Halloween Storm: Great Havoc

This is the pretty view of my property after the Halloween Storm. Never in my life have I seen over a foot of snow fall in October. My pumpkin never got carved, something I love to do, and I feel bad for the local kids. No trick or treating took place. The not so pretty pictures involve downed power lines on my road, destroyed trees on my property, limbs and branches everywhere. The road I live on looks like a bomb hit it for days. Clean up is going to take a while, months Frankly I did not believe the forecast and was not prepared. We never get significant accumulations of snow in October. Well, this was a historic first. A record setting storm far worse than what Hurricane Irene wrought. I was without power for almost six days. I held fast for over two days until real disaster struck. One cold powerless night I went to sleep in my son's bed and buried myself under a pile of blankets to stay warm. I even wore a wool hat to bed. When I woke up I had a bad blister on my original wound. I abandoned my home, got a guest room where my mother lives, and went to wound care. I have a blister. For anyone else this is no big deal. For me this means weeks in bed again.

Some good has come out of this. Thanks to my brother I now have a working generator. It will power my bed for about 12 hours before it needs to be refueled. I learned never ever to use heavy blankets for warmth. I got to spend a few days with my mother. She is a cool old lady as my son would say. Thanks to her generosity my skin did not evolve into a huge problem. When power came back on I had the bed company service it and move it into my bedroom. Yes, I am out of my living room. I am now like many other Americans who actually sleep in their bedrooms. This enabled me to clean my living room and move all the furniture around. My living room has never looked so good or clean.

I lost an entire week due to the storm. Nothing got done as my access is the internet was limited to my phone. I missed out on a few important issues I wanted to write about--an anti accessible taxi editorial in the NY Daily News, more on the Dr. OZ show, I missed attending an anti Euthanasia conference, and more. So yes, here I am stuck in bed but my spirits are not down. After months in bed a few weeks to endure will be a piece of cake. I am not worried about ski season or teaching next semester. The only being that is having trouble adjusting is my black lab Kate. She loved being where my mother lives. She was a star, all the old folks petted her and shared lab stories. She was thrilled by the attention. And now she is confused. She slept in the living room for a year and is now back to her crate in my bedroom. She is unsure where to sleep. But we are simply happy to be home and have power. Life is pretty basic.

Powerless

I lost power Saturday afternoon. After three days I gave up keeping my place warm. Too much work. The fish in my aquarium all dead. My complaint list is long and I am not a happy camper. Worse yet my skin broke down. Saw MD, not a real problem but it could become one in a heartbeat. Very worried and in desperate need of power that makes my life go. The storm on Saturday that brought over a foot of snow at my house caused far more damage than hurricane Irene. At best, I hope to get power back Friday. Next week is more likely. I will post some pictures when power comes back. My property was hit pretty hard, likely lost my beloved American chest nut trees. Never thought I would say this after last year but I miss my clinitron bed and living room.

Lives Worth Living

Thursday night, Lives Worth Living, a documentary film about the history of the disability rights movement will be broadcast by PBS. The advance reviews have been outstanding. The film maker, Eric Neudel, has received many awards. Beth Haller, author of Representing Disability and an expert on the mass media, was "completely wowed by this powerful documentary that packs 50 years of disability rights history into 54 minutes." I will not be able to see the film Thursday but I am sure PBS will rebroadcast it. I urge all those with even a passing interest in disability rights and history to watch the film. I for one am deeply moved when I see disability activists from the 1960s and 1970s. For me it is like looking back in time. I get to see the old hair styles, clothes and terrible wheelchairs produced by Everest and Jennings. If this sort of imagery is interesting check out the Disability Rights Education Defense Fund You Tube videos on line.

More on Dr. Oz and Assisted Suicide

Stephen Drake at Not Dead Yet has put up another post about the Dr. Oz show. He refers to me and provides a link to my post about the Dr. Oz show. For this I am very grateful. It is very important that people read what Stephen has to say. He has been on the front lines so to speak for quite some time and Not Dead Yet is needed now more than ever. The Dr. Oz show highlighted this in spectacular fashion. Drake and Diane Coleman are forward thinkers whose voice needs to be heard. For instance, Drake anticipated the Dr. Oz show was going to be hopelessly biased in favor of assisted suicide. This has not been a good week or two for disability rights. We have the Dr. Oz show pushing assisted suicide and Mayor Bloomberg spouting off about the "dangers" of having accessible NYC taxis.

