Teddy Bears Are Mean

Ah, teddy bears. I remember my favorite teddy bear from when I was a kid. His name was Mikey. I loved all my stuffed animals and they loved me too. They used to tell me so. But the teddy bear in these pictures is a little bit different from the one I used to have. This teddy bear is mean. His shirt says:

"Life without standing is unBEARable"

We all know that there are, in fact, people in this world who can't stand and use wheelchairs because of various disabilities. So why would a Saginaw, Michigan wheelchair company called "The Standing Company" make bears like this to give away at.....well, I'll tell you where it was raffled off in just a minute. But first, back to the company. They make whelchairs that can raise the user from a sitting position to an upright "standing" position. So they can finally do things like participate in church, look out a window and have an all around sense of "feeling good".

Ok. there's so many different directions i can go in here, but I won't. I'll just tell the God's honest truth about where this bear ended up. This malignant bear was raffled off at the Indiana Governer's Planning Council for PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES annual conference. Needless to say, most attendees were people with disabilities.

But it doesn't end there. I wish it did, but it doesn't. The winner of the raffle was a 29 year old Indiana woman who has cerebral palsy and - you guessed it - uses a wheelchair. So, here's your prize, lady! A stuffed bear telling you how worthless your life is!

I heard that "The Standing Company" also has a teddy bear for amputee children and his shirt reads "I'm BEAR-y glad I have both my arms and legs." But that's just what i heard.

ADAPT in Nashville March 2006

ADAPT's spring action was March 18 - 23 in Nashville Tennessee. Why Nashville, you ask? Well, simply put Nashville is one of the worst states when it comes to spending money on home health care. Actually here's just how bad:

$1 spent on home health care = $168.00 on nursing home care.

So ADAPT took to the streets of downtown "Music City" to try to get governor Bredesen to hear their concerns. For two days ADAPT-ers blocked traffic for hours and workers at the Capitol Building were stuck with no way to get out. Over a hundred arrests later, the governor released this statement:

"This is a national professional protest group, and today's action is an extreme publicity stunt that has created a serious disruption to downtown businesses and state employees. In addition, event organizers have placed protesters in harm's way by exposing them to inclement weather and unsafe road conditions. There is nothing constructive to be gained by these actions."

source

Judging by pictures HERE and HERE and even HERE, I'm sure a little rain was the last thing on their minds when they were taking over the city. I mean, these are the people who marched 144 miles in 2003 to raise awareness for the same issues. That's right, 144 miles. Over steep hills. And rain. With not a lot of food. Anyway, either Governor Bredesen is completely missing the point here, or he is pretending to completely miss the point. Either way, it doesn't make him look like the stand up guy we all know politicians to be. But can we really expect more from the man who cut or severely limited almost a million people's healthcare? Actually I'm surprised he didnt show up to the protest to wheel some of the protestors into oncoming traffic.