What about Death

I used to be afraid of death. Maybe, I still am. However, I accept and try to let go and surrender that when it is my time, I'm meant to join the universe, and grow as a soul and energetic being, since we are electrical as well as physical. We have electrical impulses that tell our muscles when and how to move and which ones, and neural pathways that fire and synapses that connect them, if I remember correctly through biology. I'm looking forward to stem cells, but why would we have energy medicine, if we were not energetic and electrical beings. Koraling Lynne By probing and asking questions, we can reflect on what is possible, not reject it out of hand.

Sweet Dreams

I just found out that my dad has to go into a sleep clinic. Why do so many people get diagnosed with sleep apnea? What could be causing that? He says he gets very tired. In the course of our conversation, he said my twin brother, Steven, who is brain-damaged and lives in a nursing home, and I had a "butler" (no, not a real one) but a table with two adjoining chairs. We would throw food at each other at two months. I was dad's baby to bottle-feed, and Steven was mom's to feed. How did they know the different cries? In the middle of the night, they had to figure it out, and it was "That's your baby." and by the cry they would get up and feed us. I had never heard that before. I told him I was writing about some childhood experiences, butdid not know about that. Koraling Lynne

Proving Myself

Maybe there should not just be mathematical proofs and theorems such as postulates in Geometry, but theorems, proofs and postulates just like Euclid's geometry for proving people are "unfit" or "incapable" or some other assessment. I am not a good test-taker, I admit, and I liked a more informal process of testing. Tests do not test intelligence, in my opinion. Using the peson's assessment, and not deciding for them, as I have said before, gives us dignity, empowerment and a sense of worthiness. We are less depressed if we work together on solutions and actions that actually work. People have to take a chance and realize that a whole market is being ignored, and the bottom would fall out if we hired all the smart, capable disabled people who have value and skills. Thanks. Koraling Lynne

Proving myself

Ever since I was a little girl, I was told that I had to be "better" than everyone else. I had to be "realistic." Taht was what the Vocational Rehabilitation Services told me, or the Rehabilitation Counseling Services (same agency, different name) tld me in the late 1960's when I took some library class for blindpeople. We had to take psychological tests either in person, or circle some tests in junior high which Sister Jean Marie from Lavelle School administerred. What does make blind people tick? I was told in junior high that no one would hire me. Wehad to be polite, upbeat, and grateful as blind people, and I was given a case in point by my Braille teacher. Someone was trying to help a blind man navigate in the snow or something, and he was rude. Well, that was my lesson. Don't be angry, bitter, or any of those negative emotions. Don't expect to work, either. Even my wonderful dad said he would not necessarily hire a disabled employee. No one has learned about us and our commitments, values and resourcefulness. You see, people with disabilities have to be resourceful to get their needs met.
We must change these pictures. Even though there are some people that "make it" and have loads of money and are unscathed, many people with disabilities and who are blind are thought of as "dependent" "worthy poor" "depressing." We have to jettison isolation, individuality, and closed-door condescension. Koraling Lynne

Keep commenting

Now, I feel like I am not here alone. That is terrific! We all need each other. We don't need each other in a needy way which people believe disabled people represent. We need people over and over again to show up for us and follow through. We need people to say what they mean, and speak about real things, and have warmth. We need people to enlose, comfort, reach out, draw us in, not repel, bombard us, or push away with deed or word. That is what people need, because we are social, not hermmitic. Koraling Lynne

Keep sharing

Welcome to Koraling Genius Consultants which will provide the maximum benefit to you, your customers, clients, and any organization, agency or business. We focus on coaching, counseling, consulting, communicating, coordination, mentoring to add value to your emotional, financial and physical bank account. As I have stressed, we have had a breakdown of communication, and people crave customer service and real human interaction, not some canned or frozen automated voice menu. I would enjoy partnering and networking with you for a win-win situation to explore these concepts together. There is no one who better understands multiple systems, and can support leaders than someone with a disability who has navigated multiple systems. I don't want to be arrogant, and want to deliver what you need. Koraling Lynne Thanks to Anonymous and Kitty and others who comment and post. I have not figured out how to reply to you. I have not figured out how to edit posts. We must support each other, and share our strengths, and minimize our weaknesses. Encouragement and positive support are much better than the negative energy.

finished with posting

Whew! I fixed all the drafts and published them. I have no more "drafts" and I never liked it when mom said it was "drafty." She got cold easily, and I do too. That's enough for now. I still do not know if one can edit comments. Koraling Lynne

Accessizing

As I've said before, the practice of opening up access for everyone to everyone and taking in the whole panorama of our lives should be accessizing. Our brain muscles should be exercised and not exorcised, even though others would like abracadabra or "poof" and out of sight, out of mind. (Smile). Koraling Lynne

catching up

I'd like to thank Steve whose link I'll try to past for resetting the captcha when I forgot my password last night. I had a wonderful to write this morning, but I cannot access it now in my brain. What a drag. As I wrote in one of my comments, I adore people and just want to wrap everyone around me. I care too much sometimes, and cannot be detached. Well, you know, it's just me being me. I cannot be anything else. I was thinking that I am on the train but on the wrong track, How can I get my life back? I don't want to be part of the pack, and I am tried of being in lack. If I am on the wrong track and the wrong train, I don't want to complain, I don't want people to think I'm insane, and I don't want to really complain. I don't want to be derailed. I want to blighly sail, I want to not always fail, and fill up the bucket and not a pail. I don't want to ever turn stale, I don't want to post other people's bail, and be so sad that I only wail, and I always want a dog to wag its tail.
I was thinking about that this morning. Whatever else I had brilliantly to say in the past two days has gone by the wayside. Sorry, blog family and friends. Koraling Lynne

Vulnerability

When we travel wit mobility, we cannot just walk around without paying attention and we use the sound of traffic or cues with our canes, or our dog's direction to help us know where we are going. We have to count the blocks, or know which direction to turn. If I walked a mile, I had to know when to turn or how to turn. We could ask questions, but I was always terrified about getting lost. It was easiest in New York. Hesper, my first dog guide, would but her head between people who formed a fence on the Manhattan street, and people would gasp when they felt that cold nose. Ragu was, by far, the best dog guide, who just was so fast and really good at her job. So, ask about mobility and how we navigate, (no we don't count steps). Sometimes, we use "sighted guide" and have to trust ourselves and our dogs. Trust is extremely hard for me. Maybe, it is because I did not have the bonding I needed. Thanks. Koraling Lynne