In an effort to reaffirm the rights of people with a disability and for the skeptics out there who may think I was exaggerating what I wrote about the Dr. Oz show, below is part of what Drake posted at Not Dead Yet. I had not met Danny Robert and Nadina LaSpina before last week and was duly impressed. I think their take reinforces what I wrote and exactly why Not Dead Yet is needed. I urge all to read the final paragraph very closely.


Bushwhacked in the Land of Oz

Danny Robert & Nadina LaSpina

Wednesday was a dark and rainy windy day here in the Big Apple. We were invited to be part of a taping for the Dr. Oz Show on the topic of assisted suicide. Our car service pick up was scheduled for 7:15 AM. We couldn't find the van which was parked far from our door and got soaked but we got to the accessible entrance to 30 Rock before 8:00.

Julie Maury, Bill Peace, Hope Derogatis and Ari Ne'eman, all people with disabilities and disability rights advocates, were already there. We had each been interviewed by producers prior to being invited to appear on the show. We were directed to a large elevator to the sixth floor where we all showed our IDs and were given our tickets. We were received very cordially, with big bright smiles, by the production staff who all looked like high school cheerleaders. “Are you excited to be on the show?” one of them asked. “As much as I am when I go to the dentist,” Nadina answered.


Though we had never seen the Dr. Oz show, we expected it to be low quality, shallow and (especially having read Steve's blog) extremely biased. But we had no idea of how great the bias and how blatant the hostility that awaited us in Oz's studio would be.

We were brought back to the elevator and then escorted into a small “holding room." With some difficulty, we all squeezed in. Dr. Byock, a palliative care doctor who opposes assisted suicide, stopped in to introduce himself and we all pleasantly shook hands. He was scheduled to be on the small expert panel, and we were scheduled to be in the pro-or-con segment of the audience.

We talked among ourselves, deciding who would make which point. Very naively, we thought we would all get a chance to speak. Then a young man, accompanied by someone with a video camera, entered and introduced himself as Greg. He said he was a producer and asked us to articulate our opposition to physician assisted suicide. Each of us had something to say and he listened and asked questions. He explained that in the first segment of the show, Dr.Oz would bring out his special guest, Montel Williams, who would explain why he is in favor of assisted suicide, then Dr. Ablow would argue against, and then a woman with ALS would be brought out. Greg asked that we not interrupt or heckle, and that we would get a chance to speak after the woman with ALS.

Montel gave a dramatic performance, grabbing his legs from time to time while he spoke, his face contorted in pain. He said he wants to have a way out when the pain gets unbearable and he wants to die with dignity. Dr. Ablow gave some good arguments, saying "I would never legally allow physicians to decide who should live and who should die... physician assisted suicide is a slippery slope..." But right from the start it was very obvious that Dr. Oz and most of his audience were not interested in hearing any arguments against.

Then Dr. Oz introduced Dana, an African American woman in her late 40s or early 50s with ALS. Her attendant rolled her to a spot right in front of the panel. She sat in a manual chair, somewhat reclined, wearing a ventilator mask. A video played on the big screens, showing Dana before tragedy hit, healthy, strong, athletic... (very exploitative). Then the ventilator mask came off (the ventilator alarmed briefly) and Dana began to speak. She said she had been living with the progression of ALS for 8 years and she was tired. She hated having to depend on others for her care and she couldn't take it anymore. She said she was depressed, lonely, had no friends left and she wanted to die. Nadina and I looked at each other and said “that's why she wants to die.” Nadina quickly jotted a note in preparation for her comments.

As Dana spoke, the sighs and the sniffles from the audience kept getting louder. The cheerleaders went around with boxes of tissues, the bright smiles on their young faces now replaced by mournful expressions.

Dr. Oz asked Dana's son how it felt to live with his mom. He said it was sad and that, though he didn't really want her to die, he also didn't want her to suffer anymore. Dana's daughter said: "It's heart-breaking, unbearable to watch her suffer. She's had enough." Dana's sister, who has her health care proxy, reiterated: "She can't take it anymore. She's suffered enough." It was obvious to us (but I guess to no one else) that the family had “had enough.”

Greg had promised that after the break, we would have a chance to speak. After we heard Dana, we decided that I should go first, since my physical condition is, outwardly, very similar to hers, and my need for a ventilator is actually greater than hers. So I told my story, including my MS diagnoses, the break up of my marriage, how bleak the future appeared to me then, and the resulting near-suicidal depression. I said how glad I was that no lethal prescription was available for me then. I said that meeting disabled people and becoming part of an activist community got me out of the depression. That I fell in love with Nadina 18 years ago and, in spite of my losing function and at times becoming depressed, I lead a full, rich and very happy life.

