REVIEW
The Way Things Are French philosopher Michel Foucault dealt with issues like the way power works invisibly in everyday life and how things are assumed to be "natural," "obvious," and "always true." He said: look at what we take for granted. See that it is in no way inevitable. And that's a good way of analyzing the disability situation. CAL MONTGOMERY reviews a new book that applies Foucault to disability issues. READ REVIEW.

BLOG
Nursing home hubris in Louisiana A New York Times story tells of 32 residents killed by rising water in St. Rita's 60-resident nursing home 20 miles southeast of downtown New Orleans. Beneath it lies an even nastier story: The nursing home industry in Louisiana is among the most corrupt in the nation, and frankly, what is coming to light now in the falling waters is not surprising. MORE.

NEWS
Katrina and people with disabilities THERE ARE NO disaster services specifically in place to help people with disabilities in the Gulf Coast area. That's the conclusion to be made from examining site information and emails we have received over the past days. MORE.

Missouri Medicaid no longer pays for ventilators, wheelchair batteries, canes, walkers ... In a decision that threatens the lives of over 300,000 disabled Missourians, the state's Medicaid program set Sept. 1 as the date to stop paying for "optional" services. Activists are suing. MORE.

NEWS FOCUS
Crash and Burn: My airline case goes down in flames Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that the billions of federal dollars given the airlines in the wake of 9/11 did not constitute "federal financial assistance" as defined in the Rehabilitation Act and thus the airlines receiving the money had no antidiscrimination obligations under the Act. FRED SHOTZ, who filed the suit, looks at what this means for disabled travelers. READ ARTICLE.

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MEDIA CIRCUS
Yoohoo! Where are you, gimp groups? An Associated Press article in the Washington Post is one of the few stories with anything about Supreme Court nominee John Roberts and disability rights, writes MARY JOHNSON in her blog. Women's groups rail against the nominee. Judiciary Committee chair Sen. Arlen Specter wants to hear Roberts's views on the Court's 'judicial activism' against the Americans with Disabilities Act. And the national crip groups are ... pretty much silent. MORE.

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REVIEW
The Personal Helen Keller, Returned to Us In many ways, Helen Keller's story is our story: a disabled person reduced to stereotype. But, as SUSAN LOTEMPIO writes, Kim Nielsen's edited selection of the deaf-blind woman's writings gives the real Keller back to us. READ REVIEW.

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from the ARCHIVES
The long & sorry history of discrimination against people with disabilities in the United States When the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case Alabama v. Garrett in 2000, over 100 scholars and historians submitted a 'friend of the court' brief outlining state-sanctioned discrimination against people with disabilities. The Court called evidence 'anecdotal'. Were they right? READ AND DECIDE.

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EDGE-CENTRIC blog entry
Am I A Bigot? MARY JOHNSON, "you reveal yourself to be a bigot," says a commenter on Johnson's Incident at the Induction July 30 blog entry. Johnson examines the charge and offers a response. MORE | READ ORIGINAL BLOG ENTRY | MORE ABOUT OUR BLOGS - AND OTHERS'.

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POETRY
Privacy by LISA BLUMBERG
Rose and Blue by FELICIA NIMUE ACKERMAN | POETRY INDEX

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NEWS
Langevin Faults Capitol Evacuation Plans for Lack of Access "It was chaotic and it was a very arduous route for me to get out of the building safely. ... Had there been an actual event, I question whether I would be able to get out of the building fast enough." MORE.

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LIFE from the RAGGED EDGE - BLOG ENTRY
An Incident at the Induction Cass Irvin was inducted into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame. An unfortunate incident preceded her moment of glory, writes Ragged Edge's MARY JOHNSON in her new blog Edge-Centric. It showed her, she says, that the idea of civil rights, when it comes to disability, has not really been understood yet. MORE. | MORE ABOUT OUR BLOGS - AND OTHERS'.

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REVIEW
Buying Sickness CAL MONTGOMERY has been watching commercials on TV, and she's learned that pharmaceutical companies are in the business of philanthropy. They only charge high prices for their drugs in order to fund research so that they can help more people. But now she's read Selling Sickness -- and watched the video, too. So now she's not so sure about those TV commercials. READ REVIEW.

Three Cheers -- Almost -- for the ADA Disability rights activists celebrate the July 26, 1990 signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. But the ensuing 15 years are a different story, writes ART BLASER: Legal scholar Ruth Colker, in her new book The Disability Pendulum, shows that the courts and the media have given a very good law a thoroughly unfair drubbing. READ REVIEW. | MORE REVIEWS.

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NEWS FOCUS
John Roberts: bad news for disability rights John G. Roberts is a fitting replacement for Sandra Day O'Connor. After all, he gave her the ammunition she needed to whittle back ADA protections in her Toyota v. Williams opinion. MORE.

