DEAF WORKERS OF ORANGE COUNTY PROJECT -- DEAF WORKERS WEEKLY BULLETIN -- SEPTEMBER 11, 1999 Happy Labor Day! Today we celebrate our workers with hearing disabilities because they all set a very fine example for people with hearing disabilities to follow. They are role models for people with hearing disabilities. America needs more workers with hearing disabilities. America can acquire more workers with hearing disabilities by being more vigilant in their enforcement of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) which was signed in 1990. Once people with hearing disabilities sees that ADA is being vigorously enforced, they will feel more secure and confident and work and remain workers. BUT ALL IS DEFINITELY NOT WELL! Workers with hearing disabilities still are paid very low and are forced to cram up with other people inside apartments. This happens inside Orange County where the average rent is now $1023 a month and rising fast. The less the workers with hearing disabilities are paid, the more they suffer in terms of rest, privacy, and peace. Management continue to exploit workers with hearing disabilities. They make them do stupid things and put them under pressure simply to cause them to make mistakes at work which result in a bad record or termination from employment. Last July, the Supreme Court sent out shockwaves to the disability community. If you are able to mitigate or remediate your disability, YOUR NO LONGER PROTECTED BY THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT. Uncertainty lies among workers with hearing disabilities who wear or have worn hearing aids some time in their lives. The same thing applies to people who have cochlear implants as well. Even though there has been no such case law on hearing disabilities, these rulings makes workers with hearing disabilities feel less secure about their jobs, themselves, and their future. To make things worse, the National Association of the Deaf does not see this as a threat because they believe that deafness is part of a language culture not as a disability. They have been a little slow and vague in their reaction to the supreme court rulings. Workers with hearing disabilities still have to put up a nasty fight for equal treatment especially when it comes to health care. People with hearing disabilities are getting the message from their doctors they dont want to trouble themselves with effective communications such as a message "If it's possible to bring a friend or somebody that could help you with communication its fine but if you dont then it's O.K. and we will try our best to help you". We need stronger mandates to force doctors to provide effective communications. Are we healthier than last year? No we are not! Until doctors start bringing in interpreters, our health stays the same and this too translates on our ability to work. We're not healthy, we can't work. Better health care for people with hearing disabilities goes a long way to encourage them to work. Our ability to become self sufficient is hampered by segregationist organizations representing people with hearing disabilities who don't welcome in or share new resources among other organizations representing people with hearing disabilities. We have way too many people, 60 percent at least, in Orange County with hearing disabilities out of work and nothing is being done about it. Last year, the Greater Los Angeles Council on Deafness sent out their message they don't want others doing anything about it either when they told the Los Angeles Times there's no need for new deaf centers in Orange County. Its also up to them to decide if they should spend their resources on helping people or promoting a confusing image of people with hearing disabilities we all have to counter every minute of our lives. Basically, we are still in the dark tunnel. Each victory on our behalf amounts to a tiny speck of light ahead of us. We dont know if we're going ahead or backwards. It is really up to our leaders to decide which way we are going. Morton Warnow, a noted deaf activist, believes the current leaders representing people with hearing disabilities are letting people walk over them. This has lead to Dr. David Bruton, Secretary of North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services to believe that teaching a deaf child American Sign language is child abuse. He felt safe to go ahead with this type of opression. This has to end. We need to keep our guard up. VICTORY GOES TO WORKERS WITH HEARING DISABILITIES! Still workers with hearing disabilities all share a common victory which is being role models for our community. They are also our pioneers. They all reinforce the statement "Deaf People Can Do Anything Except Hear" made by I. King Jordan, the late deafened President of Gallaudet University. Workers and pioneers with hearing disabilities all set positive examples for us to follow. To the Workers with Hearing Disabilities, this is your day and THANK YOU! Richard Roehm ---- DEAFDIGEST GOES TO THE WEB Please go to: http://www.clark.net/pub/barry/blue.htm http://www.clark.net/pub/barry/gold.htm This is for your Blue and Gold editions of the September 5th DeafDigest. All you have to do is to click on it. Traffic problems on the Internet is the reason for the change. One advice for you - if you still see DeafDigest out of date, please refresh it (clicking on your right mouse) so it will be updated. You should be able to click on the highlights. If there are no highlights for you to click, then you need to copy and paste the above web sites onto your browswer. Hope you will be enjoying reading both editions. Thank you very much Barry Strassler DeafDigest barry@deafdigest.org ---- SOME CULTURAL TRAITS OF CULTURALLY DEAF PERSONS [This information is taken from a document published on the Internet, in a website for the deaf community in Quebec, Canada. The webpage states that the information below "gives a rather complete portrait of the reality of a Culturally Deaf person." This has been translated from the original French version on the website.] VALUES * Primary Language: "ASL" (American Sign Language, gestural, not English) TRADITIONAL VALUES (FAMILY, RELIGION, HOUSEWIFE) * Segregated