The Future of Michigan Politics: Proposed Redistricting Maps from the Independent Commission

The Detroit Free Press, in an article by Clara Hendrickson and Todd Spangler, "Michigan's draft redistricting maps approved, will be taken to the public next", 10/12/21, reports on proposed maps by the new Independent Redistricting Commission establishing Congressional and State House and Senate districts based on the 2020 census.

It's complicated but important to the state's political future. So far, the commission is offering three sets of maps for public comment later this month to untangle "the gerrymandered boundaries put in place by a Republican state legislature and governor a decade ago, when new lines were drawn after the last Census."

The proposed maps, compared to the current districting maps, are less lopsided in favoring Republicans overall . They give a slight edge to Democrats in Congressional races and a slight edge to Republicans in state house and senate races. It will shake-up the status quo in many areas of the state, including in the Ann Arbor area which is heavily Democratic and in heavily Republican Southwest Michigan. 

The methods used in drawing the maps are in part based on voting patterns over the last ten years, but this is not the only consideration.

"Some of the proposed maps drawn by the commission would skew Republican, according to the commission's measures. But no plan matches the GOP advantage for the current districts drawn by Republicans in 2011, according to those measures.  

 

"The commission has been repeatedly urged to attempt to get its fairness scores as close to zero partisan bias as possible. 

"The commission's general counsel has told the group that it is not required to draw maps that would score zero on measures of partisan fairness. 'A lot of the very passionate public comment was for everything to be equal. That is not what your constitutional language is,' Julianne Pastula, the commission's general counsel, said."

 

Public hearing schedule

The commission will hold five public hearings across the state to solicit input on its maps. The hearings will be held from 1-3:30 p.m. and 5-8 p.m. with the commission conducting its business until 2:30 p.m. before kicking off the hearing. The public hearings will take place on the following dates:

• Weds., Oct. 20: Detroit, TCF Center
• Thurs., Oct. 21: Lansing, Lansing Center
• Fri., Oct. 22: Grand Rapids, location to be determined
• Mon., Oct. 25: Gaylord, Treetops Resort
• Tues., Oct. 26: Flint, Dort Financial Center

Members of the public can also submit written public comments and draft maps via www.michigan-mapping.org or comment on the commission's draft maps available at www.michigan.gov/micrc. 

The final maps of Congressional and State House and Senate Districts will be issued by December 30, 2021.

Abelone Kelley October 12, 2021 0

Abdulrazak Gurnah Wins the Nobel Prize for Literature

Novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first black African to win the prize for almost two decades.  

He was born in Zanzibar (Tanzania) but he migrated as a teenager to the UK, escaping from ethnic persecution and eventually became a professor of Post-colonial Literatures at the University of Kent in Canterbury. His novels talk about the experience of colonialism, refugees, migration and individual dignity. In this three minute interview NPR's culture reporter Neda Ulabyis talks about his life and works. You will come across interesting words like: shortlisted, fate, to flee, civil unrest, scholarly work, to be batted around, to track, marquee names, overdue, sprawling, to reconcile cultural chasms with their dreams, a clip, linen, a chubby face, uprooted [people].

Below, you can also watch a 6 minute BBC interview to Mr. Gurnah himself after he learnt he had won the Nobel Prize, which can be heard with subtitles. Both recordings are suitable for C1 students and above.

You can also listen to a lecture by Professor Gurnah about Indian Ocean Journeys on this link (15:07).

Abelone Kelley October 10, 2021 0

ACT Now for Severe Autism Campaign from Together For Choice

  

 Organizations supporting Act Now for Severe Autism: Voice Of Reason (VOR), National Council on Severe Autism (NCSA), ICF Advocates for Choice, Together For Choice (TFC), Autism Science Foundation (ASF), EASI Foundation, The Council of Autism Service Providers (CASP), RCPA

 

Group Warns of Escalating Health and Safety Crisis in I/DD Community

Releases Video to Increase Awareness

Calls to End One-Size-Fits-All Policy Solutions

[This video is extremely hard to watch, but it is real. I have known many families who have gone through this special kind of Hell. Not only do they face a daily struggle to keep their child safe from self-inflicted injuries, but they do it with minimal outside help and sometimes no sleep or any other form of relief. They are shamed and blamed by some disability rights organizations for somehow causing their child's disabilities. Rather than recognizing how extreme and different children and adults with severe autism can be from others with forms of autism that are not as debilitating, the neurodiversity movement  treats them as an embarrassment. People with severe autism belie the claim by some disability rights advocates that severe autism does not exist and that no special consideration is warranted.]

