Nineteen Years After the End of the World

[TygrBright]

On July 26, 1990, the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed.

And the world ended, obviously.

It ended because all of America's small businesses would have to build ramps and they couldn't afford it and it would put them out of business!

It ended because every podunk local jurisdiction would have to install curb cuts and door openers and elevators in public buildings and our taxes would go through the roof or they'd all have to declare bankruptcy or BOTH!

It ended because every school would have to buy buses or vans with wheelchair lifts and hire special education teachers and they'd have to raise taxes MORE and probably stop having the football program!

It ended because no one would be able to get a government contract or grant unless they could prove that their premises and their services were accessible to people with disabilities and it would be the END of the nonprofit sector, the END, I tell you!

It ended because malls and theaters would have to 'waste' valuable parking lot real estate putting a bunch of spaces right near the entrance out of commission, all for people who would probably never come there anyway!

Oh, the humanity.

It was terrible, the end of the world.

My god, you could hardly hear yourself think for all the top-of-the-lungs pissing and moaning by people who were absolutely certain that the ADA would bring everything to a grinding, screeching, miserable, expensive halt and destroy the American Way of Life.

The amount of money that was spent trying to stop the ADA was stupendous, at least by the standards of 1989. (Chump change by today's measure, of course.) Lobbyists were handed blank checks by the Real Estate industry, the Chambers of Commerce, all the usual suspects and some who should have known better and subsequently had the grace to be ashamed of themselves. (*cough*Higher Education*cough*)

Because, after all, if it passed, it would cost trillions, TRILLIONS!! and bring Life As We Know It to an abrupt and unpleasant end.

Buildings would be UGLY, you know. With all that handicapped stuff. Really ugly and noticeable.

No one wanted people with disabilities to actually SUFFER, you know. Really. It wasn't malice against the people with disabilities. It was just that the ADA would be THE END OF THE WORLD, and really, people with disabilities had been getting by, you know, mostly, well, sure, there were a few sad stories out there, but, really, you know, people with disabilities shouldn't really EXPECT to be able to live ordinary lives and have ordinary jobs like the rest of us who are all healthy and young and able-bodied and always will be, I mean, don't they get SSI and all that, to compensate them for having whatever their disability is, and isn't that enough? Aren't we already costing ourselves enough taxes as it is?

What a shame the world ended, don't you know.

Isn't it SAD?

Don't you just deeply regret it and gnash your teeth about it every day?

So be careful!

When some earnest pundit tells you that if (this or that) piece of legislation passes it will be THE END OF THE WORLD, pay attention! It's series!!!1!! HUGH, even!

earnestly,
Bright

[Historic NY]

1. Same crowd complaining about the minimum wage..the worlds ending.

[Demeter]

13. Not to Mention Single Payer Health Care, Which Is Too Awful to Even Contemplate

let alone talk about....never mind that every CIVILIZED AND DEVELOPED FIRST WORLD nation has it. We LIKE being a Banana Republic!

[TankLV]

17. Why don't the media whores EVER ask: OK, not now, but WHEN will you accept an increase?!!!

Just ONE short simple question - and I BET MY HOUSE that NOT ONE of these idiots will be able to provide an answer - NOT ONE!!!

Or - another one: What if you could get away with paying a PENNY an hour - WOULD YOU HIRE MORE WORKERS THEN?!!! (And how would said workers be able to live - but that would be TWO questions and UNFAIR).

JUST ONCE I would like to be the interviewer with these GREEDY SELFISH bastards...!!!

just once...

[babylonsister]

2. I trust you saw this, and I love you.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8550797&mesg_id=8550797

[TygrBright]

5. I did not, but thanks.

It's amazing how much better Poppy looks after eight years of whatsisname. That 'noblesse oblige' thing of the old Plutocrat class of GOPpies occasionally moved them to toss a scrap under the table for the rest of us.

The new generation of rabid greedheads and birther wackjobs only tosses napalm cocktails at us.

reflectively,
Bright

PS I think yer pretty cool, too.

[babylonsister]

6. "reflectively"

Ha! You're a doll, and unique, which is always good. :hug:

[Amos Moses]

3. great post

K&R:applause:

[givemebackmycountry]

4. That's a great post, I mean a great fucking post...

And that's why I love DU and yes, you.

Every now and then, someone types up a post that just jams the way things are, and the way they should be, right in your face, and I say I'm stealing that shit.

I'm stealing your shit.
And I'm using it Monday morning, and I'm jamming it right down the throat of this idiot freeper scumbag I have to work with.

He's going to eat it like he's on the Food Network.

Did I say Thank You?

[TygrBright]

7. aw, gee, thanks...

Be sure and offer yer freep a little ketchup to help it down. (Ketchup's a VEGETABLE, y'know!)

And lemme know how he liked it. I always try to bring something yummy to office potlucks, heheh.

bashfully,
Bright

[FrenchieCat]

8. Thank you for reminding me....

I nearly forgot since the media decided that covering such an anniversary while in the middle of a health care debate would be confusing. Better to talk about GateGate and the MJ "case".

