A contest and an agenda about people with disabilities

Across my desk this morning is a bit of everything, including the Commonweal article by Douglas Kmiec about the election and the blogosphere, in which he discusses the reaction of the Catholic blogosphere to his support of Obama. He writes:

A longtime Republican who served in the Reagan administration, I nonetheless endorsed Obama last spring. Ever since, I’ve been subjected to unrelenting personal attacks launched from right-wing Catholic keyboards-blogs (and bloggers) so coarse and uncivil they make the insults of talk radio sound like actual journalism. Further, the lack of civility that rules the right-wing Catholic blogosphere has infected mainstream Catholic journalism as well. In a syndicated assessment of the 2008 election, one usually thoughtful conservative columnist employed the following descriptions of Catholic Obama supporters: “decadent,” “tribal,” “immoral,” “certainly stupid,” “mindless,” and in need of basic “adult education.” And those were all in a single paragraph! Such highly concentrated rhetorical venom is not calculated to invite discussion.

My support of Obama led to the loss of almost half my Catholic blog links at one point. 54% of Catholics voted for Obama, by the way.

Speaking of Obama, his agenda for people with disabilities is now up over at the White House site. Bill Peace writes about it here in Day One Agenda: Obama Hits a Home Run and you can read it yourself here.

Also across my desk is a piece from Lawrence Carter-Long over at the Society for Disabilities list serve about a contest starting on February 1 for the PBS show Arthur, where kids 6-12 are invited to create a special needs friend for Arthur.

According to a press release on the contest, the character should be

"one who can show that having a unique ability, character trait, or disability might make life a little bit different, but not any less fun. Kids can mail in their entries, with a drawing of their character and a description of what makes them special, starting February 1, 2009. The child with the selected idea, along with their character, will be featured in a live-action segment on the Arthur show. In addition, he or she will receive a visit from Arthur creator and author Marc Brown at the child’s school, local library, or PBS member station. ... The character search is designed to educate children about the importance of inclusion and how children of all abilities can play together. It also encourages parents and children to think about what life is like for someone they know who has a disability.