socialization only with other Culturally Deaf persons * Focused on the hands and the eyes KNOWLEDGE * Practical knowledge (low academic knowledge) * Different way of thinking and understanding * Great difficulty with abstract ideas * Learning takes place by using concrete ideas * Difficulty with English (as a second language) * Visual sense highly developed * Weak level of schooling INFORMATION SOURCES * Current information comes from circulation among other Deaf persons (from person to person) * Limited access to written materials (functional illiteracy) and to sound-based media * T.V. captions available (to those few who can read well) * Access to information mainly through Deaf groups and associations SOCIAL NETWORK * The Deaf Culture community * Deaf Culture Associations * Avoiding integration with hearing persons (isolation, lack of understanding, feelings of rejection) EMOTIONAL ISSUES * Tendency to be secretive about their problems * Outward-focused: very little introspection and very little knowledge of the self * Emotional deficiencies starting in childhood: feelings of rejection and non-communication MARRIAGES AND RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN DEAF CULTURE PARTICIPANTS * Distrust toward hearing persons * Warm, playful, affectionate * Body and sexuality-focused * Important to have physical contact, gestures and facial expressions * Sex education given by other Deaf Culture couples * Little or no access to information about sexuality, puberty, pregnancy, birth or contraception BEHAVIORS * Direct and categorical (few nuances) * A lot of intuition * Many times they pretend to understand, when they do not really understand * Traditional roles for men and women * High threshhold for tolerating violence and abuse * Strong peer pressure within the Deaf Culture community * Physical contacts (including violence, abuse, harmful and offensive touching of others) are more numerous and more accepted than in hearing culture LIVING CONDITIONS * Precarious (low) economic situation * Receives government aid, and mostly unemployed WORKING CONDITIONS * Employed in a segregated "Deaf Culture Ghetto" with very low salaries * Work in sheltered workshops for persons with disabilties * Very few are professionals * Relations are often difficult with employers (difficulties in communication of intentions, dissatisfaction) LEISURE * In Deaf Culture Associations: quilting, bingo, dancing, etc. * Going out with at least one other Deaf Culture person, rarely going to activities in the general community alone * Socialization only with other Deaf Culture members * Deaf Culture-related Visual Arts and Performing Arts activities (example: Theatres of the Deaf that produce plays in ASL) Note: These elements indicate some tendencies of the majority of Deaf people. The individual characteristics (personality, schooling, life experiences, family situation) may strengthen or lessen some of these characteristics. Paulette Caswell ---- PRESIDENT CLINTON CHALLENGES THE CONGRESS TO PASS A BIPARTISAN HEALTH CARE AGENDA THIS FALL September 8, 1999 Today, at a White House event with Secretary Shalala and a practicing family physician from Georgia, the President will urge the Congress to make this fall a time of constructive achievement, not destructive politics, and to pass the health care quality and coverage initiatives that have long been on the nation's agenda. The President will unveil a "health care checklist" detailing the work that still needs to be done, including passing: (1) a strong, enforceable, Patients' Bill of Rights; (2) Medicare reforms that strengthen and modernize the program; (3) long-overdue medical records privacy protections; (4) health care options that empower Americans with disabilities to work free from concern over being uninsured; (5) legislation to increase the price of cigarettes and decrease the number of children who smoke; (6) increased funds for children's health insurance outreach; (7) critical provisions that provide Americans in need of long-term care services or their caregivers financial assistance and support services and coverage of legal immigrants; and (8) additional funds for essential public health priorities, such as biomedical research, mental health services, and Indian Health Services. The President will also announce that this fall, the Administration will release a proposed regulation to protect medical records privacy. He will also announce that with today's approval of the Children's Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) in Washington and Wyoming, all 50 states are expanding coverage to uninsured children through CHIP. URGE THE CONGRESS TO MAKE THE FALL A SEASON OF HEALTH CARE LEGISLATIVE ACHIEVEMENTS. Underscoring the fact that there are numerous health care initiatives that now have broad-based bipartisan support, the President will challenge the Congress to pass: The bipartisan Norwood-Dingell Patients' Bill of Rights, without weakening or harmful amendments. Noting that the Norwood-Dingell Patients' Bill of Rights already has a bipartisan majority in the House, the President will urge Speaker Hastert to schedule a vote on this broadly supported legislation. Over 200 health care and consumer organizations, including the AMA, have already endorsed this legislation and the President opposes provisions that water down or threaten the bipartisan support it has already achieved. Medicare reforms which strengthen and modernize the program. The President will praise Finance Committee Chairman Roth (R-DE) and Senator Moynihan (D-NY) for committing to mark-up a Medicare reform package early this fall. He will urge Chairman Roth to maintain this timetable and pass a strong, bipartisan initiative that will make the program more competitive, provide adequate financing to extend the life of the trust fund, and modernize the benefit package, including the provision of a long-overdue, optional prescription drug benefit. Legislation protecting the privacy of medical records. The President will note that the statutory deadline for Congress to pass legislation in this area expired in August. He will state that he would uphold his commitment, made in the State of the