So yes, thank you very much!

[Naturyl]

9. Awesome post.

K&R.

[MisterP]

10. oh, and the ADA is baaad for those in wheelchairs!

just like animals really side with experimenters and Big Beef against animal rights, and the slaves really ARE grateful and against the cynical Abolitionists

[stuball111]

11. UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE! THE END OF THE WORLD...

For private insurance bankrupting their fellows, shareholders who live in mansions built on the misery and suffering of millions of people, people suffering because they can't get insurance because of their suffering, and UHC would end their suffering. and on... and on...

[left is right]

12. 19 years afeter the world ended, I am a grandma

and I push the littlest love of my life in his stroller to the local market 2-3 times a week; thank God for curb cuts and easily accessible entries

[Bluenorthwest]

14. My favorite OP of the week

Just so spot on, well done, and to the point.

[Jackpine Radical]

15. Damn. I have been wondering all these years what had happened to the world.

Just the other day I mentioned it to the wife.

"Wife," I said, "Didn't there used to be a world? I wonder whatever happened to it."

"I dunno," she replied. "It couldn't have been single-payer that ended it, because we don't even have single payer, and the world's already been gone a long time. Hey, maybe the Canadians ended it when they put through their single-payer system. Damn them and their socialist meddling anyway."

And here it wasn't the Canadians after all. It was ADA all along. Well, shucks.

[theMark]

16. Ah, the good old days.

I dunno, the world was sure different when we didn’t see all those Amur’kans with Disabilities out and about. Who knew there were so many people that would take advantage of better access to public places?

Don’t you wish we could go back to a time when the only people you saw around were “normal”, you know, like you and me, not “them”?

And for those who need it, /sarcasm off. :D

[TankLV]

18. What too many don't realize is that it's not just "the handicapped" that benefit from these things..

as a kid in the 50's and 60's I used to have to ride my bike on the large sidewalk along Delaware Avenue in Kenmore NY and wished they had CURB CUTS so I could go up and down easily across the side streets - now they have it and I'm no longer riding bike very much.

And everyone also seems to forget the SOONER than later, we will ALL need these IMPROVEMENTS to our daily lives as we slip into old age...

[Uncle Joe]

19. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, TygrBright.:thumbsup:

[tblue37]

20. I am severely hearing impaired. I am incredibly grateful for the ADA! nt

[Lorien]

21. Having spent more than a month on crutches-THANK GOD IT DID!

Hopping around on one leg you can't open doors or jump onto curbs safely. A broken leg or sprained ankle makes a person very, very thankful for that act, no doubt about it!

They also said that the requirement of seat belts would destroy the auto industry (no, greed and stupidity-GOP values-did that).

[thucythucy]

22. ADA All the way!!

Thank you so much for this post.

As much hysteria as was generated by the right-wingers before the ADA passed, there was an even greater "backlash" generated afterwards by the usual suspects: the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the US Chamber of Commerce, etc. etc. Remember "The Death of Common Sense" and all the John Stossel hit pieces on ADA? Remember all those "atrocity" stories, like the one about the town in Florida forced to spend hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars ramping a nude beach! (That particular gem was in one of Newt's books). All bogus, of course. In fact, if you track down all the absurd stories about ADA you find them to be just that--absurd stories, about on a level with the birther rantings of late. The world didn't end, in fact, there are a lot of us who think ADA made the world a whole lot better.

And let me add another note of celebration here, on this wonderful anniversary. This just came into my in-box from the great folks at MindFreedom:

"President Obama marked the 19th anniversary of the Americans with
Disabilities Act by instructing UN Ambassador Susan Rice to sign an
historic United Nations "convention" or treaty next week on disability
and human rights, joining 140 other nations."

A lot of people have put a lot of hard work into this document, and we're on the eve of seeing it happen! For the first time ever there will be an international commitment to protect the human rights of people with disabilities. This won't end disability-based oppression, not by a long shot. But it's a terrific start. Now if we could just get MiCASA inserted as part of President Obama's health care reform....

Finally, I'd like everyone please to remember all the great people who made the ADA possible, many of whom are no longer with us to celebrate: Justin Dart, Wade Blank, Sharon Mistler, Barbara Faye Waxman, Tim Cook, Connie Panzarino, Irv Zola, Gunnar and Rosemary Dybwad, Frank Bowe, Evan Kemp, Fred Schrieber...the list goes on and on. Dedicated activists, courageous fighters for human rights for everyone. We owe them a lot.

Best wishes to all.

Thucy

[varelse]

23. A little historical perspective never hurts

thank you :)

[BumRushDaShow]

24. Thank you for posting.

I remember reading http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1580531,00.html">this article a couple years ago and the ADA immediately came to my mind. If anything, for all those wounded soldiers returning from overseas, the very existence of the ADA and the major changes that it initiated (not just on the streets but in the workplace as well), will certainly help ease their transition back into society.