Questions or Answers

Ever since i was a little girl, I asked "Why?" I asked why, why, why, and always felt that questions were more important than the answers. Curiosity taught me things. I wanted to understand things, and if i heard a sound, I could not always detect it. The radiator would contract or expand, and it had musical sounds, which spooked me at night. I was alone in my room, and was a scared cat, and would roll over on my tummy with the radio by my bed so that I could hear another soud. Oh, the dulcet tones of Bob Fass on WBAI or listening to Bruce Solloway or Steve Post. The radio was my solace. I liked soaps on televsion, also, but, well, you know, I just listened and developed an imagination. Blind people can have an imagination, and can picture things. We know that people can be impatient with us. At least, we don't want to cause too much trouble. Again, if we are told we are selfish, pushy, loud, etc. we internalize these ideas. We can rarely know what to think since we count on others' perceptions to form our reality.After all, sighted people and older people must know more than we do. They have the "gift of sight." That is what is so disheartening about the 70% or more that are unemployed or under-employed, and whose skills are not rewarded or lauded. I really appreciate people stopping by. Koraling Lynne

What must be shared

Communication has been devalued in our society. Even though I think about tele-commuting as a way to communicate, face to face meeting is so much better and closeness is important. We have become a much more individualistic society. Again, what are the lives of disabled people worth? People try to imagine how I raised my son, and I relied on phone calling or asking people who I ran across or met at school, or wherever I was about doctors, or Day Care center possibilities, or looking into options. We all need to rely on others. I also listened to the radio. Radio was so much a part of blind people's lives, more than television. Koraling Lynne

Catching Up

Well, a message got saved as a draft, and I'll have to fix it later. Steve helped me fix the captcha, and I put ina poem. I have to find the drafts. They seem to be hidden right now. Koraling Lynne

DRAFTS AND LEARNING THE BLOG FEATURES

Well, for some it is Easter Sunday, for some of us it is nearing the end of Passover or Pesach with a guttural sound for the ch not like child but like "chameleon" but more from the throat. Anyway, reflecting on events from neighbors or whatever people don't have the tolerance for others' differences, I wonder why there is a practice of not understanding or loving one another. I am not speaking of a panacea, or Polyanna, or anything like that, but there is so much anger, blame, name-calling, it is time to draw the line, and say "enough!" I try to work things out with people, but sometimes one must assess the situation or the particular circumstance, or person. It always makes me sad when someone says whateverthey say.

Catching up

Steve's blog address is www.whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com

clarification

If we really listened to each other, and we did not shout at or browbeat each other, and we were slower at our communication, and did not judge, what would this world be? If we all defined our terms, wouldn't it be a different world? Is the world simple or complex? I contend that the world is a complext one, and not a simplistic one. Maybe, this is strange, but I always felt that you cannot predict people, hence, people cannot be put into a box, and aniled down. People are complex and multi-faceted. I have always been reflective. Maybe, because I am blind, I had more time for reading, listening to "talking books" which are recordings which looked like long-playing records at 33 and a third, plastic hard revolving things on turntables, and they were in cartons that had straps that I would open and listen to say, "A Wrinkle In Time" (what a great book) or "Saven Saphires" read by Burt Blackwell. This was before cassette recordings. I loved to read, and could get wrapped up in books. Koraling Lynne

Labelling

I was thinking about labels for disabled people. Are we depressing, (I was told that in 1983 when I was an intern for Clergy and Laity Concerned in Pasadena) or angry, bitter, courageous, inspiring, the "worthy poor" or pushy, immature, dependent, pitiful, or what? We have such a view of people that are disabled in media, social organizations, government, and all that that , in general, put us in this light. People are in general uncomfortable with us just as they are with homeless, poor, immigrants, orphans or foster children, or gay people. If I am called "professional" it is so I will be grateful and conform. As a disabled woman, I am supposed to be polite and grateful. I should be happy at whatever crumbs are given to us. When bombs are thrown at my stomach, and neighbors are harassing us, or people are too over-protective, or we are ignored or overly criticized or controlled, what does that say? I want to develop curriculum concerning institutional violence. Ms. Shannyn Moore questioned about my perception of institutional violence. It is organizations, governments, agencies and other people who act in a rigid manner with us and our issues. We need to be treated as humans, not as numbers or "cases." We do not need to be condescended to at arms' length. I have a passion for being treated well, and for treating others with respect. I cannto rescue and save everyone any more, though. I need to care for myself, and earn a living that is worthy of my intelligence and skills. I am not a robt, but a breathing, thinking human being. I know the difference between robots and humans. Koraling Lynne

Whose reality?

I was writing, and my screen reader stopped working. We'll try again.
For some it is Passover (Pesach in Hebrew) and for some Easter Sunday, and for some you choose to not celebrate in any particular way. The ch in Pesach is like chameleon not like child. It is more from the throat.
When people are unpredictable and they jump to conclusions, how can you help that situation? It is good if feedback can be given, but every situation must be diffused differently. Some people's anger must be diffused like a bomb, and sometimes I cannot assess the situation because I am so upset or wounded. I can't understand why I have become the fall-out from someone's barrel of their words. I am saying to just back off sometimes or walk away, because sometimes people are frightened of me just because I am blind or disabled. They may blame the dog, or noise from a radio or tape-recorder and I try to listen and figure out the underlying issue. I try to view people as complex and coming from their own perspective, but at times I cnanot be. I am not saying to be a Polyanna or phony, but I try to be an optimist and a lover of humankind. Koraling Lynne

What must be shared

It is good to smile and to laugh and to take pleasure from simple things and to notice the living planet, as many have observed. Knowing at least two people who have cancer, which itself is a billion/trillion dollar industry, how do we decide the best course of action, path or treatment? How is it when Dow Chemical produces the drug, but uses pollutants that hurt the environment that we can find the correct answers, when drugs suppress the very symptoms that help us know our bodies, and figure out the best course? How is it when information is suppressed thta we can figure out all the answers? How do we connect the dots? I don't mean the Braille-configured grid of six dots (two wide and three down) but I mean the dots of all the information that is out there or is not yet out there that we do not know. Access to information used to be a blind person's nightmare. Now, the internet has opened it up, but only when blind people have the access to websites and information that are not muddied by proprietary websites. Ther eare too many sighted people who try to control our way of thinking and decisions. Decision-making is an important skill to master. Problem-solving is taught in math, but is not taught in life. Critical thinking is also downplayed in our postmodern society. Intellect is elitism to many. However, I must surrender what I cannot change, and let go for my mental, emotional and physical health. Koraling Lynne

