers be part of discussing how the system could work better.

I am hopeful about the passing of the legislation mentioned here. The more people with disabilities like myself can tell our stories and be involved publicly, the better off we will be at the end of this legislative session.

I derive hope from Minnesota Women’s Press readers. I look forward to interacting with you in this column and through my podcast. We are in this together!

Resources

State Disability details

Details: Beth Blick’s podcast

• Recent episodes: “MN Legislative Priorities (and Bowling) for People with Disabilities,”

• “Mobile Mental Health Response Mandate for 911 in MN”

Action = Change

The Minnesota Council on Disability is leading efforts to increase disability representation in the Minnesota state government workforce. Senate File 1570 (SF 1570) improves the hiring and retention of Minnesotans with disabilities. You can help this effort by contacting Senator Mary Kiffmeyer and urging her to hear SF 1570 in the Senate State Government Finance and Policy and Elections Committee as soon as possible. For SF 1570 to succeed, the bill must pass out of this committee.  

Call Senator Kiffmeyer by phone at 651-296-5655 or email at Sen.Mary.Kiffmeyer@senate.mn. Include two of Kiffmeyer’s assistants when you email or call: 

• Legislative assistant Christina Wilson at 651-296-1323 or christina.wilson@senate.mn

• Committee administrator Alec Biorn at 651-296-7593 or alec.biorn@senate.mn

If you are a person with a disability and have a personal story to share, please include that in your message. Relevant stories include working for the state or applying for a state job. 

Sample Message

Dear Chair Kiffmeyer,

My name is [Insert Name] and I live in [City, State].

I am contacting you to urge you to give Senate File 1570 a hearing in the Senate State Government Finance and Policy and Elections Committee.

The state of Minnesota should be a model employer. We must do more to hire and retain people with disabilities. Senate File 1570 improves the hiring and retention of Minnesotans with disabilities among our state government.

This bill ensures that Minnesotans with disabilities are better represented in our government. It creates a pipeline to advance state leaders. These leaders will use their professional and lived experiences to craft better disability-related policies.

Sincerely,

[Your name here]

Peace and Justice Education Resources for Children and Young People By Larry Johnson

I’ve told stories to children all my life, mostly tales encouraging peace and justice, and environmental concern.  In the late 60s and 70s (with a short interruption, drafted to be a Medic) I directed camps and did school assembly programs.  I started the patient TV channel at Mpls Children’s Hospital, making TV behave like a storyteller wanting children to get well, and I spent over 20 years in the Minneapolis schools as a specialist teaching storytelling and video.  Today I write a monthly SUN POST column as Director of the OGP (Old Gardening Party), keeping the world safe for children, gardening, and storytelling.  The column, and a workshop that sometimes emerges from it, aims at helping adults tell important stories to the children in their lives, whether as a formal teacher, or a parent or grandparent.

 Since the first Earth Day, environmental awareness (though often rudimentary) has been prominent informal education, but peacemaking is still overtly present only if a teacher inclines in that direction.   It is inherent in social studies, but it’s most likely to be invisible or carrying the common storyline of “peace thru having bigger bombs than they do.”  If learning to make peace with negotiation and nonviolence comes up at all, it is too often dismissed as being too political.  Much of the culture, even some of those who called Martin Luther King a Communist in the 60s, has embraced his I HAVE A DREAM speech.  Most don’t even know he also said, “We will never end poverty and racism until we quit spending so much sending our young people, mostly poor, out to kill poor people overseas.”

 Public school teachers are too often inundated with “too many things to teach”, but for those so inclined, here are some peace and justice teaching resources than can be utilized individually or comprehensively.  Most of these are offered free of charge because you never know what one striking story or exercise may lead an individual child to do for the betterment of the world:

BIRDS OF PEACE, www.birdsofpeace.org, emanates from the work of Dr. Walter Enloe, once headmaster of Hiroshima Intl School, and now retired as head of Global Environmental Education at Hamline.  They encourage formation of Educator Collaborative Circles to learn and experience peacemaking via comprehensive work with the ancient, meditative, art of origami (especially paper cranes) and the stories surrounding it.

