John Tesh, former “Entertainment Tonight” anchor and currently a syndicated radio show host will be hosting a “meet and greet” for Dora’s Hope supporters after his upcoming Big Band Concert on May 10th at the Palace Theater in Waterbury Ct.

In an impressive and eclectic career that spans more  than 25 years, John Tesh is known worldwide as a leading and respected  figure in the entertainment and broadcasting industries.  In 1996, after  10 years as co-host of “Entertainment Tonight,” he surprised many by  leaving the highly visible position to pursue his career as a full-time  musician.  For generations music and radio have gone hand in hand and,  Tesh has conquered yet another media format as one of the most  successful syndicated radio show hosts in the country with “The John  Tesh Radio Show: Music and Intelligence for Your Life.”

“I like to call it ‘purpose-driven radio’,”  says Tesh of his award-winning daily and weekly show that is heard on  over 355 stations nationwide by more than 8 million listeners.  Tesh  created the show for his wife, actress Connie Sellecca, because “her  nightstand was covered with the last 20 months of the Oprah magazine.”  The show is owned and distributed by The TeshMedia Group and airs in all  dayparts, on multiple formats.

Thickets for the event are $75 with net proceeds benefiting Dora’s Hope.  You can get your tickets by calling

1-855-DORASHOPE  That’s 1-855-436-7274

Alex Pollard is a 12 year old boy. Like all twelve year old boys he has dreamed of doing great things with his life. Unlike most 12 year old boys he has a disability. Alex has Cerebral Palsy which are motor conditions that cause physical disability in human development,

Alex became interested in choral work after viewing an episode of the hit show Glee which features a disabled youth in a wheel chair.  The episode featured Artie Abrams a wheelchair bound teenager performing the song “Stronger” by Brittany Spears.  Inspired by the character, Alex joined the chorus in his school where he has practiced with the chorus numerous times.  This one time however, well…..it didn’t go so well for Alex.  The photo speaks for itself.

The above picture is not doctored in anyway. It shows Alex, a member of the chorus segregated and forgotten by the choral director and forced to sing apart  from the chorus itself. This left Alex understandably crushed feeling a sense of disconnect. It is difficult enough for children or, for that matter, disabled adults and seniors to cope with their disabilities but having to cope with a loss of self esteem and to continually question their own self worth is more than anyone could bear.

After this photo made its way onto the internet causing it to be seen by God knows how many people culminating in a news story on the local station in Georgia, the school apologized.  In a written statement they wrote “It was a regrettable oversight that the student with special needs was not positioned with the rest of his schoolmates during the choral performance. The student has been a member of the chorus for the entire school year and there have been no prior issues. The choral director has cited several reasons why this occurred but accepts responsibility. The matter will be investigated and, if necessary, appropriate personnel action will be taken. That action could include a letter of reprimand and/or sensitivity training.”

While I will give benefit of doubt to the school and the choral director and assume that Alex’s exclusion was not a conscious oversight I am less forgiving of the “unconscious” behavior. I believe this picture and this event to be emblematic of American society’s unjust behavior toward our disabled brothers and sisters and our beloved seniors.  It is symbolic of the “Forgotten Americans” in institutional care.  Because we institutionalize, marginalize and segregate these citizens we, as a society, forget them.  We  leave them in a “purgatory” caught between life and death.

We condem those patients, who did not choose to be institutionalized, to a life that only seeks death as an escape from having lost their purpose and relevance.  We leave them an an existence filled with loneliness and despair.

As Americans,  we believe ourselves to be  a compassionate society that lends itself to “accommodate” those in need. However, our disabled and our seniors are not seeking ”accommodation,”  what they seek is “incorporation.”

They want to be a part of life. They don’t want to just exist……They want to live!

As people of faith, any faith, we believe that God has a place for us in His divine plan. We not only believe it but also we spend our lives trying to understand our role within the framework of that plan.