Union Address, to release proposed regulations in the absence of Congressional action this fall, as authorized by statute. Although disappointed with the lack of action by the Congress, the President will encourage Congress to pass bipartisan legislation in this area in order to provide broader authority in this area. The Jeffords-Kennedy-Roth-Moynihan Work Incentives Improvement Act. This legislation, which would enable individuals with disabilities to go to work without losing their eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid, passed the Senate by a unanimous vote. The legislation already has bipartisan support and has been cosponsored by over 230 members of the House. The President will also urge Speaker Hastert to immediately schedule a vote on this historic legislation. Legislation to increase funding for children's health insurance outreach and provide critical health insurance coverage to eligible legal immigrants. The President will urge the Congress to pass his proposal to increase funding for outreach activities by extending the availability and uses of the $500 million fund for TANF-Medicaid outreach. He will also call on Congress to give States the option to extend Medicaid eligibility to legal immigrant children, pregnant women, and SSI recipients. The President will urge Congress to act to improve our success in covering children, announcing the approval of the CHIP programs in Washington and Wyoming. With this announcement, all 50 states and every territory are participating in this new program, which provides affordable health insurance to children in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid. Legislation to increase the price of cigarettes and decrease the number of children who smoke. The President will reiterate the unacceptable fact that more than 400,000 Americans die each year from smoking related diseases and that almost 90 percent of them started smoking as teenagers. He will point out that increasing the cost of cigarettes is not only one of the most effective ways to prevent kids from starting to smoke, it is good fiscal policy. This is because revenue raised by this increase will help save the Social Security Trust Fund and maintain our commitment to the nation's children and seniors. Critically important long-term care initiative. The President will urge the Congress to pass a long-term care initiative to provide financial assistance, including a $1000 tax credit, social support services, and new long-term care options to millions of Americans. Over five million Americans have significant limitations due to illness or disability and thus require long-term care. The President will challenge the Congress to include these provisions in any tax bill it passes. Additional funds for critical public health priorities. The President will urge the Congress to fund critical public health priorities, including new investments in biomedical and practice based research, mental health services, and the Indian Health Service. He will point out that these programs have traditionally received broad based, bipartisan support and emphasized that this year should be no different. ---- IS THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF SECTION 504 HEADED TO THE SUPREME COURT? The purpose of the below-referenced e-mail is to give you a heads-up on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals's recent decision regarding the constitutionality of Section 504. The official analysis of the impact of this decision I assume will be forthcoming from our attorneys in the Department of Education and in our Office of Civil Rights. As you may already be aware, earlier this week, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in the case of "Bradley v. Arkansas Dept of Education" which challenged the constitutionality to bring suit for violations of the IDEA, Section 504 and the ADA. In this case, the parents of two disabled children brought a claim against the Arkansas Department of Education, as well as local school districts, claiming their children were denied a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) under the IDEA and Section 504 of the Rehab Act. The Eighth Circuit found that Congress had overstepped its authority by enacting Section 504 because Congress failed to properly identify constitutional transgressions it sought to remedy by enacting Section 504. As was referenced in the actual Opinion (which was sent earlier this week to both OGC and OCR) the legislative history is largely silent regarding the application of this new authority (504) as a remedy toward transgressions against individuals with disabilities when Congress incorporated Section 504 into the Rehab Act, as amended. My unofficial analysis of this decision is that a person can continue to seek redress from the State under the IDEA but not under Section 504 IN THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT and further states that Section 504 is unconstitutional because it is not a valid exercise of Congress's spending power. Once again, this is an decision and only affects those States covered by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Whatever the actual intent of this decision was to have been, it has created a split in the judicial circuits over the issue of Congress having the authority to enact legislation that requires States to abrogate their sovereign immunity rights as a condition for participation in Federal programs. I have been in contact with several of our advocates in this regard and was forwarded the following analysis of this Decision earlier today. Based upon this split among the Circuits and based on past precedent in such cases, I am advised that this issue could ultimately be headed for the Supreme Court. Indeed if this case were to go all the way to the Supreme Court it would no doubt be a precedent-setting disability rights ruling, but it could be that the Supreme Court's ruling in this case could determine whether State's have sovereignty over their jurisdiction or whether Congress does -- in other words -- STATES' RIGHTS VS. FEDERAL AUTHORITY. Sound familiar? ---- ANNOTATED FACT SHEET ON SINGER'S ETHICAL THEORIES WITH RESPECT TO KILLING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES The quotes below are from Peter Singer's book _Rethinking Life and Death_, which he will be teaching this fall at Princeton. Additional material can be found in his book _Practical Ethics_ and in _Should the Baby Live?