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In this disturbing era of Trump, we revisit our encore show on disability rights. During his campaign in November 2016, Trump mocked NY Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who had chronic joint disease that limits his arm movements.
On this edition of Making Contact, we’ll explore the dynamic and complex relationship of care receiving, giving, and disability rights. The vast majority of care recipients are exclusively receiving unpaid care from a family member, friend, or neighbor. The rest receive a combination of family care and paid assistance, or exclusively paid formal care. Whether you’re a paid home care provider, or rely on personal assistance to meet your daily needs, or a family member caring for a loved one, the nature of the working relationship depends on mutual respect and dignity.
This show features a special segment by Making Contact Storytelling Fellow Alice Wong.
Featuring:
- Camille Christian, home care provider and SEIU member
- Brenda Jackson, home care provider and SEIU member
- Patty Berne, co-founder and director, Sins Invalid
- Kenzi Robi, president, San Francisco IHSS (In Home Supportive Services) Public Authority Governing Body
- Jessica Lehman, executive director, San Francisco Senior and Disability Action
- Rachel Stewart, is a queer disabled woman who is passionate about disability and employment issues
- Alana Theriault, disability benefits counselor in Berkeley, California
- Ingrid Tischer, director of development, Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF)
- Alta Mae Stevens, in-home caregiver
- Alice Wong, disabled journalist and Making Contact’s 6th Community Storytelling Fellow
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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