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The email I just sent to my congressman regarding H.R. 620 (Tumblr x-post)
I called the local-to-me office, and was directed to Congressman McEachin’s government website, to send an email from there, so that my zip code (and thus my constituency status) could be confirmed.
This is what I wrote:
This is what I wrote:
Dear Congressman Donald McEachin:
I am writing today to urge you to vote “No” on H.R. 620 (“ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017) when it comes up for a vote (Scheduled for Febuary [sic – oops] 15, 2018), filed under Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 56.7 million, or 19% of Americans, are disabled and living outside of institutions (source: https://www.disabled-world.com/disability/statistics/cbfff.php), and thus, would be directly and adversely affected by this proposed legislation, not to mention the negative impact it would have on their family members.
The following is an excerpt from a summary of the bill, as written on Congress.gov:
"The bill prohibits civil actions based on the failure to remove an architectural barrier to access into an existing public accommodation unless: (1) the aggrieved person has provided to the owners or operators a written notice specific enough to identify the barrier, and (2) the owners or operators fail to provide the person with a written description outlining improvements that will be made to improve the barrier or they fail to remove the barrier or make substantial progress after providing such a description. The aggrieved person’s notice must specify: (1) the address of the property, (2) the specific ADA sections alleged to have been violated, (3) whether a request for assistance in removing an architectural barrier was made, and (4) whether the barrier was permanent or temporary. ”
The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed into law over 27 years ago, and even at the time, a grace period of 18 months was already written into the law in order to give businesses a chance to come into compliance.
The only legal protection that the Americans with Disabilities Act gives to citizens was the right to seek redress in court, if a business or employer denies them equal access to goods, services or jobs that are available to every other citizen. If The ADA Education and Reform Act were to become law, it would hobble these protections even further. In no other domain of public life is ignorance of the law a valid defense. And to ask the victims of discrimination to bear the sole responsibility for enforcement of the laws meant to protect them is a travesty.
Therefore, I urge you again to vote “no” on this bill. Thank you for your continued support of minorities in your district.
Sincerely,
[My name]
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Festivals, parades, music concerts. ...Political rallies. You know: all the things that make you a fully well-rounded citizen.
Also: Medicaid/Medicare, which are the primary health insurance systems for most disabled people, will only pay for equipment / carers needed for "daily activities" -- which are restricted to Eating (but not cooking), "toileting," and sleeping. Not holding down a job, or taking care of children, or volunteering in the neighborhood.
And now that I've written that all out, it occurs to me that all these policies are just a bureaucratic workaround since the official repeal of the last of the 'Ugly' laws back in the 1970s.
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Shudders doubly when he realises "The Ship Who Sang" was written while these were still on the books....
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I was born while those laws were still on the books, and to this day, I remain convinced that the reason I was saved from being housed in a "residential 'School'" for the 'severely retarded' (read: prison for aberrant children/adults) was because my parents were white, and my father in a highly respected profession (airline pilot).
Also, I've had more than one friend recommend "The Ship Who Sang" for me, because the protagonist was a girl who was born disabled, so I must love it... But when I read the blurb/synopsis on the back of the book, I felt ill.
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One of my plans for today, before this came up, was to sit down and draft "Why Helva** is bad for SF/F" as a submission to "Disabled People Destroy SF" (only good thing with today is I've come across stuff relevant to that while looking for my old notes and postings on Dad's care).
* Or children!
** Ship Who Sang's disabled protagonist.
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(This story is from my memory of my mother's retelling, so unreliable narrator warnings may or may not apply)
When I was 2 years old, and newly diagnosed with cerebral palsy, the hospital asked my mother to bring me in for a psych evaluation (Because the assumption was then -- and still is! -- that C.P. leads to an automatic assumption of increased risk for "metal retardation").
So the three of us (mother, father and I were sitting in the waiting room: my mother and father on the seats facing the door, and me facing them (with my back to the door). The nurse/psychologist's assistant comes in, says hello to my parents, and nothing to me, and without warning grabs the back of my stroller and wheels me down the hall to wait alone for the doctor to come in and administer the exam.
Now, I'm two. When he eventually shows up and starts giving me puzzles to do, I just sit there and stare at him, because I have no context for what is going on. So he comes to the conclusion that I am "severely retarded" and the only option is to institutionalize me. So he sends for my mother to give her the devastating news.
Mother, meanwhile, is sitting in the waiting room with proverbial steam coming out of her ears over how disrespectfully the nurse had treated me (Side note: Her father had taught mathematics at The Virginia Military Institute, so she knew military protocol for interrogations, and decided to use them, answering all questions with: Yes, No, or I don't know).
So she comes in, sits down next to me and smiles at me, and answers all questions as planned while the doctor tries to demonstrate how unresponsive I am. Only... with her there (and knowing what questions are coming up -- and probably because the doctor is now explaining to her why he's asking these particular questions in a way he didn't with me), I answer everything perfectly.
He has no choice but to cross out his initial diagnosis, but he writes down in his notes that Mother was "Manipulating" me (because I was clearly only performing to please her), and that she hostile to him... Only one of those was true. ;-).
And thus, I was saved from a life and death behind the walls of a prison by another name.
As the years have gone by, though, and I've gained an appreciation of racism in this country (especially in the mid-1960s), I can't help but wonder if I was saved as much by Mother's blue eyes and white skin (and my Father's work uniform with the gold epaulets on the shoulders) as I was by her "uppity" spirit.
Would that entitled, white, doctor have seen that she could be a "fit and appropriate" parent if she'd been black, and hostile to white male authority? Or if we'd been poor?
And I also wonder how many other toddlers he'd condemned to captivity before and since, since he clearly had no understanding of actual child psychology.
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Some people just shouldn't be in people facing jobs because of a fundamental inability to people. Medicine is one, child medicine doubly so.
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