Here are the February 2001 Inclusion Daily Express
"QUOTES OF THE DAY"
from http://www.InclusionDaily.com

My personal favorite has to be the one in the LAWS section from Earl
Washington, Jr, who was released after spending 17 years in a Virginia
prison for a murder he did not commit. I also like the quote in the
EDUCATION section from a teacher in Jerusalem.

I hope you enjoy these!

Scroll down to find quotes from these subject areas:
ABUSE
ADVOCACY
COMMUNITY LIVING
EDUCATION
EMPLOYMENT
FAMILIES
INSTITUTIONS
LAWS
PARTICIPATION
SELF-DETERMINATION
TECHNOLOGY

ABUSE:

"I started asking, Are there really any conditions where you want to lock a
kid in a closet?"
--Scott Hochberg, a state representative who has written a bill that would
prohibit the use of "time out" rooms in Texas schools (February 7)

"What is wrong with this picture?"
--Marta Russell, on the number of people with disabilities who have died at
the hands of law enforcement officers (February 21)

"That's not a problem in China. They don't get out of the delivery room."
--John Derbyshire, in a column about eugenics, quoting a Chinese colleague
who was asked about Down syndrome (February 27)

"It's just an unfortunate situation."
--Police Lt. Jerry Taylor on the death of a 16-year-old girl with Fragile X
syndrome who died while being restrained at her St. Louis high school
(February 28)

"There are so many gaps and loopholes that our children are in as much
danger as before, if not more danger."
--Cathy Taylor, of the Cape Organization for the Rights of the Disabled, on
new restraint guidelines approved by the Massachusetts Board of Education
(February 28)

ADVOCACY:

"Though progress has been made in the last decade, too many barriers remain
. . . My administration is committed to tearing down these barriers."
--From a draft of a speech in which President George W. Bush is expected to
announce new initiatives for people with disabilities (February 1)

"It's the right thing to do."
--S. Vance Wilkins Jr, Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, on an
official proclamation expressing 'regret' for allowing the systematic
sterilizations of thousands of people with disabilities during the 20th
century (February 5)

"They ought to apologize for doing something like that, treating them like
animals. They ruined a lot of people's lives."
--Jesse Meadows, 78, who has not been able to have children since he was
forcibly sterilized while he lived at a Virginia institution (February 5)

"People do not see the disabled in the streets, as all the disabled are
bricked up in their homes, bricked up by the medical 'rehabilitation' that
used to exist in our country."
--Rafik Ragonyan, a Russian disability rights activist (February 6)

"For me, the important thing is that Dale Evans made being the parent of a
child with a disability something to be proud of and I am extremely grateful
for that."
--Dick Sobsey, on the contributions made by the late singer, actress,
writer, and proud mother of a daughter with Down syndrome (February 9)

"An apology would be a historic first, and that makes it all the more
important."
--Phil Theisen, who advocated for the Virginia General Assembly to
officially apologize for sterilizing thousands of its citizens during the
last century (February 16)

"It seems that there's a trend in this country to rewrite history, and now
we're going to go back and stir the pot on history and take some of those
most unfortunate chapters in our history and relive them for no real
purpose."
--Virginia Senator Warren E. Barry, explaining why he opposed a statement of
apology (February 16)

"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
--George Santayana (1863-1952)

"We wanted to show how being disabled is part of human existence because we
are all imperfect beings to a lesser or greater degree."
--Petra Lutz, project coordinator of a German museum exhibit entitled "The
[Im]Perfect Human Being", which challenges the concepts of human perfection
(February 20)

"I think that all voices should be heard."
--Marianne Preble, co-chairwoman of the self-advocacy group Speaking Up for
Us, commenting on a push by Maine's attorney general to restrict voting
rights for some people who have mental retardation (February 22)

COMMUNITY LIVING:

"We're going to conquer the world!"
--Sean Matthew Putnam, 11, to the Pasadena, California cab driver who has
become his friend over the last 8 years (February 8)

"The autism doesn't cause me much of a problem, but the isolation does."
--David Miedzianik, a poet in England writing about the loneliness he
experiences (February 14)

"If they are closed up in an institution, they'll start behaving
institutionally."
--Yohanan Flusser, principal at Beit Rachel Strauss, a school in Jerusalem
which works to connect students with disabilities to the broader community
(February 20)

"It is our intention that we be good neighbors and that our individuals
blend into the neighborhood just like anyone else."
--John Barber, speaking last September about resistance his community
residential program has faced while trying to develop homes for former
Pennsylvania institution residents (February 23)

EDUCATION:

"I have a thousand friends."
--Lyndon LaPlante, 14, who has Down syndrome and was elected by his
classmates to serve on his school council in Fort Worth, Texas (February 6)

