[nfbmi-talk] Fw: the need for positive tension

[joe harcz Comcast]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: joe harcz 
To: Michigan Comm for the Blind Vision 20/20 List 
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 8:55 AM
Subject: the need for positive tension


I think this applies across the board-this need for positive tension-and goes to accountibility and perfromance of agencies of and for the blind too...

Joe

Guest Opinion

http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060426/OPINION/604260334/1049

 

Disabled need positive tension

 

FRANCISCO LOPEZ

 

April 26, 2006

 

Tension is good. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke many times of what he called a tension that is necessary for growth. He compared this tension with the

tension that "Socrates felt ... was necessary to create ... in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the

unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal."

 

I continue learning from individuals with developmental disabilities and their families that tension is good and healthy, and sometimes it is necessary

in order to transform bureaucratic systems. I keep hearing the stories of customers being punished because of their advocacy efforts and their desire for

better living conditions.

 

The existing system spends its energy trying to eliminate tension. It is harder under this system to listen to the powerful, painful, unsanitized stories

of real people with disabilities.

 

Tension brought to reality the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. Tension brought to reality

the Social Security Act in 1935. Tension eliminated legal segregation in our country. Tension created the Support Services Brokerages for adults with developmental

disabilities that currently are serving more than 3,800 adults with developmental disabilities in Oregon and closed the Fairview Training Center.

 

Our customer Cindy never runs away from tension as she tries to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a teacher's assistant or a child-care provider. Nancy

never runs away from the struggles of being a parent of an adult with a disability and being a strong advocate for her daughter.

 

Families United for Independent Living in Yamhill County are constantly dealing with the tension of the affordable-housing solutions that they want for

their children and the solutions that are dictated by the system. Because they know how to deal with that tension, they already have built eight individual

and independent apartment units for adults with disabilities in McMinnville that cost $1 million. They recently obtained $1.8 million more from Housing

and Urban Development to build 15 individual and independent apartment units for adults with disabilities in Newberg.

 

Families United for Independent Living inspired the creation of the organization Living Independently for Everyone in the Salem-Keizer area. Tension is

helping to develop a smoother high school transition for students with disabilities in the Salem-Keizer School District.

 

I would like to see a tension in our community that will help us to open up the Salem-Keizer School District Board and administration and the Oregon Department

of Education to the constructive criticism provided by ordinary people. This tension will help us all engage in the development of a consistent educational

model for our 4,800 students receiving special-education services in Salem-Keizer.

 

I would like to see a tension that will help us build more affordable housing for all people. This tension can help us to bring more jobs and living wages.

 

Adults with developmental disabilities are constantly teaching the rest of us the meaning of good tension that produces real results.

 

Francisco Lopez of Salem is the director of Integrated Services Network Support Services Brokerage, a service for adults with developmental disabilities

in Salem. He can be reached at (503) 856-7072 or

flopez at goccs.org.