Make the World a Better Place Pt.3

(courtesy of Sunspots "The Cornell Daily" Thank you for the picture)

Accessibility Offender of the Day Award 

Monday, September 9th, 2019

You can be angry about my blog if you like that's your right. The events portrayed in this blog are the opinion and observations of the blogger. Personally, I've tried every government avenue, every social avenue I can construe at this point; I'm sick and tired of people with disabilities being ignored.

Well here I thought I had gotten the word out about accessibility but surprise surprise *sigh* society throws us another curve ball and today we present the first in our AOD Awards (AODA for short)...

St. Vincent de Pull Thrift Store

Your Parents must be so proud

So here's the story folks... Miss N. (we'll keep her name out of this because we're good like that) needed a new dresser and by new I mean a gently used piece of furniture. 

Miss N. is visually impaired and she goes into this boutique of bustling beauty to pick out her dream dresser. She informs the clerk on the onset that she needs help making sure that when the store delivers her furniture that they can take it up to her bedroom. Prior to payment they agree to these terms in front of Miss. N. and Her friend Miss. A who just so happens to be a PSW. Great We'll deliver the furniture in a few days time.. Fantastic we're off to the races. The delivery is $50 extra but hey it's worth it... isn't it? 

The delivery driver arrives in the morning. The first attempt is a miss. They contact Miss N. on the telephone and she promises that someone will be there to get the dresser. They place the dresser in the middle of the living room. "Hey are you going to bring that upstairs?" Mr. D asks. The delivery driver who looks like a truck stop patron says "ground floor only." He laughs, yep he actually laughs. When I was made aware of these circumstances I decided that I would advocate for Miss N. The store then says: "We can't contact the delivery drivers until they get back to the store."

So here it is people. This is more commonplace then most people would like to realize. It happens every single day. It happens because we let it. 

I'm a long way with done with these people. Raise the flags and tell everyone you can about this blog because awareness is key. The more we bring these sketchy figures into the light of social justice the better off we'll be as a society.

Forward Positive Momentum 2.0

Fσɾɯαɾԃ Pσʂιƚιʋҽ Mσɱҽɳƚυɱ

 

Tнoυgнt Eхperιмent:

 

Close your eyes. Focus on your breathing : in through the nose and out through the mouth nice and easy. Now breathe in and hold for a count of 4. Hold that breath for 7 seconds, (if you have difficulty with breathing hold it in for 4-5 seconds- whichever is more comfortable for you), now gently exhale for 6-8 seconds. Imagine a sparkling lake, the waters surface smells of earth and moss with nothing but the reflection of the nice warm sun on the surface. You are that sail boat.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a synopsis of the What's implied by the sailboat metaphor - (courtesy of Linda Worley MD )

 

Accelerated Coaching Solutions Found Here 

offers the Forward Positive Momentum App from Google Play:

Here    

We're a coaching service that puts the tools in your hands for a really great cost ! Seriously though, $1.99 what? Check it out for yourself and expect more because there will be more!

 

In the App we use the metaphor that RPM (revolutions per minute) is the actual driving force of  the boat from the boat metaphor.  The Forward Positive Momentum of your life is literally the driving force of your life. We  divided FPM into three categories . Those categories are Situational Awareness/ Focus, (SA), Motivation/Ambition (MA), and finally Confidence/Self Worth (CS). In the next three blog posts we will be going into depth to elaborate about what and why we chose these specific categories. 

Situational Awareness/ Focus

Our ability to be aware of challenges in our life helps us to find solutions. When we're focused on overcoming challenges we feel empowered to make positive changes in our lives. 

(courtesy of Google Images)

We've paired up the category of Self Awareness with a quick look at either general or specific anxiety. You're asked to look at your day as a whole or find a specific situation and identify whether the situation caused you anxiety helps put you in touch with your awareness and will help you focus on improving those places you find you're having difficulty with in your day to day life.

Make the World a Better Place Pt.2

𝓑𝓮 𝓪 𝓟𝓸𝓼𝓲𝓽𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮 𝓲𝓷 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓦𝓸𝓻𝓵𝓭 𝓸𝓯 𝓞𝓷𝓮 𝓟𝓮𝓻𝓼𝓸𝓷

 

**This is your trigger warning**
This blog contains offensive language and content that WILL MOST DEFINITELY offend liberal fluffies- back off now You've been warned...
 
Welcome Back Everyone!

So Let's start this off on the right foot ( or the left if you prefer)

(courtesy of Google Images)

 

We are all human beings doing the best that we can to be better at being ourselves.

