ethan ellis's Page

I’m a big fan of The Inclusion Daily Express which, according to its masthead, is Celebrating 10 years of chronicling disability rights, self-determination and the movement toward full community inclusion around the world. It gives me a quick overview of how we’re doing in a few headlines that I can follow to the news I need to know, items that I often pass on to the rest of you.

Usually the news is a mix of good and bad, with enough good to keep me celebrating…and fighting.

Monday, January 4t… Continue

Recently I sent all of you an email congratulating you for your hard work in getting a health reform bill through the U.S. House of Representatives. To provide additional information on the bill’s passage, I grafted my message on top of one from one of the many organizations Next Step has worked with on health care reform.

I should have read it more carefully. As several of you have pointed out, it went on to ask its readers to act to oppose the Stupak Amendment, which many say would further ex… Continue

Acceding to the request of one of New Jersey’s major autism groups, our governor has promised to create a State Office on Autism. He’s done that in the heat of a tight race for re-election so I won’t comment on his promise until after the polls close to avoid partisanship.

The idea is a bad one from every point of view, including the rather lofty perch from which I observed the state bureaucracy as an insider for thirty-seven years and as a disability activist for almost as long. At the same ti… Continue

As the war over health care reform continues, another battle has heated up that deserves our equal attention. President Obama is poised to make a critical decision about our future role in Afghanistan. He is being pressured by his generals in the field, among others, to send more troops there to establish a stable government. Who are they kidding?

We have been at war in Afghanistan for eight years with little to show for it except lives and treasure lost and thousands on both sides seriously di… Continue

From time to time, I post a blog that addresses a specific problem confronting a particular segment of our community. Recently, for example I supported the heroic efforts that Denver Fox is making to link state-based efforts to end waiting lists for community services for people with developmental disabilities into a national network called NOEWAIT .

When I do, it automatically sets off the Blackberry of my old friend, Bob Kafka. I can count on a message within 3 to 24 hours, depending on how b… Continue