As an adult we never stop growing and learning.  As an adult  I too have learned  from my disabled friends, my mother who became disabled late in life it and from my disabled mother in-law who lives with my wife and me that; Just because we grow old or become disabled does not mean we do not continue to be a part of God’s plan. It does not mean God relieves us of our mission. Quite the opposite is true. He still has a mission and a place for us and no one has the right to rob us of the opportunity to continue searching for our place in life.  As people of faith we have no right to say to a disabled person or a senior ‘God offers you salvation in the next world’ if we cannot offer hope in this one. 

The United States Government nor our state governments  haven’t any right deciding through an unjust Medicaid policy,  whose “life” has ended by incarcerating them in an institution against their will.  This is particularly true since every study and every state’s experience is one of tremendous cost savings and  increased in tax revenue by allowing our disabled and seniors to thrive at home surrounded by their loved ones.

Just as Alex was separated from his chorus so too does the government and, indeed, society separate those who do not meet the “well man’s” standards for independence.  Besides re-examining our policy we must re-examine our culture as well. We must reconsider how we treat our disabled and our seniors. Warehousing them is not the answer.

It is important that you become involved.  Help us!

As Reverend King wrote, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

This is a challenge and controversy whose time has come!

Help us change policy. Help us change culture.  Help us change lives.

Sign up as a Dora’s Hope volunteer and be a part of a great movement.

May you always be surrounded by the people you love.

Sincerely,

Joe

Click on the link to watch Alex’s story

http://www.11alive.com/news/article/235549/3/Disabled-student-sidelined-during-choral-performance

This is not only a beautiful sentiment but also a statement of fact.  WWP reminds us, whether we believe it or admit it, those in institutional care are forgotten Americans. They are forgotten whether they are Medicaid patients or men and women in veteran’s homes.

Thankfully the Wounded Warrior Project is fighting the good fight in raising awareness and money to keep those returning warriors who are severely injured in the community, with their families and, most importantly, out of an institution.

The question remains however, what about those who are not warriors? What about those who currently reside in institutions? What about those who may find themselves institutionalized in the not to distant future?  What about aging Veterans who live their remaining years in Veterans homes. These are Americans who are “casualties” of a different kind of war. These are, indeed, forgotten Americans and, sadly, main stream America doesn’t even realize it and, if they do, they refuse to recognize it.

Not long ago, I was invited to Lexington Kentucky to speak at a function hosted by “Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform.” Additionally, their President and Founder Bernie Vonderhyde, a remarkable senior and disabled advocate who himself is in his 80s, booked us as guests on two network affiliate news programs.

During one of the interviews and in response to a statement I had made the anchor asked, “These aren’t forgotten Americans are they?” I replied, ‘yes they are.’ “How can you say that? We haven’t forgotten our seniors,” she insisted.   Bernie chimed right in saying, “statistics show that 60% of people who are in institutional care facilities never receive a visit from anyone.” Needless to say she was astounded. Bernie continued to cite stats and expressed examples of a lonely existence experienced by most institutional patients.

This 80 something, well heeled, southern gentleman enlightened that young anchor, the viewers and, yes, even me.   He, like Wounded Warriors, reminds us that the fullness of our humanity cannot be nourished by four walls and a television set. His exuberance, his intellectual capacity and his zest for life reminded me that just because we grow old or become disabled does not mean we stop growing or wanting to experience life.

Can you imagine being institutionalized, receiving no, nada, nicht, non, zilch zero visits from family members, friends, relatives or, dare I say, church members. If that is not “forgotten” then I am not sure of its meaning.

That is why “choice” in Medicaid is so necessary. Choice will allow all Americans, like our Wounded Warriors, to continue to be a part of society; to continue to be relative; to continue to be meaningful by participating in life.

The Wounded Warrior Project is such a beautiful program whose mission is “to foster the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded service members in our nation’s history.” Through its very existence WWP reminds us that we need to not only care for the body but also care for the mind, the spirit and the soul.

This is not a mission that should be unique to WWP. It should be the mission of America for all Americans regardless of their age or level of disability. Our Wounded Warriors are just a blatant reminder that we need to open our minds and hearts to the needs of all our seniors and disabled brothers and sisters.

Thanks Bernie! Thanks Wounded Warrior Project!