 CECIL RAMNARAINE’S SOCIAL STUDIES PEACE CURRICULIM, www.cecilram.com, can be downloaded and utilized at no charge.  In the 1980’s, Ramnaraine, a Minneapolis schools social studies teacher, got a small grant thru Veterans for Peace to develop a peace and justice curriculum which he and others used for a number of years.  Both the elementary and secondary versions focus heavily on the stories of historic peacemakers like Dr. King, Rosa Parks, Will Rogers, Dorothy Day, and more.

 FELLOWSHIP OF RECONCILIATION, https://forusa.org, is the oldest Interfaith Peace and Justice organization in the country.  Under “Resources” they have MARTIN LUTHER KING AND THE MONTGOMERY STORY CURRICULIM GUIDE. 

LITTLE MOLE AND HONEY BEAR PRESS, www.littlemolehoneybear.com, was started in 2018 by Jack Zipes, retired university professor and internationally known folklorist.  The small press is resurrecting long, out of print, children’s books with social justice themes.  For example, JOHNNY BREADLESS by Paul Vaillant-Couturier, reflects the author’s participation as a French soldier in the 1914 Christmas truce.  I suspect most of these books are out of print because certain factions preferred them gone.

NATIONAL NETWORK OPPOSING THE MILITARIZATION OF YOUTH, www.nnomy.org, works to help young people, parents, and youth leaders to rely not just on the glowing promises of military recruiters, and the media which often supports them.  Their work encompasses bringing out the big picture, the full truth, about war and enlistment.  Their website also includes a TEACHING RESOURCES FOR CLASSROOMS section.

PEACE LITERACY, www.peaceliteracy.org, emerged from the work of Captain Paul Chappell, who grew in the South, biracially, his Dad a Korean War Veteran, and his mother from Korea.  Chappell served in Iraq as a West Point Officer, worked intensely on his own trauma, and combined the classic body of nonviolence training with the best of military leadership education.  The result is a downloadable comprehensive peace and justice curriculum, available at no charge to schools and other organizations.

PEACEMAKER MINNESOTA, www.peacemakermn.org, works to create a more peaceful world by providing resources for schools to be safer places, free from bullying and harassment.  Peacemaker staff and volunteers teach children and young people positive skills like empathy, respect, cooperation and peaceful conflict resolution skills.

WORLD CITIZEN, www.worldcitizenpeace.org, began with Lynn Elling, a WWII Veteran and business person.  Lynn dreamed there must be a better way to resolve international conflict than the slaughter of war.  Led for many years by teacher/school principal, Kathy Millington, World Citizens conducts peace education training based on 5 principles – Strive always to be more peaceful yourself . . . Reach out in service . . . Protect the environment . . . Respect Diversity . . . Be a Citizen of the World.  Peace Ambassadors teach these principles, and schools and other organizations are encouraged to become Peace Sites reflecting same.

Johnny Breadless - a Pacifist Fairy Tale by Larry Johnson

You can read Veterans For Peace Summer 2020, Volume XXIV, issue 2 here

A Fresh Look at our Climate Change Saga - By James W. Nelson

Seated Ambassador Robert Ryan US diplomat, Frances Spivey Weber,  Audubon Society standing between Jim Nelson

 Many societal issues have a fascinating evolution.  The issue of climate change is intriguing with so many potential serious impacts and diverse policy alternatives.   Scientists generally now agree that human activities have produced an excess atmospheric carbon that is not absorbed. To reduce damaging climate change, we must drastically reduce fossil fuel emissions and remove greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere. Natural Climate Solutions including conservation and improved land management offer ways to make forests, wetlands, and grasslands, a central part of an overall solution to climate change; a smart way to balance the climate equation.

Many societal issues have a fascinating evolution. The issue of climate change is intriguing with so many potential serious impacts and diverse policy alternatives. Scientists generally now agree that human activities have produced an excess atmospheric carbon that is not absorbed. To reduce damaging climate change, we must drastically reduce fossil fuel emissions and remove greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere. Natural Climate Solutions including conservation and improved land management offer ways to make forests, wetlands, and grasslands, a central part of an overall solution to climate change; a smart way to balance the climate equation.

