Why do we need a Chemists with Disabilities (CWD) Subdivision? -- Thoughts for the American Chemical Society, April 5, 2011

Introduction:
As someone who’s done more than my fair share of writing for almost thirty years — about science, about education, about sports, and about various other topics — sometimes it’s hard to be witty, cover all the thoughts rattling through my head, and distill it into a neat and tidy piece for reading consumption. So, in the spirit of stream of consciousness, here goes nothing as I offer my very first contribution to the Division of Professional Relations (PROF)...

Do you have a favorite movie, or perhaps a top five (or ten) list? I do! Among my favorite movies happens to be National Lampoon’s Animal House, one of the movies I and many baby Boomers came of age (or aged... or evolved) with. Oh, if you’re unfamiliar with it (yeah, like if you were born after the Beatles broke up), it’s a wonderful movie... Sort of like Rebel without a Cause, but a lot funnier. Anyway, if you’re like me, a baby Boomer stuck in arrested adolescence, you probably recall every scene and every dialogue.

One of my favorite scenes is towards the end of the movie, when the Delta House gang just found out they were expelled from Faber College, and Brother Bluto Blutarsky (played by the late John Belushi) offers these immortal words:
“Over? Did you say ‘over’? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough... [pauses to remember the rest of the phrase] ...the tough get goin'! Who's with me? Let's go!”

Granted, that was memorable, but for the purpose of our discussion, let’s consider what Brother Bluto said after running out the front door with no one following him:
“[looking out among his morose fraternity brothers] What the [expletive] happened to the Delta I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh?”

THAT’S the line I want us to think about when we ask ourselves why we need a Chemists with Disabilities subdivision!

You see, we Baby Boomers used to have spirit and guts, and not just for frat parties, homecoming weekend, or general rebellion. We used to take stands for noble causes, and action when we wanted to lead by example and make a difference in the world. We stuck our necks out when others wouldn’t, especially if we truly believed in something. But that no longer seems to be the case as much as we’ve gotten older and more wrapped up in our immediate worlds and issues, and next generations come along with their own agendas and concerns. In short, we’ve collectively lost our sense of outrage, and now merely shrug at things once guaranteed to make our blood boil.

Sometimes we take for granted what others struggle with on a daily basis, perhaps because we’ve never had to personally struggle before. Consider any disabled member in our chemical profession and in the American Chemical Society. Some disabled people have visual impairments, some have hearing problems, some have physical of neurological impairments, some have emotional or psychiatric issues, and some have learning disabilities. Some disabilities are more visible than others; some are more challenging than others. Any disability can create an additional struggle for a human being, not just a chemist, but in a profession or field of study as intellectually challenging as chemistry, some disabilities can be monumental without appropriate assistance or resources.

What happens if we’re visually-impaired and need others to serve as our eyes, or require adaptive devices, or require modified duties in order to be as successful in our jobs as possible? What happens if we don’t have full control of our arms or legs and require assistance for almost every physical task our gifted minds wish to carry out? What happens if everything we read is so scrambled within our brains that we require hours and hours to disentangle verbal and symbolic information and transform it into a sensible product? What happens if our personal imperfections --- beyond the superficial ones of appearance — dictate our ability to not only perform basic daily functions but to work as a chemist?

Making Sense of Things:
I can’t speak for everyone, but my somewhat large ethnic nose, annoying New York accent, extreme fondness for Beatles music and Mel Brooks movies, or my sometimes blunt and politically incorrect candor hardly inhibit my ability to work as a chemist, or more specifically, a science educator. My limited ability to use my arms and legs, or stand pain-free for more than a few moments, or sit pain-free for more than a short time, however, due to my spinal injury, does. A very good day for me is to be able to take a walk outside using a cane, and not falling and hurting myself. A typical day involves less mobility, more assistive devices, such as a walker, at least one fall and new bruises. I need assistive devices in order to take a shower and get dressed; preparing and eating meals also presents physical challenges, not to mention emotional frustration. A bad day could be spent in a wheelchair or in bed. The sky’s the limit as to my mind’s thoughts and what it wishes to accomplish. My body very often doesn’t work in conjunction with my mind, and in a world where one’s body and its ability to do things is highly taken for granted, my mind is of lesser and lesser value to colleges and universities that could employ me or chemistry students who could still learn from me. The United Negro College Fund used to have commercials with the slogan “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” I may not be African-American, but my mind has been more than wasted by the academic world in its refusal to employ and support me and my disabled body these past 4-5 years.

