It is quite sad that the disabled have the hardest time in getting a job and when they do it is usually a low paying job tied to a boss that thinks they are stupid. Even in the best of financial times it is difficult for the disabled to find a good job. In this complete meltdown of many sectors of our economy makes it all but impossible for the disabled to get good employment. We are competing with people that are over qualified for a position but is in need of money to keep their house and car that they will do almost any job. So the low end jobs are going to engineers with master’s degrees that would never take that job except that there is nothing available in their market and they have been out of work for the last 18 months. The only answers I can think of is schooling and working for yourself. Because many of us are on SSDI or worse, it is very easy to get money to go to school – all the way to PhD. That would give anyone a huge boost in their ability to get a job and to increase their income. Of course it is a lot of work over many years, but then again nothing that is worthwhile is simple or easy. So we get to decide what we will do with our lives, sit at home staring at the boob tube, or get off our collective wheelchairs and get back to school and work.

There are many positions for teching available for secondary as well as college and research. I have found that schools are much more willing to take a chance on someone that is disabled than a company and they are easier to work for. Some universities are willing to put you through school to fill a job that they cannot find qualified people for. At a public university in Florida I saw a position open for a mathematical researcher and the school was willing to put you through to a PhD for free if you were willing to work at the university for five years. Not a bad deal – you get awesome paperwork and schooling for free along with a good job with benefits for the next five years or more. Stuff is out there for us, but we need to look for it and let the able bodied know that we are no different than they are, we are just stuck in a movable chair.

SCRN has written many articles about issues in Europe as the disabled were removed from airplanes because the pilot didn’t want them on board to taxi drivers refusing to take people in wheelchairs because it took to long to get them into the car. It is good that governments realize that the disabled should be treated no differently than the able bodied and should not get substandard service or be charged extra because of their injury or medical condition. It will be interesting to see how the advertisement blitz works and whether workers will actually take it to heart that they need to help those that cannot help themselves. It is not clear who will be doing the enforcement of the law, but they better have plenty of officers around to make sure things are working properly. People are creatures of habit and will not do more work or do things that they do not want to unless they are forced to. Secret officers should try to get on mass transit to make sure it is working properly and if not there needs to be stiff fines to be paid. Once a few workers get hit with big fines it will go through the grape vine that they have to follow the law or else. 

The disabled are usually at the bottom of the poor, unable to pay for good medical care or housing. At least there are government programs in the United States to make sure that the disabled can take care of themselves and their families. Without these safety nets, the disabled have no way of working to take care of themselves or to pay for needed medical care or drugs. The government of Haiti will need to think about how they are going to care for people that cannot care for themselves. Just thowing the disabled to the wolves and forgetting about them is not the way to do this. Add the pubic stigma of being disabled and you have a recipe for disaster. With no government help and most companies refusing to hire the disabled and you have a group that is guaranteed to starve to death on an island that they have no way of getting off of. The United Nations has a significant group on the ground in Haiti that is used for peacekeeping but can and should be used to help the disabled. There should never be a group that is so shunned that they are allowed to starve to death with no medical help and no one cares. Especially where these people are disabled because they were the victim of a natural disaster, they did not create their problem, they are just trying to live through it. There must be rehab programs put in place to help the newly disabled to get the most out of their situation and to train them for jobs that they can do. Everyone wants to be useful and to work and take care of themselves and their family.

Unfortunately the disabled are usually the ones that are the first to be laid off and that employers take advantage 9of those workers because they know how important the salary is. There are laws in place to protect the disabled so they will not be discriminated against but there are few agencies that are able to enforce the law. Even if the disabled person can prove that they have been discriminated against they need the money to hire a lawyer to go after the employer. If they do go after the company then they can be fired for other reasons. So most times the disabled just deal with the discrimination and hope that they can hang on to the job until the economy gets better and they can get another job.The government is working on a new law to protect the disabled workers called the "Equality Bill" and Parliament is discussing it. People that have been discriminated against are asked to contact their MP and let them know what happened and what could be done to fix the situation. Until this bill is passed into law the disabled will not have the same protections as the able bodied and will have to put up with unsavory managers that take advantage of their situation.