More from Together For Choice:

Together for Choice Joins with RCPA, Parents to Launch ACT Now for Severe Autism Campaign

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania – Together for Choice, a national advocacy organization formed to protect and advance the rights of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), today announced the ACT NOW for Severe Autism Campaign with a consortium of partners, including the Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association (RCPA), concerned parents and other advocates. The campaign seeks to shine light on the growing health and safety crisis involving individuals with severe autism and change policies that deprive them of the services they need.

“For too long, individuals with severe autism have remained in the shadows and all too-often forgotten in policy discussions,” said Ashley Kim Weiss, National Coordinator of Together for Choice. “Most of the attention and resources have been devoted to integrating high functioning members of the I/DD community into society, which we agree is important. Equally important, however, are the most vulnerable individuals with severe disabilities who can never fully integrate and are in desperate need of customized care and support to live healthy and productive lives.

The group promoted a video, which first debuted at the RCPA Conference held in Pennsylvania last week. A parent of a severely autistic child self-financed and produced the video to combat the increasing claims of the highly vocal and publicly visible advocates of the neurodiversity community, that severe autism does not exist. Or worse yet, that the needs of those individuals with severe autism are no different than the needs of any other individual diagnosed with autism.

“While the video is at times uncomfortable to watch, it is critical that the public see the realities that these individuals and families face on a daily basis,” said Richard S. Edley, President and CEO of RCPA. “We need more resources and more flexible policy solutions to address this growing crisis. One-size-fits-all solutions must end. We must recognize that one-size does not fit everyone. People will always be left out – and sadly, it is often the most vulnerable who are forgotten."

The group also launched a website at http://actnowforsevereautism.com/ which houses the video and contains a petition to end these policies as well as more information about how the public can get involved and advocate for change in policies that discriminate against individuals with severe autism and their families.

About Together for Choice

Together for Choice (TFC) is a non-profit organization with a mission to unite to protect and advance the rights of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) to live, work and thrive in a community or setting of their choice. Please visit www.togetherforchoice.org for more information.

About the Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association:

With well over 350 members, the majority of who serve over 1 million Pennsylvanians annually, Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association (RCPA) is among the largest and most diverse state health and human services trade associations in the nation. RCPA advocates for those in need, works to advance effective state and federal public policies, serves as a forum for the exchange of information and experience, and provides professional support to members. RCPA provider members offer mental health, drug and alcohol, intellectual and developmental disabilities, children’s, brain injury, medical rehabilitation, and physical disabilities and aging services, through all settings and levels of care. Visit www.paproviders.org for more information.

Contact for TFC:

Ashley Kim Weiss, National Coordinator

ashley@togetherforchoice.org

Contact for RCPA:

Richard S. Edley, PhD, President and CEO Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association (RCPA)

redley@paproviders.org

Abelone Kelley October 06, 2021 0

Call to dismantle barriers to developing autism friendly affordable housing

When more than three or four people with disabilities live together, either out of friendship or to share resources with people with common interests and needs, some disability rights advocates condemn the practice and compare it to life in institutions of more than fifty years ago. Whether it is a group home or a larger intentional community or a publicly or privately operated facility, they are all bad according to these advocates.

Touring a 21-unit disability housing complex in Gilroy, CA, Jill Escher describes how congregate housing for people with autism and other development disabilities are needed to tackle the problem of serving and housing people with severe disabilities. 

Encouraging these projects is better than attempting to sabotage them in the name of disability rights. 

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I visited a 21-unit disability housing complex and it was nothing remotely like an "institution"

A disability housing advocate calls for the dismantling of bureaucratic obstacles preventing the development of autism-friendly affordable housing.

by Jill Escher
8/31/21 

One of the most ludicrous and damaging battles waged by so-called “disability rights” activists is their deranged crusade to de-fund congregate-style residential facilities, which they routinely likened to “institutions” of old that once housed 1000’s of residents. It is of course nonsense, but this line of absurdist reasoning has already had a damaging chilling effect on needed developments aimed at the intensive needs of the autistic and developmentally disabled. Any development with more than a handful of disabled residents can become the target of immediate witch-hunt-like suspicion, and as a consequence, many projects die before they can get off paper.

This insane self-sabotage came to mind as I recently toured a lovely 20 year-old housing development in Gilroy, California, located some 30 miles south of the Silicon Valley area. Villa Esperanza was built in the late 1990s when it was still totally cool, and indeed noble!, to say, “We are creating housing for the developmentally disabled.” This was before groups like the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and others routinely hurled poisonous accusations at such developments calling them “isolating” and “institutional.”