_, which he co-authored with Helga Kuhse. PERSONHOOD ACCORDING TO SINGER, TO BE ETHICAL, WE MUST TREAT ALL "PERSONS" ACCORDING TO MORAL GUIDELINES. BUT NOT ALL HUMANS ARE "PERSONS". SINGER CLAIMS THAT IN ORDER TO BE "PERSONS" AND TO DESERVE MORAL CONSIDERATION, BEINGS MUST BE SELF-AWARE, AND CAPABLE OF PERCEIVING THEMSELVES AS INDIVIDUALS THROUGH TIME. "We often use 'person' as if it meant the same as 'human being'. In recent discussions in bioethics, however, 'person' is now often used to mean a being with certain characteristics such as rationality and self-awareness." [page 180] "[T]he term 'person' is no mere descriptive label. It carries with it a certain moral standing. Just as, in law, the fact that a corporation can be a person means that a corporation can sue and be sued, so too, once we recognise a nonhuman animal as a person, we will soon begin to attribute basic rights to that animal." [page 182] "The right to life is not a right of members of the species Homo sapiens; it is … a right that properly belongs to persons. Not all members of the species Homo sapiens are persons, and not all persons are members of the species Homo sapiens." [page 206] SINGER CLAIMS THAT NO NEWBORN INFANTS ARE "PERSONS." HE CLAIMS THAT SOME PEOPLE WITH LIFELONG COGNITIVE DISABILITIES NEVER BECOME "PERSONS" AT ANY TIME THROUGHOUT THEIR LIVES. AND HE CLAIMS THAT SOME PEOPLE WHO ACQUIRE COGNITIVE DISABILITIES THROUGH INJURY, ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE OR OTHER MEANS CEASE TO BE "PERSONS." "There remains, however, the problem of the lack of any clear boundary between the newborn infant, who is clearly not a person in the ethically relevant sense, and the young child, who is. In our book, Should the Baby Live?, my colleague Helga Kuhse and I suggested that a period of twenty-eight days after birth might be allowed before an infant is accepted as having the same right to life as others." [page 217] "We need to find another way of responding to human beings who can never be conscious. While the Royal Children's Hospital panel was unable to reach consensus on taking organs from infants with no prospect of ever gaining consciousness, this highly diverse group of people did agree that we need not keep such babies alive. … If it is not possible to find a tenable basis for declaring people to be dead who have irreversibly lost - or never had - consciousness, we may still be able to find a justification for ending their lives." [page 55] Singer says that killing a "non-person," even if it is human, does not carry the same moral weight as killing a "person." "Only a person can want to go on living, or have plans for the future, because only a person can even understand the possibility of a future existence for herself or himself. This means that to end the lives of people, against their will, is different from ending the lives of beings who are not people. Indeed, strictly speaking, in the case of those who are not people, we cannot talk of ending their lives against or in accordance with their will, because they are not capable of having a will on such a matter. …. [K]illing a person against her or his will is a much more serious wrong than killing a being that is not a person. If we want to put this in the language of rights, then it is reasonable to say that only a person has a right to life." [pages 197-198] INFANTICIDE IT MAY BE ALL RIGHT, ACCORDING TO SINGER, TO KILL INFNATS. BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT "PERSONS," THEY HAVE NO INTEREST IN STAYING ALIVE, AND IT IS ONLY SUPERSTITION THAT MAKES US THINK THAT KILLING THEM IS INTRINSICALLY WRONG. "Like cosmology before Copernicus, the traditional doctrine of the sanctity of human life is today in deep trouble. …. "It is time for another Copernican revolution. It will be, once again, a revolution against a set of ideas we have inherited from the period in which the intellectual world was dominated by a religious outlook. Because it will change our tendency to see human beings as the centre of the ethical universe, it will meet with fierce resistance from those who do not want to accept such a blow to our human pride. At first, it will have its own problems, and will need to tread carefully over new ground. For many the ideas will be too shocking to take seriously. Yet eventually the change will come. The traditional view that all human life is sacrosanct is simply not able to cope with the array of issues that we face. The new view will offer a fresh and more promising approach." [page 189] SINGER IS QUICK TO NOTE THAT IT IS STILL WRONG TO KILL MOST INFANTS, FOR OTHER REASONS. THE KILLING OF AN INFANT WOULD, IN MOST CASES, MAKE THE PARENTS UNHAPPY. SECOND, IN THE CASES WHERE THE PARENTS DO NOT WANT THE INFANT, THERE ARE COUPLES AND INDIVIDUALS WHO WOULD LIKE TO ADOPT THE CHILD, SO THE CHILD SHOULD BE KEPT ALIVE AND PUT UP FOR ADOPTION. "Human babies are not born self-aware, or capable of grasping that they exist over time. They are not persons. Hence their lives would seem to be no more worthy of protection than the life of a fetus. "Must we accept this shocking conclusion? Or does birth somehow make a difference, in some way that has so far been overlooked? Perhaps our focus on the status of the fetus and the infant has led us to neglect other aspects of the situation. Here are two ways in which birth may make a difference, not so much to the fetus/infant and its claim to life, but to others who are affected by it. "First, after birth the pregnant woman is no longer pregnant. The baby is outside her body. Thus her claim to control her own body and her own reproductive system is no longer enough to determine the life or death of the newborn baby. "The second different birth makes is that if the baby's mother does not want to keep her child, it can be cared for by someone else who does. This reason for preserving infant life is strong in a society in which there are more couples