Semper Fi

Joe

Visit Wounded Warriors at http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/

Visit Kentuckians for Nursing home reform at; http://www.kynursinghomereform.org/index.html

Regardless of your politics I believe we can provide a big boost to the economy through “Choice Centered Medicaid.” That is a Medicaid system that allows all patients and their families, despite the levels of care needed by the patient, to determine where they will receive their care in an institution, at home or some other community based location.

You see CCM works on the premise that if you open up the system it will create demand and that demand will create opportunity, or supply if you will, for employment. Supply and Demand; it’s so simple even a, home care cutting budget to balance the books,  governor can understand it.

Take for example my home state of Connecticut. Under Money Follows the Person (MFP), the program created because of my mom, the state is now bringing home 5000 people from institutional care facilities creating a savings to the state of $55M.
The state also announced that allowing 5000 people to come home is creating 6000 new private sector jobs. If we take those numbers and transpose them onto the national economy that means we could create, conservatively, 1.2 million new jobs assuming we allow 1 million patients to go home to their families. This number does not include the demand on the system by thousands of consumers who would have entered an institution but are now diverted to the community.

Most people in this country have been hoping that both parties could work together to solve many of today’s problems including the strenghtening of the jobs numbers. This is an opportunity for a melding of the two ideologies. This is an opportunity for Government to partner with businesses and families to provide services where people want them most…..in their own homes.

It empowers patients and families and it allows new opportunities in the job market. Case in point: Maria in New Haven Connecticut. Maria was working 3 jobs to make ends meet and then one faithful day her brother Hector, 19 years old, was in an auto accident. The accident left him unable to walk, talk and  with limited movement in his arms.

Because of the inspiration he provided in showing his wanting to live not just exist and the love she had for him she went back to school to be a Certified Nurse’s Assistant (CNA) and today she works for the company, hired by the state, to provide Hector with care. Oh, and by the way, Hector is one of her patients. All this because of Choice under Money Follows the Person.

As they used to say in my father’s old Italian neighborhood, “it’s a beautyful ting”

May the good Lord continue to bless and keep us and may He always allow us to be surrounded by the ones we love.

Joe Stango

Whether the argument is about the government, a political party or a religious institution and the roles they each play in our lives, we, as Americans, don’t like anyone telling us what to do. We are a people who want to be free to make our decisions based upon our own beliefs and our own conscience.

 Regardless of whether you or I agree with this premise is not the issue. The simple truth is it exists – period, end of sentence. Oddly, it exists within both major political parties but, perhaps, in different ways. One wants to do away with “big” government while the other wants to do away with “big” business. Republicans want to “get government off the back” of its people so that they can be free to go out into the world and do what they do best via a smaller, less intrusive government. Democrats, on the other hand, want to free us from the “injustice” that major institutions, secular or religious, seemingly “force” upon us. Wall Street or Wal-Mart, they rally against “big” corporations and the monopolizing affects they have on society. What I fail to understand however, is why neither the republican nor democratic argument seems to spread beyond the healthy and the young to the disabled and the aged.

Medicaid is a government sponsored “healthcare” program. For most seniors and disabled citizens, it is a government sponsored “long term care” program. I might add that it is the primary source for long term care services for all Americans – yet no Republican discusses getting the government off the “backs” of those affected by it. No Democrat talks about a woman’s “right to choose,” or for that matter, anyone else’s right to choose where the care is delivered. Neither party discusses the government sanctioned “monopoly” that exists because of Medicaid’s mandate that Medicaid health care services be delivered in an institutional setting rather than allowing consumers to choose for themselves where they will receive their care, in an institution or at home surrounded by their loved ones.

More disturbing to me is either side’s lack of outrage that government is intruding in the lives of its people resulting in parents losing their children, wives being separated from their husbands, and good Americans being taken from the community’s and church’s that they love.