Nadina picked up here and said that losing function often is accompanied by temporary depression, and that having available a lethal prescription would be very dangerous for someone with a progressive disability. Then she started saying that assisted suicide was usually presented as a “choice for the terminally ill,” but here we were talking about people (Montel, Dana) who were not terminally ill but had disabilities. Dr. Oz didn't let her continue. He quickly walked away with the mike, while Nadina yelled “I'm not finished.”

During the break, Nadina complained to Dr. Oz that she had not been allowed to speak. "I'll come back to you," he said. But he never did.

In the next segment Dr. Oz brought on two more panel guests, Dr. Ira Byock and Barbara Coombs Lee from Compassion and Choices. Dr. Byock was very good, stating there was no need for assisted suicide given the availability of good palliative care. He pointed out to Dana that she could refuse treatment. He did so in a very gentle way. He asked her: “do you want to tell your doctors, maybe next time you're hospitalized with pneumonia, that you'd rather not have them do anything, let nature take its course?” (Maybe not his exact words, but something like that). Dana did not answer. Dr. Oz quickly stepped in. “Let her answer” Nadina yelled out, “she doesn't want to die.” But Dr. Oz had quickly changed the subject.

Montel kept repeating he wanted to maintain his dignity. A few times we yelled out “What do you mean by dignity?” and “Do you think we have no dignity?”

Barbara Coombs Lee didn't say much. She didn't need to. By the time she came on, the argument in favor of assisted suicide had been completed (if there ever was an “argument” – from the beginning it was clear which side Dr. Oz was on and that the show had been scripted). Dr. Ablow was booed a few times. Dr. Byock was booed when he said, "We're not talking about choice but about control. You want to make sure you die with your boots on and make up."

Every time a new segment started, Dr. Oz would say things like: “The question today is: do we have the right to end our own life if we're suffering?” or “if our quality of life has deteriorated?” On the big screens the question was: “Do you think you have the right to end your own life?” (just as sloppy and as the show’s online survey, conflating suicide with assisted suicide, conflating the right to refuse treatment with assisted suicide).

The final segment was supposed to be questions and comments from the audience. We were divided by an aisle into pro and con. During the break, Nadina managed to get the attention of the producer, Greg, who interviewed us before the show. “Dr. Oz didn't let me speak,” she told him. “NDYers have a unique perspective. We want to be heard.” He answered: “I'm sorry.”

Dr. Oz let a right-to-lifer speak briefly. He called me (Danny) a hero. And Montel replied: “let's not pit patient against patient.” Julie yelled out: “We're people not patients”, but without the microphone, none of us could be heard. A hospice nurse spoke against assisted suicide, mentioning how a woman's life was prolonged long enough for her to hold her grandchild in her arms. But most of the comments were from the other side of the room. Horror stories about people made to suffer, told by someone other than the person, and you couldn’t tell the real cause of the suffering.

Nadina, Julie, Bill, Hope and Ari kept raising their hands but Dr. Oz totally ignored us. One guy said: "These Not Dead Yet members are selfish. They don't care about people suffering. They don't want anyone to have choice.” We yelled out “It's the other way around.”

Dr. Oz kept ignoring us. But at one point, he was right next to Ari and Ari had his hand raised right in front of Dr. Oz's face. Dr. Oz asked him: "Are you right to life?" Ari answered: "No, I'm with the National Council on Disability.” Dr. Oz let him speak and Ari was great. He gave some statistics about Oregon, and even mentioned the Latimer case, the Canadian farmer who got a lot of support from the assisted suicide movement when he was prosecuted for murdering his 12-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy.


We tried after the show to reach out to Dana. Julie tried to catch up with her and her family, but was pushed away by Dr. Oz's production assistants. All of us NDYers were extremely frustrated and agitated. We all agreed we had been setup and just used as window dressing.

That audience was a microcosm of our society. Most every one in that audience was convinced that disability is a fate worse than death. Most of those in favor of assisted suicide thought we were selfish for wanting to live no matter what. Others, like the right-to-lifers, sitting along side us, saw us as heroic and saintly for putting up with what they imagined was great suffering and not succumbing to sinful thoughts of suicide. Sitting in that studio, we saw more clearly than ever how very important Not Dead Yet's work is and how extremely difficult.