HELPING OTHERS

I have several friends, whether they are disabled or not disabled, who tell me that I lift them up or encourage them when I speak to them. This is so heartening, as long as they don't take me down to their level and cause me to drown also. It is easy to drown in our sorrows, but I believe we learn from every experience no matter what. I think it is funny, because I have been in the depths of doldrums and panic and fear and take things personally. I've gotten better at recognizing this, and I told people to let things go. I have cried a lot about people's perceptions of me, but it is them and their perception and not mine. I mean it's all well to accept responsibility as an individual, but not necessary to rescue and to be a martyr. Sometimes, in groups people feel as though no one is "doing their part" and they try to browbeat those persons. However, telling people they do something wrong instead of giving them feedback, and allowing them to respond is wrong-headed, in my opinion. Too many people are into power and control and authority. This is a social problem that must be remedied. One does not have to be a dictator in order to be a leader. Consensus-building is important, and informal methods of communication are important, but not if they are an undercurrent of what is not said, because people feel taht retaliation will occur if they say what needs to be said. For people with disabilities, we feel as if we are not heard, and we feel as if we are "put into our place" and then how do we express ourselves? I really want to help others, and help people feel empowered, if at all possible, and be feeling good without self-medicating or "zoning out" or using authoritarianism or power over those less fortunate to get their way. These are problems we allmust solve in terms of organizations and ways to structure governments, organizations, and other natural formations of human beings. We are not solitary, after all. We are social beings, from what i have read my whole life. We are homo sapiens. Thanks for reading. Koraling Lynne

PERCEPTION

I need to put links where I reference something. I'm sorry, because I want to attribute to the right source even if I truncate stories or posts. So, I still have a lot to learn about that and linking a particular to send to an e-mail or something like that, or from Facebook to this blog, or to Facebook or Twitter. I also want to learn how to post podcasts and videos. My goodness, there is a lot out there to talk about. I was on the elevator going downstairs from the Blogging class, and the other two sighted people did not realize we were going down, but we were going up. They could see if they wanted to, but they admitted that they were distracted by their sight and all the things around them. I am not usually as distracted. Quite interesting.

VALUE

I'm in my blogging class with Steve Aufrecht. I was wondering about "disposable people" and obselescence for consumer goods which are also disposable, and don't have the life they used to have with cheap products and plastics. No oversight is really effective on product despite the Consumer Product Safety Council recalls from time to time, and on a plane in the 1990's, two people in back of me said that people with disabilities in Russia were thought of as "throw-aways." Everyone wants to be valued as this has been said before. We have to rethink what and who is valuable, and who and what has priority? We have to care and really wonder about disposable people, and disposable corporations. Our society must change its priorities to save the planet, save our economy, save jobs, save the economic and emotional depression, and rethink empathy as I have mentioned and check some of the talks out at www.ted.org. Koraling Lynne

Sharpening memory for older people

I got this from the Higher Balance Institute site for members. This holds true for older people, but not just older people. This article says that older people are more uninhibited.
Time To Spring Clean ... Your Mind
Written by Ray Ross
Thursday, 21 April 2011 19:37
If you struggle to remember names and numbers or frequently fail to follow the plot of a film, help could be at hand.

Scientists say the problem is that you know too much – and you need to declutter, or spring-clean your mind.

HOW TO DECLUTTER YOUR MIND

Get a good night’s sleep
Take up meditation or yoga to calm the mind
Learn a language or musical instrument to keep the mind young
Do crossword puzzles to keep the brain active
Exercise for a healthy mind as well as a healthy body
Socialise to keep the mind sharp
This dovetails with an article that touts the value of learning a musical instrument as a child to help with the brain, and it may staveoff Alzheimer's. Because I played piano, violin and some guitar, something about learning instruments and playing them keeps the mind sharp. The longer you played an instrument, the better your memory will be. It is even good for older peopleto take up an instrument, to keep the mind sharp. Koraling Lynne

Vulnerability 3

Okay, there was a video on www.ted.org with Sam Richards I think, that was really great about seeing things from others' point of view. This man is a sociologist, anda he tries to have us view things from other points of view. By doing this, it again shows us what others may think and feel about us or that sort of thing. I remember years ago learning about "values clarification" which I thought was very innovative and interesting at the time. Anyway, interesting stuff, and if people could just imagine what a day with a blind person was like, would that not show them something about their own lives, or our own? Just asking. Thanks for reading. Koraling Lynne

Value

I worked on and finished my skills and saved the latest general resume in text, because my son does not have Microsoft Office. It's time for me to go to bed for now, but I want to show others I can help them in a way that will boost their bottom line, help their clients, customers, or Board members or even trustees. I know that by knowing that everyone has value, it will elevate everyone. It will help the tax base and will increase it if more disabled people are employed. Don't we deserve to have upward mobility? We deserve to improve our circumstances. We are not the "worthy poor" as the book "Blaming the Victim" mentioned in the 1980's when I earned 24 credits from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena. I had 24 units in "Human Development." Thanks. Koraling Lynne I read it for some class I was taking there.

How Much is Too Much

No one has really done a study as we said nearly ten years ago about how many disabled folks are in Alaska. In 2002, the number was at 29 thousand. ISER (the Institute for Social and Economic Research) might have committed themselves to a study, but disabled people are often under-reported about the statistics that concern us and implications of the economic, social, psychological, political, educational and family implications. What impact do our realities have? Because we are the only state in Region X not to have a separte agency for blind people, we do not prioritize educational and infant learning options for blind people. Braille is not as prioritized as it should be. Does itinerant teaching give the best teaching? How isolated are our blind children? How triply under-minded are the Native blind and visually-impaired youth? What supports are they given for college goals? One of the things I was told as a blind child was to have "realistic" goals. What is a "realistic" goal? That was never defined. Blindness is not looked as a favorable condition. If we are told that we will never find a job, or thought if a parent knew that we would be blind, they would not have had us, what sort of self-concept does that set up for the child? How can they ever feel they can be "good enough?" HOw can they prove themselves?
Many studies show that disabled people are "better" employees than their non-disabled counter-parts because they are more loyal to their employers, stay longer, and conform more also. That is because they probably conform more, as we are taught and I was taught to be polite, listen to authority, and not question anything or anyone. Of course, I have questioned things and been curious since I was a child. I still ask the "why" question all the time. That's enough for now. Enough of being left on the doorstep, as it were, and not using our skills, and not being productive, and not getting the assistance we deserve. As I have said, during any recession or depression, when people suffer, I am sorry for people. However, disabled people face a Depression or recession every day of our lives. We are de-valued and stepped on. We are walked over and past. We are the dregs of the societal coffee cup. We have an economic and emotional Depression. So, society must work on this with us together. We cannot solve this alone. Koraling Lynne