My mind knows no intellectual limits despite my acceptance of physical limits. However, I, just like many in the disabled community, live in a world with virtually zero tolerance for any limits. Hey, why not?! In today’s perpetual economic crisis affecting the private, public and academic sectors alike, employment opportunities are at a premium and we’re all led to believe that employers want the biggest “bang for the buck” in terms of hires. Time is money and money is time. Why should employers invest in disabled people needing adaptive devices, work accommodations, and special dispensation for their “issues” when things could get done more efficiently, in terms of time and cost, by able-bodied people who can work in an “as is” environment, work longer hours, take fewer sick days, and impose less on the employee health benefits plan?

It sounds so logical and practical when we view everything as a matter of dollars and cents, doesn’t it? But humans aren’t commodities or currency or fiscal indicators for actuaries, accountants and economists to organize into flowcharts, pie graphs or spreadsheets. Humans are of flesh and blood and dignity. Consider the outrage folks have when adults over 40, women, ethnic minorities, or members of the gay community get short-shrift, shafted and discarded in our national workforce. We hear it all the time... Ageism, sexism, racism, jingoism, homophobia and any other kind of bias the disenfranchised masses can yell out. Funny, but you don’t hear cripple-ism, gimp-ism, blind-ism or deaf-ism much, do we? Hmmm... Wouldn’t THAT make for a juicy litigation involving Wal-Mart?!

In a way, this reminds me of a poem about World War II I’ve known about for many years... In fact, I even included it among the PowerPoint slides for my recent presentation (“Balancing the Americans with Disabilities Act with the academic setting”) at the Anaheim meeting, and now wish to share it with all of my fellow CWD and PROF members:

First They came...
Attributed to Pastor Martin Niemoller (Milton Mayer: They thought they were free. 1955)

First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came after the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came after me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Sometimes we tend to forget that the Division of Professional Relations serves all people, and that includes all “special interest” groups — young chemists AND old chemists, women chemists AND male chemists, GLBT chemists AND straight chemists, ethnic minority chemists AND white chemists, and finally, disabled chemists AND able-bodied chemists. We’re really in this together, folks... That’s why ACS is called the American Chemical SOCIETY, not the American Chemical Collection of Assorted Individuals. “Society” implies COMMUNITY, and we’re all part of one large professional community!

Young chemists issues are COMMUNITY issues. Old chemist issues are COMMUNITY issues too, just as women chemist issues, male chemist issues, GLBT chemist issues, ethnic minority chemist issues, and disabled chemist issues. Unfortunately, as the years go by, and we Baby Boomers get a little too settled, satisfied and complacent in life and career, we tend to ignore all the COMMUNITY issues and focus our thoughts on immediate and local issues. And we Baby Boomers aren’t the only guilty ones... The generation that preceded us are guilty, and the generations that followed us are guilty too. Think about it... Why should the old folks care about issues facing the young folks, and vice-versa? Why should chemists in the pharmaceutical industry care about issues facing chemistry students and their teachers? Why should straight chemists care about issues facing GLBT chemists, and so on, and so on?

Duh... Because it’s the right thing to do?! Perhaps if we all care about and stand up for each other’s issues, there will always be someone left to speak out for us when we need professional support? Perhaps it’s possible a similar issue will hit you down the road, and Karma’s not very nice to folks who turn their backs on others? Do I really have to explain to educated professionals that you need to give in order to receive? I honestly hope not, but sometimes I wonder.

