News-Leader Editorial Page Editor, Tony Messenger, gets it. He understands the disability civil rights movement and the impact of decisions made, big and small, toward individuals with disabilities. He picked up on my rant about the special, locked up bathrooms for the “wheelchair people” and posted it on his News-Leader blog. Many thanks for that. We need reporters who see issues beyond the typical yip-yap of the AP. We need reporters who are sensitive toward all cultures, not just some minority cultures.
(NOTE: Persons with disabilities are the largest minority population in the United States at 19.3% followed by African Americans at 12.9%, according to the 2000 US Census Bureau.)
There have been a lot of disability-related issues in the blogosphere lately and the locals have been carrying the banner. Chatter and Granny just get it. Chatter broke the recent outrage when Republican Governor announced that he would not call a special session and fix the Medical Assistance for Workers With Disabilities (MAWD) as promised. It’s a broken promise and should be front page news. People should be outraged.
Why fix MAWD? It makes good Republican sense the way it is. When folks work then they pay for their own things like apartments and then use MAWD for health insurance. When you cut MAWD, then they sit at home, draw Medicaid, apply for HUD housing, Food Stamps, and live off the government completely.
That is great Republican values. That’s why Republican’s voted for it, right? That’s what we told them would happen. Remember, great thinker Rep. Charlie Dennison told my wife that he didn’t need to ask any disability advocates or persons with disabilities what would happen. He was well informed because he was on the committee. So I have to believe that he knew this would happen. And now that they know what happened and are choose not to fix it, well then this is the Republican value that they wanted. After all, they promised to fix it during the session and didn’t.
It is a thankless job, but I proud of the local bloggers who continue to carry the banner for persons with disabilities.
(NOTE: Persons with disabilities are the largest minority population in the United States at 19.3% followed by African Americans at 12.9%, according to the 2000 US Census Bureau.)
There have been a lot of disability-related issues in the blogosphere lately and the locals have been carrying the banner. Chatter and Granny just get it. Chatter broke the recent outrage when Republican Governor announced that he would not call a special session and fix the Medical Assistance for Workers With Disabilities (MAWD) as promised. It’s a broken promise and should be front page news. People should be outraged.
Why fix MAWD? It makes good Republican sense the way it is. When folks work then they pay for their own things like apartments and then use MAWD for health insurance. When you cut MAWD, then they sit at home, draw Medicaid, apply for HUD housing, Food Stamps, and live off the government completely.
That is great Republican values. That’s why Republican’s voted for it, right? That’s what we told them would happen. Remember, great thinker Rep. Charlie Dennison told my wife that he didn’t need to ask any disability advocates or persons with disabilities what would happen. He was well informed because he was on the committee. So I have to believe that he knew this would happen. And now that they know what happened and are choose not to fix it, well then this is the Republican value that they wanted. After all, they promised to fix it during the session and didn’t.
It is a thankless job, but I proud of the local bloggers who continue to carry the banner for persons with disabilities.
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1 comment:
I could not agree more my friend. All I could do is shake my head when I heard about Mexican Villa. And these so called Republicans are idiots not to be demanding the re-instatement of the MAWD program. That would go a long way to show that they realize that they made a mistake. MAWD makes since to this moderate conservative.
People with Disabilities deserve much better. We all deserve much better.
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