There are times I want to set aside any sense of decorum and have at it with some of the slugs I see. For example, the likes of former CIA director, General Michael Hayden ,who defended torture recently on Fox News (a network renowned for having anything but news) and actually criticized President Obama for making the specific forms of torture public (they already were public, asshole) because now enemy combatants can train for it if we decided to use it again.
Use it again? Somebody slap that man. Better yet, kick his ass and be done with it. And while you're at it, do the same to the Bush-Cheney Slime Cartel for two reasons: they deserve it and they've done more to damage what my country was founded and designed to stand for than any American administration in history. In fact, if there was one thing the Bush-Cheney Slime Cartel made sure to exclude in their efforts, it was anything truly American.
The Bush-Cheney Slime Cartel claim torture and secret prisons were and are needed to fight the horror of terrorism. Did they forget WWII and the Nazis? Were there any group of people more vicious than the Nazis? The world united against them (which, by the way, had begun to happen right after 9/11e before the Bush-Cheney Slime Cartel tried to develop a dictatorship (something I believe, historians will confirm if allowed to research and report honestly and unimpeded) and defeated them and the Nuremberg Trials to this day stand as an extraordinary example of justice right-sizing injustice.
Okay, enough for now. Peace out. ___________________________________________________________________
As a man who was held up and shot in the head at point blank range in 1984, as a man who lives with a brain injury and the bullet still lodged in his brain, I do not think it is too much to ask that those whose job it is to help us are who they say they are. In other words, be honest. We, our loved ones, our many elected officials who truly do give a damn, along with all members of the American Family deserve honesty from those who provide health care.
In all likelihood I will soon issue a press release and publicly calling on all groups involved with brain injury as well as out elected officials and other appropriate state and federal agencies to investigate the matter I am about to discuss with you here because at this point, I am beginning to wonder if the Feeney Saga is, rather than a standalone issue, a systemic issue.
For some background, the blog essay breaking this story on February 10 will be republished here after the conclusion of this essay.
I think it was Dante who said something along the lines of, and I paraphrase, The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who stay silent in times of crisis. So I would urge all the aforementioned parties to step up to the plate and take or demand action.
_________________
In looking into the matter of Timothy J. Feeney, a contract employee with the New York State Department of Health who continues to tell the world he has a PhD and a Masters Degree when he has neither, I find myself thinking of the Richard Pryor line, “You gonna believe me or your lying eyes?”
Here’s the situation as it stands now. Feeney is still a contract employee with New York State and I would imagine is still being paid by taxpayer dollars. Feeney still laying claim to college degrees that are not accepted as valid anywhere in these United States. Feeney admits that both his masters and doctorate were issued by Greenwich University, a diploma mill that was in Hawaii and California in the 1990s before moving to Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia in 1998 before finally closing its doors in 2003. Greenwich, not to be confused with the prestigious University of Greenwich in London, England, is on numerous diploma mill lists.
New York State itself is now dragging its feet in honoring a FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request I filed back in January seeking copies of any and all contracts and other documents Feeney has been a party to with the State. As a former journalist, I've filed FOIL requests before but never have I encountered so many delays with amorphous excuses for them at best.
However, there is always humor to be found in life. I have offered to sit down with Feeney to hear his side of things and interview him. Awhile back he left me a voice mail saying he might be willing to meet but wanted to know what the agenda for the meeting might be. Aclose friend of mine quipped, “Maybe if he’d gone to an real college he’d know what the agenda was.”
By the way, I did send Feeney an agenda including some questions that I wanted to ask and told him I would record the conversation so neither of us would inadvertently have our words misprespresented. Feeney backed away from the idea of meeting with a speed that would make Olympic sprinters proud.
Some sources tell me that the contracts Feeney has with the state do not require him to have either a masters or a doctorate. If this is true, it is pretty unsettling for a few reasons.
First, why would New York State, in this case the Department of Health, give a contract which affords Feeney enormous say and power over survivors of brain injury on the Traumatic Brain Injury Waiver, not to mention enormous power over the companies who provide services to survivors on the waiver? I know he has put blocks on admissions for some companies, been the driving force behind sending some survivors out of the state into long term facilities and stopped other survivors from returning to the state.