The primary goal of Villa Esperanza, created by a nonprofit housing developer, was the provision of affordable housing for adult developmentally disabled individuals and their families. It received a construction loan (Section 811) from HUD and smaller loans as well. Other local nonprofits were involved in the planning, and now the administration. For the past two decades it has provided 21 units of desperately needed housing at affordable rates. The person with DD pays a portion of the rent (perhaps about $300, representing 1/3 of their SSI income), while the balance is paid by the county Housing Authority with HUD funds. Some tenants live independently, some with roommates, some with professional supports chosen by the client. Most tenants access the community on a regular basis and attend supported employment or day programs. The mini-campus also features a community room for social gatherings. 

As I toured the grounds I could only think, “Given the skyrocketing rates of autism, why are there not Villa Esperanzas everywhere? Why isn’t this model — a public-private partnership providing affordable, subsidized units to DD adults in a safe, serene setting — a go-to norm for our population?” ...

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Read More at the Blog for the National Council on Severe Autism (NCSA)

Abelone Kelley October 04, 2021 0

Washtenaw County Commisioners seek citizen volunteers

Monday, October 4, 2021

This is news from the League of Women Voters Washtenaw County:

Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners seeks citizen volunteers 

The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners is looking for citizens to volunteer for a slate of positions on various Boards, Committees and Commissions. The Board of Commissioners will make these appointments at its upcoming session on December 1, 2021 at 6:45 p.m. held virtually via Zoom due to the Covid-19 pandemic. APPLICATION DEADLINE IS OCTOBER 29.

Individuals interested in applying should submit a letter of interest and resume, including a home address, to the Washtenaw County Clerk’s office, Attention: Appointments, P.O. Box 8645, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48107. 

Letters and resumes may also be submitted via email to mulcihyr@washtenaw.org, via fax (734) 222-6528, or apply online at https://ewashtenaw.formstack.com/forms/board_application.

Those resumes received by October 29, 2021, will be submitted to the Board of Commissioners for its consideration on December 1, 2021. The appointments will become effective January 1, 2022.

You can access the list of openings here: https://www.washtenaw.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1789 

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Follow the link above for a description of the Boards that are seeking members and the specific requirements for selection. Even if you may not be the person they are looking for, you might know someone who is. Many of these Boards make decisions that affect you or your family member with a disability. 

 

Abelone Kelley October 04, 2021 0

Almodovar's "The Human Voice"

Pedro Almodóvar released a short (30') film in English, "The Human Voice" in 2020 which was acclaimed by critics all over the world.  It is a free and personal adaptation of Jean Cocteau's classic "La Voix Humaine", where a barroque Almodóvar is interested in showing the boundaries of artifice and the connection between cinema and theatre, deceit and sincerity, lies and truth. 

The movie is, basically, a monologue, where Scottish actress Tilda Swinton, in a riveting performance, displays her vocal versatility to disclose all the feelings of a woman who has been abandoned by her ex-lover and receives a last telephone call to sort out the last mundane details of their separation: she pretends to be cool and casual at the beginning of the call, until she can't stand her own lies any longer, loses controls and admits to her ex-lover -who is a "dweeb", in Tilda's words, ("an idiot", in Spanish "un memo, un baboso"), that she is just a nervous wreck. 

The drama of the monologue is set in the unique atmosphere of Almodóvar's films which is created by the music of Alberto Iglesias and the photography of José Luis Alcaine, the paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi, Vargas, Man Ray, Isabel Quintanilla, Giorgio de Chirico and all the loud colours, objects, circles, shapes and squares of Almodóvar's personal universe.

Below you can watch a facetime interview to Pedro Almodóvar and Tilda Swinton when they presented the film in the the New York Film Festival at the Lincoln Centre in September 2020.  The video is very long (1:04:19), but it is interesting to listen to Almodóvar's English, although at some points he turns to Spanish to be translated by a consecutive interpreter (for example when he starts talking about the sets and the scenery of the film at 29:01 and continues talking about the lockdown during the pandemic). 

A highlight of the interview is Tilda Swinton's long answer to the question about her character who is in a world that is a mixture of a theatre stage and a cinema set (36:00- 42:11).  She explains that the telephone helps her character to create a fabrication of reality, a performance to deceive her ex-lover on the phone, in contrast to the first minutes of Almodóvar's film, where she is silent and we can see her true feelings. Although you can watch the video with subtitles, Tilda Swinton's complex and metaphorical answers are recommended for C1 students and above, whereas Almodóvar's answers in English can be easily understood by B2 students.

In the six minutes of Tilda Swinson's answer you can notice her richness of expression, for example: deception, to dissemble, the predicament, painful, a dignified goodbye, to fall apart, a fabrication, inarticulacy, articulacy, a pose, utterances, the script, an axe, to smash [a glass], frankly, it's overacting, to overdo something, incredibly moving, a trope, a cliche, a soap opera, a set, to fake [it], to throw open your heart, to spill your guts, it's not good taste, a massive meltdown, a dweeb, a twist and turn, to twiddle with [something], vulnerability, fakery.

