I have a serious disability as a result of a diving accident 37 years ago. I was paralyzed from the mid chest down with some use of my hands and arms and no use of my lower extremities. I know a little bit about discrimination. I probably have been discriminated against at work but I have tried to avoid the issue. I have tried my whole life to avoid playing the disability card. I was never any good at cards. I certainly have been discriminated against when it comes to housing. There is no doubt I have been discriminated against in social situations and situations involving normal business within the community. Discrimination is awful. It can be as bad as losing a great employment opportunity because you're not the right color, gender, age or because you have a disability. Discrimination can be as subtle as someone making a comment about a person's ability to work simply because they are using a wheelchair. I still remember buying a leather jacket with a friend. He picked out his coat and wrote a check to complete the purchase. The salesperson asked about his place of work so she could write it on the back of his check. She looked at me and said "obviously you don't work." She said this because I was using a wheelchair and I was also writing a check. Of course this person didn't mean anything bad by what she said. She made an observation and a statement that was incorrect. I would much rather a salesperson make this type of mistake thinking I don't work than the chairperson on an interview committee believing I can't work because I use a wheelchair for mobility.
 

I hate discrimination. Sometimes discrimination is willful and mean-spirited and sometimes it's just ignorance. I am concerned about the fairness in evaluating discrimination. People are really concerned about terms and words and they should be but not everyone understands that the word "invalid" is the same for invalid meaning no value. The word "handicap" is a European term that means cap in hand or to beg. In old Europe the welfare system consisted of a disabled person out early in the morning with a cap in hand trying to make a buck. I was with my father who was visiting me in San Jose California. I went with him to a well known hardware store to pick up some wood for a ramp. I decided to wait outside by the front door to drink a can of soda. As I sat there in my wheelchair a middle age man approached me dropping two quarters in the opening of my can. Of course this man thought I was begging and he was only trying to do something he thought was right. He meant no disrespect to me. Six years later a similar situation occurred. A young Mexican man dropped a hand full of change in a small bag I had in my lap. I was sitting in front of  "Big Al's Liquor Store." I had just bought a hot dog lunch inside Big Al's store. The first time this happened to me my immediate reaction was anger and outrage. It only took me a few moments to understand that this man was trying to do something he thought was good. I was able to push his hand away. The second time this happened  I was wearing a suit and was on my lunch break from work and my initial reaction was to count the change. If there would have been more than a few dollars I probably would have kept the money knowing how hard it was to earn a buck back in 1985. I was able to remove my hot dog fairly quickly from the bag and handed the loot back to the young man. We both had a good laugh.

 

I was injured while living in a very small farming community. I was 16 at the time and I was told by the local high school principle that I would not be able to return to high school in a wheelchair because they did not want to install ramps leading up to the school classrooms. There were no laws at that time like the ADA guiding the school principle's decision. The fact that my family was one step above farm migrant workers when it came to our social economic status did not help my situation. Being poor is another category that is one of if not the worst circumstances for discrimination. The point was I had to get out of there or end up selling pencils like my Minister suggested for me as an employment opportunity. I moved to a more enlighten area. The word "crippled" is where we get the word creep. This word along with the word "disabled'' basically means offensive to look upon. I know that as I have aged I have lost my looks but I never thought I was offensive to look upon. We keep trying to find words to describe ourselves or who we are. Over the last few years we have used words like "physically challenged" or "physically inconvenience." When I think of being "physically challenged" I think somebody is going to beat me up. I called the theater to see if it was accessible. I told the manager of the theater that I was a person with a "physical inconvenience" and he hung up on me. I may be wrong, but I have heard it said that we are the only country where African-Americans describe themselves as African-Americans. In other words Cubans with African ancestry never refer to themselves as Cuban Africans and this is the same for other countries as far as I know. In making this statement about African American people I absolutely mean no disrespect and if anyone is offended by my statement I apologize without reservation. I am only trying to make a point about how we describe ourselves or refer to ourselves and that words really do mean something.