It’s funny (not funny ha-ha)... When you have an issue you need support with from ACS, what is it you want to hear from your professional organization and community? Do you want colleagues to empathize with you and “feel your pain”, as former President Bill Clinton was famous for saying, or do you welcome or appreciate hearing:
Well, everyone’s got something going on.
You’re not the only one with problems.
Some people have worse than you.
You know how may stories like this I hear?
We can’t have special rules for everyone’s issues.
What do you expect us to do about it?

If you’re a genuine human being, you definitely prefer the empathy, and maybe a little artificial pity. After all, this is YOUR issue, not anyone else’s or even everyone else’s. Sure, none of us are foolish enough to believe we’re the only one going through a difficult challenge or tough situation, but we also don’t want it trivialized or genericized by others. We’re upset, and in need of support, and dammit, we expect others to be upset on our behalf, or at least upset with us, because that’s part of being human beings within a COMMUNITY. We don’t want to believe we’re all alone in our frustrations, and yet we also don’t want others being tone-deaf to the uniqueness of our challenges or situations.

Put it this way: if you were from special interest group A, and you reached out to special interest group B for support and solidarity towards an issue you hold near and dear to your heart, and special interest group B tells you to take a hike because group B only cares about group B issues, I’m willing to bet when the tables are turned, group A will tell group B to take the same hike. And where does that get us? A whole bunch of special interest groups warring against each other in the name of their own myopic interests. And you know what that sounds like to the average educated person? WASHINGTON, D.C., that’s what! Do we honestly want an ACS that resembles AARP lobbyists pitted against pediatric health care lobbyists, or affluent suburbanites pitted against urban working poor, or constitutionalists (I still can’t tell if these are the Tea Party folks or hyper-caffeinated bigots...) pitted against immigrants?

Is this the ACS or PROF we want to see, where colleagues get up and complain, why do we need all these divisions and subdivisions for a bunch of loopy interests or people?! Let’s just have the ACS like I remember it, plain ol’ chemistry and plain ol’ chemists. Either you can cut being one of us or go be a biologist, for criminy’s sake! If someone in ACS actually still spoke like this, wouldn’t you cringe from embarrassment?!

Implications:
I know this is leaning on the edge of good taste, and I do wish to preface this next thought with the fact that I do have friends, acquaintances and respected colleagues who are women, who are gay, who are ethnic minorities, who are under-40 and who are over-40. Some of these people are very accomplished in their professional careers, including careers very related to chemical literacy. But unless I’m missing something, none of these wonderful people require adaptive devices or any physical workplace accommodations because of their gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity or age (well, give or take stronger magnifying lenses). I hope you get my gentle point, because women, ethnic minorities and homosexuals have spent YEARS convincing the “old guard” in STEM-related professions that they can do the same jobs just as well, if not better, than white men, and I have long supported this (just check my publication record sometime). However, no one ever had to make special beaker tongs for a woman (PLEASE, let’s not debate manicure issues...), a special Bunsen burner for a gay or lesbian person, a special periodic table for African-Americans, or special glassware for Asians or Hispanics.

But we know of modified lab equipment for physically disabled people, if not entire lab stations specifically designed for physically disabled people to perform chemical investigations as safely as possible. Safety for everyone learning, teaching or practicing chemistry is of paramount importance in our profession, but it’s infinitely vital when we include and welcome physically disabled people into the laboratory setting. Although physically disabled people can be of any age, race, ethnicity, male or female, gay or straight — and not to take away from issues of age, race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation -- the bottom line is that being physically disabled is a very unique situation for chemical education and the chemistry profession, independent of other demographic information. Just as much as we can’t possibly (or idiotically) have one division or subdivision for “all the people who don’t fit into what chemistry and chemists used to be”, we can’t simply fold disabled chemists into other existing divisions or subdivisions. The needs of disabled chemists would simply not be addressed or met, just as was the case for young chemists, women chemists, GLBT chemists, and ethnic minority chemists. We’re all individuals with unique personal and professional needs, and those needs require a special home where those needs can be focused upon. However, we’re all more than our unique needs and part of a larger community, so we need to complement each other and mutually serve PROF and ACS as a whole.

