When Bob Dole subsequently offered me the job as his press secretary, I at first resisted. What I subsequently came to learn over the next several years was that Bob Dole was at heart a centralist, a pragmatist, a problem-solver. Unlike some of his colleagues, he understood and enjoyed the machinery of the Senate.

'Medicalization' is the term used by sociologists to describe the tendency to understand aspects of social life as medical issues requiring intervention and control on the part of medicine. In Sinclair's case, he became stigmatized as a homeless person -- mentally ill, an addict.

In our work abroad, we've seen the incredible challenges that those with disabilities face in developing countries. Many children with learning and physical disabilities face corporal punishment in a school that sees kids with disabilities as people who simply don't work hard enough.