wanting to adopt a baby than there are babies needing adoption. It is no reason at all for preserving infant life if there are babies in need of adoption, and no-one willing to adopt them. The coming of effective contraception and safe legal abortion have moved most developed nations sharply into the former status (though not, unfortunately, if we focus on babies with major disabilities, whom very few couples are willing to adopt). In these societies there is an important reason to protect the lives of babies, even those unwanted by their parents. In societies that have difficulty killing unwanted children and so have traditionally accepted infanticide, this is not a reason for preserving infant life." [pages 210-211] BUT INFANTS WITH KNOWN DISABILITIES, AND EXPECIALLY COGNITIVE DISABILITIES, HE SAYS, DO NOT BRING THE SAME AMOUNT OF HAPPINESS INTO THE LIVES OF THEIR PARENTS. ADDITIONALLY, THE VERY FACT THAT SOMEONE IS DISABLEDMEANS THAT HE OR SHE WILL HAVE AN UNHAPPIER LIFE THAN OTHER PEOPLE. AND THEREFORE THE REASONS NOT TO KILL NON-DISABLED INFANTS DO NOT APPLY TO DISABLED INFANTS. "To have a child with Down syndrome is to have a very different experience from having a normal child. It can still be a warm and loving experience, but we must have lowered expectations of our child's abilities. We cannot expect a child with Down syndrome to play the guitar, to develop an appreciation of science fiction, to learn a foreign language, to chat with us about the latest Woody Allen movie, or to be a respectable athlete, basketballer or tennis player. Even when an adult, a person with Down syndrome may not be able to live independently; and for someone with Down syndrome to have children of their own is unusual and can give rise to problems. For some parents, none of this matters. They find bringing up a child with Down syndrome a rewarding experience in a thousand different ways. But for other parents, it is devastating. "Both for the sake of 'our children', then, and for our own sake, we may not want a child to start on life's uncertain voyage if the prospects are clouded. When this can be known at a very early stage of the voyage we may still have a chance to make a fresh start. This means detaching ourselves from the infant who has been born, cutting ourselves free before the ties that have already begun to bind us to our child have become irresistible. Instead of going forward and putting all our efforts into making the best of the situation, we can still say no, and start again from the beginning. That is what Molly Pearson was doing when, told that she had given birth to a Down syndrome baby, she said to her husband, 'I don't want it, Duck'." [pages 213-214] SINGER ARGUES THAT IT SHOULD BE LEGAL FOR PARENTS TO DECIDE WHETHER TO THEIR DISABLED INFANTS KILLED UP TO 28 DAYS AFTER BIRTH. IN ADDITION, THE INFANTS WOULD PROVIDE A SOURCE OF ORGANS FOR TRANSPLANTATION TO OTHER INFANTS WHO COULD GROW UP TO BE NON-DISABLED. "It must be extraodinarily difficult to cut oneself off from one's own child, and prefer it to die, so that another child with better prospects can be born. Yet many women think like this when they discover that they are pregnant with an abnormal child. We saw that there was broad public support for Sherri Finkbane's efforts to abort a fetus after she had taken thalidomide during pregnancy. Today, prenatal diagnosis is routine for older women, who are more at risk of having a baby with Down syndrome. It is premised on the assumption that if the test shows a fetus with Down syndrome or other abnormalities, an abortion will follow. When the pregnancy was a wanted one, the couple will usually then try to conceive another child." [page 214] "In our book, Should the Baby Live?, my colleague Helga Kuhse and I suggested that a period of twenty-eight days after birth might be allowed before an infant is accepted as having the same right to life as others." [page 217] EUTHANASIA IT MAY BE ALL RIGHT, ACCORDING TO SINGER, TO KILL PEOPLE WHOSE DOCTORS CLAIM THEY ARE SEVERELY COGNITIVELY DISABLED. ALTHOUGH SINGER DOESN'T GIVE A LIST, WE KNOW THAT PEOPLE TO WHOM LABELS LIKE "MENTALLY RETARDED," "DEMENTED, "PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE," AND "SEVERELY BRAIN-DAMAGED" ARE LIKELY TO HAVE THAT JUDGMENT APPLIED TO THEM. "We all like the notion of the intrinsic worth of human life. We accept such a noble idea without much critical scrutiny, as long as it does not restrict us from doing what we really think is important. Then one day we find it is making us do things that are manifestly pointless, or likely to lead to disaster. So we take a better look at the fine phrases we so readily accepted. And start to winder why we ever believed them in the first place. Then we drop them. "This chapter describes a recent case concerning a young man named Anthony Bland, in which Britain's most eminent judges were forced to reexamine the fine sentiments summarised by John Keown. Nine judges had to ask themselves: could they really believe that every human life is intrinsically valuable? Could they really believe that it is always wrong intentionally to end the life of an innocent human being?" [page 57] SINGER CLAIMS THAT SUCH PEOPLE ARE NOT "PERSONS," AND THEREFORE CAN NOT BE SAID TO HAVE AN INTEREST IN STAYING ALIVE. UNLESS THE BENEFIT TO THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE THESE "NON-PERSONS" OUTWEIGHS THE EMOTIONAL AND FAINANCIAL BURDENS TO INDIVIDUALS AND SOCIETY OF KEEPING THEM ALIVE, THEY CAN SAFELY AND DELIBERATELY BE KILLED. "Whatever the advances of modern medicine might permit, neither Tony Bland's family, nor Dr J. G. Howe, the doctor in charge of his care, nor Dr Michael Johnson, a specialist whose opinion Dr Howe had sought, nor the Airedale General Hospital in which he was a patient, could see any benefit to him, or to anyone else, in keeping him alive for decades." [pages 58-59] "The case of Anthony Bland has, for the moment, settled the question of the state of the law in Britain regarding patients who can never regain consciousness. The lives of such patients are of no benefit to them, and so doctors may lawfully stop feeding them in order to end their lives. With this decision the