Approaches to Blogging

In the Summer of 2001, I took a Fables and Tales class. The professor showed us a film about an African prince who was destined to rule his kingdom. However, he had been born with weak legs, which meant that he had to use a wooden cane to get around. According to the tale, he would not be able to become King if he did not teach himself to walk without his cane. As the movie progresses, by sheer will he makes himself able to walk, and therefore is able to take his rightful place as King. Viewing this film made me feel very angry and upset, particularly because the instructor of the class never once raised the issue that this film could be viewed as discriminatory against a certain group. I was feeling so appalled about this film that I couldn't even formulate a good argument or response as to why this film portrayed a degrading view of disability. After exiting from his class, I took the anger and sadness I was feeling, went to the San Francisco State Library, and checked out at least three books on the portrayal of disability in film. Thus began my awareness that images like what I had seen in this film were not common.

Fast forward to 2002. I enrolled in my second broadcasting class. where my semester-long project was to write a paper on any subject related to media. My first thought was to organize a research paper about the portrayal of disability in television. This topic pulled at my heartstring, because for me it was a continuation of what I had started on when I checked out books on the portrayal of people with disabilities in film. 

Now I have created blogs based on one central purpose, which is to assess the continuum of positive to negative characterizations of people with disabilities on television. I hope you enjoy what I've written on the next few pages.

Thank you for supporting The Revolution 2008

10/5/08

Dear friends and family,

Thank you for all of your generous donations to BORP Revolution 2008. Your help assisted me in reaching my goal of having the entry money needed to ride in the 10k.

I purchased a brand spankin' new bike this year and rode that in the Revolution. As you may or may not know I have been spending most of this year researching bicycles and finally came across Bay Trail Trikes, a bike vendor. Bay Trail Trikes is owned by Steve Schwartz. I tried several models before deciding oon a recumbent trike which has 2 wheels in the front and one wheel in the back. My new bike is about 50 lbs. lighter than my old one. It weights about 25 lbs.

How The Ride Went

On the Friday before the Revolution my parents and I piled the trike, a bike, and a scooter into the van and left for Sonoma at about 7 pm. The next morning over breakfast my mom discussed the lengths of the rides and suggested that it would be best if I ride in the 10k route instead of the 25 mile route. She pointed out that I was still getting used to my trike and hadn't done enough hill training before the race.

Mom rode the scooter with me on the 10k. On the way back we ran into Steve from Bay Trail Trikes. He and I rode together and discussed bikes. Steve helped me navigate and took photos of me along the way! He taught me about shifting gears: which gear to shift when. He was very patient with me. He told me that he had meet with the enge\ineer of my trike and was interested in collaborating with him on a trike designed for those with less leg strength. 

The Revolution organizers wanted everyone to finish by noon so we could all eat together. My dad joined us for lunch after he had finished the 25 mile ride. It was interesting to look at all the participants in the dining hall. I reflected on the fact the people there belonged to a totally different typical "ambassadors" of the disabled community. The participants in the Revolution belong to the community that is completely active. They were in shape and obviously worked out.

I got to talk to my power soccer coach whom I hadn't seen for over 15 years. I wanted to give her the link to my web page but didn't get the chance. 

I just put this web page up and would like all of you to check it out and give me some feedback about it.

Well, until next year!

Thank you, 

Edana