Come to the Capitol Thursday for Olmstead Hearing

Capitol Focus

By Steve Larson, The Arc Minnesota Senior Policy Director

On Thursday January 22nd at 12:45 p.m., the House Health and Human Services Finance Committee will hold a hearing on the Jensen Settlement and the Olmstead Plan in Room 200 of the State Office Building in St. Paul.  This will be a significant opportunity not only to highlight the benefits of the Olmstead Plan, but to also promote our legislative agenda which supports the Olmstead Plan in several key areas.

The Olmstead Plan vision is that Minnesotans with disabilities will have “the opportunity and freedom for meaningful choice, self-determination, and increased quality of life through: opportunities for economic self-sufficiency and employment options, choices of living location and situation, and the supports needed to allow for these choices.”  I refer to the Olmstead Plan as the voice of persons with disabilities.

This session we will work hard to move the Olmstead Plan…

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Are we who we used to be?

Kurtis Scaletta's Site

One idea that drives me as a writer for children is that our childhood experiences and decisions determine our character as adults. I think “experiences” is well treated in literature, which has drawn a lot from Freudian ideas about trauma and triggers, and adults as living late reactions to what happened to them as kids. Less often are adults seen as the consequences of decisions, and this is what I want to preach: that children are architects of their own destinies.

 

But what if it’s all wrong? We’ve so absolutely accepted this “child is the [parent] of the [adult]” theory that we don’t question it. It’s one of those rare ideological principles that seems across political and religious differences, we frequently opine (for example) that a privileged childhood can makes a political candidate unable to “connect” with “regular people.” We agree that an abused childhood fosters an abusive adulthood. We owe our own…

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Strategy as Leadership

Barataria - The work of Erik Hare

Leadership.  There has been a lot of talk about it lately, or more to the point the lack of it.  In common talk it is defined as “Doing or standing for the things I like” far more often than is useful.

There is a horrible lack of leadership everywhere in the developed world right now.  Can anyone name a powerful nation with good leadership?  Perhaps you can name a few businesses that have it, but not many.  How about social leadership? Religious leadership?  Are there more than a few people in rich nations anywhere who have a strong following that is capable of getting done what they want or need to?

Then again, the lack of leadership is hardly surprising.  It is not about a charismatic figure that molds the masses to action – it’s about getting things done.  That requires strategic thinking, and strategy is something horribly under-appreciated.  I might…

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