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FOCUS
Activists call 'New Urbanism' to account over lack of visitability 'New Urbanists' tout liveable human-scale communities. But they seem to forget wheelchair users -- their new homes are chockablock with steps. ELEANOR SMITH reports on what visitability activists are doing to change the situation at Atlanta's Glenwood Park new urbanism community. READ ARTICLE.

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REVIEW
Game On! "Murderball doesn't dispel myths and stereotypes. It takes big fat bites: chews 'em up and spits 'em out," writes ED HOOPER. "It is quite simply the best film ever made on disability." READ REVIEW. | MORE REVIEWS.

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Ragged Edge EXTRA!
Hello/Goodbye Ada Who? A Play in One Act
The 15th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act is July 26. Why not put on a play and educate some folks? "This play is offered free to any group which wants to produce it," says playwright HOLLYN D'LIL, "in the hopes that it will provide an entertaining and fun way for participants and audience to become more educated about the Americans with Disabilities Act and how the Act is being reduced by decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court." READ PLAY.

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NEWS FOCUS
Sandra Day O'Connor and disability rights Sandra Day O'Connor has retired. While pundits and activists play the "who's on next?" game, Ragged Edge thought it might be useful to take a look at what Justice O'Connor actually did for disabled people in this country. What she did not do, unfortunately, is more significant. MORE.

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REVIEW
Defining Autistic Lives Autism Is A World has just been released on DVD. Sue Rubin has done a very good job of describing her experience as a person with autism, writes CAL MONTGOMERY -- yet "her beliefs about what it is and what should be done about it are not even close to my own." READ REVIEW. | MORE REVIEWS.

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FOCUS
The Carrot or the Stick? Can people with assistance dogs better further their rights through education or legal action? ED AND TONI EAMES look at what's been working in the U.S. READ ARTICLE.

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MEDIA CIRCUS
Terri Schiavo and us The long-awaited results of Terri Schiavo's autopsy have now been made public. Despite the findings, writes MARY JOHNSON, all we will ever be able to really know with certainty is how she affected us. MORE. | MORE MEDIA CIRCUS. | ALL 2005 SCHIAVO ARTICLES

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FOCUS
Business strikes back On May 3, California access advocates troop to the State Capitol Building in Sacramento to a hearing on the first of what may be several "Notification Act" bills in the state legislature. MARY JOHNSON says businesses are serious about cutting back on crips filing access suits. It's just what CA. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is calling for. MORE.

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LIFE from the RAGGED EDGE
Mad as hell -- and fighting for our lives In every state today, it seems, budget cuts are reducing the money set aside for alternatives to institutionalization, writes ZEN GARCIA. "As many of us across the country struggle to manage the impact these cuts will make upon our lives, thousands of people returning from Iraq with lifelong disabilities will find themselves pressed by the system they just fought to defend." MORE.

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FOCUS
Liberals and disability rights: why don't they 'get it'? A progressive bookstore owner provides a ramp to a locked entrance and offers a doorbell; he is offended when local activists protest the segregated treatment. Liberals grouse at providing interpreters. Leftists say there's no disability rights movement. Ragged Edge editor MARY JOHNSON asks activists and academics: What's going on? MORE. | FREE E-LETTER

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from the ARCHIVES
Unanswered Questions Kenneth Bergstedt's father won a court challenge letting him assist his son's suicide in 1990, the year that the Americans With Disabilities Act became law. In Sept., 1990, MARY JOHNSON reported on Bergstedt's story and the many questions about the case that disability-rights activists say never get asked. MORE.

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LIFE from the RAGGED EDGE
From 'Passing' to 'Coming Out' "I'm a 32-year-old woman, disabled since birth, and until recently I have been firmly in the closet," writes CANDICE M. LEE. So why is she "outing herself" now? "Because I have broken a cardinal rule, done something so subversive that I feel the shockwaves ripple around me everywhere I go." READ STORY

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Ragged Edge EXTRA!
'A sheltered workshop is nothing more than a sweatshop' "We were having lunch at a restaurant and the radio was playing," says the Southeast Kansas Independent Living Resource Center's GREG JONES, when they heard an ad for a sheltered workshop. "We were compelled to respond." They started running radio ads, calling them "sweatshops." MORE. | FREE E-LETTER

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The Supreme Court's Catch-22
Jerry Lewis tells crips, "stay in your house!"
The Supreme Court Garrett Decision
Eugenics: Making a Comeback?
'Disabled for A Day,' Reporter Finds Frustration and Stigma

MORE.

WHO WE ARE: Ragged Edge magazine is successor to the award-winning periodical, The Disability Rag. In Ragged Edge, and on this website, you'll find the best in today's writing about society's "ragged edge" issues: medical rationing, genetic discrimination, assisted suicide, long-term care, attendant services. We cover the disability experience in America -- what it means to be a crip living at the start of the 21st century.

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Ragged Edge magazine and Ragged Edge online are publications of The Advocado Press, Inc. a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization founded in 1981 to publish materials on disability rights.

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