Monthly Archives: September 2009

My Angel in Fatherhood

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I step outside and I am in heaven. The air is warm, a hint of humidity, and I am glad for it, need it, it gets into my bones, warms them, comforts them, and me. There are dreams out here and I know it. They may ride the waves of the breeze, or be hidden in the jewel like sounds of one bird singing, or in the soft-shoe-smiling sound of the crow’s caw. Either way, they are here and I am glad for them too.

I hate that it is hard for me to come out here. While this had been a battle for longer than I want to discuss, it is against my nature. My earliest memories include hours and hours in the woods. I would have gladly lived there forever like the American Indians I loved had I not know my father was part of my life, an angel in fatherhood, and thus staying away from him made it, my young mind knew, certain I would perish.

And so here I am many years later out here in the beauty of the day, surrounded by nature, my three dogs eyeing me from their pen, twinkle-eyed all, reminding myself now, in this moment, that not matter the struggles, this world is here, for me, and the peace it brings is here too, for all of us, if we dare to believe it.

It is here too that I am with my father, his arms around me, sitting next to me, giving me a hug, his laughter, the always welcome smell of his flannel shirt when I hug him, the fact he loves me always simply for being me. I love him now always my angel in fatherhood.

Paterson Says Equal Rights Too Expensive

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New York Governor David Paterson this week put a value on equal rights – it’s too expensive.

With the slash of his hard-hearted veto pen,  Patterson killed bills that would have required polling places to meet federal accessibility guidelines for people with disabilities within six months, another that would have protected people with disabilities from missing out on services from state and local governments, and another that would have made it a felony for caregivers to endanger the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person. On reflection, his vetoes represent the very kind of felonies the latter bill sought to address.

For  15 years now Timothy J. Feeney has headed up the Neurobehavioral Resource Project for New York State’s Traumatic Brain Injury Waiver. The NRB is arguably the most powerful influence over the TBI Waiver, a Medicaid program designed to provide services to brain injury survivors across the state.  What’s the problem? Feeney runs around the state, country and world claiming he is Dr. Timothy Feeney or Timothy Feeney PhD when he is neither. His masters and PhD were obtained through a now defunct diploma mill called Greenwich University. It seems the DOH accurately reflects the mindset of its governor. 

This is the second time this week components of the New York State Government have displayed despicable and unconscionable behavior. In actions that reek of narcissism, arrogance and greed, the New State’s  Department of Health issued a letter blatantly ignoring the fact  a state contract employee who has headed up a multi-million dollar project over the past 15 years isn’t who he says he is, and now the governor decides equal rights cost too much.

People like Paterson and Feeney need to remember a few things; the willpower of the human spirit and the innate drive for independence and equality is far greater and far more powerful than any one person, and the damage they have done and continue to do is temporary.

We shall overcome. We’ve done it before, and we’ll do it again.

Raise Your Voices

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Raise your voices children, freedom is at hand

The banner’s new but the cause is old

When the ghost of bigotry tries to take command

Ain’t no human being here to be sold

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Mothers and fathers, time to sing out strong

Too many say one disabled is a cottage industry

Because the poison called greed is lasting too long

Robbing too many of their right to be free

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Hear me golden seniors with your wisdom soul

You who gave us our breath this day

Our grandmas and grandpas you loved us whole

Now in a world denying your say

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This song’s for wounded warriors from near and far

Getting diminished goods when they return home

Sisters and brothers we damn well all are

So raise your voices because you’re not alone

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Raise your voices people and sing out free

Raise your voices against all that’s wrong

Raise your voices so others may see

You raise your voices for all that can be

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Ain’t No Shuck and Jive

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Swing that soft moving hip shuffle my way

Sing out the simple things in highway songs

Bring me your glisten skin in rackamuffin rhythms

And ain’t no shuck and jive when you’re getting up

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I remember the corner boys and back room deals

And Singing Sally down the block breakin’ hearts

While Howie hot wheeled on the Belt Parkway singing

There ain’t no shuck and jive when you’re gettin’ up

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I remember Mikey on the mic and Frankie on the wheel

In tow truck heaven and  JC’s down at the beach

Catching the biggest fish he can dream cause

There ain’t no shuck and jive when you’re getting up

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I remember Bobby’s guitar a part of him

Followed by a booze drenched southern day

And the bullet self fired that ended him

…Ain’t no shuck and jive when you can’t get up

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And I’m thankin’ God for Michael, Leona and Dad

For the days my legs lifted me to then and now

‘Cause when you facing life’s end you know

There ain’t no shuck and jive in getting up

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A NY State Department of Health Cover-up?

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A September 16th letter from the New York State Department of Health might lead some to think the DOH has no problem awarding several million dollars to a neurobehavioral project headed by a man who continues to misrepresent his credentials to those he serves. Timothy J. Feeney continues to represent himself as  Dr. Timothy J. Feeney or Timothy J. Feeney PhD when he is no more a doctor than Felix the Cat is.

Feeney presents himself to brain injury survivors and their families as having a PhD and master’s degrees when he doesn’t. He did get bogus degrees from a diploma mill located in Hawaii and California in the 1990s before moving its operation to Norfolk Island off the coast of Australia in 1998. Greenwich University, not to be confused with the prestigious University of Greenwich in England, was a non-accredited diploma mill that graces numerous diploma mill lists on the net. It closed its doors in 2003.

Despite the fact Feeney himself says the DOH new all along about his degrees, he has, for nearly 15 years now,  headed up the Neurobehavioral Resource Project for New York State’s Traumatic Brain Injury Waiver. The NRB is arguably the most powerful influence over the TBI Waiver, a Medicaid program designed to provide services to brain injury survivors across the state.   While there is no argument that the TBI Waiver is needed because it affords many with brain injuries the chance to live in the community, there is also no argument that those who live with brain injuries, their loved ones, and the hard working companies that provide waiver services,  have a right to expect people to be who they say they are.

Letters to DOH employee Patricia Greene-Gumson along with a second letter to Deputy DOH Commissioner Mark Kissinger raising the issue of Feeney’s false claims and calling for an investigation not only into Feeney and his conduct but into who wrote the three contracts that don’t require the head of the project to have so much as a master’s degree. The two letters resulted in the September 16th one-page response from a Lydia Kosinski , Assistant Director for the Division of Home and Community Based Services. In her letter Kosinski says  the DOH was more concerned with work experience than college degrees when it chose the director of the NRP. While Feeney’s resume does not reveal much experience with brain injury in the first place, the question of his misrepresenting himself still lingers and was left untouched in the letter.

While I will try to hold to the belief that the DOH  is not the villain here, the Kosinski letter has begun to loosen my grasp.

One thing is for sure, if Feeney’s contract, which expires the 30th of this month, is renewed, there will be every reason to conclude that the DOH is more supportive of the disingenuous Feeney than it is of those us who live with brain injuries..

It is flat out tragic when you get the message that asking people to be who they say they are is asking too much.