The climate debates often focus on reducing emissions with little discussion of improving earth’s ability to absorb emissions. Added benefits of making our natural infrastructure more resilient may include reduced erosion, fewer droughts and floods and enhanced biodiversity including keystone species that other species depend such as pollinators.
July 2021 has earned the distinction as the world’s hottest month ever recorded, according to global data released recently by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. Elevated temperatures have worsened droughts and wildfires in many global locations such as west coast states, and even our beloved northern Minnesota. Warming has also been blamed for increased frequency and severity of weather events such as hurricane Ida’s flooding.

The United Nations recently released a report that highlights our challenge. Climate changes are occurring in every region, according to the latest assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report. This report reflects a rigorous scientific consensus assessments of climate change. Temperatures are warming and weather patterns are significantly changing. Limiting further climate change requires strong reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from human activities such as burning fossil fuels coupled with sustained ecological improvements to help absorb carbon emissions.

As a member of the United Nations Association of Minnesota I was convener of a series of public meetings on sustainability and the emerging issue of climate change. These meetings took place during February 1992 prior to the first Earth Summit. Ambassador Robert Ryan, the lead US negotiator and Frances Spivy- Weber from the Audubon Society spoke at all the sessions. While some participants sought to discuss abstract policies of carbon taxes or trading carbon credits, the audience, especially young people, warmed to descriptions of the natural climate solutions because they promised so many additional benefits.

Restored prairie adjacent to a row crop field practicing regenerative agriculture, 2020 Dakota County MN

Conservation organizations like the Nature Conservancy have decades of experience in restoring degraded landscapes with trees, plants and other ingredients to assure ecological integrity. Some changes require modifying ingrained practices. For example, international food company, General Mills has championed “regenerative agriculture” among its food suppliers. Practices many include reducing tillage to retain organic materials and moisture in the soil. Another practice, cover cropping promotes continuous plant growth. When such cover crops are legumes, nitrogen from the atmosphere is sequestered in the ground to be absorbed by plants.

Natural climate solutions have not gained wide acceptance. According to Peter Ellis of the Nature Conservancy: solving climate change is totally feasible, but it’s not going to be easy and it’s going to take equal parts innovation and collective action. The recent focus on technological innovation is great but it’s important to recognize that innovation occurs in the non-human world as well. Long before humans existed, the planet came up with an incredible innovative solution to the same problem we face now: too much greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. “The solution “invented” by evolution over 3 billion years ago, is called photosynthesis!”

One relevant historical example of natural solutions dates from the Great Depression of the 1930’s. To counteract widespread economic breakdown and landscape degradation, 144 Civilian Conservation Corps camps were established in Minnesota and over 24 million trees were planted. Inspired by the New Deal era Civilian Conservation Corps, President Biden is pushing for a modern counterpart: a Civilian Climate Corps that would create hundreds of thousands of jobs building trails, restoring forests and helping to prevent catastrophic climate change. Our natural heritage and historic traditions connect us to our roots and offers us a hopeful future. It is time to boldly pursue these common sense workable natural climate solutions.

I have the right to be a child

Larry Johnson is a Golden Valley veteran, storyteller and National Chair for the Old Gardening Party. He can be reached at larryjvfp@gmail.com

Citizens for Global Solutions recently pointed me to UNICEF’s Child Friendly City Initiative, an effort originating with the United Nations’ Declaration of the Rights of the Child. The initiative is in 40 countries, and finding them led me to a friend, Dr. Charles Oberg, whom I haven’t seen in 40 years.

By Larry Johnson

Read more —>

Message from Outgoing CGS-MN President - Nancy Dunlavy

I served as president of Citizens for Global Solutions, Minnesota for 3.5 years, from July 2017 through December 2020. This has been a significant transitional period for our 73-year-old non-profit, as we phased out our decades-long Third Thursday Global Issues Forum series, began to create partnerships with other local like-minded organizations, initiated efforts at cross-generational dialogues, strengthened our relationships with CGS national, and experienced the passing of Joe Schwartzberg, for decades the linchpin of CGS-MN. I could not have carried out this role without the tremendous support of many active Board members and especially my good friend Kristi Rudelius Palmer, vice president during my tenure. As Julie Andrews sings in The Sound of Music, “I must have done something good,” for I now have the privilege of passing the baton to a most capable, intelligent and passionate successor, Kathya Dawe, who became our president as of January 1st. 