 

I mentioned earlier that there is a fairness I sincerely would like to see when it comes to how the issues of discrimination is being debated in our communities especially among the political candidates. As I was watching some of the local news programs I was most interested in understanding some of the statements made by those supporting the Democratic Party. Some of the political experts were stating that whites who traditionally only support white candidates were now showing support for presidential candidate Obama. Not being a political expert I am not sure how these experts come to this conclusion but I'm sure they use statistics and polling as evidence for their political findings. It is also interesting to me that President Clinton was harshly criticized when He made statements that candidate Obama was supported by large percentages of black people in some of the states candidate Obama won. It was appropriate for Obama's supporters to report that white people are supporting Obama but not for Clinton to report black people are support Obama when it is true. At this time I am not supporting the Democratic candidates for president but I am interested in fairness on all sides when it comes to discrimination regarding age, race, gender or disability. We just seem to be talking about race and discrimination. Senator Obama referred to Ms. Clinton as Annie Oakley but no one seems to be looking at those comments and the REAL attitudes behind them. Some of the candidates are ''concerned'' about age and age is brought up because of "concern." No one is using the word discrimination only the word "concern." It seems if we use the word race it is like yelling tickets available for the Hannah Montana concert. If we referred to John McCain as being old as dirt, people are just being ''concerned.''  If we referred to Hillary Clinton as Annie Oakley or refer to her as just being one of the boys having a drink it's open season for a good laugh. If Bill Clinton makes a statistical observation that is true statistically then the media is all over him  like my brother's three dogs Bendix, Barker and Legs are all over a steak dinner. Geraldine Ferraro made a political observation regarding candidate Obama taking into consideration his, employment history, political experience, education and other variables. She took into consideration his resume of 13 years and especially his last two years of experience as a Junior Senator in Washington, DC. She pointed out that he had some unique qualities as a candidate and thats why he was able to compete as he is to become President of the United States. I might be missing something, but instead of looking at the evidence and debating the merit of the evidence,  Ms. Ferraro was called a racist and abandoned for her 35 plus years of service fighting for the poor no matter their race, gender, disability, age or sexual preference. She worked for all of the people by helping the poor. Ferraro made one statement and long time friends and coworkers ran from her as if she was carrying the plague. Rev. Wright can call white people or Jewish people everything from a little rabbit to a big elephant and no one from his camp says anything but praise the Lord. The Churches I have attended for 30 years would not be praising the Lord or dancing in the isle over the many statements Rev. Wright has made. The Lord I pray to would not want praise at the expense of his children being ridiculed or cursed by His man or woman in the pulpit.

 

People I know who are disabled try not to draw attention to themselves. We want to be accepted and treated like everyone else. In this political race it would be fair to allow the debate over age, gender or race to take off and let the debate produce its natural results. So far this has not happened. If Bill Clinton or Ferraro make one false move or a statement of any kind the political people don't like, they not only would throw Ferraro under the bus but they would drag Clinton behind it for good measure. Obama can take shots at and from Hillary referring to her as Annie Oakley and for taking whiskey shots like one of the boys. We need to remember not to be so hard on those who are only ''concerned'' about McCain's age. It comes down to the fact the only national debate regarding discrimination that is taking place is on race. The other areas for debate, age, gender, disability, the economically disadvantaged, sexual preference and even religion do not seem important at all given the race issue. When Romney was still in the running as a candidate for president, his Mormon faith was turned upside down by those looking for anything to use to destroy his chances to be elected. Nobody as far as I know stood up for him with the exception of his close supporters. I consider myself an informed person but I have yet to hear anyone criticize black liberation theology. I assume that candidate Obama believes in black liberation theology since he attended his church for 20 years and supported his minister. Again, I have yet to hear anyone criticize his religious beliefs. When people went after Romney's faith and it was reported on by the media no one in the Media condemned those religious bigots. Should race be an issue in this political climate? Absolutely but discrimination of any kind should be the point at issues for national debate. It continues to be sad when looking back through history and seeing Franklin Roosevelt hiding that he was disabled. He felt the American people would not trust him to run a war time government from a wheelchair or maybe he was just trying not to draw attention to himself.