Although I only worked for three days this week, because I was back in Colorado, attending my “sister’s” wedding, I still had a very productive week.
On Monday I attended a meeting with Congressman Langevin’s office on the issue of athletics in the disability community. We had a very productive meeting with the folks from the Inclusive Fitness Coalition, an organization that tries to provide equal opportunity for people with disabilities not just in schools but also in the community. I learned a great deal about an organization that I was not familiar with, and I have now become engaged in discovering everything about this organization.
On Tuesday we had the roundtable on the Olmstead Decision and I helped organize the event. What is more, I was asked by my supervisor to write the Congresswoman’s remarks. However, since the Congresswoman herself was unable to attend the roundtable discussion, I even had the honor and the privilege of making her remarks, the very same remarks that I had written, with some corrections from my supervisor. The roundtable was very interesting and informative. I learned a great deal about the enormous challenges that still remain around the Olmstead Decision of 1999, and the information I picked up at the meeting has increased my understanding of the real issues surrounding this historic decision.
On Tuesday, besides writing up memos and reports on the meetings from the previous two days, I also took some time out of the office to meet with some other representatives on the hill about some other issues. We had very interesting meetings with the offices of Congressman Jared Polis D. of Colorado, Bill Shuster R. of Pennsylvania, Jerald Connolly D. of Virginia, Frank Wolf R. of Virginia, and James Moran D. of Virginia.
That ended my week, but you can be sure that there is more work on my plate for this week. There is still the roundtable on the employment barriers to people with disability that I have to work on organizing in the next three weeks. More on that next week.
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