Ten days since I last “blogged”! It’s hard to believe.
On top of being an amazing hostess, Barb Handahl is an unbeatable tour manager. Our team of three – Jason, Gabor and I – have completed more than a dozen interviews, presentations, workshops and even two minutes in front of City Council to have Tuesday, April 21, 2009 declared Judith Snow Day in Faribault.
During three of those days I was without a computer. Last February I received a supposedly indestructible laptop – built to military specifications – as part of my work in Savannah. On this Tour it acquired two holes in its casing and then suddenly the screen would not turn on. Fortunately Gabor has been frequently backing up my files and Barb and her family rounded up a spare monitor, then a donor of a brand new laptop, then some help installing some software.
Throughout much of the week I have had sores and inflammation in my mouth and jaw making chewing a challenge. Meanwhile my four year old wheelchair batteries packed it in, and Jason spent the best part of two days either pushing me around or rounding up some new ones. We couldn’t figure out a donor for these, but research revealed a local business who sold them for $300 less than the price quoted by “medical suppliers”.
Needless to say fulfilling an intense presentation schedule, resolving back-to-back crises and participating fully in the extended Handahl family life of birthday parties, breakfasts with Grandpa, etc. has kept us fascinated, rushed, entertained and close to exhausted. In ten days or so we return to Toronto and end the Tour, or at least this leg of it. I expect that reverting to a relatively less intense and more typically structured life is going to seem like some sort of major let down.
In many ways this last leg is like a final exam for us. Will the concept of “Syncopated Transition” carry the inclusion fostering message we intend? Have I, and we, really learned to reach both people who care about diversity and people who know nothing about the struggle for labelled citizens to be seen and supported as citizens?
The Faribault leg of our tour has brought us face-to-face with service providing managers who are running segregated demeaning programs that create huge barriers for communities to discover the contributions of citizens who have unusual abilities. We have interacted with many individuals who are themselves labelled. We have played and coloured with four year olds and gone into elementary school classes. We have been interviewed for radio and two newspaper articles. We have workshopped inclusion with city business leaders. We have sung, talked, argued, prayed and eaten endlessly with a huge variety of people. If it is ever going to “work” - that is if I, and we, are ever going to make an effective impact in shifting a community to see full inclusion as worthwhile and doable – then surely we will have good results emerge in Faribault, Minnesota.
We have three more intensive days in this location. If time and energy permit I will write more about the impact we are having.
Judith
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
A Five Star Spa
After more van repairs we arrived at 11:50pm last Tuesday at the home of Barb and Harlan Handahl in Faribault, Minnesota. Since then we have been in heaven.
Barb has been keeping up with our blog. She has been touched both by the powerful intention of the tour and by the many large and small hardships we have lived through during the last five months. So on the one hand she, along with Dr. Angela Amato, have lined up nearly three weeks of close to two dozen opportunities for Gabor and I to present Inclusion and Peace in Minnesota. On the other she is hosting us like we are the embodiment of royalty.
We have moved in, each of us with our own room. We are being fed sumptuous meals with homemade cookies and brownies in constant supply day and night. Barb, and her extensive family and network, have lined up free haircuts, gym memberships, golf games, passes to restaurant breakfasts (of which we have NO need), hot tubs, and even access to an accessible bathtub for me at a local senior’s residence. We can do our laundry day or night, our clothes have been mended, and we are continuously being asked if there is anything else we might need or want.
Neither are we being treated as delicate guests. We get to participate in every aspect of this family’s rich life from changing a light bulb, searching for lost keys and resetting the wireless router to playing with the grandkids and taking afternoon naps.
In this wonderfully restorative environment Gabor and I have been improving our presentations, building toward the creation of the World Peace through Inclusion Foundation and having the tough conversations we need to complete the difficulties we experienced in the earlier parts of the Tour. Healing and new growth is emerging in this comforting space.
Meantime we are already hard at work, with an intense schedule facing us after Easter Sunday. So far I have given three media interviews and together we have done another four presentations in three days. My favourite so far was to a group hosted by the Faribault Chamber of Commerce to a group of business leaders. The interaction was lively over the two hours. I was appreciative of the opportunity to get the point across about how much Inclusion opens up economic possibilities and not just better supports. It is all about citizenship!
Happy Easter!
