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Book club and meeting my legislator!
While you’re reading this, I will be meeting with a state representative in my home! It took months to set this meeting up. I’m hopeful I can articulate what I’d like to convey while representing the needs of the disabled community.
If Judy Heumann could do everything she did, this should be a piece of cake, right? I plan on focusing on the caregiver crisis, transportation, and access to healthcare.
Anything you would’ve addressed that I didn’t think of?
Who’s reading Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist with me? Surprisingly I’m enjoying it. Typically, an autobiography doesn’t piqué my interest. So far I’m through part one.
It amazes me how far we’ve come since Judy’s childhood, yet I can relate to many of her experiences. That tells me there’s more work to do. The candy store incident resonated with me as I had my own traumatic candy store situation. What do you think of the book so far?
Honestly, I can’t imagine advocating as Judy did. It’s not easy standing up for yourself in the face of adversity. In some of the circumstances Judy describes I would have folded for sure. Do you advocate for yourself and/or for others?
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5 Replies
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Oh shoot! I didn’t realize we were officially going forward with the book club. I haven’t read it yet. How did the meeting with your state representative go?
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Get reading girl! It is a pretty easy read, so I do recommend giving it a whirl. Are you an avid reader? If you are you’ll fly through it. Even if you aren’t I feel like it’s worth tackling.
My meeting with the legislator was…interesting. I have a vlog coming out where I express my thoughts. I wouldn’t necessarily say it was fruitful, but I’m glad I went out of my comfort zone to do it. Of course I’m rehashing it in my mind and thinking of 100 things I should’ve said. What issues would you have brought up?
I was disappointed to learn that my state passed the delivery tax I had heard rumblings about. Although there are exemptions, basically retailers have to pay a $0.50 fee on each transaction that is $100 or more. I’ll be curious to see if this fee gets passed on to the consumer. Does your state have anything like that?
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Same here! I haven’t started it because I didn’t know when the book club would be. I’m in the middle of a few other books right now, so I’m not sure when I’ll get to it.
I love the idea of a book club, but I would personally find it really helpful to have a set date, so I can give myself a deadline for reading the book. I think it would also help get a little more of a back and forth conversation going if we’re all reading at roughly the same time.
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I’m also interested in the book club. As it happens, I bought Judy Huemann’s autobiography and am part-way through it.
Is there a date set to discuss? Should we meet on Zoom? I could set up a room if people could indicate their time zone and preferred time to discuss the book – during the day, evening, morning etc.
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Thanks for the input! I apologize for not giving a better timeline. A video was supposed to go out inviting folks to read along with me for February but I don’t think it’s been posted yet either. Since it’s not really a time sensitive book, I do encourage anyone to read it when they get a chance. I’ll post more thoughts on the book in another week or so. You’re welcome to chime in on the discussions anytime.
Tracy, a Zoom meet is a fantastic idea. We’re working on getting approval to set something up. I’m not sure if it’ll happen, but we’ll keep you posted.
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