It is good to see that bills passed by the government to help the disabled are working as the Americans for Disabilities Act is working in the US. For years the disabled have been forced to live with the fact that the cannot shop or go to restaurants merely because they are in a wheelchair and the company does not want to put in a ramp or elevator. With this act, companies will need to take notice when a disabled person asks for help. It is obvious from the callous remarks by the bank that a mere letter is supposed to make a disabled person feel better that they should really be stuck at home on the Internet instead out with the rest of those that live in society. We are proud that Mr. Allen was courageous enough to take on a large entity as the Royal Bank of Scotland which was money, lawyers, and resources to try and bully these types of lawsuits. Everyone deserves to be out in public and to do everything that an able bodied person could normally do. We can’t stop shopping for food, banking, going to school, work or any of a wide variety of things that all people should have access to.

This case underlines the importance of these acts and laws that protect the disabled from those that  hate them and are callous to what it takes to get around in a wheelchair. It is very difficult to get around in a city with a wheelchair only to find that the bank won’t let you in to do your business with them. Large companies in the US must have disability coordinators to work with the disabled so that companies don’t get into situations like this poor gentleman ran into. Lets hope that the disability act in England will be adjusted in the same way so that we don’t have managers and lawyers making stupid decisions merely because they want a interview room or feel that there are not enough disabled customers to make it worthwhile to them. Disabled people put up with enough just in life’s issues with being stuck in a wheelchair and the pain and suffering associated with medical issues without having to deal with idiots that take our money to stay in business. It takes a lot of gall to tell us that you really don’t want us around, but boy keep on sending your money to us.

The notoriety of this case will also let businesses know that if they do not follow the law they will be taken to task and made to do the right thing. The bank as fully willing to go to the Supreme Court so they wouldn’t have to put in a wheelchair ramp. Fortunately the three judges saw through their scam and stopped the case from moving farther up the court chain. This is a good day for those that work hard to help the disabled.

It is sad that after all these years we have myopic management that does not know how to deal with the disabled. The disabled are looked as as somehow "broken" and unable to do any task at all. Instead of looking at all the jobs that can be done from a sitting position, the worker is tossed out and an able bodied worker is hired in their place. How are the disabled expected to take care of themselves and get off of federal aid if we are tossed out of work because management has no idea that we still have brains and can do many of the tasks we used to do. Paraplegics can do virtually any desk or computer job with few changes, if any to the environment. Perhaps the company needs to do a better job of hiring managers that do not look at the disabled as useless junk to be removed from the facility as soon as possible. There are many people that hate the disabled and cannot stand to be around them. This discrimination is disgusting and should be vetted from every company. There is no place in management for someone that cannot work with the disabled.

This a shot across the bow against haters of the disabled, and the companies who hire them. Managers should know the law and there is no reason why new hire training does not include info on the ADA. Why create a situation where you can and may well be sued if you can easily get around it. Disabled people work just as hard as anyone else and research shows they are a good fit in any organization. It is amazing how much griping disappears when everyone sees what a disabled person has to do to get their job done. Think about it the next time someone in a wheelchair is at your company looking for a job.

One would think that this was the script from a “B” movie in Hollywood, but states all over the country are debating the use of the New York protocols to determine what to do during an emergency and how to ration supplies that run low during a virus outbreak. However, public opinion has been strongly against any kind of rationing like this, and officials have worked hard to keep the public out of meetings that discuss these protocols. Our only safety net is that most states have not implemented this plan as law and most are worried what would happen to public opinion if they did put it into law. While officials are trying to state that this is for the national good and that work must be done to make sure medical care is available neglect to explain how this is going to occur. No one in any meetings to discuss the New York Protocols are willing to say that the will take ventilators and other lifesaving medical equipment from a person merely because they are disabled. We have not heard of something this sinister since the Nazi plan to rid the Reich of people that were “broken or not whole”. People that were forced to live in nursing homes because of disabilities were carted off to the same killing centers that the Jews were sent to. This law appears to allow the state to do the same type of thing under the veil of doctors and hospitals trying to give care to those that desperately need it.

People that live in states that frequently have disasters like Florida, Louisiana and California need to look carefully and see what their state officials are working on in this arena. If your state is looking to implement the New York Protocols you need to call everyone you know to put a stop to it. If this is allowed to become law then the governor of your state can decide at will that the disabled do not deserve to live and will be denied medical care that they may need to survive because others are felt to have a better chance to live. The control of life at this level is disgusting and it is sad that any doctors would be willing to put time and effort to make this a reality. No one should have the basic right to control who lives and who dies without having the family involved.

