SENATOR TAMMY DUCKWORTH  (1968 - )

Serving as the junior U.S. Senator from Illinois since 2017, Tammy Duckworth has made a name for herself with a number of firsts: She was the first female helicopter pilot to lead a combat mission and the first female double amputee of the Iraq war.  The first Thai-American woman and the first woman with a disability elected to Congress, she was also the first U.S. Senator to give birth while in office.  She is currently running for reelection.

Lada Tammy Duckworth was born in Bangkok, Thailand, March 12, 1968, the daughter of Franklin Duckworth and Lamai Sompornpairin.   Although born outside the United States, Duckworth is a natural-born citizen because her father was an American citizen.  Her father, who died in 2005, was a veteran of the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps who traced his family's American roots to the American Revolutionary War.   Her mother is Thai Chinese and originally from Chiang Mai. Because her father worked with the United Nations and international companies in refugee, housing, and development programs, the family moved around Southeast Asia.  As a result Duckworth became fluent in Thai and Indonesian, in addition to English.

Duckworth attended Singapore American School, the International School Bangkok, and the Jakarta International School.  When Duckworth was 16, the family moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, where she attended Honolulu's McKinley High School, and participated in track and field, graduating in 1985.  She was a Girl Scout, and earned her First Class, now called the Gold Award.

In 1989 she graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a Bachelor of Arts in political science.  In 1992, she received a Master of Arts in international affairs from George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. She began a PhD program at Northern Illinois University, which was interrupted by her war service   She completed a PhD in human services at Capella University in March 2015

Duckworth joined the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps  in 1990 as a graduate student at George Washington University.   She became a commissioned officer in the United States Army Reserve in 1992 and chose to fly helicopters because it was one of the few combat jobs open to women at that time.   As a member of the Army Reserve, she went to flight school, later transferring to the Army National Guard and in 1996 entering the Illinois Army National Guard Duckworth also worked as a staff supervisor at Rotary International headquarters in Evanston, Illinois and was the coordinator of the Center for Nursing Research at Northern Illinois University.

She was deployed to Iraq in 2004.  She lost her right leg near the hip and her left leg below the knee from injuries sustained on November 12, 2004, when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents.  The explosion severely broke her right arm and tore tissue from it, necessitating major surgery to repair it.

Duckworth received a Purple Heart on December 3 and was promoted to Major on December 21 at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she was presented with an Air Medal and Army Commendation Medal.  She retired from the Illinois Army National Guard in October 2014 as a lieutenant colonel.

On November 21, 2006, several weeks after losing her first congressional campaign, Duckworth was appointed director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs by Governor Rod Blagojevich. She served in that position until February 8, 2009. While director, she was credited with starting a program to help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and veterans with brain injuries.

On February 3, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Duckworth to be the Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the United States Senate confirmed her for the position on April 22.   As Assistant Secretary, she coordinated a joint initiative with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help end Veteran homelessness, worked to address the unique challenges faced by female as well as Native American Veterans and created the Office of Online Communications to improve the VA's accessibility, especially among young Veterans.   Duckworth resigned her position in June 2011 in order to launch her campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois's 8th congressional district.

Duckworth was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016 after representing Illinois’s Eighth Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives for two terms.

Duckworth has been married to Bryan Bowlsbey since 1993 They met during Duckworth's participation in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps and later served together in the Illinois Army National Guard. Bowlsbey, a Signal Corps officer, is also a veteran of the Iraq War and is now retired from the armed forces.  Senator Duckworth and her husband are the proud parents of two daughters, Abigail and Maile.

Editors Note:  REELECT SENATOR TAMMY DUCKWORTH

If supposedly corporations are suffering from inflation the same way all of us are, why then are they getting richer by the minute?

Reacting to the latest findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN Secretary-General insisted that unless governments everywhere reassess their energy policies, the world will be uninhabitable.

Unless action is taken soon, some major cities will be under water, Mr. Guterres said in a video message, which also forecast “unprecedented heatwaves, terrifying storms, widespread water shortages and the extinction of a million species of plants and animals”.

Horror story

The UN chief added: “This is not fiction or exaggeration. It is what science tells us will result from our current energy policies. We are on a pathway to global warming of more than double the 1.5-degree (Celsius, or 2.7-degrees Fahreinheit) limit” that was agreed in Paris in 2015.

Providing the scientific proof to back up that damning assessment, the IPCC report – written by hundreds of leading scientists and agreed by 195 countries - noted that greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activity, have increased since 2010 “across all major sectors globally”.

In an op-ed article penned for the Washington Post, Mr. Guterres described the latest IPCC report as "a litany of broken climate promises", which revealed a "yawning gap between climate pledges, and reality."

He wrote that high-emitting governments and corporations, were not just turning a blind eye, "they are adding fuel to the flames by continuing to invest in climate-choking industries. Scientists warn that we are already perilously close to tipping points that could lead to cascading and irreversible climate effects."

Urban issue

An increasing share of emissions can be attributed to towns and cities, the report’s authors continued, adding just as worryingly, that emissions reductions clawed back in the last decade or so “have been less than emissions increases, from rising global activity levels in industry, energy supply, transport, agriculture and buildings”.

Striking a more positive note - and insisting that it is still possible to halve emissions by 2030 - the IPCC urged governments to ramp up action to curb emissions.

The UN body also welcomed the significant decrease in the cost of renewable energy sources since 2010, by as much as 85 per cent for solar and wind energy, and batteries.

Encouraging climate action

“We are at a crossroads. The decisions we make now can secure a liveable future,” said IPCC Chair Hoesung Lee. “I am encouraged by climate action being taken in many countries. There are policies, regulationbly, they can support deep emissions reductions and stimulate innovation.”

