![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
I Liked Damon Wayan's Handiman Better
My poor writing computer had a seizure two days ago and demanded that I run a full surface scan with Scandisk, which would take six hours. I didn't want to yesterday because I had no desire to stare at an inert screen for that long. I didn't want to do it today, either, but I did because I figured I owed it to the old girl for her ten years of faithful service. Six hours and a scan later, and there are no bad sectors on the hard drive, waiting to kill her dead.
There was an afternoon I'll never get back.
Thomas Mundy is an opportunistic douchebag. It surprises me not at all that he's a limper of accident and not of birth because his sue-happy rampage reeks of a sense of entitlement left over from his privileged able-bodied days. Yes, ADA compliance is still abysmal nineteen years after the regulations went into effect, and yes, something needs to be done, but this is not it. His tactics serve only to line his pockets with settlement money and reinforce the cherished AB-held stereotype that all disabled folks are lazy, opportunistic, money-grubbing assholes who want the world to write them a check for their perpetual inconvenience. Mundy can cram his empty platitudes about all the good he's doing for the disabled community up his ass. Because of his fortuitous paralysis, he won't feel a thing.
I've occasionally been tempted to sue the ever-loving shit out of a store or facility, I confess, but only in instances where the inaccessibility posed a legitimate danger to my welfare. For instance, I've often been tempted to duct tape a city planner to a wheelchair and force him on a roll throughout the city until the numerous potholes and spine-shattering curb drops rattled the scales from his eyes and made him see the need for curb cuts on every crosswalk on both sides of the street. I'm convinced that after a few games of chicken across a four-lane highway and a few spinal fractures, the esteemed councilman would be a most ardent convert to my cause. I've also been tempted to sue the university into the ground for the danger in which it places me with its myriad construction projects.
I have never, however, thought of suing a business because its counters were half an inch too high or because the paper towel dispenser was out of reach. Lawsuits like that demonstrate not only profound greed, but a gross lack of imagination. Counters too high? Tell them you can't give them money until you can reach them. Need the counter to write on? Use a clipboard stowed in a backpack. Need a paper towel? Bring some wet wipes in a fanny pack. It sucks having to prove we're so damned clever and handicapable all the time, but frustration doesn't mean we have to be shiftless assholes incapable of being proactive and prepared. Suing a store for safety concerns or for gross assaults on basic human dignity(an utterly inaccessible bathroom) is an act of agency and self-advocacy that benefits everyone. Suing it because the counter is a half-inch too high is unabashed greed and petty assholery that hurts more than it helps, as evinced by the comments made by now-paranoid shopkeepers who are now convinced that every disabled customer is out to get theirs, a drooling crip Mossad bent on bringing walking civilization to its knees. Thanks a lot, Mundy.
That said, I have no sympathy for the store owner who says he cringes every time he sees a disabled customer enter the store because he fears a lawsuit. Shut up and serve me, asshole, and I'll give you no trouble. Treat me like crap because you think I might sue you for ADA non-compliance, and I'll be only too happy to sue you out of your shorts. For discrimination.
Gimps need an advocate, but this wasn't the kind I was hoping for.
There was an afternoon I'll never get back.
Thomas Mundy is an opportunistic douchebag. It surprises me not at all that he's a limper of accident and not of birth because his sue-happy rampage reeks of a sense of entitlement left over from his privileged able-bodied days. Yes, ADA compliance is still abysmal nineteen years after the regulations went into effect, and yes, something needs to be done, but this is not it. His tactics serve only to line his pockets with settlement money and reinforce the cherished AB-held stereotype that all disabled folks are lazy, opportunistic, money-grubbing assholes who want the world to write them a check for their perpetual inconvenience. Mundy can cram his empty platitudes about all the good he's doing for the disabled community up his ass. Because of his fortuitous paralysis, he won't feel a thing.
I've occasionally been tempted to sue the ever-loving shit out of a store or facility, I confess, but only in instances where the inaccessibility posed a legitimate danger to my welfare. For instance, I've often been tempted to duct tape a city planner to a wheelchair and force him on a roll throughout the city until the numerous potholes and spine-shattering curb drops rattled the scales from his eyes and made him see the need for curb cuts on every crosswalk on both sides of the street. I'm convinced that after a few games of chicken across a four-lane highway and a few spinal fractures, the esteemed councilman would be a most ardent convert to my cause. I've also been tempted to sue the university into the ground for the danger in which it places me with its myriad construction projects.
I have never, however, thought of suing a business because its counters were half an inch too high or because the paper towel dispenser was out of reach. Lawsuits like that demonstrate not only profound greed, but a gross lack of imagination. Counters too high? Tell them you can't give them money until you can reach them. Need the counter to write on? Use a clipboard stowed in a backpack. Need a paper towel? Bring some wet wipes in a fanny pack. It sucks having to prove we're so damned clever and handicapable all the time, but frustration doesn't mean we have to be shiftless assholes incapable of being proactive and prepared. Suing a store for safety concerns or for gross assaults on basic human dignity(an utterly inaccessible bathroom) is an act of agency and self-advocacy that benefits everyone. Suing it because the counter is a half-inch too high is unabashed greed and petty assholery that hurts more than it helps, as evinced by the comments made by now-paranoid shopkeepers who are now convinced that every disabled customer is out to get theirs, a drooling crip Mossad bent on bringing walking civilization to its knees. Thanks a lot, Mundy.
That said, I have no sympathy for the store owner who says he cringes every time he sees a disabled customer enter the store because he fears a lawsuit. Shut up and serve me, asshole, and I'll give you no trouble. Treat me like crap because you think I might sue you for ADA non-compliance, and I'll be only too happy to sue you out of your shorts. For discrimination.
Gimps need an advocate, but this wasn't the kind I was hoping for.