Most elected officials are lawyers so one would think and hope that they could have some idea what the law of the land is. For those that are not lawyers, they need to get up to speed quickly as these people are making laws that effect all of us. We need to think carefully before creating new laws as they may be in violation of state or national law. The Americans for Disabilities Act is a federal law that requires that all states follow it. This includes city councils as well. Service animals are allows to go virtually anywhere that  a disabled person goes and that is the end of it. The disabled person needs that animal to get around and to help them do their daily tasks like shopping, working, or going to a city council meeting. It is sad that the mayor actually said that he was shocked that people actually thought they had the right to show up to a public meeting that will directly effect them. Maybe the mayor believes that laws and rules should be made in a vacuum without the benefit of hearing from those that live in his city? In our country, all of our voices are important which is why we have the 1st amendment to the constitution and we all have the right to vote for those that make our rules and laws. It is expected that we are listened to and that changes are made based on what the public wants.

The present work on changes to our medical system demands that we let congress know what we want. The President set up town halls meetings to hear what we had to say. Congressmen and senators have been listening to phone calls, faxes, emails, and letters from constituents that care about what happens to health care in this country. No where does it say that if you are disabled, please get lost. We didn’t hear the proclamation that if you have a service animal please do not show up to the town hall meeting. On the contrary, it was expected that the disabled would show up since they are dealing with the health care system know and would be the best people to hear what should be changed. Why are these meetings different than a city council meetings? Our congressmen understand how important it is to listen to what the voters what as they can be voted out of office if they don’t. This city council looked like they wanted to hand down their own edicts without understanding federal law and what the disabled are allowed to do.

The disabled have rights just like everyone else and special laws were passed to make sure everyone understood that. Unfortunately there are those that don’t want to see the disabled and wish they would go away. There were laws called "ugly" laws that were passed to get rid of the disabled so the rest of the population didn’t need to see them. The ADA forced those laws out of existence and made sure that the disabled had access to the same rights as everyone else. They can buy homes wherever they want, can own a car, go to college and have a family. They do not have to ask for permission or get a sign off before they have a child. Additional rights were given so that the disabled could interact with others, which included service dogs. Congress understood that the disabled needed more help and gave the disabled the right to get animal helpers and allowed them to go wherever the disabled person goes. Hopefully these stories will help to stop civil rights violations and let the country know what is going on. That is why we have freedom of the press…something that some people in this country wished didn’t exist either. We have a lot of work ahead of us to make this an equal country, but there are plenty of folks that want this to be so lets work together to make it reality.

We have all heard of the hecklers in the town meetings over the last few weeks but it is unbelievable what happened to this woman in New Jersey. Regardless of where you are in the political spectrum, there is no excuse to verbally assault someone who has the floor during a meeting. Plus there is no reason to attack someone personally because you do not want to hear their view. In a democracy we expect different ideas on how things are to be done so we can pick the best one for our country’s needs. No one has exclusive rights to good ideas such that no one else can speak their mind. Those that believe that  need to take an American government class so they can get a grasp on how this republic operates. Everyone has a right to speak their mind, regardless of how horrible it sounds to you.

How many of those that heckled this woman would be willing to drop their cable and Internet connection and live in public housing. If you do not have a chronic medical problem then you truly do not understand how things work for those that rely on Medicare and Medicaid. Many pills and procedures that are used everyday on those with private insurance find they cannot get help with Medicare. The dough nut hole requires people to come up with thousands of dollars of their own money before catastrophic care kicks in. Many live on social security and do  not have thousands to throw around so stop taking their medication until the beginning of the new year. That can be a death sentence to those on heart or cancer medications. Issues like these need to be fixed so that we do not kill our citizens in the name of controlling costs. Those on social security are not people that should not have rights. We have all worked hard and paid into the system and now find ourselves severely injured because of an auto accident or have been forced to retire at 65 and now are trying to make ends meet.

If we don’t deal with this soon, we will truly have two type of people in America, those that have and those that have not. Money should not be the only measurement to determine if someone should live or have constitutional rights. Those that work and are in power have a responsibility to help those that cannot  help themselves. If we don’t then we will not continue to be a world power as social issues will eat away at the basic structure of how our country works. Lets help everyone to be the best that they can be so we don’t have situations like we are creating now. Lets make sure we keep a country that gives everyone a chance to succeed so that everyone wants to emigrate here. If we don’t we will experience the brain drain that many countries experienced over the 20th century.