"She's safest in the whole community, where there are people who know Lily
and love her as a member of the neighborhood."
--Special education teacher Lori von Schmeling, on why she wants her own
daughter, who has Down syndrome, to ride on the ordinary school bus with
rather than the "special ed" bus (February 8)

EMPLOYMENT:

"The difference is that in here I am the same as my guests. I am not
regarded as a disabled person."
--Helen, a waitress at a Zurich, Switzerland restaurant where all of the
staff are blind and the patrons eat in pitch-black darkness (February 1)

FAMILIES:

"We apologize for not getting it done last year."
--Senator Charles Grassley at a press conference re-introducing the Family
Opportunity Act (February 13)

"He thinks he is normal, because his family raised him that way."
--Terry Boisot, on efforts to "cure" people, like her son Ben, who have
disabilities (February 14)

"I had parents coming up to me thanking me for giving their kids an
opportunity to meet and be friends with someone like Elizabeth."
--Bruce MacKenzie, talking about the choice to keep his daughter out of
institutions (February 26)

INSTITUTIONS:

"I feel in my heart that something very wrong happened to my brother, and I
do not understand how they can refuse to tell me."
--Henry Jones, whose brother Doug Jones died mysteriously while at Central
Virginia Training Center 17 months ago (February 2)

"They ought to apologize for doing something like that, treating them like
animals. They ruined a lot of people's lives."
--Jesse Meadows, 78, who has not been able to have children since he was
forcibly sterilized while he lived at a Virginia institution (February 5)

"The curfew one is just a matter of paperwork. Instead of saying that
everyone has a 9 p.m. curfew, we will have to set the curfew at 9 for each
client, on a case by case basis."
--Mexia State School spokesperson Wayne Kittley, commenting last September
on how the Texas institution would correct rights violations against its
residents (February 12)

"These guys are not mentally retarded. They are not even close to being
mentally retarded."
--The conclusion drawn by a psychologist employed by Mexia State School,
after he performed IQ tests on several of the Texas institution's residents
(February 22)

LAWS:

"Back then, the state of Arizona had no problem executing mentally retarded
murderers. We still don't."
--From an Arizona Republic editorial on the execution of Luis Mata in 1996
and the state's current efforts to revise the law regarding capital
punishment (February 7)

"This was a whole lot better than I expected."
--Earl Washington Jr., about his first day out of a Virginia prison after
DNA tests cleared him of a murder he confessed to committing 18 years ago
(February 15)

"Whatever happened at that house was very devastating to him."
--Fannie Dennis, about her son Dexter Levingston, who is deaf, has mental
retardation, and has been charged with murdering five people in his Florida
home (February 15)

"He is not an animal."
--Farah Choudhry, speaking last September on why she sought political asylum
for her son in the United States, fearing he would be persecuted in his
native Pakistan because he has autism (February 21)

"How does that relate to what his IQ is?"
--Bill Kenerly, a North Carolina District Attorney, claiming that death row
inmate Ernest McCarver should face execution next week because he was
capable of planning and implementing the murder for which he was convicted
(February 23)

"This is a practice that must stop."
--Missouri defense attorney Gino Battisti, on next week's scheduled
execution of Antonio Richardson who reportedly has mental retardation
(February 27)

PARTICIPATION:

"Honestly, I want Gen to drive everyone wild because I even learned from him
that things will happen and that you should never expect anything."
--Keiko Watanabe, whose son Gen, 19, has Down syndrome and will be leaving
his home in Japan for three months to star in a documentary film (February
2)

"It's not really our fault."
--Canadian Paralympic runner Tracy Melesko on the International Paralympic
Committee's decision to ban all "intellectually disabled" athletes from
future games after learning that many of Spain's team members had no
disability (February 9)

SELF-DETERMINATION:

"Supporting self-determination with integrity involves deep listening. . .
It involves a commitment to honour our agreements, and a rigorous commitment
to reflect on our experience."
--David and Faye Wetherow on how we might keep the principles of
self-determination intact (February 13)

"Really, athletes don't want to be called that."
--Joe Pichler, president of Anchorage, Alaska People First, on the use of
the word "retarded" (February 26)

TECHNOLOGY:

"She's smart as a whip, and very headstrong. And it doesn't hurt that
Cuddles is extremely cute."
--Don Burleson, trainer with the Guide Horse Foundation, who has trained
"Cuddles", a 2-foot high pygmy horse as a "seeing-eye horse" (February 12)

---

Distributed by:
Dave Reynolds, Editor
Inclusion Daily Express/Inclusion Weekly Review
Disability Rights Email News Service
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http://www.InclusionDaily.com