law has ended its unthinking commitment to the preservation of human life that is a mere biological existence. The law lords have taken the brave step of recognising that, at a minimum, consciousness is essential if continued life is to be worth having. In doing so they have shifted the boundary between what is and what is not murder." [pages 79-80] THE EUTHANASIA OF PEOPLE OF WHOSE MINDS ARE JUDGED INADEQUATE WOULD BE A WAY TO SAVE MONEY. IT WOULD BE A WAY TO ALLOW FAMILIES TO "MOVE ON." AND IT WOULD PROVIDE A SOURCE OF ORGANS FOR TRANSPLANTATION TO PEOPLE WHOSE MINDS HAVE BEEN JUDGED ACCEPTABLE. ACCORDING TO SINGER, VERY OFTEN PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES SHOULD BE KILLED. "First New Commandment: Recognise that the worth of human life varies. "Consistent with the first new commandment, we should treat human beings in accordance with their ethically relevant characteristics. Some of these are inherent in the nature of the being. They include consciousness, the capacity for physical, social, and mental interactions with other beings, having conscious preferences for continued life, and having enjoyable experiences. Other relevant aspects depend on the relationship of the being to others, having relatives for example who will grieve over your death, or being so situated in a group that if you are killed, others will fear for their own lives. All of these things make a difference to the regard and respect we should have for a being." [pages 190-191] "At the time of the controversy over the Reagan administration's 'Baby Doe' rules, I wrote a commentary on the issue for Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. My commentary contained this sentence: If we compare a severely defective human infant with a nonhuman animal, a dog or a pig, for example, we will often find the nonhuman to have superior capacities, both actual and potential, for rationality, self consciousness communication, and anything else that can plausibly be considered morally significant. "The editor received more than fifty letters protesting against my views in this commentary, several condemned the editor for allowing it to be published. Many of the correspondents protested particularly against the comparison of the intellectual abilities of a human being and a dog or a pig. Yet the sentence that so disturbed them is not only true, but *obviously* true." [page 201, emphasis in the original] ---- NEZ'S CYBER MALL SUPPORTS THE DEAF COMMUNITY Nez's Cyber Mall is a fundraiser project that will help support the newly created Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center. This mall has been designed with accessibility in mind. All commissions generated by sales activity within this mall will be used to support the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center. Nez's Cyber Mall can be found at: Http://www.i-sphere.com/eyedeaf/deafmall.htm ---- FDR MEMORIAL IN DANGER OF CANCELLATION As you know, the FDR Memorial in Washington DC was opened without depicting FDR's disability. Thanks to your efforts, legislation was passed to complete the Memorial by adding a statue of FDR in his wheelchair and to locate it in an additional open-air room to be constructed. N.O.D. is responsible for raising the needed $1.65 million for the statue, while the funding for the new room ($3.5 million) is to come from a congressional appropriation. President Clinton requested the $3.5 million for the room, but it is not included in the Senate's Department of Interior appropriation bill. We now need to ensure that this funding is included in the final Senate bill. The Senate is expected to vote on the Interior appropriations bill on September 8th or 9th. IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED If your Senator is listed below please contact him immediately! Slade Gorton (WA) 202/224-3441 Ted Stevens (AK) 202/224-3004 Thad Cochran (MS) 202/224-5054 Pete V. Domenici (NM) 202/224-6621 Robert Bennett (UT) 202/224-5444 Judd Gregg (NH) 202/224-3324 Ben Nighthorse Campbell (CO) 202/224-5852 Urge him to support Inouye/Harkin offset for the new open-air room that will house the statue of FDR in a wheelchair at the FDR Memorial. Please report to us your Senator's response. Thank you for your immediate action! Sincerely, Jim Dickson Vice President and Director, Community Partnership Program (202) 293-5960 dickson@essential.org ---- DISABILITY PROTECTIONS IN HATE CRIMES BILL MAY BE IN JEOPARDY Sallie Rhodes, Director of Public Policy, National Association of Protection and Advocacy Systems, sends this Alert on Negotiations Regarding A Hate Crimes Bill: Disability Protections in Pending Hate Crimes Bill May Be in Jeopardy There are reportedly some behind the scenes discussions and negotiations going on with regard to pending legislation dealing with hate crimes. Certain compromises are likely to be accepted in an effort to get this legislation moving. It is possible that the disability protections in the Hate Crime bill currently before Congress are in jeopardy. Some Congressional representatives view crimes against people with disabilities as "crimes of opportunity" instead of "hate crimes." Please contact Senator Hatch's office at your earliest convenience to express strong support for keeping the disability protections in any Hate Crimes bill that is passed by Congress. Talk about the importance of including individuals with disabilities within the scope of this bill. Senator Hatch's contact information is listed below. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT) Phone: (202) 224-5251 FAX: (202) 224-6331 -- Fred Fay Chair, Justice For All jfa@jfanow.org HTTP://www.jfanow.org ---- INTERPRETER - COORDINATOR/ASSISTANT TO THE SUPERINTENDENT The position is at the New Mexico School for the Deaf. The Assistant interprets for the Superintendent as needed. Manages interpreters, budget and billings for both academic and general school setting. BA Degree in Sign Language Interpretation or related field and at least five years interpreting experience. Salary range, $29,000-$43,500, plus excellent NM State benefits. Position open until filled. Apply to New Mexico School for the Deaf, 1060 Cerrillos Road, Santa Fe, NM 87503. (505)827-6723, or e-mail at froibal@nmsd.org. NMSD IS AN EEO/AA EMPLOYER ---- OFFICE OF ASSEMBLYMEMBER ROBERT HERTZBERG "WE ARE STILL LOOKING!" Administrative Assistant Responsibilities include: *Composition of Certificates of Recognition and tribute, congratulatory and other outreach correspondence *Coordination with Sacramento Scheduling Secretary: 1. Assemblymember’s District Office scheduling 2. Ordering of Certificates of Recognition and State Resolutions 3. Assemblymember’s District Office time management * Assemblymember’s District Office secretarial needs * Chief of Staff’s secretarial needs * General office Requirements: * Windows, Microsoft Word, Excel * Strong organizational skills * Must be willing to work long hours and possible weekends * Transcription a plus Salary and Benefits: * $20,000 to $22,000 * Full health, dental and vision benefits * Retirement plan * Other benefits available Resumes should be faxed to: Miriam Jaffe, Chief of Staff (818) 902-0764 (Editor's note: I met Hertzberg last summer and hes dammed cool to be with and to be working for!!) ---------------------- Hello, I am writing you today to obtain some invaluable feed back from who I would consider to be the experts in the subject of accommodating the needs of the hearing impaired in movie theatres. I am the Senior Vice President, Human Resources Counsel for Regal Cinemas, Inc., the largest movie theatre chain in the world. Currently, all of our theatres provide assistive listening devices that provide some benefit to the hearing impaired. However, we are trying to come up with a solution for those hearing impaired individuals who receive little or no benefit from these devices. We have been testing the rear window captioning product and I must state that it does not appear to be user friendly. The viewer has to consistently shift focus from the screen to the mirror attached to their seat. Not only can this be distracting, it is also cumbersome. The feed back I have received to date primarily shows me that the hearing impaired community accepts the rear window captioning because they have little other choice. It seems to me, at least at this point of my research, that the preferred method would be for open or closed captioning, just as is provided on television. I would greatly appreciate any input or comments you would have on this subject. Resju@aol.com -------------- My name is Antoinette Lucero, I am a senior at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. I am taking an ASL class and I am doing research for a paper on Deaf Gangs. If you have any information to share, it would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to email me at all7@dana.ucc.nau.edu Thank you for your time. Antoinette Lucero ----------------- Dear Friends and Leaders of the Disability Community, I’m writing to inform you that one of your own is fighting a battle her Landlord, she fears she’ll lose if aid is not forth coming. I am going to give you the Reader’s Digest version of the story to better help you understand the problem. I have been living, happily, in my apartment on Gilmore Street for fifteen years. The neighborhood is not the greatest, but the apartment and its location far exceeds my needs. In 1995 the building was sold; and I remember the first time I set eyes on the new owner. My gut reaction was immediate. “Oh no! Here comes TROUBLE!” And I had not met him yet. I just saw him through the window. As the weeks passed I thought my reaction may have been unfounded. The new owner began to make some improvements to the building. First he upgraded the exterior lighting, and then much to all the tenants’ surprise we got brand new air-conditioners. However, that was the extent of it. Form their deterioration set in. The first signs of trouble began with the working relationship of the Resident Manager, who managed the building for sixteen years, and Landlord. The manager was not accustom to his every move and action being scrutinized the Landlord, though he did adapt. The next problem arose when the Manager asked the Landlord if he could speak with the owner of the building next store about the noise emanating from the tenants. The final problem between them was the Landlords failure to pay the Manager for services rendered to the building. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back, the manager quit after eighteen years. 1997 It was during this period the local gangbangers; druggies and alcoholics pillaged the neighborhood in a rapped alarming rate. Needles to say, as for me enough was enough. In May of 1997 I drafted a letter on behalf of the building, requesting the owner beef up security and resolve tensions with the manager before he quit. Little did I know, but the letter I wrote and sent to the Landlord was the beginning of my troubles with him. The Landlord made accusation of using a passageway leading to my unit as a haven for drug and alcohol consumption, which latter was proven to be false. When this failed he ignored and refused to make repairs in my unit. November 09, 1998 the building was without hot water on and off for the first half of the month. I left an angry message on the Landlords’ service to get the hot water heater repaired within the first hours of business by November 10, 1998, or we would. Well you guest it, he did not and I did call the Health Department. What pushed me to my limit was in December 1998, when my mailbox was vandalized. When the Manager asked the Landlord to replace the lock on my behalf. He said no. If I wanted a new box lock, I would have to pay for it. I refused. January 1999 I wrote the Landlord a letter reminding him of the repairs to my unit he has ignored, and informing him I would not pay my rent until said repairs were made. Before I completed Landlords letter I called the Valley Section 8 office and unsuccessfully tried to inform them of my problems. I was told to put my problems concerning my Landlord in writing. I explained it would take a great deal of time and preferred to either do it by phone or set up and appointment. They did not budge. Five days after the Landlord received my letter the Health Department inspected the entire complex and found major