In our last blog post we talked about the necessity to show courtesy to people with disabilities but I would really like to point out that we should show everyone courtesy. 
Parents are busier than ever trying to stay afloat in a world full of crazy expectations and demanding work schedules that make having work/life balance a near impossibility for most people. They just simply don't have time to teach their children things like : "don't stare at the girl in the wheel chair because it's rude" or more specifically: 
" simply standing in front of someone trying to load up into a wheel chair accessible taxi. They stand there faces buried in their cell phones with no awareness of what's happening around them as this individual is trying to get up the wheel chair ramp. "

"Please?"  what the hell does that mean? Give it to me now!!

"Thank You" Gratitude? from Millennials, from GenX, City Dwellers ? Yeah right 

Our social skills have gone the way of the dodo thanks to the fancy pocket-calculators we call cellphones. Do you know what goes hand-in-hand with social skills? Common Courtesy!

Heaven forbid you hold a door open for someone and get called a misogynist

Common Courtesy is a set of unspoken rules that allows everyone in a community to function in a harmonious environment of respect and mutual consideration.
 
Common Courtesy comes from the values and respect for other people that parents teach their children. When the children don't understand basic manners it's on the parents and it's not the kids fault that the parents didn't take the time to teach them to respect other people. 

Yep it's your fault

 

Here's one well-known cultural offender who mistreat their vulnerable population: China

Some cultures don't see disabled people the way that we do in the West.In the West we are implementing laws and adaptable systems to include access for everyone. In China as in the picture above disabled people are treated like worthless prisoners locked up and kept away from public view.

Most of the Islam World hates dogs. Visually impaired people use dogs to navigate and there is another group that we have not touched on yet : Emotional Support Dogs.  I have personally witnessed proprietors of this sect opening doors to apartment buildings to let a young lady's service dog run away from her deliberately. I have seen them in many instances attempt to provoke a non-service animal into an aggressive act in order to have the animal put down. 
Grow up. 

" this is not an excuse for poor behavior this is a refusal to live in harmony because everyone else won't conform to your cultural/belief systems."

- I put quotes around this because I'm saying this and I hope someone does quote this somewhere because it's about damn time we woke up to what's going on around us. 

Make the World a Better Place Pt.1

 Stop Ignoring and Mistreating those with Disabilities

Your Author and Friend: David L. Asselstine

My name is David L. Asselstine; it's a pleasure to meet you! I am a grateful pet owner to my dog Bear, an Uncle to 3 amazing nephews: I'm also blind in one eye. The last part shouldn't matter to be completely honest but most people will ask because when I look at them it's easy to see that I have a lazy eye but to be specific strabismus. (I have some medical training but I'm not a doctor ... yet). It makes meeting people and having conversations with people really hard because I enjoy talking to people but some people just stare at my eye the entire time sometimes interrupting to ask: "are you looking at me?" I ignore it and say: "yes of course, I'm talking to you." The truth is it hurts just a little each time- I know where it's coming from so it's not the sort of hurt that lingers but just the same I wish people could see the world the way that I do- without prejudiced and without judgement. Disability means according to the Webster's Dictionary:

" 1. [count] : a condition (such as an illness or an injury) that damages or limits a person's physical or mental abilities. She has learned to keep a positive attitude about her disability. disabilities such as blindness and deafness."

--https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=websters+definition+of+disability

It doesn't say anywhere in there that having a disability makes you less of a person it says that it damages or limits a person's physical or mental ability. When I see someone in a wheel chair I see someone who has either difficulty or near impossibility to ambulate and thus the remedy for that particular person is a wheel chair. They are a person not a person in a wheel chair. I don't stare at the person or whisper or laugh... (the laughter really pisses me off) but most of all I don't make assumptions about the person either. Too often I've seen this! People in wheel chairs seen as being Developmentally Challenged or the term that I absolutely hate without exception: retarded. I hated even typing that in this blog but I am making a point.  
What about asking the person what their disability is? Let's illuminate this point really well because there are well wishers out there who definitely try to understand beyond assumption and/ or plain ignorance and they truly mean well but to be honest we don't consider in our impulsiveness that answering these kind of questions can be extraordinarily embarrassing for some people and even degrading. Would you like to announce to the world and to everyone you meet what kind of underpants you're wearing? It doesn't matter what type of disability any person has- they are a person and they have a beautiful heart and a beautiful soul like the rest of us. Keep your hearts open and love will find you. We'll talk more about this later.

For Now,

Much Love,

Dave, NLP, PSW, RLC