ADA anniversary Today

Have we gotten very far?  Well, Aunt Gracie is no longer confined to the attic, at least I hope not.  Special education is offering much more inclusion and services, yet they are by no means perfect. We no longer have warehouses for the physically, emotionally or psychology disabled, but presently we offer no real treatment for most unless you have access to very expensive private services. As far as mobility goes, we have handicapped parking places although not many pay much attention to them. We have curb cuts - sometimes. Many public buildings are accessible, sort of. There might be a ramp or an elevator to get to the second floor, not what you think of when you think elevator, but rather one of those lifts that takes you up the steps using the railing. You’ve seen ads for them on TV. Scary things those. Just try to get a scooter on one.

President Obama speaks as we mark the 25 anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act today, Sunday, 26 July 2015

.“….Obama spoke Monday before a packed house in the East Room of the White House about the impact of the ADA at an event just days ahead of the law’s 25th anniversary, which will occur Sunday.

‘Thanks to the ADA, the places that comprise our shared American life — schools, workplaces, movie theaters, courthouses, buses, baseball stadiums, national parks — they truly belong to everyone,” the president told the crowd, which included former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, former U.S. Rep. Tony Coelho and other leaders responsible for making the ADA a reality.

Despite the progress, however, Obama said more work is needed to ensure equality, specifically in regard to areas like employment where people with disabilities continue to lag.

“Now, days like today are a celebration of our history. But they’re also a chance to rededicate ourselves to the future — to address the injustices that still linger, to remove the barriers that remain,” Obama said. “We all know too many people with disabilities are still unemployed — even though they can work, even though they want to work, even though they have so much to contribute.’

The president committed to continue working on disability rights for the duration of his time in office and beyond.

In addition to the White House ceremony Monday, events honoring the anniversary of the civil rights law are planned this week at a variety of government agencies in the nation’s capital and at the Smithsonian Institution.”

Thank you, Mr. President, but kick some ass will you? We have so far to go.

Makes ya Wonder

I was born in October1941 and when Pearl Harbor was bombed, I obviously was not far from my mother. She tells me she was at her mother in law's house for dinner when they got the news. So, I don’t remember much of the war.  My uncle went to the New Hebrides, but I only remember his coming home with a pea coat for his sister, my mother.  My dad worked in the defense industry and his parents only had one child - my father, so my dad did not fight, nor did his father, my grandfather.  

Until  I became self aware, I lived a wonderful life being a free range kid in a small town, an ideal childhood and school experience all through the 50s until high school was over for me in 1959. I set off for Michigan State University, my first visit to a place where some of the people were different from the all white protestants who lived in my small town of Spring Lake, Michigan.

Mygod, there were people of different colors, people who wore strange beanies on their heads, had beards and wore their hair funny.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that these folks were treated differently whether they wanted to be or not. I learned what prejudice was. 

I could never figure out prejudice except it was used by large patriarchal institutions to gain and keep power and control.  If the population was given someone to hate, that population was easy to control and manipulate. Don't think so? Read "1984" and "Animal Farm." Or read history. See what Hitler did. See what organized religion has done from the Crusades to the Inquisition to the present. See what has happened to the public educational system with the dumbing down of students, so many of whom are drugged daily so they behave. Scary isn't it?

For reasons I still don’t know, I had problems with that. And at that moment, at 17 years old, social activism became a major cause in my life.

It started with me realizing that unfairness was no way to run a university, let alone a country or a world. I participated in varying acts of civil disobedience as I grew into my new role as a social activist.  I participated in sit ins, demonstrations, marches and even published my own alternative newspaper and distributed it off campus.

Of all the things I learned through the 60s and beyond, I found useful later in life after I became disabled, these were just lessons that I could use to still change things. 

And I do.