Judith
Barb has been keeping up with our blog. She has been touched both by the powerful intention of the tour and by the many large and small hardships we have lived through during the last five months. So on the one hand she, along with Dr. Angela Amato, have lined up nearly three weeks of close to two dozen opportunities for Gabor and I to present Inclusion and Peace in Minnesota. On the other she is hosting us like we are the embodiment of royalty.
We have moved in, each of us with our own room. We are being fed sumptuous meals with homemade cookies and brownies in constant supply day and night. Barb, and her extensive family and network, have lined up free haircuts, gym memberships, golf games, passes to restaurant breakfasts (of which we have NO need), hot tubs, and even access to an accessible bathtub for me at a local senior’s residence. We can do our laundry day or night, our clothes have been mended, and we are continuously being asked if there is anything else we might need or want.
Neither are we being treated as delicate guests. We get to participate in every aspect of this family’s rich life from changing a light bulb, searching for lost keys and resetting the wireless router to playing with the grandkids and taking afternoon naps.
In this wonderfully restorative environment Gabor and I have been improving our presentations, building toward the creation of the World Peace through Inclusion Foundation and having the tough conversations we need to complete the difficulties we experienced in the earlier parts of the Tour. Healing and new growth is emerging in this comforting space.
Meantime we are already hard at work, with an intense schedule facing us after Easter Sunday. So far I have given three media interviews and together we have done another four presentations in three days. My favourite so far was to a group hosted by the Faribault Chamber of Commerce to a group of business leaders. The interaction was lively over the two hours. I was appreciative of the opportunity to get the point across about how much Inclusion opens up economic possibilities and not just better supports. It is all about citizenship!
Happy Easter!
Judith
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
A Cincinnati Weekend by Gabor
We sat in a circle.
[inclusion]
She started by saying: I am angry. You are not listening. The room went silent.
[syncopated]
She broke through by saying: I am the lucky one. Out of my three siblings, I inherited the genes that allowed me to live a life of deep connections, intimacy and adventure. The room gasped and buzzed with excitement.
[transition]
She ended by saying: we did this together. We created the space in which we can be the Gifts that we are for each other. The room laughed as we acknowledged the shared intimacy emerging from the intensity of the last seven hours.
[listen]
On Saturday we went to an Intensive hosted by Peter Block (www.asmallgroup.net) and Jo Krippenstapel. This is a group gathering of about forty citizens. Period. No agendas. No goals. No programs. Emergence, not emergency. Peter has been at the forefront of facilitating the creation of physical and theoretical spaces that foster citizenship. His last book talked to me about two immediate ideas: the way the structure of gatherings create the gathering itself, and that the gathering itself IS the future we are coming together to create. The future is now.
[to the space]
After a bit of getting lost on the grounds of Mount Saint Joseph University, we showed up to share breakfast and mingle with a wide variety of people in a green building called Earth Connection. We started by introducing ourselves and sharing the gift we brought to the gathering. Each and every one of us. We followed by two people singing songs and playing the guitar, all of us joining in on the refrains.
[between]
Then we got down to work. The work of creating citizenship. In the group, and in small groups we explored the sometimes painful and very personal subject of Protection being a barrier, as parents and stewards restrict and police their wards ("To Serve and Protect" is the motto painted on the side of police cruisers world wide) . Of disability as Slavery by another name, as people are bought, sold and oftentimes killed by the service provider organizations based on their attached funding money. Of the wider implications of being the authors of our own lives. Of the exhilarating possibilities latent in powerful listening. Of the power of creative collaboration between people whose voice is usually not heard. Together, we created conversations that transformed us and began to emanate out of the circle into our lives and the wider world. We confronted our own stereotypes and explored ways of being and action that challenge and transform the dominant discourses of oppression. We learned that this is dangerous and sometimes frightening work, but always rewarding. Starhawk says that "Magick is changing consciousness at will". This is exactly what happened on a group level. By Magick, we created each other as citizens. At will.
After lunch, Gary sang Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen and again we all sang the chorus.
