I was appalled when I first heard the story of George Lane. He got a parking ticket or something and was scheduled to attend a hearing in the county courthouse. Mr. Lane, a paraplegic, crawled up three flights of stairs to attend the hearing. The courthouse didn’t have an elevator, so when the hearing was rescheduled, he refused to attend. He was afraid to have someone carry him up the stairs because he didn’t want to be dropped. He was held in contempt, a warrant was issued, and he was arrested.

He subsequently sued the state of Tennessee for $100,000 for failure to uphold the ADA. The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday. Justice Scalia went so far as to state that it was not a violation of constitutional rights for someone to be carried up the stairs since he can freely ask to be carried! I am shocked if this is the national conscience of our country on this issue!

I would not want to be made a spectacle by being carried up the stairs. How embarrassing to ask for help! How especially embarrassing if your like me; I’d practically need a football team to lift me 3 flights. How insulting to not be offered an alternate means of attending a mandated hearing. Are their tax dollars not good enough? Their voices too quiet? Install a frigging elevator and save them some dignity.

We are all one accident away from needing the elevator for ourselves.

Posted in General |

This entry was posted on Friday, January 16th, 2004 at 1:15 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.