Skills I can offer people

I have been working on skills I possess and I do have skills I have used in computers/technology, such as recommendations for students as a mentor and Communications Instructor. I also was Accessibility Coordinator and wrote recommendations for pages on websites, web-based training for a pilot fora multi-media web-based training, and also evaluated a health website, and its pages as it was going online, and web-conferencing software. People lauded me for this.I also got high marks for improving the state of Alaska's website for the Alaska Legislature, and people at the Navy thought I knew quite a bit about computers also. I stil have skills to write about, and spoke about other skills and need to write about others I possess such as education, training, tutoring, counseling, public speaking, and being curious and inquisitive and wanting to keep learning and growing. Koraling Lynne

emotions?

Do blind people show appropriate emotions on our faces? If we have not seen emotion, how do we interpret others' emotions? We listen to inflection, intonation, and cadence and pauses. I can tell if someone has their head down, because they sound muffled. Again, we are more resourceful, and we have to be problem-solvers. People with physical disabilities seem to have better attendance records at their jobs, and are more loyal to them, maybe because of our conformist nature, about not asking questions, and being followers, and believing what people say. Many of us believe that sighted people must know better, since they act as if they do. I vacillate between being gullible and being skeptical and mistrustful. As I discussed here before, trust and vulnerability are difficult for me, since by the very nature of being a woman, blind and Jewish, I am vulnerable according to society. I am not vulnerable, however, in the emotional sense. Being vulnerable means you are pretty unscathed and have had a safe life, where everything was gong correctly, and there were no barriers. Barriers do not stop us. We just have to figure out how to work around them. Koraling Lynne

Emotions?

I read a post on the Higher Balance membership site, so-called or those who opted in to the forum site, and there was a blog post about laughing and crying and its benefits. See below:
Health benefits of Crying and Laughing Hi guys. I came across this the other day as I decided for giggles to search "why do we cry?" Interestingly enough, I came across this study: Why we laugh and cry by Wendy Norlund ________________ As humans we laugh and cry, but seldom do we question how, or why. There are many processes involved in both responses. Cultures around the world allow both crying and laughing as acceptable behaviors. With crying, as well as laughter, the body goes through physical or chemical changes. Crying and laughter are beneficial to us both emotionally and physically. We must have them to function in the world. Crying is a more complicated process than one would at first imagine. First of all, there are really three different types of tears. Basal tears keep our eyes lubricated constantly. Reflex tears are produced when our eyes get irritated, like with onions or when something gets into our eyes. The third kind of tear is produced when the body reacts emotionally to something. Each type of tear contains different amounts of chemical proteins and hormones. Scientists have discovered that the emotional tears contain higher levels of manganese and the hormone prolactin, and this contributes in a reduction of both of these in the body; thus helping to keep depression away. Many people have found that crying actually calms them after being upset, and this is in part due to the chemicals and hormones that are released in the tears. How then actually do we cry? The psychic tears (or emotional tears) require an emotional response, or trigger to be activated. This response can be caused by an outside source, either pain or loss of love, etc., or from an inside source (self-realization of one's life and others). When emotions affect us, the nervous system stimulates the cranial nerve, in the brain and this sends signals to the neurotransmitters to the tear glands. Thus, we cry .The largest tear gland, the lacrimal gland produces the tears of emotion and reflex. Many believe that the body, in times of emotional stress, depends on this gland to release excess amounts of chemicals and hormones, returning it to a stable state. There are many culturally acceptable reasons to cry in society .The first accepted reason to cry is probably death. Grieving includes crying and often times it was believed that if someone did not cry, they would suffer physically because they did not release their pain. Experiences in life and love are other reasons society allows us to cry. Women have been allowed to cry more than men traditionally, but the benefits of crying seem to suggest that men need to cry more. Cultures around the world have crying out of obligation, for show, and for grief and pain. Each culture defines where and when it is acceptable to cry. Cultures, in some parts of the world, sometimes determine the length of crying and mourning. For example, in the Zuni culture, a chief allows the mourners of the dead to cry for four days after which the chief says that the death occurred four years ago, and now the mourning may end. As well as with crying, laughter is also acceptable culturally for a variety of reasons. Often, just because of where a person lives, something may be funny and make them laugh. It may not be funny anywhere else in the world. Also, their culture and community may dictate what is appropriate to laugh at and what is not. People have often said, "Laughter is the best medicine," and they may not be too far from the truth. When we laugh, the body makes facial gestures and sounds. The body relaxes during laughter. The diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg and back muscles all get a workout. Scientists have found that laughing one hundred times is equal to a ten-minute workout on a rowing machine, or fifteen minutes on an exercise bike. Laughter helps promote healing in the body by lowering blood pressure and increasing blood flow. When we laugh, the production of T -cells that destroy tumors and viruses increase, and more Gamma interferon (which is a disease fighting protein) is released. Laughter has been found to reduce the amount of stress hormones and help us cope with our lives better. When others laugh, sometimes the laughter can be contagious. Everyone around them starts to laugh. Some people, when stressed or upset, go to a funny movie or a comedy club hoping to laugh all of their negative emotions away. There is a special name for the physiological study of laughter. It is called Gelotology. Scientists have discovered that within four- tenths of a second of seeing something humorous, an electrical wave moved through the cerebral cortex of the brain. If the wave took a negative charge, there was laughter. Many areas of the brain are involved in making us laugh. The emotional, the intellectual, and the sensory processing parts of our brain all playa role in stimulating the motor sections of our brain to physically make us laugh. Researchers have found that laughter is used in making and strengthening our connections with each other. People that are more dominant, like a boss or head of a family, for example, use more humor than others around them. Laughter becomes away to show power over the emotional climate of the group. When someone is embarrassed or threatened, laughter can defuse the situation by deflecting the anger and accepting humiliation. We need both laughter and tears to help us function in society. Crying relieves stress, reduces hormone and chemical levels in the body, and helps us return to a calm state. Laughter relieves stress, stimulates healing, exercises certain parts of the body, and helps in human bonding. That is why crying and laughing are beneficial to us both emotionally and physically. _________ Sources of this study: 1."A Big Mystery: Why do we laugh?" 27 May 1999. 2. Frey, William H. II. Ph.D. Crying: The Mystery of Tears. Minnesota: Winston Press, 1985. 3. Greig, John Young Thomson M.A. The Psychology of Laughter and Comedy. New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1969. 4. "How Laughter Works." 13 April 2000. 5. Lutz, Tom. Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999. 6. Moody, Raymond A. Jr., ., M.D. Laugh after Laugh. Florida: Headwaters Press, 1978. 7. "Why we laugh."12 March 2000.