This is not to say his judgment is always wrong, though there are times it is; but just imagine how the survivor, the family member or the providers who had their admissions closed down would feel when they found out Feeney was willfully misrepresenting himself and that, according to Feeney himself, the DOH knew he was doing this. Feeney says the Department of Health was aware all along that his degrees were not recognized anywhere in this country as being valid, but they hired him anyway.
Second, if the contracts do not require him to have the degrees he says he has and doesn’t have, did those designing the contracts with him know this? Were they in it together? Given Feeney's own statements, I suspect they were.
Third, and also deeply troubling and wounding, is this observation: where on earth is the respect for the survivors of brain injuries and their loved ones? Where is the respect for the providers of services themselves.
Feeney’s colleague, Mark Ylvisaker, who apparently does have the PhD he says he has, appears to be another rather despicable character in all this. It is fairly clear, based on past conversations and e-mail I received from Ylvisaker, that he has known all along that Feeney’s degrees were and are bogus, and yet he continues to work with him, support him and defend him.
Anyway, the investigation moves on
Following is the blog piece that broke this story.
* To his credit, Timothy J. Feeney, a contract employee with the New York State Department of Health for nearly 15 years, recently acknowledged that his PhD was issued by a college that is not accredited in the United States.
In an unsolicited February 8 e-mail to readers of this blog, Mr. Feeney said he received his PhD from Greenwich University which, he writes, “functioned as an unaccredited institution in the US, moved it’s physical location to Australia, received legal accreditation in Australia for a two year period – period of time that my doctorate was conferred - and then lost that accreditation and closed) and no longer exists.”
Mr. Feeney appears to be partly correct. The Greenwich University Act of 1998 allowed Greenwich to function on Norfolk Island as a recognized university. However, according to a web-alert issued by the Australian Government, degrees issued by Greenwich were never recognized as valid on the Australian mainland and they have never been accredited anywhere in the United States.
According to an e-mail from Douglass Capogrossi, past president of Greenwich University and current president of Hawaii-based Akamai University (also non-accredited), Mr. Feeney is correct that his doctorate was issued when the Greenwich University Act of 1998 was in effect.
According to Mr. Capogrossi, Mr. Feeney's doctorate was issued on June 14, 1999 and his masters degree, also from Greenwich, was issued on August 27, 1993, before Greenwich moved to Australia and five years before the Greenwich University Act when, according to Mr. Feeney's e-mail, Greenwich was operating as a non-accredited school in the United States.
Greenwich University was located in California and Hawaii in the 1990s before relocating to Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia. It closed in 2003.
In his e-mail Mr. Feeney expressed concern that this writer was or is about to call him a fraud or accuse him of fraud. As I said to him in a subsequent e-mail, I have no intention of doing either.
In his e-mail Mr. Feeney further says I have drawn a conclusion about the academic integrity of degrees issued by Greenwich and “based (my) opinion on the fact that (his) Masters and Doctorate have been conferred by Greenwich University, which he has, in separate emails to myself and others, characterized as a Diploma Mill.”
Rightly or wrongly, Greenwich University is on numerous diploma mill/non-accredited schools lists on the web. The State of Oregon has compiled a comprehensive list of non-accredited schools and Greenwich is listed. It is also present on a non-accredited school lists that can be located by visiting the website for the U.S. Department of Education.
As one who lives with a brain injury and one who advocates for all people with disabilities, it is true that I wrote Mr. Feeney e-mails asking him to clarify his education. He never responded to any of my requests. In fact, his e-mail to the readers of this blog represents the first time I have heard him acknowledge his doctorate was issued by Greenwich University.
Moreover, in his unsolicited e-mail to readers of this blog, Mr. Feeney says he is "very careful never to refer to myself as a psychologist." However, his profile in his company website says (italics are mine) "Tim has worked in a variety of capacities in human services including: special education teacher, program director of a state program for individuals with autism, coordinator of educational services, coordinator of behavioral services, staff psychologist, consulting behavior specialist, and an Assistant Professor of Special Education."
The issue for me is whether or not someone who has worked in the field of brain injury in New York State and a wide array of other localities has degrees that are recognize as valid by accrediting and regulating agencies.
However, according to Mr. Feeney, the New York State Department of Health is satisfied with his degrees and the NYDOH is fully aware that they were issued by a school that is not accredited in the United States.
