Did anyone notice the high geek quotient of last Sunday’s Arts section of the NY Times? It featured a lengthy assessment of Philip K. Dick’s cultural significance as well as a fond recollection of Mystery Science Theater 3000. I need to pick up a few more Dick novels. I’ve read The Man in the High Castle and liked it (even though I found all the I Ching references a little tiresome), but that’s the extent of my familiarity with his oeuvre.

I’m leaving shortly to check out Peter Bjorn & John in concert. I expect to be charmed but not astounded.

I’m going to be bouncing around from one event to another this evening, so I don’t know if I’ll have time to make any witty or insightful observations today. I’m afraid you’ll have to find something else to fill those five minutes you usually devote to me. Perhaps you can pay some bills or write up a grocery list or water your plants. Carry on.

Last month, I was part of a panel reviewing proposals for a conference on disability and aging. One of proposals concerned the link between Down’s Syndrome and Alzheimer’s Disease. The proposal intrigued me because I wasn’t aware of the connection. And today I came across an article in the Toronto Globe and Mail exploring the very same topic. The article points out that people with Down’s are living longer, a trend that is now revealing the strong propensity of this population to develop Alzheimer’s. Medical and community support professionals are now working to develop living environments appropriate to the needs of these individuals.

This story demonstrates that society’s current practice of stovepiping disability and aging issues. The human services field is particularly guilty of this sort of thinking. Entirely separate support structures and bureaucracies are created to serve each population and there is depressingly little interaction or collaboration between the two. When a person with a disability turns age 65, they are considered “elderly” and they are shuffled into the “elderly” silo of supports, which often has a paradigmatically different underlying philosophy and set of priorities. Whereas the disability support system–at least in many states–emphasizes independence and community living, the elderly support system tends to have a greater bias towards institutional care settings.

More people with disabilities are going to live into old age (not to mention the fact that the boomer generation will probably resist efforts to label them either as disabled or elderly) and it may be time to do away with the notion that disability and aging are separate and distinct human experiences. Perhaps we should be more concerned with meeting the needs of the person rather than stubbornly clinging to outmoded categorizations and classifications.

Here’s how the AP began its story about today’s House vote to expand federal hate crimes legislation:

The House voted Thursday to expand federal hate crime categories to include violent attacks against gays and people targeted because of gender, acting just hours after the White House threatened a veto.

The New York Times:

The House of Representatives voted today to extend “hate crime” protection to people who are victimized because of their sexuality. But the most immediate effect of the bill may be to set up another veto showdown between Democrats and President Bush.

The Los Angeles Times gets it right:

The House, defying a fresh veto threat, passed legislation today to expand the federal hate-crime law to include violent acts motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation, gender or disability.

I have a feeling the disability component of the bill was overlooked or buried by most news outlets because it isn’t provoking nearly as much overheated rhetoric from social conservatives as the provision regarding sexual orientation. Here’s an  illustrative quote from Concerned Women for America:

Perhaps most frightening is the fact that liberal legislators have refused any amendment which would substantively protect religious expression in association with this legislation. Similar laws have been used around the world — and right here at home — to silence opposition to the homosexual lifestyle. That refusal speaks volumes about the true agenda behind this legislation, which is to grant official government recognition to both homosexual and cross-dressing behaviors, and to silence opposition to those behaviors.

It seems to escape much of the radical right that the bill kicks in after a crime has been committed and the last time I checked, being a homophobic crank isn’t a crime. But I digress.

According to 2005 numbers from the FBI, 53 hate crimes were motivated by disability bias. A small number, to be sure. Nevertheless, the inclusion of disability in the House bill is significant because it acknowledges the persistent stigma and prejudice that can and does motivate violence against people with disabilities act. I’m also willing to bet that the number of violent incidents motivated by disability bias is substantially underreported.

Conservatives like to argue that all crimes of the same class should be treated equally. But they overlook the fact that our criminal judicial system does make distinctions based on things like intent and the status of the victim. Hate crimes legislation will probably not prevent these violent acts, but until we can learn to play nice together (or at least learn to assault and kill each other for purely personal reasons), these crimes deserve a forceful response from the state.

If you live in the northern latitudes, there’s something special about the arrival of May 1st. It serves as a portent of summer and a farewell to the dreary late winter and early spring that we typically experience in the Midwest. On May 1st, you can be reasonably certain–though not guaranteed–that you won’t see another snowflake for at least five or six months. Human bodies begin to shed their heavy sweaters and utilitarian parkas for more stylish and revealing wardrobes. The first of May brings birdsong and sunburns and sweat and trips to the Dairy Queen and the smell of cut grass and the countless other things we’ve been pining for since October.

Of course, May 1st also May Day and National Love Day (if you’re in the Czech Republic and a romantic) and Law Day (if you’re in the United States and nostalgic). But for me, the arrival of a month that doesn’t contain the letter “r” just makes me happy.