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Keerin de Wet (who is the author) My friend (this is Lynne speaking) said yesterday that I have always asked many questions and sought out information that intrigues me, and wet my whistle on information that I found useful about allergies, asthma, emotions, homeopathy, herbs, nutrition, relationships, spiritual topics, why this or that or the other, and have been that way all my life, curious, she said is what she called it. You see, I believe we are complex, and not simple. I believe that pepole are contradictory, and not predictable. Koraling Lynne Koraling Genius Consultants Is this because of blindness or quirk of nature and culture? Is it nature or nurture? These concepts have been argued for many years. Koraling Lynne Thanks so much for reading.

Accessizing

What would it be like if everyone was valued for their talents and value? When I think about people and their broken lives, and when I know they have been told that they shouldn't have been born like someone I heard about as a teen-ager and young adult, or they they were "crazy" and "stupid" etc. This is, in my view, passed down and passed down and we have not set up an immunity to this when we are young and vulnerable and a sponge. Koraling Genius Consultants Koraling Lynne

REALITY

Iris is in our eyes, the camera people see things with, but seeing can be deceiving, can't it? Or is it always right? If we cannot see it because it is microscopic, then is it still there? Only microscopes, telescopes, or even binoculars or equipment not available when I was growing up would need to view nanotechnology now. Dad would give me binoculars with dance troupes thinking maybe I could see something maybe dots or something or some movement. This was when I was growing up. How do we know what our perceptions are? And how do we interpret them, or tag them? Who first tags things for us? An iris can be in our eye or a beautiful flower opening up to the sunlight.
What is reality and what is creativity? People in differnet cultures interpret realith or their world differently. That is why we call our view of the world "blind culture." But we are not all the same. There are things we might have in common, but not everything. We may diverge on many aspects of life and meaning.
I would like to accessize the world, and accessibize the computer so that access is there for everyone. Thanks. Koraling Lynne Koraling Genius Consultants

reality

I believe I created my own reality. It was a protecting or it was tagging and making sense of my reality. How could I know what it was since I could not see or verify it? I not only felt different--I felt crazy. I could not seem to convince people of my views. I alwyas asked questions, and always believed the questions were more important than the answers. I had an internal sense, since I was not distracted by what I could not see around me. I had a highly developed inner conversation and perception. I can see pictures in my mind, even though I cannot "see" them with the naked eye. I could imagine, and play with blocks, marbles, and listen to them or imagined them as people, and the different designs on the marbles would be Carol, or Barbara, or Joanne. I was creative and imaginative. Sounds had an eerie effect on me, since I could not always detect their source. I would lie on my bed and turn on my stomach when it was quiet in the middle of the night and I had the pipes contracting and expanding with the radiator in the house. I would turn on a transistor radio to drown out the sounds.
Getting back to the collective, and how we influence each other, and we are evolving, as the planet is a living planet, we must find a way to respect each other's views. Humans are complex. Many times, humans vacillate between arrogance and ignorance. We have to work with others to solve the world's problems. By working and building consensus, we can come to agreements, instead of individually trying to solve problems. Thoughts can be dangerous, because they cause us to come to false conclusions, or cause us to fear thoughts that may differ from our own. Then we label those differences as crazy, or we have to put people into mental hospitals, or we put people in prisons, especially women and so-called minorities. However, women are not really a minority, but we are subjugated none the less. We allow ourselves to be dictated to. I am not a dictaphone. I don't have to believe the recordings I received from the prevailing society. Yes, I am different, but difference is not dangerous. If we are different, and do not conform, we are locked into prisons, either jails or mental hospitals or asylums, to separate people with leprosy when Thomas Mann wrote about separating people, because of fear. Anyway, I have always felt as if I was different and had different ideas, and I thought it was because I was blind, So, I have created my own alternate reality. I would love to correspond or dialog with all of you reading and following my site. Mhy computer is having some issues, asthey are wont to do, so I have to back everything up, and have someone do some diagnostic work on it. It all goes back to trusting ourselves. If we don't trust ourselves, we cannot trust any one else. Koraling Lynne

WORKING TOGETHER

Blind Vine on ACB radio (American Council of the
Blind) at www.acbradio.org had an audio of the opening of the Ed Roberts campus on top of a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train station in Berkeley, California. It is so exciting to see that this campus has opened last Saturday which was the ribbon-cutting. It is wonderful when all disabilities can work together. Though we have had differences with independent living and the movement as blindpeople, the American Council of the Blind has always sought collaboration and convergence whenever possible. That is why I love partnering with other groups for the benefit of all. Only if we build each other up, will we gain and grow together. Coordinating together is paramount to reaching our goals. "Divide and conquer rarely gets it done, and only works, in my opinion, for the few and not the many. Love, cooperation, and communication must be paramount. Congratulations to Berkeley, California for being a model to the nation. Congratulations to Representative Barbara Lee, the BART officials, the Berkeley officials, and Senator Barbara Boxer. Disability is not a Republican or Democratic issue, it effects everyone of all incomes, races, nationalities, religions, sexual preferences, and ethnicities. Koraling Lynne