In his February 8 e-mail he writes (italics are mine), “I have been the Project Director for the NY State Neurobehavioral Resource Project for nearly 15 years, representing 3 distinct 5 year award periods. I have this job as the result of responding to a Request for Applications on three separate occasions. Each application required that I present my credentials for review. In each project award period I have been identified as the “key person” as a result of the DOH’s recognition of my experience and success as a clinician supporting individuals with brain injury and challenging behaviors. The Department of Health, the state office responsible for the Neurobehavioral Resource Project, is well aware of my educational history, the source of my degrees, and knew that I was undertaking graduate studies while working as the Project Director.”
I have offered more than once to sit down with Mr. Feeney and when he forwarded me the e-mail he sent to readers of this blog I again offered to sit down and talk with him. There has been no response. __________________________________________________________
The California Supreme Court seems poised to uphold a ban on same-sex marriage, even though doing so would mean bigotry trumps the constitution.
News reports say California justices appear reluctant to overturn the will of California voters who approved a ban on same-sex marriage in November. Never mind that the very same court approved same sex marriage in May as a constitutional right.
Upholding the four-month-old ban on same-sex marriage will essentially mean the court will allow bigotry to trump the constitution.
I wonder what would have happened if courts had given bigotry and prejudice that kind of sway during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and instead let their rulings be controlled by the the majority racist voting population in some southern states?
The opposition to same-sex marriage is rooted in bigotry, plain and simple. Does this mean that those who oppose it are all bad and mean people? Of course not. Change is never easy, and to paraphrase an observation voiced by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after he’d been assaulted by a white man in his 50s, If you’d been told every day of your life for more than 50 years that people who were gay and lesbian are bad people, what would you believe?
Overcoming the wrenchingly misguided bigotry towards men and women who chose same-sex marriage will take time. But the bow of the American ship is, albeit slowly, heading in that direction.
Mark my words, the day will come when same-sex marriage will be part of our American culture. I hope I live to see it.
For the life of me, I don’t understand why, in our heart of hearts, we would do anything to impede the right of two people who truly love each other to marry. After all, isn’t loving each other what it’s all about?
The last post in this blog was about Timothy J. Feeney’s insistence on referring to himself as Timothy J. Feeney PhD or Dr. Timothy J. Feeney when he is neither, at least not in the United States.
As I stated earlier, both his masters and doctorate degrees were issued by a diploma mill called Greenwich University, a non-accredited college that floated back and forth from California and Hawaii in the 1990s before going to Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia in 1998. It closed in 2003.
In truth, Mr. Feeney has a good working knowledge of people with brain injury and, were he able to step up to the plate and shed the guise and present himself as he is, he could be a formidable and helpful presence in the world of community-based brain injury rehabilitation.
In his February 8 e-mail Mr. Feeney asserts that members of the New York State Department of Health have known all along that his degrees were issued by a diploma mill and were satisfied with this.
If Mr. Feeney’s assertion is true, it is deeply troubling and it is all a symptom of our culture’s addiction to dishonesty and penchant for greed.
Did members of the New York State Department of Health know Mr. Feeney’s degrees were, in short, bogus? Did the DOH know this and still sign Mr. Feeney and his company, School and Community Support Services of Latham, New York, to contracts for nearly 15 years?
What group of dysfunctional minds felt morally comfortable and at peace with the notion of giving so much influence to someone who has no doubt impacted the lives of hundreds of brain injury survivors, their families and community-based healthcare providers in New YorkState?
Mr. Feeney’s insistence on misrepresenting himself is, sadly, not unique. The tragedy for Mr. Feeney is that choosing to do so undermines the very real qualities and knowledge that he brings to the table because it destroys trust, and once trust goes out the window, one’s ability to be effective in their therapeutic endeavors goes out the window with it.
Here is a critical point to all of this, because it points to a larger picture. This writer and any reader of this essay would be flat out wrong to villainize Mr. Feeney or those DOH officials who, according to Mr. Feeney, knew full well the reality of his degrees. While Mr. Feeney et al are certainly responsible for their choices, we have all in one way or another contributed to the creation of a culture that promotes this kind of mindset, and thus we are all responsible for dissembling it, brick by brick, if you will.