For the record, here is an overview of what CGS-MN accomplished in the last 3.5 years: 

July 2017 to June 2018 (YEAR 1)

• Held eight Third Thursday Global Issues Forums, a World Law Day event and an Annual Meeting, continuing the rhythm of chapter activities conducted since 2000 (a listing of all past Forums can be found HERE).

• Co-sponsored “Minnesota’s Role with the SDGs” with United Nations Association, MN.

• Promoted and participated in the CGS national monthly Book Club sessions focused on Joe Schwartzberg’s Transforming the United Nations System: Designs for a Workable World

• We were a Community Partner of the Minneapolis / St. Paul International Film Festival

• CGS-MN was awarded a $9,500 Grant from the Minnesota Historical Society, to gather information about the Minnesota UN movement. Jim Nelson initiated the effort to pursue this grant and was principal investigator.

July 2018 – June 2019 (YEAR 2)

• Due to dwindling attendance, we decided to forego the Third Thursday Global Issues Forum program, hosting just one Forum, a World Law Day event and an Annual Meeting.

• Co-sponsored several events with Augsburg University (Nobel Peace Prize Forum); United Nations Association, MN; and Vets for Peace.

• Participated in the continuing CGS national monthly Book Club sessions focused on Joe Schwartzberg’s Transforming the United Nations System: Designs for a Workable World

• We were a Community Partner of the Minneapolis / St. Paul International Film Festival

• CGS-MN, with Jim Nelson as the principal investigator, completed work in fulfillment of the Grant received from the Minnesota Historical Society.

• September 19, 2018: Joe Schwartzberg, a lion in our chapter for many decades, passed away

July 2019 – June 2020 (YEAR 3)

• Participated in the CGS national monthly Book Club sessions, studying books such as Ben Ferencz’ Planethood, Ron Glossop’s World Federation? and Garry Davis’ My Country is the World

• Oct 23: “The Future We Want, the UN We Need: Minnesota kick-off event toward the 75th anniversary of the UN.” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Co-sponsored with UNA-MN and Global Minnesota.

• Oct 28: Augsburg University, Human Rights Forum, Peace Meal. CGS-MN hosted a cross-generational dialogue on the topic of “Is the US on a slippery slope toward fascism?”

• Dec 8: “The World Is My Country” broadcast on TPT Life. We promoted viewership, hosted house parties to watch the film and then tune in to a Q&A session with Producer/Director Arthur Kanegis.

• Jan – June: promoted and participated in multiple Citizens for Global Solutions UN2020 and UN75 events, focused on needed reforms of the UN system in honor of its 75th anniversary

• Community Partner of the Minneapolis / St. Paul International Film Festival

July 2020 – December 2020 (AFTER YEAR 3)

• Promoted and participated in UN2020 / UN75 activities

• Promoted and participated in the CGS national monthly Book Club sessions

• Initiated a new series: the Third Thursday Global Films Discussion Group:

• October Film: Prosecuting Evil (Ben Ferencz) documentary.

• November Film: Made in Bangladesh

• December Film: The World Is My Country, the Garry Davis story

• Oct 21: “The UN Celebrates 75: What Does the Future Hold?” (Virtual). UN Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for Guterres. Co-sponsored with UNA-MN & Global Minnesota.

 OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS 

• Completed a re-design of our website. Set up ongoing contract with website consultant.

• Improved communication with our mailing lists (US Mail and e-mail)

• Organized financial records and established a process of completing needed 501c3 paperwork

• Strengthened partnerships with local organizations, especially UNA-MN and Global Minnesota

• Several new board members joined, adding new energy and skills

• We were very fortunate to receive $16,500 from Lynn and Donna Elling during this period; we would not exist if not for their generous support