PERSPECTIVE

I was speaking to my former partner, who is my son's father and because he has lived in various Latin American countries, he believes that financial issues that cause crash are worth working out. He mentioned a great book on the perspective of the financial systems and we need to think about non-ideological systems, since many have been derived from hundreds of years back, and do not represent actual applications or our modern society. As a matter of fact, the wole idea of a "postmodern" society which has been discussed in philosophy is definitely interesting since theory does not always inform practice. A formal and idealized system does not take into account the various human factors, which are imperfect. It does not take into account people's deeply-seated fear of "the other" or "the unknown" and there are many complexities of modern society. People's need to understand circumstances and their need to have stability and control and to control their own destiny, while needing to have authority is a problem. We are a bundle of contradictions. This brings me back to the problem of vulnerability, shame and trust. Our connectedness has been broken because of the mobility of people moving, and even though we had the frontier and mobility, today, people are more uncertain about their future, at least the majority of the populace seems to be. We do not feel loving, or generous, because we hvae concern for ourselves, and we seek salvation in religious dogma. It is comforting for many, and yet many of us are seekers. There is so much that is not known, and we have no way to process all these uncertainties, and so people who are different, beit disabled people, Islamists, gay and lesbian people, confound us and fear us, and we are basically hearkening back to tribalism. Anyway, just my thoughts, but they belong to me, and I would enjoy hearing your perspective. I want to move the discourse forward. Koraling Llynne

How do we perceive things

People wonder how blind people dream. I don't dream as much as I used to when I was younger, but we dream with the same level we could take in information in our daily life. Since I cannot see, I don't see colors or the panorama of visual stimuli, but I hear, think, imagine, and things still happen with voice or movement, or other sense. I don't know how I move around in dreams, but I have a good imagination, and I do think I am pretty intuitive. One of the often-held myths is that we tend to improve our other senses. I have pernicious allergies so that is not true for me. I really like people. I realized that when I was taking the bus and trolley in San Diego recently. Public transportation is not as good here, because of our thin tax base and lack of infrastructure. Koraling Lynne

Reflection

When people have trouble communicating, mediation works and I have always been interested in conflict resolution. Though the IQ (Intelligence Quotient) has been used to mark people's aptitude and fitness for moving forward in life, I have found that what has been tagged as EQ the "emotional quotient" is at least as important. In Public Administration classes, one of the books we read was Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. I recognized the name because I read "Psychology Today" in Braille, and he was a frequent contributor. Today, I was watching old television shows such as "The Patty Duke Show" and "Leave it to Beaver" and how interesting that decades later one can remember some of the actors like Jerry Matthers. How sad it is for many young actors, who are forced to grow old before their time. Just some random thoughts. Nothing is more important than our seeking ways to work together and communicate. To be happy and rewarded, we need to be utilizing our skills to serve people. Caring about people and their welfare and all our welfare is so important, and helping people with a hand up is important. We don't want a hand-out, but a way to contribute and be part of the flow of society and not be part of a parched land, but to be in the mainstream. I know so many smart blind people who are on fixed incomes, and yet they have skills, if they were used, would contribute so much to the tax base and to their overall well-being. Koraling Lynne

clarification

I want to tell you a bit about my qualifications. I have been speaking publicly since I was a teen-ager, when my dad took me to speak to student nurses. I have a passion for seeking new solutions to old problems, or at least to seek multiple methods of communication to work out situations. Though, I might "rant" or give my years of perspective about our value as people, (whetehr we are disabled or not) I would contract concerning web accessibility evaluations as a user and not a techie, and started on an Apple 2C computer in around 1987, and e-mail using Pine and Lynx in 1995, and then migrated to Windows 95, perhaps in 1999. I taught assistive technology, which includes auxiliary devices such as this screen reader which speaks to me in a synthesized voice (JAWS which stands for Job Access with Speech) and worked with another called Window-Eyes, and another company which produces System Access. I have used some PowerPoint, and created one for my final "Capstone" (project for the master's in Public Administration) and a little about Excel, and Microsoft Word, Outlook Express and Microsoft Outlook. I have helped evaluate web-based training evaluations, website recommendations, and web conferencing software. None of the web conferencing software can deal with dynamic properties such as the chat, which does not buffer and refresh, and though Adobe Connect was the best, the chat was less than laudable. They did not say there would be major improvements on this either. I attended a workshop about this very topic at the International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference in San Diego from arch 14-19 at one of the schools of which I have attended which is CSUN, California State University Northridge. I attained my social work degree at University of Southern California. During a keynote presentation yesterday, two people from Hope Community Resources in Anchorage spoke about wellness for employees. While I did not hear the whole discussion, I was glad to hear them speak about Employee Assistance Programs since because my emphasis was in Industrial Social Work, workplace balance and Employee Assistance Programs and Organizational Development were the topics that were at the core of that emphasis. Wellness was not about health wellness, as far as I could see, and it is necessary for all of us to define terms so that everyone is on the same page when discussing ideas and solving problems. I have been conducting training on topics ranging from blindness-specific psychology or "what tips and tricks we use from low-tech to high-tech" and bringing long canes and blindfolded FAA personnel. I also trained students in understanding social work values, and trained folks on the Americans with Disabilities Act, and trained with curriculum that empowers people with information about risks of interpersonal violence. I had a small hand in writing some curriculum for service providers, but the training I delivered was entitled Alaskans Speak Up! produced by the Center for Human Development which is part of the University of Alaska, Anchorage. I have coordinated conferences, and partnered with agencies to get a transportation expert here last year who sppoke at three conferences. Much of my time has been in volunteering, especially for the conference for Alaska Independent Blind, an affiliate of American Council of the Blind, which is a blindness-centered advocacy organization. Because I have a mother with dementia, a twin brother with brain damage, and had two grandmothers with forms of so-called mental illness, I have a feel for all disabled people. I was co-chair of a Speakers' Bureau many years ago, and spoke about disabilities on panels for private, state and national audiences. I really enjoy team-work, and working with people, and really enjoyed being a program analysts for the Department of the Navy Comprehensive Casualty Care Working Group in Arlington, Virginia for the Navy Annex under the Workforce Recruitment Program. The people there were wonderful, and I chose that position because my mother had been newly diagnosed with dementia, and I had the chance to visit my parents once a month in New York. I must have known that would be the last summer she would be living at home full-time, and the last time they would be living in New York half the year. I am a professional person, but want this to be a multi-faceted blog. I hope this meets the needs of many people, not the least of which is contracting and consulting with as many people as possible. I hope if you don't like something I'm saying, please let me know. If I can help you, that would be wonderful. I like win-win, cooperative, respectful situations. I have a sincere interest in people, and I prefer the big picture and not the small picture. I have done some mentoring with a blind youngster, and would not mind doing more of that. I have many skills, and it is not whining to explain taht blind people are unemployed or not employed to their skills and abilities at more than 70%, even though the numbers are not certain. With two master's degrees, I do hope that people will notice my diverse skills and utilize to help you or your organization. Koraling Lynne