Bloomberg Rails Against Accessible Taxis

I have never been impressed with Mayor Bloomberg. But in the past week I have gone from unimpressed to deeply annoyed if not angry. It is clear to me that Bloomberg is desperate to keep the inaccessible taxi of tomorrow as the NYC taxi fleet. If he is successful I will be unable to hail a cab in NYC for the next 10-15 years. Bloomberg words, his anti disability rhetoric, is so far off base now it is hard to fathom. Someone needs to tell the man the ADA in this case is clear cut--transportation must be accessible to people with disabilities. The Feds made that clear but Bloomberg failed to take note Bloomberg I suspect may be trying to play good cop bad cop with David Yassky chairman of the NYC TLC. This week Yassky wrote that he does not think the TLC is violating the ADA in spite of the fact less than 2% of taxis are accessible. He did however acknowledge city officials "cannot ignore the possibility that a court order will at some point require a significant portion of the taxi fleet to convert to accessible vehicles". In stark contrast Bloomberg has waged a media campaign against accessible taxis. His words and actions are objectionable and insulting. He makes it sound as though if taxis are required to be accessible the entire NYC taxi system will collapse.

So what has Bloomberg said this week? Among the low lights:

The dispatch system will work. He expects people with a disability to call the TLC who will dispatch one of the 231 accessible cabs in the city. Bloomberg thinks 231 accessible cabs is adequate and that a dispatched cab will arrive promptly. Give me a break. This might work in the middle of the day in August when the city is empty but I would not expect a cab to arrive promptly if at all on an ordinary day. Forget trying to get a dispatched cab during rush hour, at the end of an event, or on a busy weekend.

The suspension system on the accessible cabs is inferior and dangerous. Accidents to non disabled people are inevitable and the city will be deluged with law suits. According to Bloomberg "The suspension is a lot worse and its harder to get up and pay the cab driver and get in and out and that sort of thing". When I read this I almost laughed. The issue of safety was used for decades to bar people with a disability from schools, buses, planes, trains, concerts etc. This new twist is preposterous. The ADA is clear--public transportation must be accessible

New York City is unlike any other city in the country. Bloomberg said "it just doesn't work in a city like ours, and I don't know that the U.S. Attorney General understands how people live in the city and the traffic patterns and that sort of thing". Traffic patterns? I think a grid system is pretty basic. And how I wonder is it that other cities with far more complex traffic patterns have accessible cabs and cabbies that actually stop for people with a disability. London and Dublin are two such cities.

The passenger in accessible cabs sits far away from the driver. Tips will be radically smaller because of the distance. According to Bloomberg "When the cabs are big enough for a wheelchair a lot of cabdrivers say that the passengers sit farther away and they can't establish a dialogue and they get lower tips". The distance is also a grave danger as well. Bloomberg maintains "You know, there's so much more pace between the backseat and the divider, you're going to have people getting hurt". A dialogue with a NYC cab driver? Who is Bloomberg trying to kid? As for the size, Bloomberg makes it sound as though the accessible cab is the size of a tractor trailer. Preposterous.

I saved the best comment for last. Bloomberg: "You can't take a wheelchair out into the street and try and hail a cab". What? Exactly where does Bloomberg expect the human beings sitting in a wheelchair to hail a cab? I am sure he ever seen a person navigate the streets of New York City using a wheelchair. I am in the street all the time. When I park my car mid block and walk to a muni-meter, fail at hailing a cab, go an entire block in the street because a curb cut is blocked or not present, avoiding construction etc.

I hope Bloomberg is desperate. If history is any indication, he sounds like former Mayor Koch. The closer the city came to being forced to make the buses accessible the more obnoxious Koch became. And Koch was the typical New Yorker--sharp witted, opinionated, and wrong. Koch's anti disability rhetoric was at least creative in retrospect. Bloomberg;s anti disability rhetoric lacks any creativity, substance and relies on antiquated bigotry. Bloomberg is very much out of touch with disability rights. Indeed, I doubt the man even knows what the term means. I suspect our billionaire mayor's mind set is stuck in a charity model of disability where laws like the ADA can be easily ignored. I sure hop the Feds will remind him that people like me have civil rights.