So for those who wonder why ACS needs so many divisions and subdivisions, and even more new subdivisions, it’s because the face of ACS, and PROF, and the chemical profession are continuously changing... Make that evolving. We’re a community of inclusion and mutual support, and the more our professional community evolves, the more ACS needs to keep pace. Most importantly, ACS and PROF need a CWD subdivision because our subdivision shares the moral obligation to serve and support all ACS members, whether those members are disabled or not. The CWD subdivision maintains “old-time” Baby Boomer values and stands up for others. We invite you to stand with us now, so you never have to worry who will stand with you during your time of need.

Mazal tov and other thoughts from Rosh Ha-Baseball Weekend... Sports Thoughts for April 4, 2011

Ever blink and miss an entire month? Welcome to my March!

Well, here we are, springtime, April, the month of showers for future flowers, about to crown new men’s and women’s NCAA basketball champs (on top of NIT, CIT, CBI and CIA champs... I made up the last one to see if you’re paying attention), and snow in the Midwest and northeast. But somehow, just like every spring, major league baseball teams return from Grapefruit and Cactus League camps and begin to entertain us with a six-month regular season of hope springing eternal and rabid fans calling their local sports radio stations to vent a spleen on a daily basis.

Anyway, in case you were too engrossed in the Final Four, traveling to research conferences, shopping for Passover or Easter, or making sense of the new movie Hop, this past weekend offered us MLB Opening Day with all the bunting and hoopla for 15 hosting teams, while 15 other teams wait for their opportunity to play before their own fans. But baseball is finally here, and even the most pessimistic fan knows that all 30 teams begins with a clean slate and bright days ahead at the ol’ ballpark.

Where did I come up with “Rosh Ha-Baseball”? Well, on Wednesday, one of my all-time favorite sportscasters, Len Berman, sent out this thought in his “Daily Top 5”:

Happy "New Year's Eve." Baseball season begins tomorrow.

My response? So is tomorrow Rosh Ha-Baseball? Hopefully you don’t have to be Jewish to get it...

Anyway... So what’s caught your eye and fancy during the first weekend of the 2011 MLB season? Have you made your predictions yet for the World Series, Cy Young, MVP, and Rookie of the Year? Are your predictions etched in stone or do you allow yourself unlimited times to edit and waffle as the roller coaster rhythm of the season goes on? I’m not making any predictions this year until I see enough of the season, thank you. Check back with me around Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day.

But a dozen things have already caught my attention:

1. The defending World Series champs, the San Francisco Giants, started their season in Los Angeles, rather than at home. Gee... You’d think the geniuses at MLB would’ve figured out a way to schedule the World Series champs to open at home, in Candlestick Park, especially when the Giants and Dodgers play the first Sunday Night game on ESPN? Is the story the Giants defending their crown or how the Dodgers will function under new manager Don Mattingly while the ownership is still being sorted out in divorce court?

2. After the very first game, two Dodgers fans beat a Giants fan so badly in the parking lot of Chavez Ravine he’s now in hospital with a fractured skull and brain swelling, a lousy note for all who love baseball. Not to be crass, but it seems folks in Los Angeles have a reputation for bashing in heads, don’t they? Rodney King, Reginald Denny... Odd coincidence? Certainly takes away some of that L.A. classiness.

3. For those with fond memories of past golden eras in baseball, it was both touching and sad to see tributes by the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers for the recently-departed Bob Feller, Ron Santo, Chuck Tanner, Duke Snider and Sparky Anderson, five of the classiest members of MLB history many of us might’ve known.

4. As for the Indians, it was noted by USA TODAY that Friday’s starter, Fausto Carmona, was 7-0 with a 2.82 ERA in his last seven starts versus the Chicago White Sox. In case you didn’t notice Friday’s box score, the White Sox won 15-10. Carmona’s line score? 10 earned runs on 11 hits in three innings. Guess eight isn’t a lucky number...