To limit global warming to around 1.5C (2.7°F), the IPCC report insisted that global greenhouse gas emissions would have to peak “before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by 43 per cent by 2030”.

Methane would also need to be reduced by about a third, the report’s authors continued, adding that even if this was achieved, it was “almost inevitable that we will temporarily exceed this temperature threshold”, although the world “could return to below it by the end of the century”.

Now or never

“It’s now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F); without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible,” said Jim Skea, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III, which released the latest report.

Global temperatures will stabilise when carbon dioxide emissions reach net zero. For 1.5C (2.7F), this means achieving net zero carbon dioxide emissions globally in the early 2050s; for 2C (3.6°F), it is in the early 2070s, the IPCC report states.

“This assessment shows that limiting warming to around 2C (3.6F) still requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest, and be reduced by a quarter by 2030.”

A great deal of importance is attached to IPCC assessments because they provide governments with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies.

They also play a key role in international negotiations to tackle climate change.

Among the sustainable and emissions-busting solutions that are available to governments, the IPCC report emphasized that rethinking how cities and other urban areas function in future could help significantly in mitigating the worst effects of climate change.

“These (reductions) can be achieved through lower energy consumption (such as by creating compact, walkable cities), electrification of transport in combination with low-emission energy sources, and enhanced carbon uptake and storage using nature,” the report suggested. “There are options for established, rapidly growing and new cities,” it said.

Echoing that message, IPCC Working Group III Co-Chair, Priyadarshi Shukla, insisted that “the right policies, infrastructure and technology…to enable changes to our lifestyles and behaviour, can result in a 40 to 70 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. “The evidence also shows that these lifestyle changes can improve our health and wellbeing.”

By Caitlin O’Kane      JUNE 29, 2022 / 2:29 PM 

CBS NEWS

Soccer star Carson Pickett became the first person with a limb difference to play on the U.S. Women's National Team (USWNT). Pickett, who was born without her left forearm and hand, helped the team win against Colombia on Tuesday.

The team and Pickett both posted about the historic moment on Instagram. "Kick It Like Pickett," they wrote.

Pickett has posted on social media about her limb difference in the past. In April, which is Limb Loss and Limb Difference Awareness Month, she said while she is "confident and comfortable" showing her arm, she knows "there are so many people in the world who aren't."

"The feeling of being different and the anxiety of not fitting in is something that I have been through," Pickett wrote, sharing how she used to wear sweatshirts during summer to hide her arm. "This month is really really special, important and should be celebrated." 

She said she wants to be an advocate for others like herself. "Let's all try to love ourselves no matter what we look like and let's all be kind to each other above all else. Different people are my kind of people. The world needs more of that," she said.

In 2019, the defender made headlines when she shared a special moment with a 22-month- old who also had a limb difference. Pickett met Joseph Tidd, who was born without a left hand, at an Orlando Pride match. She is one of his favorite soccer players, and a photo of the two arm-bumping went viral.

Pickett has played for the under-17 and under-23 national teams, but Tuesday was her debut game on the USWNT. She has also played on several National Soccer League teams, including the Orlando Pride, and most recently, the North Carolina Courage. 

At 28 years old, Pickett is the oldest field player to debut for the USA since McCall Zerboni made her international debut at the age of 30 in 2017. Pickett is the oldest field player to ever start for the USA in her first cap, according to the team.

"Carson did very well in training for us in last week and with the management of minutes for Emily Fox that we had, we felt like Carson would be a good replacement, and I'm happy that she was able to perform well for 90 minutes," U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski said, according to ESPN.

AmeriDisability describes Disability Pride as "accepting and honoring each person's uniqueness and seeing it as a natural and beautiful part of human diversity" and connects it to the larger movement for disability justice.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed on July 26, 1990, to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. Following this legislation, Boston held the first Disability Pride Day event in July 1990. Since then, Disability Pride events have been celebrated in this month  in cities around the country.  The number of cities celebrating Disability Pride continues to grow as Disability Pride continues to evolve.

This is all due to the hard work of disabled activists who have fought for equal representation and equity.  But a great deal of work remains to be done to ensure the needs of the disability community are met equitably.

Disability Pride Month is not yet a nationally recognized holiday, but in honor of the 25th anniversary of the ADA, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio declared July Disability Pride Month in 2015.  Since then this month has become an important time to honor the diversity and uniqueness of each person in the disability community and celebrate people who have disabilities. 

With more than 160 million people living with chronic diseases and disabilities in the U.S., the National Health Council (NHC) provides a unified voice for people with chronic diseases and disabilities by advocating for increased access to quality, high-value, sustainable, equitable, and affordable health care for all.  There are innumerable non-profit organizations dedicated to addressing many other injustices faced by the disability community.  A number of them are listed at  http://www.bazelon.org/resource-library/disability-rights-organizations/

Having a better understanding of the term “ableism” can be a first step in helping you be an advocate for the disability community.

ABLEISM

Ableism is any form of discrimination in favor of non-disabled people. It comes in many different forms that range from subtly offensive language to outright prejudice. Some lesser-known examples of ableism include sayings such as “That’s so lame,” or “My suggestion fell on deaf ears.” Using a class of disability as an idiom or to illustrate a point can offend and alienate disabled people.

Ableism can also come from well-intended actions. It’s important that disabilities be acknowledged, without unduly affecting the expectations of the disabled individual. Ignoring a disability or pretending it doesn’t exist is a form of ableism. The language we use and the way we acknowledge or fail to acknowledge disabilities are important.  Let Disability Pride Month serve as a chance to highlight ableism and how it plays into our own unconscious biases.