Hello Zachariah,

An invitation is open to accompany me as we visit the
National Guard Armories here that have been converted
into shelters or the homeless camps located smack dab in
the county where I live.  This to be followed up with an
excursion to the numerous soup kitchens of San Francisco
where in “excess of 20,000 hungry and poor are fed.”
And then we can go to all major cities across this great
nation of ours every Thanksgiving Day and Christmas
where this same abject scenario is repeated many times
over with no end in sight.

Among those people frequenting those places, not because
they want to, but because they have to, we will find
that approximately and more or less 25% of them to be
disabled in the conventional sense of our understanding,
and the rest of them having some diagnosed or as yet
undiagnosed disability that prevents them from pursuing
the American Dream of living in a “healthy democracy”
and pursuit of their happiness.  For an accurate bearing
of the facts, we should get their opinion of the
character of those people who helped put them there, and
who were causal to their predicament.

We need to talk to those folks and see what they think
of their right, to access of housing and to web
technology.  And while we are holding fast to our belief
that all is well and hunky dory in this great land of
ours, let’s carefully listen to countless stories of
educated and honest people, and decent American
citizens, who because of their disability, had a brush
with these so-called “altruistically minded landlords”
who generally “are not mean spirited.”  Maybe I should
agree.  Perhaps they are “not mean spirited”, but are
just being a tad greedy while they overreach in pursing
THEIR own American dream with no regard of who they hurt
while they accumulate their blessings and their
happiness?

Some disabled have only little white picket fences of
obstacle and barrier to traverse.  I have seen some
disabled who have barriers the size of the Great Wall of
China and who need our help desperately.  But perhaps
this too is “another story.”  And just maybe, we should
just firmly close our eyes to engaging the ennobling
concept of “awareness” for these disabled folks, and set
that aside for consideration at another time as well?

Rudy
.
.
.
> ----->  I'm not certain of your point here at least as it relates
> to mine. Are you saying that these people are the majority? I
> think not. I still hold to the arguement that awareness is the
> biggest hurdle, that most people are not in the mean spirited
> camp you describe and that there will always be some who are
> unmoveable (or move in another way).
>         Sufficient awareness amongst the population will make the
> sort of actions you describe, while not impossible,  much more
> difficult.
>         If your arguement is about the health of democracy, well,
> that is quite a different story.
>
> zachariah
>
>
> On Sat, 30 Dec 2000, Rudy Caris wrote:
>
> Unfortunately, ADA Advocates in the thick of things have
> learned quickly that most people who oppose the ADA, are
> not "morons" at all, but rather very bright politically
> motivated strategists.  Funded by big business and the
> profit driven corporation, these "aware" and educated
> folks at times make tough moves and display distinct
> tendencies towards "mean spiritedness" as they "fight
> for their own economic survival and right to run their
> own business as they please."
>
> To these folks, this is just "survival of the fittest."
>
> Example:  The landlords in this area, actively "educate
> themselves on the ADA and Fair Housing Regulations only
> to find loop holes to get around them."  Especially the
> discrimination issues.  One landlord bragged to me after
> wrongly evicting a "handicapped person", that "...they
> will just have to live on the streets for awhile [with
> their 2 year old daughter]."  This adverse action was
> backed up by Housing and was made possible because of
> HUD's (Housing-Urban Development) new policy effective
> January 1, 2000, of "Being more friendly to landlords."
>
> That policy came into being via the political activism
> of those profit driven "mean spirited persons", who were
> supported by the powerful LandLord Associations.  The
> conceding motivator was "More HUD contracts."  A multi
> million dollar economic consideration.  This was done
> with little regard of the effect on the rights of the
> disabled tenant.  For sure, a big blow to the low income
> disabled renter whose average income is about $700.00 in
> a zero housing market, and to the disability community
> in general.