Do you feel offended by the Travel Channel’s broadcast of a live “ghost hunting” show from a locked-down former mental hospital?

GHOST HUNTING SHOW AT ASYLUM DRAWS FLACK (Tuesday, October 27, 2009)

A Travel Channel show is hosting a live lockdown for Halloween, but disability rights advocates worry ghost hunting events produce negative stereotypes about people with mental illness. The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was built in the late 19th century.

….The hospital performed intense therapy on patients for many years. Neurologist Walter Freeman spent some time practicing at the hospital. He is considered to have perfected a graphic procedure commonly known as an ``ice-pick lobotomy.''

Read more at:
http://online.indianagazette.com/articles/2009/10/28/news/us_and_world/10026785.txt
Click on “comments” below to post your opinion about this show, or send feedback to the Travel
Channel at: http://www.travelchannel.com/About/Viewer_Relations

You may be more offended by the real-life scary budget news coming out of Albany:

For the next few weeks, the State will be deciding how to balance this year's budget. A lot of bad ideas have been proposed.

People with disabilities are being hit from both sides of the political aisle.

Governor Paterson has refused to consider raising taxes. Instead he wants to:

• Cut SSI benefits by $11 million over the next 5 months
• Cut home care and personal care services by $52 million
• Cut $17 million from education for children with disabilities

Meanwhile New York Republicans want to eliminate all Medicaid services that are labeled "optional" by the federal government. These include many services that people with disabilities need more than others do:

• Respiratory care for people dependent on ventilators
• Wheelchairs, canes, walkers, and crutches (except from a hospital stay)
• Supplies, such as bandages, ostomy bags, and compression stockings
• Physical therapy
• Speech therapy
• Occupational therapy
• Artificial limbs
• Eyeglasses
• Hearing Aids

Please tell the Governor and your State Senator that you don't want any cuts that target people with disabilities!

Click here to find a pre-written email letter that you can change to express your personal views: http://capwiz.com/cidny/issues/alert/?alertid=14263776