Kat,

Thanks for sending this.  I saw the RTF stop in Wyoming, and it was really
good; I encourage people to sign the petition and to directly contact their
members of Congress directly!


On 10/4/07, kat <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>
>
> Greetings from the Road To Freedom bus currently in Concord, New
> Hampshire! We are traveling the country to promote restoration of the
> Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) -- and we need your help!
>
>
>
> On *Thursday morning, October 4, 2007, at 10 am*, the Subcommittee on
> Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties of the House Judiciary
> Committee will hold an important hearing on renewing the Americans with
> Disabilities Act. The hearing will focus on the ADA Restoration Act
> (H.R. 3195), the bill designed to restore the rights of the many people
> who have lost their civil rights protections due to the narrowing of the
> ADA in the courts.
>
>
>
> We urge you to attend these hearings on Thursday in *Room 2141 of the
> Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC*.
>
>
>
> If you cannot attend, *please take action* *below* to let Congress know
> that you support passage of the ADA Restoration Act.
>
> Best,
>
> Jim Ward
> Founder and President
> ADA Watch/NCDR
>
>
>
>
> *ADA RESTORATION ACTION CENTER*
>
> **Powered By ADAWatch.org
> <http://m1e.net/c?29279385-fj9HMbY1/BswA%402799490-cUT/mr53lXedw>
>
>
>
> After years of being weakened in the courts, Congress is coming to the
> rescue of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the bipartisan
> civil rights protections signed into law in 1990. This vital legislation
> will restate and clarify the intent of Congress in order to keep the
> promise of the ADA. Please take action /now/ to encourage members of
> Congress to sign-on and pass this legislation which was drafted with the
> support of a broad coalition of disability organizations.
>
>
>
> *Contact Congress
> <http://m1e.net/c?29279385-RbrB4KQnyaGWU%402799491-rGZ7yo3RweCOk>*
>
> Click the link above to tell your members of Congress to support the
> /ADA Restoration Act/.
>
>
>
> *Sign the Petition
> <http://m1e.net/c?29279385-lKSLx8YepcXrM%402799492-PM/bvvkK09g3w>*
>
> Click the link above to show your support for passage of the /ADA
> Restoration Act/. We will distribute the petitions to Congress and the
> media.
>
>
>
> *Tell Your Story
> <http://m1e.net/c?29279385-4JaeLqztZnXAo%402799493-WCWUViZX7vc4I>*
>
> Click the link above to tell your story about disability discrimination,
> how the ADA has helped you or how the promise of the ADA is still
> unfulfilled. We will share these testimonials with Congress and the media.
>
>
>
> *Get On the Bus
> <http://m1e.net/c?29279385-53c0FJzFjGDN2%402799494-VrHns6uEdhY5M>*
>
> Click the link above to follow the /Road To Freedom: Keeping the Promise
> of the ADA/, our year-long, cross-country bus tour promoting the
> restoration of the ADA.   Freedom bus Check out the tour schedule, read
> the blog and view photos of our journey so far covering more than 20,000
> miles, 40 states and more than 60 bus stop events.
>
> *BACKGROUND:*
> Seventeen years ago, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act
> (ADA) with overwhelming bipartisan support. However, in recent years, a
> number of Supreme Court decisions have significantly reduced the
> protections available to people with disabilities in employment settings.
>
> Courts are quick to side with businesses and employers, deciding against
> people with disabilities who challenge employment discrimination 97% of
> the time, often before the person even has a chance to show the employer
> treated them unfairly.
>
> Indeed, courts have created an absurd Catch-22 by allowing employers to
> say a person is "too disabled" to do the job but not "disabled enough"
> to be protected by the ADA. People with conditions like epilepsy,
> diabetes, HIV, cancer, hearing loss, and mental illness that manage
> their disabilities with medication, prosthetics, hearing aids, etc. --
> or "mitigating measures" -- are viewed as "too functional" to have a
> disability and are denied the ADA's protection from employment
> discrimination.
>
> People denied a job or fired because an employer mistakenly believes
> they cannot perform the job or because the employer does not want people
> with disabilities in the workplace are also denied the ADA's protection
> from employment discrimination.
>
> */Passage of the ADA Restoration Act of 2007 is critical to restoring
> the intent of Congress when it originally passed the ADA./*
>
>
>
> As Rep. Steny Hoyer stated when he introduced the ADA Restoration Act of
> 2007 on July 26, 2007, "the point of the ADA is not disability; it is
> the prevention of wrongful and unlawful discrimination." The courts have
> spent an exorbitant amount of time parsing the question of whether a
> person is really "disabled," when the real question is whether the
> person was treated /unfairly/ on the /_basis of_/ an irrelevant personal
> characteristic (disability). Courts do not require people alleging race
> or sex discrimination under other civil rights laws to first prove their
> race or gender -- instead, they look at whether race or gender was the
> basis for the adverse action. Under the ADA, however, before a court
> will hear a person's discrimination claim, the person is currently
> required to first prove in excruciating detail how "disabled" he or she
> is. This is /not/ what Congress intended in the /original/ ADA.
>
>
>
> Instead, as Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner said when he joined Mr. Hoyer in the
> introduction of the ADA Restoration Act of 2007, this bill helps ensure
> that the ADA takes its rightful place among other civil rights laws, and
> "will force courts to focus on whether a person has experienced
> discrimination 'on the basis of disability,' rather than require
> individuals to demonstrate that they fall within the scope of the law's
> protection" at all. That was what Congress originally intended -- to
> focus a spotlight on unfair discrimination against people with a broad
> range of disabilities.
>
>
>
> When Congress passed the ADA, when President George H. W. Bush signed
> the law, and when Attorney General Dick Thornburgh promulgated
> regulations to implement the law, the intent of the ADA was crystal
> clear -- the law was intended to apply to /everyone/ who experienced
> discrimination on the basis of disability, not just those with severe
> disabilities. Congress did not expect its legislative history, and prior
> case precedent, to be ignored.
>
> /   /
>
> *ADA Watch/NCDR joins CCD, NCIL and the larger disability rights
> community and urges Congress to pass the ADA Restoration Act (H.R.
> 3195),* restoring the original intent of Congress to ensure the right to
> be judged based on performance, harmonizing the ADA with other civil
> rights laws, and requiring the courts to interpret the law fairly.
>
>
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-- 


Kendall

An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's redundant!)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

-George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950

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