We can and must hold people accountable, but we must do so without hatred, without cruelty. We must allow people to step up to the plate, apologize, make amends. We can dislike the choices, even hate them at time, but we are stepping into emotional quicksand if we allow ourselves to hate our brothers and sisters.
* To his credit, Timothy J. Feeney, a contract employee with the New York State Department of Health for nearly 15 years, recently acknowledged that his PhD was issued by a college that is not accredited in the United States.
In an unsolicited February 8 e-mail to readers of this blog, Mr. Feeney said he received his PhD from Greenwich University which, he writes, “functioned as an unaccredited institution in the US, moved it’s physical location to Australia, received legal accreditation in Australia for a two year period – period of time that my doctorate was conferred - and then lost that accreditation and closed) and no longer exists.”
Mr. Feeney appears to be partly correct. The Greenwich University Act of 1998 allowed Greenwich to function on Norfolk Island as a recognized university. However, according to a web-alert issued by the Australian Government, degrees issued by Greenwich were never recognized as valid on the Australian mainland and they have never been accredited anywhere in the United States.
According to an e-mail from Douglass Capogrossi, past president of Greenwich University and current president of Hawaii-based Akamai University (also non-accredited), Mr. Feeney is correct that his doctorate was issued when the Greenwich University Act of 1998 was in effect.
According to Mr. Capogrossi, Mr. Feeney's doctorate was issued on June 14, 1999 and his masters degree, also from Greenwich, was issued on August 27, 1993, before Greenwich moved to Australia and five years before the Greenwich University Act when, according to Mr. Feeney's e-mail, Greenwich was operating as a non-accredited school in the United States.
Greenwich University was located in California and Hawaii in the 1990s before relocating to Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia. It closed in 2003.
In his e-mail Mr. Feeney expressed concern that this writer was or is about to call him a fraud or accuse him of fraud. As I said to him in a subsequent e-mail, I have no intention of doing either.
In his e-mail Mr. Feeney further says I have drawn a conclusion about the academic integrity of degrees issued by Greenwich and “based (my) opinion on the fact that (his) Masters and Doctorate have been conferred by Greenwich University, which he has, in separate emails to myself and others, characterized as a Diploma Mill.”
Rightly or wrongly, Greenwich University is on numerous diploma mill/non-accredited schools lists on the web. The State of Oregon has compiled a comprehensive list of non-accredited schools and Greenwich is listed. It is also present on a non-accredited school lists that can be located by visiting the website for the U.S. Department of Education.
As one who lives with a brain injury and one who advocates for all people with disabilities, it is true that I wrote Mr. Feeney e-mails asking him to clarify his education. He never responded to any of my requests. In fact, his e-mail to the readers of this blog represents the first time I have heard him acknowledge his doctorate was issued by Greenwich University.
Moreover, in his unsolicited e-mail to readers of this blog, Mr. Feeney says he is "very careful never to refer to myself as a psychologist." However, his profile in his company website says (italics are mine) "Tim has worked in a variety of capacities in human services including: special education teacher, program director of a state program for individuals with autism, coordinator of educational services, coordinator of behavioral services, staff psychologist, consulting behavior specialist, and an Assistant Professor of Special Education."
The issue for me is whether or not someone who has worked in the field of brain injury in New York State and a wide array of other localities has degrees that are recognize as valid by accrediting and regulating agencies.
However, according to Mr. Feeney, the New York State Department of Health is satisfied with his degrees and the NYDOH is fully aware that they were issued by a school that is not accredited in the United States.
In his February 8 e-mail he writes “I have been the Project Director for the NY State Neurobehavioral Resource Project for nearly 15 years, representing 3 distinct 5 year award periods. I have this job as the result of responding to a Request for Applications on three separate occasions. Each application required that I present my credentials for review. In each project award period I have been identified as the “key person” as a result of the DOH’s recognition of my experience and success as a clinician supporting individuals with brain injury and challenging behaviors. The Department of Health, the state office responsible for the Neurobehavioral Resource Project, is well aware of my educational history, the source of my degrees, and knew that I was undertaking graduate studies while working as the Project Director.”
I have offered more than once to sit down with Mr. Feeney and when he forwarded me the e-mail he sent to readers of this blog I again offered to sit down and talk with him. There has been no response. __________________________________________________________
* Recently a number of you received an e-mail from a man who feels I am about to write some piece accusing him of fraud. First of all, he is wrong. I am by no stretch of the imagination a legal mind and am not equipped to determine if someone is or is not guilty of fraud. That is for others, like law enforcement agencies and the courts to decide.