5. It’s supposed to be cold in Cleveland; in fact, the Indians’ ground crew had to clean snow off the field prior to Friday’s game. You’d expect runs to come at a premium, right? Well, Friday’s game was 15-10, Saturday’s was 8-3 (also won by the White Sox), and Sunday’s was 7-1 (won by the Tribe). I’d say 44 combined runs in three days says enough about cold bats and cold weather, don’t you?

6. If the Indians are as bad as they’re projected and as they played during the opening weekend series, will it be long before we see Charlie Sheen appears in his Major League role of Ricky Vaughn? Sounds like a WINNING proposition, especially with negotiations underway to make Major League 4. If reviews about his traveling comedy act were truly accurate, perhaps Charlie Goodtime SHOULD consider suiting up and joining the Tribe’s bullpen.

7. Do you really think the cure to Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira’s notorious slow starts are as simple as opening the season March 31st? Sure, 4 hits in 12 at bats, 3 homeruns, and 7 RBIs is a nice way to open things, but April does have 30 days, you know. I know, I know... It’s more fun to talk about Teixeira being on pace for 162 homeruns than the fact that the Yankees pitching staff gave up 19 runs this weekend at the Stadium to the Tigers. Psst, psst... Should we mention the Yankees and Mets are both 2-1 after the opening weekend and tied for second place in their divisions? Just wanted to remind folks New York DOES have two major league baseball teams.

8. Let me get this straight... The Yankees have been directed by MLB not to give hand signals to batters from the stands during games? Hey, sometimes coaching has to be creative when you pare down your payroll to $203M! Of course, what Yankees fans should find most galling is that their front office is now associated with an offense one attributes only to professional sports teams northeast of I-87 (feel free to debate UConn basketball being a professional sports team, men’s and women’s).

9. Speaking of Belichickery and Boston, are the New York Daily News and Bergen Record going to spend all summer yammering about the Yankees being “underdog” to the Red Sox? C’mon... When you have two teams operating payrolls with Monopoly money, the AL East favorite is really just a matter of #1 and #1A, right? I mean, really! No wonder Buck Showalter’s Orioles are more worthwhile to root for. They’re already off to a 3-0 start, sweeping the Rays in Tampa.

10. If you’re looking for omens, consider the Red Sox, Rays, Brewers and Astros are the only winless teams after the season’s first weekend, while the Orioles, Rangers, Reds and Phillies are the remaining unbeatens. Oh, and not for nothing, but before we carry on too much about Yankees pitchers serving up 19 runs to the Tigers this past weekend, did anyone notice Red Sox pitchers served up 26 runs and 11 homeruns to the Rangers while being swept in Arlington? Yeah, let’s just keep making automatic presumptions about the AL East...

11. The ghost of Braden Looper?! Is there something rather eerie about Opening Day at home for the Cincinnati Reds and ninth-inning comebacks? Watching the Brewers bullpen meltdown and Ramon Hernandez’s walk-off three-run homer reminded me an awful lot like Opening Day 2005, when the Mets bullpen ruined the debut of Pedro Martinez. Yes, Mets fans... Time DOES fly! Hmmm... Do you think all those on the “Brewers could shock the world” bandwagon a few days ago might be rethinking their optimism, especially for a pitching staff that served up 23 runs, including 8 homeruns?

12. Did you catch Carl Pavano’s Opening Day performance Friday in Toronto against the Blue Jays? Four innings, 7 earned runs, 3 homeruns given up in a 13-3 loss. I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but he did sign a nice multi-year contract after an excellent season last year (17-11, 221 innings pitched, 3.73 ERA) for the Twins. Does anyone want to weigh in on the amount of facial hair he’s sporting? Last year he did have that Rollie Fingers mojo going for him, so who knows what Pavano and his razor might do to mess things up. Perhaps Yankees fans might wish to weigh in on this phenomenon?

See how you can talk about baseball without any mention of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, or Bernie Madoff? Let’s see how long we can keep it that way and truly enjoy this season!