Lt. Ian James Brown profile

Guest Blogger – Faizan Sheikh

Life, luck or choice?
Life, what’s the purpose of it? Is it just to arrive to this beautiful planet earth, live routinely, work hard, pay bills and then return to wherever we came from? Or does life has more meaning than that? Do you just want to live hand to mouth and yes I mean working at an awesome place, making a lot of money and spending it all in shopping malls and just keep paying bills every month – that’s what I call living hand to mouth. What will be your legacy? Yours left over money for your kids? Your ancestry or can it be you and your awesome work for this world? Imagine your own marks left behind you where everyone remembers how small or big of a difference you made in their life. So have you made a choice? – A choice to make a difference or a choice to live just like every other person next to you?
But then sometimes it is your luck, you make a choice but your luck has written something differently in your faith. In 2009, when I lost my job at Wall Street, I decided to become a film maker. Now I think it may be it was my boss’s choice to let me go or my faith to do something differently. I almost gave up several times during my 3 years of film making journey, since then, but I had make a choice, and my faith with all the positive support I was getting from my surroundings took me to finish my first short film, “My Angel My Hero”. This film is about hope, inspiration, not giving up and most importantly a film campaign against Parkinson’s disease and how dance can help these Parkinson’s patients.
Still it wasn’t easy, everyday was a struggle, it was my choice to stick to the plan, but then plan changed as written in my faith. But I didn’t give up and kept it going until he can inspire many people around me. Now as this film has become an online video campaign, where several patients are chipping in by submitting their videos testimonial of what had inspired them all this time against Parkinson’s. That is the way they make a different in other’s life. I do not feel I am the captain of this boat, and am still unsure if it is my choice to make a difference or my faith to change the world? So what is yours?

The Breakfast Meeting

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Enough of the Freak Show Oprah, it’s Time for Education

So much for celebrating difference, it’s the circus all over again! History repeats itself. You would think I would’ve learned. It’s my fault for believing in something better. “Step right up and see the bearded lady, lizard skinned boy…” Enough already!

Recently, I wrote a blog mentioning Zach Anner’s new OWN program. About time we have a national program – right? I agree, but…come on. Do we have to propagate the “freak-show stereotype!”

There is no other diversity group that would allow this discourse. Come look at Zach on the zip-line, rollercoaster (have I got a rollercoaster story for you), kayak, etc. Stare at Zach! How about Doug running a company, Jayne landing the big comedy headline, or John successfully producing a video?

For hundreds of years we have been trying to get people not to look at us as abnormal freak shows, but people with offerings in education and employment. There are a million veterans coming into the workforce looking for employment with an estimated 30-50% with disabilities. Why not a program of real people with disabilities – one of the 6.6 million employed with a disability according to a Cornell study – to inspire those million new candidates?

If you watch TV today, you still get the Little People with the family conflict, or Zach. You do not get the education, family or business.

It really pisses me off. I have kids looking up to me with what I do and want answers about there own lives. How will I make it in business? They aren’t asking how can I get more people to stare at me! Come on…

From Oprah Winfrey of all people – Oprah an Entrepreneur/Entertainer/CEO who has advanced women in media and in business more than any other person, Oprah who helped advance America beyond skin color in the last election – has a program mocking disability and propagating the “freak show!”

We at Our Ability understand the need to balance entertainment and education. No one wants to watch a classroom lecture about any subject on television. But, there is a balance. There has to be better than mocking people with disabilities. This is a time of great change when there are more people with disabilities who served our country in Iraq/Afghanistan. There are more and more children born with Autism with parents wondering their children’s fate. We can inspire rather than destroy.

With advancements in technologies of all kinds, a disability can be overcome more easily than in the past. Online education programs make education more accessible to all people – it is possible to do an online MBA program and run your own online startup with nothing but an internet connection. Yet, rather than promote and publicize this fact, as well as pushing businesses to hire those with disabilities, Oprah and her cadre of daytime compatriots prefer to sensationalize disabilities. It is obvious more education is necessary and Oprah is nowhere near the teacher society needs. While not everything has to be a PSA, it is possible to strike a much better balance that accurately, and adequately, depicts the life of those with disabilities.

Recently, we spoke to someone inside PBS about an Our Ability program, and they had an interesting response. They said they were not sure if it fit within their funded programming mission. I asked if it isn’t about educating people about differences, then what is? I guess even PBS is looking at an OWN and TLC model.

I went to a college football game with my family in the recent past. I was walking in the crowd towards my car and noticed people staring as they always do, but this felt different. A young man was videotaping me with his cell phone. He thought I was funny enough to share with his friends for amusement. It’s great to be entertained, but even better to be educated about diversity. Instead of continuing to produce programs that contribute to the “dumbing down of America,” let us all ask for more. Unfortunately, I do not think it will happen.

The Bad (and Good) of Television’s The Good Wife

I am a big fan of The Good Wife!  I love Alicia, Will and the gang.  I especially like Michael J. Fox, using his disability in his character – we need more of this! But, it reminds me how much we are missing.

Recently, we see on OWN a program about a young man Zach Anner hosting a traveling program – in the trailer he is kayaking, zip-lining, going on the Price is Right, etc.  It is wonderful there is a program with a Person with a Disability. But, it is equally appalling! What is the message to children with dramatic differences? Unless you can become a public “freak show” there is no value to society? It’s entertaining, but not inspirational to People with Disabilities.  I am proud of Zach, not of OWN!

For a long time, I have been urging Oprah’s Network, NBC or Current TV to promote real stories about People with Disabilities.  Business, entrepreneurship, education – not I can climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. While that is cool, how does that help promote an inclusive image for society.  

Good for The Good Wife – using Mr. Fox and openly discussing but not solely focusing on his character’s disability.  It’s also great that his character is not a saint – just a man with good and bad traits, like all of us.  This is Hollywood/NYC progress. 

In the 12/11 episode – we had a big whoops through, Alicia went to pick up Kalinda from jail and she parked in a clearly marked Handicapped/Wheelchair spot.  For all to see in High Definition!  Oh, well.

I get really angry as a video production company and advocacy group when I see double standards.  I have been contacting some businesses, organizations and other content providers recently that promote products and services for People with Disabilities. We are promoting the production of real stories of People with Disabilities by Our Ability – production company made up of mostly People with Disabilities.  We produce video, we advocate – we cannot bungee jump.  I ask if their videographers/marketers/actors/hosts also have a disability and most of the time, they will not answer. I hear nothing.  There is my answer.

There are many, many companies selling products and services not using vendors and people with actual disabilities in their marketing.  There are too many programs promoting themselves as pro-inclusion using able-bodies actors in other challenged roles.  It is awful. It is amazing to me the double standards when it comes to media, media production and entertainment.

 

TED