The issue at hand is, in part, the legitimacy of degrees issued by Greenwich University, a non-accredited university that was in California and Hawaii in the 1990s before moving to Norfolk Island off the mainland of Australia. To my knowledge degrees issued by Greenwich are, justly or unjustly, not recognized by any accrediting agency in the United States. To my knowledge, degrees issued by Greenwich University were never recognized as valid on the Australian mainland.
Greenwich, fairly or not, is listed on numerous diploma mill lists as well as lists of non-accredited schools here in the United States and around the world.
Having said this, the question is this; is it appropriate for someone who has GU degrees to present themselves as having degrees here in the United States? I leave that for others to decide.
While I will not name this man in this post, I have written to him and offered to publish the e-mail he wrote to many of you in this blog.
I have not heard back from him but he did say in his well-written e-mail that he would be happy to address any questions folks might have about the content of his e-mail, so he only has to say they word and I would be more than happy to post the text of his e-mail here. That, of course, is up to him.
I applaud him for having the integrity to acknowledge that both his masters and doctorate were issued by Greenwich University and standing by them. __________________________________________________________________
Note: In a recent blog post I referenced Greenwich University which has been listed on a number of non-accredited college lists and diploma mill lists. It is important that readers are provided with good faith honesty, so this post is the text of a web site issued by the Australian Government.
The link to the website can be found at the end of the text.
The Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training receives regular queries about the status of 'Greenwich University', a private institution which operated on Norfolk Island from 1998 until December 2002. (NOTE: Greenwich University Norfolk Island is in no way connected to the University of Greenwich in the United Kingdom.)
What is the status in Australia of a degree obtained from Greenwich University (Norfolk Island)?
The Australian Government does not vouch for the quality of awards issued by institutions not listed on the register of the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) . The AQF is the policy instrument by which Australian governments vouch for the quality of higher education institutions in Australia. Greenwich University on Norfolk Island was never listed on the relevant register of the Australian Qualifications Framework.
On the one occasion when Greenwich's academic and financial standing was subject to independent assessment by the Commonwealth, an expert review committee of five persons found that "the standard of its courses, quality assurance mechanisms and academic leadership fail to meet the standards expected of Australian universities."
No independent evidence has since been provided to the Australian Government that Greenwich University degrees meet the academic standards of Australian universities. It is open to Greenwich to apply for accreditation in Australia and to demonstrate that it does meet the standards required of an Australian university. It has not done so to date.
Between 30 June 1998 and 2 December 2002, Greenwich University (Norfolk Island) degrees were lawfully awarded under legislation approved by the Norfolk Island Government, using its powers of self-government. While the Commonwealth Minister for Territories assented to legislation, this does not mean that Greenwich University awards were ever recognised by the Federal Government of Australia.
To our knowledge, Greenwich University has never been accredited by any recognised government accreditation authority to deliver higher education awards. It authorises itself to award degrees in its company objects.
The recognition of degrees for employment purposes is a matter for individual employers. Decisions about recognition may be based on official accreditation status. We are aware of some employers and professional bodies that will not recognise a Greenwich degree for employment or promotion purposes.
Individual education institutions are free to decide what recognition they give to degrees for entry and credit, including degrees obtained from non-AQF listed and non-accredited institutions. We are not aware of any Australian universities listed on the AQF that would enrol you in a degree program solely on the basis of an award completed at Greenwich University.
On 2 December 2002, the Federal Government of Australia enacted legislation to regulate the use of the title university and the delivery of higher education in the external Territories. This legislation overrode the operation of the Greenwich University Act1998(Norfolk Island). From 2 December 2002 the Greenwich University Act (Norfolk Island)1998 is of no effect, even though it remains on the statute book of the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly.
The Commonwealth Department of Education Science and Training (DEST) operates a website which alerts the public to the operation of unaccredited higher education providers. On the website, inquirers can access an email service to query the status of higher education providers.
Like any field, the field of brain injury has a wide range of participants. There are those who put their hearts and souls into making sure those of us who live with brain injuries are treated as equals, because we are. Then there are those too who see us as a way of making money and or a way of making a name for themselves.