[the beats]
Listen. To what is said. From a place of understanding and generosity. Listen to the gifts she brings in her words, actions, ideas, history and herstory. Pain and anger are also gifts expressed as they are energy that transform and are transformed in community. The conversations we took part in were healing because we listened deeply to each other. They brought us together, because in their peculiarity and specificity, they express the common struggles we all face. I asked a question at the end. In a small group, I asked a question about self organization and it's implications for political action. Jo and Ken and Gary, Brenda and I talked about locality, about neighbours, about autonomy and about citizenship. Ha. That word again. I walked away, energized that we are asking some really important questions. Before we left, Judith and I sat around talking to Peter Block. Since the first time I met him, what continues to strike me is his presence. Here is a man, I thought, who is there, wherever he is. He looks you right in the eye, always with a glint, and he poses more questions than gives answers. He really got what we were talking about, and pointed us towards some areas requiring emphasis and clarification regarding the concept of syncopated transition. For the last forty minutes at Earth Connection, we engaged each other in building the future Foundation. I felt like we arrived. Before we left, I thanked him for inviting us and grounding the Tour. This has been a real turning point. That moment for me was the real halfway point of the Tour, with five months passed and one left. Nothing is linear. We are now the community that sustains the real work of Inclusive Citizenship.
[listen]
[inclusion]
She started by saying: I am angry. You are not listening. The room went silent.
[syncopated]
She broke through by saying: I am the lucky one. Out of my three siblings, I inherited the genes that allowed me to live a life of deep connections, intimacy and adventure. The room gasped and buzzed with excitement.
[transition]
She ended by saying: we did this together. We created the space in which we can be the Gifts that we are for each other. The room laughed as we acknowledged the shared intimacy emerging from the intensity of the last seven hours.
[listen]
On Saturday we went to an Intensive hosted by Peter Block (www.asmallgroup.net) and Jo Krippenstapel. This is a group gathering of about forty citizens. Period. No agendas. No goals. No programs. Emergence, not emergency. Peter has been at the forefront of facilitating the creation of physical and theoretical spaces that foster citizenship. His last book talked to me about two immediate ideas: the way the structure of gatherings create the gathering itself, and that the gathering itself IS the future we are coming together to create. The future is now.
[to the space]
After a bit of getting lost on the grounds of Mount Saint Joseph University, we showed up to share breakfast and mingle with a wide variety of people in a green building called Earth Connection. We started by introducing ourselves and sharing the gift we brought to the gathering. Each and every one of us. We followed by two people singing songs and playing the guitar, all of us joining in on the refrains.
[between]
Then we got down to work. The work of creating citizenship. In the group, and in small groups we explored the sometimes painful and very personal subject of Protection being a barrier, as parents and stewards restrict and police their wards ("To Serve and Protect" is the motto painted on the side of police cruisers world wide) . Of disability as Slavery by another name, as people are bought, sold and oftentimes killed by the service provider organizations based on their attached funding money. Of the wider implications of being the authors of our own lives. Of the exhilarating possibilities latent in powerful listening. Of the power of creative collaboration between people whose voice is usually not heard. Together, we created conversations that transformed us and began to emanate out of the circle into our lives and the wider world. We confronted our own stereotypes and explored ways of being and action that challenge and transform the dominant discourses of oppression. We learned that this is dangerous and sometimes frightening work, but always rewarding. Starhawk says that "Magick is changing consciousness at will". This is exactly what happened on a group level. By Magick, we created each other as citizens. At will.
After lunch, Gary sang Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen and again we all sang the chorus.
[the beats]
Listen. To what is said. From a place of understanding and generosity. Listen to the gifts she brings in her words, actions, ideas, history and herstory. Pain and anger are also gifts expressed as they are energy that transform and are transformed in community. The conversations we took part in were healing because we listened deeply to each other. They brought us together, because in their peculiarity and specificity, they express the common struggles we all face. I asked a question at the end. In a small group, I asked a question about self organization and it's implications for political action. Jo and Ken and Gary, Brenda and I talked about locality, about neighbours, about autonomy and about citizenship. Ha. That word again. I walked away, energized that we are asking some really important questions. Before we left, Judith and I sat around talking to Peter Block. Since the first time I met him, what continues to strike me is his presence. Here is a man, I thought, who is there, wherever he is. He looks you right in the eye, always with a glint, and he poses more questions than gives answers. He really got what we were talking about, and pointed us towards some areas requiring emphasis and clarification regarding the concept of syncopated transition. For the last forty minutes at Earth Connection, we engaged each other in building the future Foundation. I felt like we arrived. Before we left, I thanked him for inviting us and grounding the Tour. This has been a real turning point. That moment for me was the real halfway point of the Tour, with five months passed and one left. Nothing is linear. We are now the community that sustains the real work of Inclusive Citizenship.
[listen]
Monday, April 6, 2009
Minnesota Is Expecting Us
(a Minnesotan press release)
FARIBAULT — A woman who would like to wipe out the word “disabled” is making a stop in Faribault next week.