Paratransit

I received a follow-up call. The Contract Administrator clarified that if a rider is chronically using the service as a taxi, then it will count against them. If it is not used very often, and rarely, then the Municipality of Anchorage will look at the late cancels every day and assess them according to the person. Thank you, Susan Shiffer for responding. Still we must have a dialog about policies so that they can work for everyone. We also need to make sure that public hearings occur (which they do) and that the public is giving input. Koraling Lynne

Who has value

Okay, it's Wednesday. Just to give you a snapshot about what is called paratransit, it's a side-by-side program for those with disabilities and door to door service aligning with the fixed-route (bus) system. I try to schedule rides for pick-up, but not always do I know how long an appointment will take. Picture this. How long do you want to wait? As it is, I like to do my thing, and I used to take buses and subways in New York, and I had an appointment with a person working at Access Alaska, a non-profit known as an Independent Living Center. When I know how to define terms, I will do so for your benefit. I was working with the ADA Partners' Project Coordinator, David Barton, who is a wonderful person, as we were working on a presentation concerning hidden disabilities. ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act in this context. The CD was a training curriculum from Cornell University which has revamped disability awareness and ADA training more about resistance to implementing the five titles, and concentrating on attitudinal barriers which is what blind people focus on. I was finished in working out what topics and slides I would present and in short order, but did not have a bus scheduled for about two hours. It is called a "bus" but it is more like a say perhpas twelve-person bus with places for pedestrians and wheelchair spaces which are secured for safety. I did receive an earlier ride, but I get "docked" because I took an earlier ride, which they did not have to grant me, according to them, and therefore, I have a point against me. The contractor does not make the rules. The Municipality of Anchorage does. Why do they count our lives as so much less important than theirs? None of them would tolerate the wait times we have to be grateful for having these rides. Why make it a punitive process? We should just take it, and be meek, and subservient, that's all there is to it. Nevertheless, it was a great appointment, and though the CD was not terribly accessible, and it kept freezing Windows Explorer, I did save the text into Microsoft Word, and could read the items for the presentation at the two-day conference entitled "Full Lives" at the Sheraton tomorrow and Friday. I have presented at this conference at a couple of other occasions. One time, I presented by video tape when Daniel Sparks videotaped me about "Etiquette for Service Providers" in 2005, I think, and I was away at a workshop. Last year, I was part of a couple of workshops on disabilities and domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking as a panelist. This is presented by AADSC which caters to direct service providers and also for people who work at Center for Human Development which is part of the University of Alaska, Anchorage, a UCEDD. That stands for a University Center on Excellence on Developmental Disabilities. I hope that is correct. I was an AmeriCorps member there as an Accessibility Coordinator and also conducted trainings and attended some wonderful trainings as well.

Thank you so much for commenting on my blog. I love to train, and I love people. I just want people to have value and to be respected. Where is the discourse we so need in this day and age? Koraling Lynne

Who has value

Okay, I think I can write now. I changed the settings, so there is no longer transliterations. Took a while, but I knew there had to be a way to change it. Thanks for posting to my blog. I can offer web accessibility evaluations, Americans with Disabilities Act training, mentoring, allowing peopel to see their own value, and a workshop I entitled "Interdependence vs. Independence.: For people with disabilities, we have a recession or depression every day of our lives and no matter that we have degrees, people cannot notice our capabilities. Take care.

DRAFTS AND LEARNING THE BLOG FEATURES

I'm looking over drafts and cleaning up my blog messages. Hopefully, I'm not repeating myself as a "Professional." What does "Professional" or "expert" or "expertise" mean, denote, connote or bring to your mind? I want this to be a site where everyone can grow, learn and converse. However, many sites which I could promote and let people know about this site are not accessible or not intuitive enough to post or reply. Anyone who has any ideas about accessibility of these other blogs, and who could give me a hand, or I could help in accessibilitizing their site, let me know. Sincerely, Koraling Lynne

Vulnerability

If people don't want to share their feelings, do they use drugs, food, alcohol or whatever substance or process or obsession OCD, for instance, (obsessive/compulsive disorder) or other labelling condition to drown out their thoughts or sadness or hopelessness? Is there a way to be close to people without using these devices or mechanisms? Koraling Lynne

vulnerability

I was writing yesterday about trust. How can someone be whole-hearted and trust when we have been pushed back, told that we must be grateful, and told to be polite and conform, molded into societal clay? If we speak up we got told to be quiet. We need a hand up, how can we learn about what we really think? How can we form ideas? If we have been raped (which is a crime of violence) or neglected, or intimidated in any way, we have fear that is written all over our countenance because of how we are treated. Trust is built on acceptance, vulnerability presupposes trust, and many of us have not been accepted. So to be vulnerable, one must trust their family, peers, or other adults, and if we are told that we can never measure up, and that everyone is doing us a favor, and that we should be grateful, how do we develop the kind of concept we need to develop? When we are premature, and were not nurtured during the first two months of life, we miss the affection connection, the touch? If anyone has studied the cloth monkeys vs. the iron monkeys, you can see what happens if you don't have another human loving us instead of being in an isolette or incubator. Any thoughts? Thanks. Koraling Lynneदेसिड़े व्हेन तो दिस्क्लोसे और नोट दिस्क्लोसे पेनफुल सुब्जेक्ट्स? इस तेरे अ टाइम व्हेनOkay, hope I can send this? व

