GirlWithTheCane

I'm a freelance writer, disability advocate, the owner and head writer at Running Steps and the voice of the award-winning "Girl With The Cane" blog. I'm living with disabilities, too stubborn for my own good, and too opinionated to stay quiet, but not nearly as scary as the rumours say. Honest. Check out my website: http://www.sarahlevis.com.

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Just a Reminder that Barron Trump is Off-Limits

Just a Reminder that Barron Trump is Off-Limits

There’s so much to say about Donald Trump right now. But there’s also some things I want to say about his ten-year-old son, Barron Trump, that I think we need to remember as we go into the Trump Presidency. Because the fact that the youngest Trump child was mocked on social media for his appearance at the Jan 20 inauguration is bad news, folks.

Mocking Barron Trump is Not Cool. Period.

Of course,…

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Meryl Streep, We Don't Need Your Outrage

Meryl Streep, We Don’t Need Your Outrage

I blogged about the incident where Donald Trump mocked disabled reporter Serge Kovaleskiback when it happened during the primaries, and frankly I roll my eyes a little bit every time someone brings it up as “his most shocking moment” or something equally hyperbolic. If it’s online I leave a link to my blog post and move on. But I’ve just seen on CNN clips of Meryl Streep’s reference to the…

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Christmas 2016

I had hoped to find time to do a new Christmas post for this year…for a variety of reasons, I didn’t. In the past I’ve reblogged my 2014 post, “When Christmas Doesn’t Mean Family”, and I’ve decided to again, with apologies to those who have read it before. I read it it over and it reminded me of something that I’ve been thinking a lot about this Christmas season…that for all the fuss about…

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Conflicting Advocate Hats: Alex Spourdalakis

Conflicting Advocate Hats: Alex Spourdalakis

14-year-old Alex Spourdalakis was murdered by his mother Dorothy Spourdalakis and godmother Jolanta Skordzka.

And I say “murdered” deliberately, not to garner an emotional response, but because Alex’s mother and godmother did legally murder him. They gave him an overdose of sleeping pills with the intention of bringing about his death. When it became apparent that the pills weren’t going to kill…

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Trump Wins The Election - Thoughts on What Happens Now

Trump Wins The Election – Thoughts on What Happens Now

So, Donald Trump and Election Night 2016.

It’s taken me a couple of days to figure out what I want and need to write about Election Night 2016 and Donald Trump’s win. I was on the verge of tears for 3 days afterward. I don’t think that this is totally the election; I’ve got some Seasonal Affective Disorder, and while the end of Daylight Savings Time is much easier for me to handle now than it has…

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Annoyed by "Autism Mom" Hoodie

Annoyed by “Autism Mom” Hoodie

A Facebook friend, a mother with an autistic child, called attention on her profile last night to an “Autism Mom” hoodie that she’d seen advertised:

It’s hard to read the writing on the hoodie. It says:

Autism Mom

A Superhero With

Messy Hair, Bags Under

Her Eyes, Stung Out

Nerves, Who Has A

Happy Child Because

Of All That She Does

The puzzle piece icon is underneath the writing.

My friend’s…

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Hurricane Matthew, Disabled People, Emergency Planning, and Vulnerability

Hurricane Matthew, Disabled People, Emergency Planning, and Vulnerability

Because of the US election, I’ve been watching a lot of CNN these days. Last week I saw part of a press conference given by the governor of North Carolina, talking about what people needed to do to prepare for Hurricane Matthew as it moved up the coast from Florida. I was pleased to see that there was an ASL interpreter right beside the governor. And it got me thinking, yet again, about disabled…

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Inspiration Porn: Once You See It, You Can't Not See It

Inspiration Porn: Once You See It, You Can’t Not See It

I talked to a lovely group of stroke survivors in my community last week about a variety of stroke and disability-related issues. I was very impressed with their insights and honoured to be asked to speak to them. I wasn’t surprised when they hadn’t heard of inspiration porn when the subject came up (I didn’t learn about it until I started blogging) but I was a bit surprised when a couple of…

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Ann Coulter Uses the Word "Retard" Again

Ann Coulter Uses the Word “Retard” Again

When I heard that Ann Coulter, in a throwback to the 2012 election cycle (albeit a bit earlier in this time) had used the word “retard” again, I wasn’t going to write about it at first. But obviously I’ve changed my mind.

In 2012, after a Presidential debate, Ann Coulter tweeted “I highly approve of Romney’s decision to be kind and gentle to the retard”, in reference to Barack Obama, and I said…

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Armchair Psychology and Election 2016

Armchair Psychology and Election 2016

So I’ve been working on my post about the Democratic National Convention (which I’m finding very difficult to write, for a number of reasons) and I’m hoping to get it online soon. But something else has come up that I want to talk about: how armchair psychology has entered the campaigning in the 2016 election.

Now, I’m certainly not the first to write about this and I won’t be the most eloquent.…

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Thoughts on the Republican National Convention

Thoughts on the Republican National Convention

I watched the Republican National Convention last week. Not all of it. But I caught the high points for three of the four evenings and some of the daytime coverage on CNN. And I spent a lot of time trying to get down exactly what I wanted to say about it.

And then Jon Stewart came onto Late Night with Stephen Colbert last Thursday night and in less than 30 seconds he (pardon my language) fucking…

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"Star Trek Beyond" Writers Make Sulu Gay Despite George Takei's Objections

“Star Trek Beyond” Writers Make Sulu Gay Despite George Takei’s Objections

So there’s an interesting debate going on about the new Star Trek movie, “Star Trek Beyond”. The movie’s writers and series original George Takei are disagreeing about how the Hikaru Sulu character is portrayed, and fans are clearly divided on it. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it myself, at first.

But I know now what’s made me so uncomfortable and why.

About the Original “Star Trek”

The original…

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Gathering My Thoughts

Yesterday I was checking Twitter all day, keeping up with how the story around the shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge was developing. And last night I was profoundly affected by the video of the shooting death of Philando Castile in front of his girlfriend and small child.

I know that as a white person, I will never truly understand how difficult these past two days have been for the black…

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Disabled Woman Beaten After Becoming Confused at TSA Checkpoint

Disabled Woman Beaten After Becoming Confused at TSA Checkpoint

  Image Description: A sign that says “Stop: Security Check” isolated over a white background

June 30th should have been a really great day for Hannah Cohen.

The 19-year-old woman was on her way home to Chattanooga, after having radiation treatments and surgery to remove a brain tumour at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. According to the Associated Press, the treatment she…

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"The Fundamentals of Caring": Movie Review

“The Fundamentals of Caring”: Movie Review

So, this past weekend I watched “The Fundamentals of Caring” on Netflix, with more than a little trepidation (even though one of the stars is Paul Rudd, one of my favourite actors.)  This post contains major spoilers for that movie, so considered yourself warned.

I say “with more than a little trepidation” because Hollywood doesn’t tend to “get it” when it comes to movies about disabled people,…

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The Problem with "Grace"

The Problem with “Grace”

Some of you may have seen David M. Perry’s recent article in “The Atlantic” that analyzes the disability stereotypes in “Grace”, the anti-Trump ad produced by the Priorities USA Super PAC for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. It’s a terrific article about how even when advocacy has the best of intentions, it can backfire.

I’ve been watching reactions to “Grace”. Non-disabled people see “Grace” as a…

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So a picture is making the social media rounds this week of a young autistic woman, Hallee Sorenson, eating cake alone  on her 18th birthday. I’m not going to repost it because I suspect that  it was posted and has made the rounds through the media without her permission. But the photo went viral because Hallee invited her class and other teens in the community to a bowling party to celebrate her…

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