If you are very interested in "The Human Voice", you can watch the trailer here, you can also watch this interview to Tilda Swinson by Mark Kermode on BBC Radio 5 which is shorter and very precise (07:39) with or without subtitles, or another interview to Ms. Swinson at the 77th Venice Festival (6:03), where she was awarded the Honorary Golden Globe for a lifetime achievement.

"The Human Voice" can be watched on Movistar TV beginning on September 3rd, 2021. Recently, Almodovar presented "Parallel Mothers", his latest film, at the Venice Film Festival.

Abelone Kelley September 04, 2021 0

COVID-19 - It's not a hoax and vaccination is not a plot to depopulate the world.

COVID-19 is still with us and probably will be for quite awhile. Our family is fully vaccinated, including our two boys who have multiple disabilities and live in a group home [they are 36 and 44 years old but I’m their mother and I get to call them "boys"] . None of us had significant side effects, although we have friends and acquaintances who had mild to somewhat severe side effects, such as fever, chills, aches, and pains. None of these effects lasted for more than a day or two. We have had one death in the extended family and friends who have experienced the disease in its most extreme form or continue to deal with long-term COVID symptoms that come and go with frustrating regularity. Our friends and relations are all glad they were vaccinated.

The squabbles over wearing masks to prevent community spread of the virus and assertions that the vaccine is more dangerous than it is beneficial are baffling and tiresome. The extreme view that COVID-19 is a hoax perpetrated by godless evil-doers is contradicted by the assertion (often by the same people) that the virus may indeed exist, but it’s no worse than the flu. The COVID vaccine is sometimes seen as a plot to depopulate the world or as an excuse to impose tyranny on patriotic citizens by forcing people to do things they don’t want to do. I have never bought the idea that “freedom” means getting to do whatever you want. Limits on this kind of freedom are not only imposed by government regulation but by the circumstances of one’s life - I have many stories to tell about how raising two boys with profound disabilities interferes with “freedom” as defined by getting to do whatever you want.

I am against tyranny as much as the next person, but I consider mask mandates in about the same category as the requirement to stop for red lights when I am out driving. Both are annoying at times, but do not restrict my freedom in any important way.

Civil disobedience can be an effective means to resist unjust laws and push for change, but this kind of resistance was never meant to come without consequences and individual sacrifice. Threatening and harrassing public health officials and school boards considering mask mandates is neither free speech nor within the scope of civil disobedience. Civil disobedience or other resistance to following public health mandates may mean that other people may not like you very much, but this is not an infringement of your right to free speech.

Most people with real lives do not have the time, energy, or expertise to refute every argument defending the point of view that COVID is not real or that the vaccine may kill you. Here is an article that may help: “The Backstory: My brother is one of millions who won't get the COVID-19 vaccine. I asked why. Here are his reasons, my responses.” by Nicole Carroll, USA Today, 8/6/21. The article includes numerous links to back up the facts presented by the reporter.

Here is a recent study reported by the Centers for Disease Control that shows that vaccination is more protective against reinfection with COVID-19 than relying on the natural immunities acquired during an initial COVID infection: “New CDC Study: Vaccination Offers Higher Protection than Previous COVID-19 Infection” available on the CDC Website, 8/6/21.

“In today’s MMWR, a study of COVID-19 infections in Kentucky among people who were previously infected with SAR-CoV-2 shows that unvaccinated individuals are more than twice as likely to be reinfected with COVID-19 than those who were fully vaccinated after initially contracting the virus. These data further indicate that COVID-19 vaccines offer better protection than natural immunity alone and that vaccines, even after prior infection, help prevent reinfections.”…

 

"The study of hundreds of Kentucky residents with previous infections through June 2021 found that those who were unvaccinated had 2.34 times the odds of reinfection compared with those who were fully vaccinated.  The findings suggest that among people who have had COVID-19 previously, getting fully vaccinated provides additional protection against reinfection."

More summer reading for COVID fanatics: 

“VIRUS - Vaccinations, the CDC, and the Hijacking of America’s Response to the Pandemic” by Nina Burleigh. I confess. I liked this book because it was short at 144 pages with a good overview of the virus so far.

“The Premonition - A Pandemic Story” by Michael Lewis. Michael Lewis is a compelling nonfiction writer who knows how to weave together the personal stories of somewhat obscure characters to make his point. 

This is hot off the internet: "Supreme Court won’t block Indiana University vaccine mandate as Justice Barrett rejects student plea.."

 Don't do this on your summer vacation:

Anti-masked protesters heckled people wearing masks, including doctors and nurses, and chanted “No more masks”.

Abelone Kelley August 13, 2021 0