Dr. Oz on Assisted Suicide: A Train Wreck

Last week I received an email from Stephen Drake, research analyst, for Not Dead Yet. He wrote that he and Diane Coleman might be on a syndicated television program called Doctor Oz. The subject was assisted suicide, not exactly the usual afternoon television fodder. To say I was skeptical would be too generous—daytime television is not exactly known for quality programming and I had never heard of Dr. Oz. As it turns out Drake and Coleman could not appear. I decided to attend knowing some members of Not Dead Yet would be present as well. I had three concerns: first, the daytime television model is for tear jerking, maudlin depictions of any issue and this would undermine any serious discussion. Second, would the show use people with a disability as mere window dressing for the viewing audience. Third, would the show be grossly biased. My concerns were well placed. The taping of the show was in my opinion a train wreck. It was an amazingly horrible experience. All my concerns came to fruition. In fact I would go as far as say the show, its host and producers were unethical.

As part of the expert audience, prominently sitting in the center of the studio, I did not say a word. It was very clear from the opening that my views were not valued. Yes, I was indeed window dressing. The so-called expert panel was hopelessly biased in favor of assisted suicide. Any opposition to assisted suicide was token at best—the minimal required that gives the appearance of being unbiased. This role was performed, scripted perhaps, by Keith Ablow who seemed to delight in upsetting people. The audience became hostile to any semblance of opposition to assisted suicide and was vocal about it. Worse yet, they used a highly emotional, think tear jerking, style to move the audience. The message was clear: disability is a fate worse than death and that assisted suicide is the most humane thing available to us. Out of the goodness of society’s collective soul the terminally ill and all those suffering should be put out of our misery.

The taping of the show made me feel like I was in a time warp—think Jerry Lewis telethon at its worst circa 1960. I fear I witnessed a raw new world emerging that I suspect reflects middle American values. It was ugly and I was forced to envision a world in which the ADA was never passed into law, disability rights did not exist, the medical model of disability was the only model, and equality was given out in small doses to appease pesky crippled people and make the almighty normal bipedal humans feel better about themselves. This ties directly into the push for assisted suicide laws and the serious threat such laws are to those with a disability and other marginalized people whose life is not valued.

I know daytime television programming is about entertainment. A sober and detailed discussion was not what I expected. But I had no clue just how bad the show’s taping would be. If possible it set an all time low. It far exceeded the very worst I could have possibly imagined. In this regard, Stephen Drake’s post, “Media Alert—Looks Like Dr. Oz is Planning Slanted Show on Assisted Suicide”, at the Not Dead Yet blog was prophetic. Most of the expert panelists were in favor of assisted suicide. Little time was devoted to rational reasons why such laws are in fact dangerous. Montel Wiliams, vigorously for assisted suicide legislation, exemplified the dichotomy between those for and against assisted suicide laws. Advocates for assisted suicide used highly emotional arguments that were very effective and touched the hearts and minds of those in the audience. Do we have the right to die was Dr. Oz’s refrain. The precious little time allotted to those opposed to assisted suicide were used as the veritable straw man--the downer who poured water over the parade toward assisted suicide legislation.

I have thought a great deal about what took place at the taping of the show. It is clear to me now that the show was well scripted. A very clear plan existed. The emotional argument for assisted suicide was to be pushed as hard as possible. This would whip up the audience and lip service would be paid to those opposed to assisted suicide. The audience reaction would be visceral and nasty to any nuance or balanced point of view. The goal of the show was to illicit a strong emotional response. And here is where I think the host and producers were unethical. The star of the show—a deeply depressed black woman with ALS accompanied by a home health aide, her two children, sisters and mother. This woman was used, exploited really. She was the archetype for why assisted suicide legislation should be passed into law now. She was portrayed as trapped in a body that was failing and would continue to fail. Huge photographs of her in an athletic uniform were used to juxtapose her sitting in a wheelchair, respirator dependent-a fate worse than death. How could society be so callous as to deny a release from her suffering. The host ever so sincerely asked her children would they support her mother if she wanted to use assisted suicide. Tears flowed, the audience was broken hearted and angry. Let this woman poor die. Pan the dejected audience, go to commercial, be sure to include other people with a disability in the camera frame.

The thought that I was a part of this show makes me feel like my humanity was violated. I am also deeply worried. There is a serious push to pass assisted suicide laws in the Northeast. Shows like Dr. Oz will surely be used by well funded groups like Compassion and Choices when they give presentations. The visuals and emotional power of such tear jerking stories cannot be dismissed. It is powerful stuff. It is also grossly misleading. While others will be moved to tears this is what I was thinking; how many people with ALS, in the exact same condition as the woman on the show, are content and leading rich and full lives? I would venture to guess the vast majority. I am not dismissing the serious nature of ALS—it is an inevitably fatal condition. But why is it this woman that appeared on the show is applauded for wanting to die and not adapting to her disability? She is the tragic hero while the person with ALS and all those who adapt to disability are not supported or given any respect. Social supports for people with a disability that want to live a life that includes the mundane, a job, family, access to mass transportation and a decent home are given begrudgingly. These people are difficult, a drain on the country’s financial resources. No wonder I have not felt equal since I took my last step when I was eighteen-year old.

