My newest demos

Just put up a couple of new demos on my music website. Feedback is always welcome. Thanks for visiting!

Friends: we've just found out that the governor of NJ is planning to cut medicaid funded home health care for people like Donna who are often struggling with very inadequate care as it is. Who in their right mind would cut desperately needed services from the most needy among us...that segment of the population who can't cook and prepare their own meals, nor do their own bathing and personal hygiene? Are young, vital disabled adults going to have to live their whole lives in nursing homes? That's going to be the result if they can't get needed care in their own homes. If you care about this issue, please let the NJ governor and/or legislators know your feelings! Read more about this on our Flickr site Thanks

Our CD is now available for download

Donna Belladonna
Acid Cowboy

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Hope you enjoy the music! All proceeds from the CD will go to help Donna have a better life.

Here's a photo of a typical day for Donna. She must put her life at risk just to make a simple trip to the pharmacy or the supermarket. During the summer, when the town is swarming with vacationers and beach goers, there is even more traffic! This situation is an accident waiting to happen, wouldn't you say? However, there is no curb cut on the sidewalk to the left and behind Donna; and the sidewalks are often broken and not passable for wheelchairs. She has no choice but to ride her wheelchair in the road...either that, or stay home isolated and alone her whole life, like so many disabled citizens are forced to do. Or perhaps you feel that people like her should be forced to spend their whole lives in institutional settings? Much more needs to be done to address the transportation needs of people like Donna. Our town, like most, is not fully accessible for wheelchair bound citizens, in spite of the ADA. You can read more about this issue and see more photos like this at our photo web site at flickr

Dentistry for the disabled (continued)

Donna will eventually lose two of her front teeth if we can't find affordable and wheelchair accessible dental care. She has already lost most of her molars. For a brief update on our continuing struggle to get decent dental care for Donna click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lejaz/438191104/

Dentistry for the disabled - cont.

There is a new addition to the story of Donna's struggle to find a private dentist who will accept a Medicaid patient like herself. Unfortunately I have been so busy lately, that I haven't had the time to post it until now. Donna had to have 3 teeth pulled on Jan. 8. Since we could not find a private dentist who would accept Medicaid, we had to pay the full fee($875.00... and this was done in under one hour), or else they would have sent her home to suffer in pain. The worst of it is, she needs root canals and crowns on two of her front teeth, or else she will wind up losing them.

dentistry for the disabled (or the lack of...)

This very special lady was almost in tears yesterday, because the dentist who helped her last summer when she was in terrible pain told us that he NO LONGER accepts Medicaid for payment. He was the only private dentist in our area who would treat Donna. There are no longer any dentists in our area who accept Medicaid, and Donna has a broken molar that needs to be extracted, and a tooth in the front that needs a root canal and crown. I'm sorry, but I feel this is a terrible disgrace. These dentists really should to be ashamed to let her suffer like this. They can easily afford to take one or two medicaid patients. I know the insurance on the two Mercedes' is high, but with the fees that they charge the rest of us, they can somehow manage to scrape by...ha! (compared to most of the people we know they are more than well off!) There is a dental clinic at the hospital that will take Medicaid patients, but Donna received very poor treatment there last summer and is afraid to go back. The people who do the work there are still in training. They are dental residents...NOT licensed dentists. Shouldn't Donna have the right to be treated by a private dentist of her choice? Don't the disabled deserve the same quality of dental care as anyone else?! If you feel that they do, please let us know. (The rest of the story can be found below).