It just chapped my ass when an area vet (animal doctor) threatened to close his practice "rather than let the gd government tell me what to do". This reply came after Jan - remember "Scooter Jan who writes here too” - asked him if he would install a ramp from his waiting area to the exam rooms for handicapped folks. (He had steps.) After his more or less, "NO. HELL NO!", he was reminded of the mandates in the American with Disabilities Act of 1990. Ya know he just loved that...
I'll bet my last dollar that this guy's sperm never met up with a woman's egg to create a human being born with a handicap or, as an adult, was in the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, or Coast Guard during a war. If he, his sperm, did create a child, that child was certainly never in or even close to, a real battle. Never flew a plane that dropped killer bombs. Never felt the overwhelming heat inside a tank. Never walked through a field trying to dodge land mines. Never had to go without underwear in order to avoid repeated bouts of jock itch 'cause personal hygiene was the least of your worries. Or even, felt the fear I felt for my three sons when we lived in a city, a country, where hypervigilance was a daily necessity because of real and present terrorism, of being blown to bits.
I wanted to go back and ask this jackass, "What would you have said, Mister Big Pants?" if the person asking for a ramp had been a scooter-bound, young paraplegic vet (the "war" kind) coming in to have his animal checked. Ya think he would have reacted differently to a real live Wounded Warrior? Or would he have had the same spineless reply he had for a 72 year old, gray -haired, woman on a scooter named Jan.
Whew... OK. This tirade comes not only because of this coward, and the way he treated my partner, but also because people just don't think. How many places - how many Walmarts, Krogers, Best Buys, Long Horn Steak Houses, Arvest Banks, Pep-Boys, etc., etc. - do you go into that are handicapped accessible? Whether the handicapped person is my partner or my friend's 23 year old nephew, a paralyzed-from-the-waist-down-wheel-chair-bound veteran. Can they even get in? Once in, can they maneuver the aisles? Find a suitable table? Use the bathrooms?
Think. Notice. And for the heaven - or hell's - sake, Say something!
What do you think?
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