vulnerability

It is Saturday again, on the 16 of April, and still listening to the repeat of last Saturday's program. It's been a week since posting my first post, and is it not "professional" enough? Chris Gray, former President of American Council of the Blind has ten blogs on www.bayareadigital.com, his company or business. Still thinking about closeness versus pushing people way metaphorically or literally. Last week, I said this: I was just listening to a program that i have access to on the internet from a Chicago radio station which is unique in that they are non-profit and they only read advertising or commercials that they themselves read. They are classical, vocal music as well, and also folk music on Saturday nights.
Do we all have demons? Do we shut them off with overeating, addictions, whether to movies, eating, drinking, drugs, sleeping, depression, whatever our mode of coping is? We have so much labelling obsessive/compulsive disorder, and we give drugs for problems that are built of isolation, loneliness and being dis-connected. I mention this because it was about 36 years ago since Phil Ochs hung himself, a noted protest folk singer of the 1960's. He wrote such wonderful songs as "Cops of the World" and "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends" about the Kitty Genovese case (not sure of the spelling any more) because I had to write a story when I was about thirteen about public apathy which that represented. People locked their doors and everyone thought the next person would help when she was being strangled or raped or killed. Was it a comment on our society that no one cared about and for each other any more? The folk music show had just gone to a screening to a film about Phil Ochs, so they were discussing how he died too soon. Again, Phil Ochs, a 1960's folk singer committed suicide April 9, 1976, and I went to his five-hour tribute concert, and I remember it was a night can't remember when but Oscar Brand, Melanie, Sonny Terry and brownie McGee and Happy Traum and so many ohters in New York were there, and I was expressing milk for my baby, and I was leaking, not because I was expressing milk at the time, but I was leaking because he was still being breast-fed. What a waste. What would Phil think today? He could not take that things were a little dormant in the mid-1970's, the Vietnam war was over, he was divorced, and he hung himself. How sad. My husband said he is too much a coward to do it. I do understand that if you have enough pain, there is a possible reason for it. Phil hung himself, I believe. He did not know how many people he affected, and how mny people really really cared about him. When I feel as a disabled person as if I'm a throw-away or out of the mainstream and stagnant and fetid, I have to remind myself not to feel panicked, and know I have so much to share with others. I have degrees in social work (industrial social work) and public administration (policy analysis). I would rather be an optimist, but that is hard sometimes. So, demons and vulnerability. I have a passion for providing training on interpersonal violence, addiction and disability. There is so much addiction in the disability community. People are afraid of us, or they think we are possessing magical powers. Thanks for reading. Koraling Lynne Are labels educational or do they put us into boxes? Koraling Lynne

Websites

Websites have to be labelled correctly, and Flash is sometimes the worst. One cannot fix this once a flash item is on a website or message, and this along with certain Ajax applications and some that run in the program and pages that refresh are problematic. Most chat rooms are not accesible either. So, what can we do? There are resources but it is good to have a plan for making sure your website is accessible which will be required by the Americans with Disabilities Act soon. Anyway, I am a user who has provided many evaluations and suggestions. Corporations can receive federal tax credits if they have a profit motive. Non-profits do not have the same credits, unfortunately, and government is subject to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. There are many 508 compliance officers in the government.

Vulnerability

I watched a video by a researcher and social worker who realized that happiness relies on people being connected and "whole-hearted." I saw this on a site that I am on which has great scientific, higher consciousness and great information to reflect on entitledHigher Balance Institute. If I knew how to put that video on here, I would do it, so as soon as I learn, it will be there. I realize that vulnerability is part of the problem with people's acceptance on an organic level of people with disabilities. I mean their brain does not learn about things that go wrong, and they are shooed away from asking questions when they are younger, so differences are scary to most young children. What a profound thing. Our inability to get close and to understand ambiguity and the search for meaning without certainty, and to embrace change and whole-heartedness and passion, (which is me) is paramount. When I was a teen-ager, and I would hug people, I was called "flirtatious" because "normal" people did not get that enthusiastic. People label what they do not understand, isn't that interesting? Yes, they label it, and then they judge it and separate from it. Hmm. It's the fear of being vulnerable and becoming out of control. Fantastic!

WORKING TOGETHER

I believe we should work together whenever we can as disabled people, or if we see commonalities with poor people, or any other grouping of people. If wesee that our issues align, whether it be with whoever, and not label, then we should reac out our hands and join together. I was able to join with other Independent Living Centers in 2002 when we worked on our accessible voting bill for Alaska. We worked with legislative staffers, the Division of Elections, voting machine manufactureres, and other interested people to get the bill passed unanimously by Alaska's House and Senate. HB 320 and SB 258 with Representative Joe Green and Senator Loren Leman was where everyone could agree about privacy and accessibility of voting machines. However, times change, and we did not realize the problems with verifiability and replicability and redundancy which is so important in computer systems as I learned in a class entitled Information Technology for Public Administrators. Thanks. Koraling Lynne

How do we learn to communicate

There are two kinds of blind people. "Congenitally" blind (that's me and many others born in the 1940's through today, I guess) and adventitiously blind people who were blind due to degenerative disease or onset of blindness in later life, whether it be retinitis pigmentosa, (although some people acquire this at a younger age) or diabetic retinopathy, or glaucoma or cataracts. Cataracts were a seconary characteristic of my "retinopathy of prematurity" which was entitled RLF which I cannot spell but one can probably look up. There is still controversy concerning whether the oxygen in the "isolettes" or incubators or the bright lights (maybe fluorescent) were to blame. I was only two and a half pounds, and my twin was two pounds in June, 1952. Anyway, that's enough for now.

New blogger and I'm excited!

I have a passion for so many things, but don't like to be pigeon-holed. This is not a health, higher consciousness, political, or communication and respect or religious site, or movie site, or disability site or music site, though this blog might speak and challenge any and all assumptions. It is not a memoir or family site, or articles site, but I hope to provide web accessibility, consulting, mentoring, coaching, counseling, and good listening and support for people. I also want to know what others are interested in. I accept all comers, so jump on in, the water's fine. The water may be cold, but the air will be refreshing and will move the polluters of today's disrespectful discourse. I was born in New York, came to Los Angeles, and now live in Alaska. I am married with one son. I live in Anchorage. I love people, and I am an extravert, and I am energized by people.

New blogger and I'm excited!

As a blind person, I have wanted to start blogging for nearly three years. I want to thank Steve for encouraging me to move past the barriers, and Google for providing a voice phone verification instead of a captcha.

Welcome to my blog. I'm excited!

My business is Koraling Genius Consultants. It is about utilizing others' genius and my own genius and creating great things together by collaborating, coordinating, and communicating. I can consult, coach, counsel on web access evaluations by accessibilitizing your site, or giving you direction or tips about it as a user, give workshops from the person-centered point of view about the Americans with Disabilities Act and why it helps everyone to understand and implement its titles and attitudes. I can also train on how to treat each other respectfully since I was trained by SafePlace which is in Austin, Texas with a curriculum on "End the Violence, Break the Silence" concerning domestic violence, sexual assault and how to train about understanding how to recognize, respond and resist situations that would put disabled people at increased risk. I was the only Alaskan to be invited to this training which invited three national groups to receive training, and present it to others. In Alaska, the Center for Human Development designed a curriculum with different stakeholders which I wasinvolved with assisting, and I have trained with their curriculum. I have also been trained in the 1980's for a hotline and for two weekends at Haven House in Pasadena. I also have devised a training entitled "Interdependence vs. Independence" which received high marks. Thanks. Koraling Lynne