Oct 12, 1948–May 3, 2022
“If I am not for myself,
who will be for me?
And, if I am only for myself,
what am I?
And if not now,
when?”
–Hillel, the great sage.
Featured
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LSD Goddess Joanna Harcourt-Smith
Timothy Leary wrote me from his jail cell. The adjoining cell contained Charles Manson. Shortly after I received the letter, I visited Timothy next to the vending machines. I had spent months squiring around the beautiful, French speaking socialite Joanna Harcourt-Smith who was next to Timothy in Kabul, Afghanistan when G.Gordon Liddy, on urgent orders from Richard Nixon, arrested Timothy. I regarded the interview as one last chance for Timothy to demonstrate that he was not a total and complete horse’s ass. The only reason I had stayed around the Leary entourage was Joanna with whom I was head over heals in love. Joanna and I had made love while peaking on Owsley’s LSD. After that, there was no turning back. It was Timothy or me. Foolishly, Joanna picked Timothy.
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Ani Ma’Amin: This is what I believe
Most recently, my “expertise” has resulted in my efforts to affirm Eli Weisel’s insistance that being a Jew ( surrounded as I had been in the 1950s by tattooed survivors of the Holocaust) requires us as Jews to end genocide of whatever form; specifically in Yemen, the Mayanmar region of what used to be Burma, Venezuela ( most especially on the Western border in Colombia) the Sudan, and ….
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Ask candidates their position on disabled, elderly voters
From Where I Sit: My column in Voices of Central Pennsylvania, September 2010 “Who will protect us against the protectors?” Plato (428-348 BC) asks. Over the years, in a variety of situations, it has become useful to question what happens when people put in charge of helping others help themselves. The question came quickly to […]
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Only revolution will liberate the disabled and elderly
The following is my July/August, 2010 column From Where I Sit for Voices of Central Pennsylvania: I have been trying to shield my readers (until the appropriate time, like now) from the clear purpose of this monthly column: To foment a peaceful revolution that will hereafter change forever the daily lives of individuals with disabilities […]
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Travel barriers limit lives of those with disabilities
The following is my June, 2010 column From Where I Sit for Voices of Central Pennsylvania: “Are you really my son?” my 84-year-old mother, who suffers from dementia, asks. Six weeks ago my mother, Dr. Miriam Pell Schmerler, stopped answering the telephone by herself. Our weekly calls were models of the bizarre, with my combining […]
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Technology allows blind people to drive cars
The following is my May, 2010 column From Where I Sit for Voices of Central Pennsylvania: Imagine racing a Ferrari F430 (worth $406,000) at nearly 182 miles per hour and being blind since the age of three. This event took place last month at an airport in Turkey where Metin Fenturk, a folksinger, broke the […]
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Helen Keller, Blair/Clearfield County Association for the Blind, and Disability Rights Attorney Peter Pinnola Answers Questions
From Where I SitDisabilities Info Expanded at Voicesweb.org [The following is my April, 2010 column for Voices of Central Pennsylvania.] I learned something 15 years ago when I became unable to walk. Yes, there was the grief over losing a power I had once cherished I loved to walk. At Columbia, I walked routinely from […]
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Exclusive Interview with Rep. GT Thompson on his Rehabilitation Background
The following link to Voices of Central Pennsylvania contains the entire interview between Rep. Glenn (“GT”) Thompson of the Fifth U.S. Congressional District. The Congressman was interviewed by Joel Solkoff, disability- and elderly-issues columnist for Voices. The interview took place on February 6, 2010. The Congressman called the columnist who is in State College from Tuscon […]
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MY CHOICE TO HEAD MEDICARE a.k.a. Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
[The following is my March, 2010 column for Voices of Central Pennsylvania see http://voicesweb.org/archive/10mar/10mar-community-lifestyles.pdf (end of pdf.) or visit a newstand in Centre County.] Strangers, snow and rehabilitation From where I sit Thanks to a failure to act in January, the Obama administration has made a seriousmistake in allowing competitive bidding for durable medical equipment […]