In the next few weeks I will likely be writing a story about an individual who for more than a decade has claimed to have college degrees that don't exist, unless of course you want to include college degrees issued by a non-accredited college, a diploma mill.
This individual - a contract employee with a state government - has impacted the lives of many brain injury survivors and their families as well as the lives of many health care providers who offer services to survivors, all the while having degrees that are not recognized as valid anywhere in the United States and this writer has been unable thus far to find any place in the world where these degrees are considered valid other than the non-accredited school that issued them.
Diploma mills as they are called are sadly plentiful.
Greenwich University is a case in point. A non-accredited school that was located in Hawaii and California in the 1990s, it moved to Norfolk Island off the Coast of Australia. The Australian Government later issued an alert in the Internet making it clear that Greenwich (not to be confused with the prestigious University of Greenwich in London, England) did not live up to its educational standards.
Greenwich closed its doors in 2003 and, it seems, reopened in Hawaii as Akamai University, also a diploma mill.
Both Greenwich and Akamai are on numerous diploma mill lists. ________________________________________________________________
I have looked up to you since I was a little boy. I was only 14 years old when you were killed. I cried until my eyes were swollen and when we went to church that Sunday our minister, who had marched with you many times, told all of us that the American family had a roll in your death. That this country, my country, had been crippled by the poison of racism, of hatred. He called on each of us to carry your message and work hard for your dream. To work hard for the day when children and adults were no longer judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
We are closer, Martin. We are closer. This Tuesday, the day after the day honoring you, the first African American will become the president of the United States. My eyes flood with tears of joy just writing that sentence.
The struggle for equal rights goes on on many fronts. You have been my role model in my efforts, although I have yet to reach your place of faith and spirituality. But I have held you close to my heart all these years, and having you there helps me. The price I have paid for my part in civil rights pales by comparison to the price paid by so many good and decent people. some paying with their lives, a price I am humbly willing to pay as well to assure justice and equality for all people.
Not long ago I was pushed out of a health care company because they needed to evict a voice they could not silence, a voice that insisted that the people receiving services there be treated with respect and given choice. In the scheme of things, my price was a small one.
You once said, “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.” So true.
I don’t know what remains for me in life. But I do know that I am blessed to be on the board of an association that works with people who have survived brain injuries and I was recently appointed to a council that works heart-and-soul hard to make sure people with disabilities are afforded the chance to be as independent in the world we all live in, which includes equal rights.
God bless you, Martin, wherever you are. If you see my father and my family, give them my love and let them know I am doing my best. Perhaps they already know. I’m never quite sure about that one.
I’m going to include a link below for my readers to go to so they can see your “I Have a Dream Speech.”
Thank you, Martin, for all you’ve done for all. The struggle continues for many, and I will be in it until my last breath.
Since the Life Growth Blog has just begun and given that it is an advocacy page, a page that will be inviting your views and opinions, it seems only fair that I give you a glance at my position on some topics. I'll start with the following four topics.
Gay Marriage: I support it.
Abortion: Prayerfully pro-choice
Death Penalty: Against it.
Gun Control: For it.
There are other issues for sure, and no doubt we will get to them later. But before that time arrives, let me share a few things.
I believe all people have the right to be who they are safely in the world they live in. Safely does not include hurting others. Safely in the world means respect for others as well as respect for yourself.
Anyway, this is the first of what I imagine will be several position pieces.
I have seen my fair share of bullies in the healthcare field. Since my first foray into the healthcare arena in 1985 to this day, I have seen healthcare workers from management to ownership, from clinical staff to line staff, use their positions to control and bully people who are, in many cases, tragically susceptible to this treatment, often because of the healthcare system design itself.
When you require a form of support and services in order to stay in the community and, in some cases, stay alive, it is hideously unconscionable that you are subjected to this kind of treatment.
I know of one community-based provider for brain injury that may still have one management employee who locks the doors when he begins his workshops and, if one of the participants needs to use the bathroom, they find themselves locked out of the workshop when they return. They are told that they should have gone to the bathroom before the workshop. Never mind they are deserving of respect and dignity.