Where is the justice department’s investigation of discrimination, disable-ism, disabled profiling and bias? Where are the politicians pounding the podium declaring to Americans that the questionable practices of this government, a government “of the people, by the people and for the people,” are wrong and that they must be changed? Where are the congressional committee hearings investigating why the government has suspended liberty and incarcerated fellow Americans against their will? Where is the senate finance hearing investigating why taxpayers are footing the higher costs for these practices when, with full knowledge, the committee knows community based care is less expensive? Where is the anger over the monopolistic tactics of the institutional care industry and their lobbyists? Where are the investigative reporters seeking answers as to why government has run amok or stories on corporate greed of institutional care providers?

Finally, and I speak with humnility and in the most solemn of tones, I ask where are our religious leaders to speak on the immorality of these government tactics? Where is our Reverend King to speak about the hope being denied our fellow Americans and their dream of freedom? Where is our Reverend Bonhoeffer – a Lutheran minister who, under the threat of the Nazi party in the 1930s simply distinguished for us “cheap grace from costly grace” teaching us that grace comes from more than a declaration of faith it comes from an adherence to the word particularly when in the presence of injustice?

Where are you America?

In this country we believe that freedom should be granted to all. However, there seems to be an unspoken caveat that says ‘freedom for all….unless you are disabled because of age or disease.’ Then, and only then, you must forfeit your freedom and let the government take over your life, taking you from your family, your community and your sense of purpose, robbing you of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It seems we have yet to acknowledge that we are all, including the aged and disabled, creatures of God who embrace our freedom with the hope of making a difference in the lives of others and discovering, despite our age or disability, what God’s plan is for us.

The Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr. taught us that; black or white, yellow or red Jew or Gentile, Catholic or Protestant, Republican or Democrat, Asian, Italian, Cuban, Irish or any other ethnicity represented in this country, we all dream the same dream – the dream of Freedom. As Americans we have yet to realize that just because we grow old or become disabled does not mean we cherish our freedom any less – in fact, I will argue, we cherish it even more.
As Reverend King once noted, “justice delayed is justice denied.” Under Medicaid we have denied freedom long enough. We have denied justice long enough. We have denied the “right to choose” to our seniors and our disabled brothers and sisters long enough.

It’s time to reunite individuals with their families, churches, communities and all whom they love; it’s time to bring hope where there is despair; it’s time to bring light where there is darkness; it is time to bring joy where there is sadness; it’s time to bring love where there is hatred and anger for a government that has forgotten its own people.

It’s time for Choice Centered Medicaid.

I pray that the good Lord will continue to bless and keep us all and that we will always be surrounded by those we love.

May His peace be with you always,
Joe Stango

Sadly, our “boots on the ground” seem to be divided as to which way to fight this injustice if at all.  Many believe that the system is changing albeit slowly, therefore we must continue to argue for more money and flexibility on the home care side.  Still others believe that we just need to be patient that change will come and that the Obama administration will change the system…..eventually.  Others continue to argue on behalf of their particular demographic leaving the rest of the disabled and senior community to hang in the balance.   However, as Reverend King pointed out…”Justice delayed is Justice denied” and in the case of many seniors and disabled any inevitable justice will be far to late to save them from the despair that our current system has brought to them.  We can change this by uniting for the greater cause and bring our arguements directly to the American people.  The American people are short tempered when it comes to injustice especially when it is an injustice put on upon our own citizens and, worse yet, at the hands of their own government which are sworn to uphold their liberty and freedom.

In the coming days I will outline some of the points of “war” being declared on our beloved senors and disabled.  Is it fair?  I will let you decide.

If you have a story about your state and how it is at war with the disabled I invite you to post a note on this blog.

Joe

http://www.dorashope.org/sign-the-petition-for-tara/

“ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203893404577098681919780636.html?KEYWORDS=paul+ryan

Why not “Choice” in MEDICAID so no one lose their freedom?  Choice in Medicare, as they proposed would allow all Medicare consumers a choice while at the same time cutting costs and saving money for the government.  If we had ”Choice Centered Medicaid” we could save $500M in combined states and federal budgets, create 1.2 million new jobs and reunite patients with their loved ones.   Please read “Locked Up By The Government”.  http://www.prweb.com/releases/Locked-Up/Medicaid/prweb8974572.htm