deficiencies in every unit. Landlord was sited and told to make the necessary repairs or face being find for every violation and for every day they were left unrepaired. Mid February some of the repairs need in my unit were done, but only those on the Health Departments list and even then not all of them either. March 1999 the Landlord calls about the rent, I informed him that two items remained to be fixed or replaced from my list of repairs. He said the only repairs he was adhering to were those from the Health Department; my list had no barring. It was either pay up or face eviction. I reiterated my position, informing him the rent would be paid when all repairs were done. Well he retorted that Section 8 gave him permission to give me a three-day notice or quit and then proceed to evict me. Two minutes after we hung up Section 8 called informing me I had to pay my rent. Again I explained my position and reminded them I had tried to speak to them about the problems with the Landlord in January. I was ignored again and told pay my rent or risk losing both housing and assistance. I informed them this regulation is discriminatory. People not on Section 8 can use whatever legal means necessary to get the landlord to make repairs. To make a long story short in May of this year Landlord and I settled and I was granted four months to find housing. However, the story doesn't’t end here. I have spent the entire summer looking for new residents; and have had no luck. Enclosed is an email letter I sent to my lawyer. It explains in detail the difficulties I have had. I’ve brought this up to many of you because it is a serious problem that is not being addressed in our community. As I explain in the letter to my lawyer, “the problems of eviction from ones home, of finding housing is not unique to me alone. People with disabilities experience these difficulties on a continual base. Most folks are not like myself, they out of fear of losing what little the have keep quite as a means to survive. The few who stand up against their landlords are systematically evicted. Some experience sexual harassment, physical abuses or threats of evictions or other retaliatory measures.” Now as to the real facts about Section 8. If you receive housing subsidies under federal law your local housing office is to assist you in every way possible. If you need special accommodations to participate in the program as specified under ADA title 2; they are to accommodate you. Example, if you want to file a complaint about your Landlord and have difficulty with writing the housing office must make it feasible by either setting up an appointment via office, home, or phone. The fact is they don’t and more importantly they refuse. If you have Landlord tenant issues such as repairs, or the denial of such, harassment, or retaliatory evictions. The housing office has a ombudsperson to assist you. The housing office is obligated to protect your rights as a renter. They are further obligated to send an inspector to home to inspect the maintenance. The fact is some housing offices do not inform the renter of the ombudperson. They Do not always respond when a renter request their home be inspected. Most importantly if your landlord evicts you as a means of retaliation, the housing office will not intervene to protect your rights. YOU DO HAVE A RIGHT TO WITHHOLD YOUR RENT UNDER SECTION 8. Landlords receive full education about Section 8, which includes a newsletter. Landlords are allowed to let Section 8 renters live in substandard conditions. They are given full immunity from whatever abuses they heap upon renters, up to and not limited to retaliatory evictions. Bottom line folks I REALLY need your help and support. I have less than thirty days before the Marshals come to forcibly remove me from my apt and lock me out. There is no guarantee my lawyer will succeed with negotiations for me to stay. It is a matter of life of death that I stay here, not by choice. All the hard won independence I’ve gained, all the necessary funds that help maintain my independence will be gone in a matter of minutes once I’m left on the street. PLEASE take this matter seriously. While I have asked my lawyer to negotiate, I do not ask this of you. What I do ask is that you stand with me and Demand the Landlord that I stay. That whatever measure be used to prevent my removal from my apt on 10/01/99. That a Disability Rights Attorney with a no nonsense approach come forward to take up my cause, and use whatever legal means to prevent my removal from here. I don’t mind telling all of you, I am scared shitless and feel helpless in spite of everything I have tried to do. Despite my demeanor of enthusiasm I am depressed angry and feel hopeless. Keeping up appearances in the community over the last couple of months has become a chore, it tires me. Not many of you have asked how am I doing, nor has there been many offers of help. However, to those of you who have been with me from the start and have refereed me to agencies for assistance,thank you. I am in need of rest; I want to focus attention to my health. Please I implore you, help me save my life. Please do not give suggestion or referrals that will lead me no where. Audrey Lynn Harthorn Ms. Audrey Lynn Harthorn Post Office Box 3686 Van Nuys, California 91407-3686 1-818-901-9537 Email audreyharthorn@hotmail.com ============================================================== DEAF WORKERS OF ORANGE COUNTY Orange County, California Richard Roehm President Internet : Deaf@activist.com Deaf_Workers_OC@usa.net Website Nesmuth@worldnet.att.net Http://www.i-sphere.com/eyedeaf/dwoc.htm =============================================================== Feel free to redistribute this newsletter in it's entirety and if you are planning to add a mailing list as a subscriber then let me know for my records. Thank you. =============================================================== Deaf Workers of Orange County will continue to aggressively pursue justice, fairness, and equality for the Deaf Community. =============================================================== Education is the best gift that lasts a lifetime! 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