Judith Snow, 58, of Toronto, Canada, is making Minnesota a destination on her “World Peace Through Inclusion Tour.” She is spending the month of April visiting various places in Minnesota to advocate for those labeled “disabled” to be included as part of society, said Barb Handahl of Faribault.
Handahl got to know Snow through her own work with Minnesota’s State Operated Group Homes. Handahl led an effort to connect people with developmental disabilities with community groups and activities that they could benefit from being a part of. She met Snow at a inclusion conference.
“Judith is a very intelligent and remarkable woman,” Handahl said.
Snow has no use of her body below the neck except for the ability to move one thumb. The use of that thumb allows her to drive a motorized cart to get around. But, Handahl said, Snow depends on attendants for her personal care needs.
In spite of her physical mobility limitations, Snow has earned two master’s degrees and traveled to three continents advocating inclusion of people with disabilities in society.
So many barriers exist to keep those label “disabled” from fully being part of society, Handahl said.
“Judith envisions what the world would look like if everyone was included in it, and accepted for who they are,” Handahl said.
Snow has worked for more than 30 years throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Caribbean and Canada advocating for training and education programs for people with disabilities. Her models resulted in thousands of people with disabilities getting jobs, homes, new relationships and support systems that lead them to greater participation in their communities.
Snow will be speaking to the Faribault’s Future leadership group from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 9. From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. that evening, a potluck to welcome her to town will be held at the Faribault Chamber of Commerce and Tourism office.
After her initial visit to Faribault, Snow will speak at a conference and events in St. Paul. But on April 19, she returns to Faribault for a special concert. From 2:30 to 4 p.m. that day at JavaLive coffee house, local folk signer Rafi Dworsky will be join Snow for a presentation for young children.
She will give presentations at Eagan, Rochester, Minneapolis and Duluth before returning to Canada on April 27.
Who: Judith Snow, international advocate for inclusion of people with disabilities.
Where: Faribault Chamber of Commerce office, 530 Wilson Ave.
When: 5:30 p.m. potluck, 6:30 p.m. conversation and desert, April 9
How: Call Barb Handahl, 507-210-0711 to register to attend
— Staff writer Pauline Schreiber may be reached at 333-3127.
FARIBAULT — A woman who would like to wipe out the word “disabled” is making a stop in Faribault next week.
Judith Snow, 58, of Toronto, Canada, is making Minnesota a destination on her “World Peace Through Inclusion Tour.” She is spending the month of April visiting various places in Minnesota to advocate for those labeled “disabled” to be included as part of society, said Barb Handahl of Faribault.
Handahl got to know Snow through her own work with Minnesota’s State Operated Group Homes. Handahl led an effort to connect people with developmental disabilities with community groups and activities that they could benefit from being a part of. She met Snow at a inclusion conference.
“Judith is a very intelligent and remarkable woman,” Handahl said.
Snow has no use of her body below the neck except for the ability to move one thumb. The use of that thumb allows her to drive a motorized cart to get around. But, Handahl said, Snow depends on attendants for her personal care needs.
In spite of her physical mobility limitations, Snow has earned two master’s degrees and traveled to three continents advocating inclusion of people with disabilities in society.
So many barriers exist to keep those label “disabled” from fully being part of society, Handahl said.
“Judith envisions what the world would look like if everyone was included in it, and accepted for who they are,” Handahl said.
Snow has worked for more than 30 years throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Caribbean and Canada advocating for training and education programs for people with disabilities. Her models resulted in thousands of people with disabilities getting jobs, homes, new relationships and support systems that lead them to greater participation in their communities.
Snow will be speaking to the Faribault’s Future leadership group from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 9. From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. that evening, a potluck to welcome her to town will be held at the Faribault Chamber of Commerce and Tourism office.
After her initial visit to Faribault, Snow will speak at a conference and events in St. Paul. But on April 19, she returns to Faribault for a special concert. From 2:30 to 4 p.m. that day at JavaLive coffee house, local folk signer Rafi Dworsky will be join Snow for a presentation for young children.
She will give presentations at Eagan, Rochester, Minneapolis and Duluth before returning to Canada on April 27.
Who: Judith Snow, international advocate for inclusion of people with disabilities.
Where: Faribault Chamber of Commerce office, 530 Wilson Ave.
When: 5:30 p.m. potluck, 6:30 p.m. conversation and desert, April 9
How: Call Barb Handahl, 507-210-0711 to register to attend
— Staff writer Pauline Schreiber may be reached at 333-3127.
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