I know of another program director in New York State that last I heard still tells new employees that anyone who has suffered a brain injury is incapable of thinking. Having been shot in the head myself and living with a bullet lodged in my brain, I am utterly baffled as to how I can write these words to you, much less write any damned thing in the first place, were this program director, who I will call Biff, correct in his observation..
I once asked Biff how was it that I am able to think.
Biff said, “You’re abnormal, Peter.”
I said, “I’m well aware of that, Biff. But that was true long before I was shot.”
A week or two after this conversation with Biff, it comes to my attention that a young man with a brain injury was refusing to leave his room. I go to Biff and say, “Why don’t I go talk with him and see what’s up?”
Biff says, “Go ahead if you think you'll do any good.”
I go to see this young man. He is 19 years old. He had been an athlete and suffered his injury when he was hit by a car. My dialogue with this young man went something like this. I’ll call him Paul
I knocked on his door, “Mind if I come in?”
“Come on in,” Paul says.
I say, “Listen, first thing I want to tell you, the last thing I plan on doing is try to get you to leave this room. You cool with that?” I knew people had been pressuring him to leave his room because they felt that was what he was supposed to do.
“I’m cool with that.”
“I wanted to know if you would teach me something.”
“Sure… What do you want to know?”
“Can you teach me, help me understand what stops you from leaving the room?”
“Look at me,” Paul says, his voice suddenly choked with emotion. “I leave this room, walk 10 feet, I can’t find my way back. One day I’m this really good athlete, next day a car hits me, it was a car that hit me?”
“It was.”
“One day this fucking car hits me, now I can’t remember shit, my balance sucks, I’m not an athlete anymore and I can’t find my way back to my own room, it’s scary as hell.”
I say, “Thanks for helping me understand, bro. Can I ask a favor of you?”
“Sure."
“All right if I come to see you, we can hang out here all you want.”
“I’d really like that."
I got up to leave. I say, “It was really good meeting you, Paul.”
He stands. “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Can I get a hug?”
“Not a problem,” and I give this 19-year-old boy who is understandably afraid to leave his room because he couldn’t find his way back a hug.
I go and find Biff and relate my conversation with Paul to him. I conclude by saying, “You still want to say that’s not thinking.”
Biff looked at me and said, “That’s not thinking, that’s feeling.”
I say, “You're stupid, you know that, right?”
There are and always will be bullies among us. But there is good news. There are canyons of courage in the hearts and minds of those of us who have been wounded in life, physically, emotionally and spiritually. And if there is any universal truth to any bully, it is this, they are cowards. __________________________________________________________________________________
I have been appointed to the New York State Independent Living Council (NYSILC) for a two year term commencing the first of this year. I cannot tell you how humbled and overwhelmed I am at the opportunity to add my voice to a group of extraordinary men and women who understand that each and every human being deserves to be able to be who they are safely and indepently in the world they live in and, lest anyone forget, be the captain of their own ship.
According to its website (www.nysilc.org), NYSILC is, among other things, responsible for developing the State Plan for Independent Living (SPIL) "in partnership with New York State Education Department/Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID) and the Office of Children and Family Services/Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped CBVH."
I am not at all unique when I say that all too often health care providers and others treat people with disabilities as if they have somehow lost their humanity and thus have little if any cognitive awareness of the world they live in. They couldn't be more wrong.
As the voice of the disability community continues to grow in this country and throughout the world, a quote attributed to the Japanese admiral after the bombing of Pearl Harbor comes to mind. "I fear we have awakened a sleeping giant" he said of the American people. Very true. And so it is with those in the disability community. We are awake. There is more good news too once those of you who misunderstand people with disabilities grow past your histories into the light, you will realize that we are you.
What a wonderful way for me to begin this year. __________________________________________________________
is a passionate human rights advocate. He is a survivor in every sense of the word.
He has overcome an enormous amount of trauma: a period of homelessness, the suicides of several close family members. In 1984 he was held-up and shot in the head at point blank range.
Mr. Kahrmann is a writer and powerful public speaker.
He believes all people have a right to be who they are safely in the world they live in.
The views expressed in this blog are Mr. Kahrmann's and are not meant to express or represent the views of any organization or group Mr. Kahrmann is affiliated with.
. The AQF is the policy instrument by which Australian governments vouch for the quality of higher education institutions in Australia. Greenwich University on Norfolk Island was never listed on the relevant register of the Australian Qualifications Framework. 