Bringing the Vision to Life
By Rick Rader, MD, FAAIDD, FAADM
“Nothing is written.”
This quote from T.E. Lawrence implies that nothing is inevitable, life consists of choices, and how the individual can make an impact on his/her destiny. The disability community continues to reinforce and remindme of this; hence the name for my monthly musings.
It was in the middle of 1663, and one can only imagine the excitement felt by the German theologian and poet Johann Rist the night before his new magazine Erbauliche Monaths-Unterredungen (“Edifying Monthly Discussions”) left the print shop and was brought out to the street to sell. It was a crapshoot for sure. After all, it was the first magazine to be published in the world.
Years later, in 1741, there was a competition to publish America’s first magazine. Two owners of rival newspapers, Andrew Bradford and Benjamin Franklin rushed to publish a magazine and claim the honor. Bradford was the first, with his American Magazine, which was published only three days before Benjamin Franklin published The General Magazine. While both failed within a short time, the idea of publishing magazines was off and running. Today there are currently 7,416 consumer print magazines, thousands more are digital, and thousands more belong to the scientific community in the form of journals.
We shared the same excitement, joy, anticipation and pride as Rist, Bradford and Franklin when we conjured up the idea of publishing HELEN: TheJournal of Human Exceptionality.
While there are a multitude of magazines in the disability space, HELEN is unique in that it is a forum for the entire disability community. We have experts in all sectors of the community including sensory, neuro-motor, behavioral, mobility, communicative/expressive, cognitive, learning, and psychiatric, including both acquired and genetic etiologies. And when we say “experts,” we don’t simply mean clinicians; we know “experts” come in many flavors—parents, teachers, caregivers, self-advocates, direct support professionals, behaviorists, assistive technologists, policy makers, dreamers, engineers, artists, geeks, historians, students, family members, ethicists, politicians, reporters, legal eagles and entrepreneurs. And we have them all, ready to share their programs, ideas, beliefs, hunches, experiences, dreams, fears and accomplishments.
Many of our articles will be published by students: medical, dental, allied health, nursing, pharmacy, young legislative staffers, bioengineering, etc., who have not (yet) been beaten up by the land mines, obstacles, naysayers, narrow thinkers and power-brokers that litter the playing field. We expect them to say, “why not?,” “what if,” or “stop doing that.” And they will be as welcome as the Nobel Prize winners that will also be welcomed contributors.
The theme of HELEN is that we see ourselves as partners, collaborators, duets, teams, tribes, pirates and gangs. We will let you know when it’s time to pick up the pitchforks and torches and head for the castle; and also, how to get there after they have raised the drawbridge. We intend to balance, weigh and capitalize on our individual and collective wisdom, imagination, failure, experience, frustrations, evidence, potential and possibilities.
The tag line is “The Journal of Human Exceptionality,” and that will be our North Star. What we see, think, imagine, feel and understand as “exceptional” will guide us in selecting topics, authors, communities, programs, centers of excellence, movements and heroes.
We hope you will join us as readers, subscribers, authors, critics, supporters, and flag wavers. For the inaugural issue of a journal named HELEN, it’s only fitting for Helen Keller to have the last word:
“The place between your comfort zone and your dream is where life takes place.”