Jon's columns for 3/31 and 4/7

"Speech, lies, and videotape" and "Give school choice a chance"

From the college newswire

The Harvard Crimson has this excellent article running today about the latent bigotry against people with disabilities running through the discussion around the Schiavo case and the "right to die" debate in general. It is written by a student there who has cerbral palsy.

I've been following the Schiavo case and I have to say I've been pretty disappointed by the response of most liberals (I guess Jesse Jackson being the exception) to this case. I think it reveals a sort of callous bourgeois elitism. Just like brushing off torture of the likes of Abu Ghraib as "blowing off steam" is disgusting, so is trying to ignore or even justify the deliberate starving to death of a living person. (Nat Hentoff points this out in this week's Voice.)

The author of this Crimson piece is right on in his observations about how the "right to die" debate is based on many narrow normative assumptions about what a "correct" human is. Usually, when some "normal" person is considering suicide, we think that they are not thinking right, and correctly try to intervene to get them help. Yet if that person becomes stricken with some sort of disability, is it now acceptable, perhaps even natural for them to want to end their life? What do we say with people now struggling to live with disabilities? That I'd agree with someone's decision to kill themself rather than try to live your life? (Also related is the distrubingly high number of couples who are opting for abortion after their fetus has be diagnosed with disabilities like down syndrome, or even aesthetic and surgically correctable disorders like cleft lip.)

Almost all major US disability rights groups have condemned Shiavo's killing, yet disability activist Mark Polit asks why Schiavo isn't a cause for the left.

On a personal note, while in high school I worked as a teacher's assistant in a preschool class for developmentally disabled children, and while they were sometimes a challenge, there were also times when I'd never seen happier kids in my life. For the past four years, a class of developmentally disabled adults have been amoung the regular volunteers at the Catholic Center soup kitchen I help coordinate. (Incidentily, despite my best efforts I have been almost completely unsuccessful in getting NYU students to give up an hour or two of their precious time to volunteer at the soup kitchen.) How are the lives of these volunteers? Well they're surrounded by close and loyal friends and get an opportunity to directly serve their fellow brothers and sisters who are in need.

If only so many "normal" people locked in a self-centered world of money and power could experience life so fully.

J. Rowe's Latest

NYU no place for anti-worker agenda

Shaun's column this week

Learn the Lessons of Iraq War

Jon's column for 3/24

"New York needs Rudy...again"

Shaun's column this week

Looking back at "The Gates"

Jon's 3/10 column

Sorry, I just got back from break and realized I hadn't posted this: "MTA's budget buffoonery"

I've heard from more than one liberal in response to this column who said they agreed with it even though they'd never agreed with anything else I've written. I think that shows just how far the frustration with New York state's fiscal profligacy extends.

Shaun's column this week

Living and Dying By the Blog

My apologies for failing to stealthly plug the WSN Opinion Blog. I thought about it, but figured Ms. Redtape would flip and try to take it out on Jill somehow, if the URL could even make it into the column in the first place.

Jon has commented on this column over at his blog, and while I understand his critique, I want to stress that my point wasn't to say the NYU bloggers I spoke to were some sort of barometer on the blogosphere as a whole, but rather that their experiences and outlooks brings blogging issues to light. While it's true that the big bloggers aren't likely to shut down, I still believe that the democratic possibilities of personal blogs are tempered by their frailty.

Letters

Traditional marriage should not be redefined

Tenure is needed to protect all minority opinions

Can NYU increase minority enrollment fairly?

Hughes ignores independent radio stations

Americans don't need to hear more sob stories


This is an excellent batch of letters. I look forward to reading your responses...

Jill's column

This one is from last week, but I think it's still relevant...

Let Plan B be sold over the counter

Staff Editorials

I haven't updated this in forever. Here are the staff editorials from the past week:

Stand up for female profs

Close NYU's racial gap

March to fight HIV/AIDS

Fix parental leave policy

Let students be heard

No easy fix for housing

Senate kills Killer Coke

Student voice is weak