What the audience failed to learn was the laws for assisted suicide in Washington and Oregon have taught us that people do not choose to die because they are in pain. And the show clearly led people to believe people with a disability are in pain and hence should have the right to die. I believe in the exact opposite: we all have the right to live. The reality is people choose to die because they believe they have no dignity and fear being an economic burden on their loved ones. This is not a failure of the medical establishment (we are all going to die afterall) but rather a social failure. We fail to support the vulnerable. And like it or not I am part of that vulnerable population. Many good things have come as a result of my paralysis and vulnerability. I know that dignity and quality of life are extremely subjective concepts. I also know people see me and think they would rather be dead than paralyzed. Some are even willing to share this sentiment with me. Thus I am no different from any other person with a disability. And we people with a disability desperately need to get our act together. Show like Dr. Oz are misleading and dangerous. Our voices need to heard, our existence valued.

NYC Taxis, the Mayor and the U.S. Attorney

Sunday October 16 the New York Daily News published an editorial that took me aback--"Mayor Bloomberg Must Make the City's Taxis 100% Wheelchair Accessible". A few days earlier the Manhattan U.S. Attorney, Preet Bharara filed court papers that the government agrees with disabled activists who have sued the Taxi and Limousine Commission. In no uncertain and in unusually blunt terms Bharara wrote the TLC cannot continue to violate the ADA. The U.S. Attorney's remarks are out of the norm and are without question the strongest criticism of the mayor and the TLC to date. At present, the city does not require taxis to be accessible. The NY Daily News noted that "there are 13,237 yellow taxis; 231 can accommodate a wheelchair. That's 1.7%, making the chance of hailing one almost impossible. That tiny proportion clashes with the ADA's requirement of equality of access and cannot be remedied by a sketchy plan for a system of telephone-dispatched wheelchair-accessible cabs. What's more, federal standards mandate that vans must be accessible when they are employed as cabs.
Bharara got to the point, stating, "a ruling by this court now that the city is obligated to ensure that all new taxicabs are wheelchair-accessible is all the more important because it will likely have a significant impact on both the city's implementation of an accessible taxicab dispatch system and its selection of the vehicle that will become the 'Taxi of Tomorrow.'"

The TLC concept of a dispatch system will not only fail miserably (which it did under a test run last summer) it is an obvious attempt to avoid complying with the ADA. Based on the U.S. Attorney's words it seems that the mayor and TLC have no choice but to accept the fact they cannot continue to break the law. The so called taxi of tomorrow must be accessible. This losing fight on the part of the city fight reminds me of the late 1970s when Mayor Koch was violently opposed to making city buses accessible. I vividly recall Koch loudly telling reporters it would be cheaper to rent a limo for every person with a disability than putting lifts on NYC buses. Koch was not only wrong but spectacularly wrong. NYC buses are not only accessible but are used by thousands of disabled people every day. I have no doubt Mayor Bloomberg is as impressively wrong as Koch was.

Bloomberg will no doubt try and fight the U.S. Attorney. His administration has been hostile to disability rights for quite some time (see my post about hurricane shelters and lack of accessible locations to vote). I am hopeful this is a fight Bloomberg and the TLC will lose. Even with a victory change will be slow to come. Hailing a cab for a person such as myself that uses a wheelchair is an exercise in futility. I tease my friends an armed bank robber being chased by the police has a better chance of haling a cab in New York City than I do. But do not take my word for it. In a letter to the editor published by New Mobility, a yuppie magazine for people with a disability, Ellen Stohl, a visitor to the city wrote: "I just returned from a trip to New York City. Cabs do not stop for people in chairs. Outside the Empire State Building, my family and I tried to hail a cab. My husband kept flagging them down, but they would pull in and then pull right back out when they saw the chair." This is an every day event for anyone in NYC that uses a wheelchair and is naive enough to try and hail a cab. But Stohl is a smart woman. She learned the NYC way to hail a cab. She wrote "I finally had to hide behind a big flower pot while my husband and a ticket salesperson waived down a cab. We got my mother-in-law and daughter into the cab before I came out of hiding so the cabbie could not leave". And that my friends is about the only way a person that uses a wheelchair in NYC can get a cabbie to stop. It is grossly wrong and the norm. If the Mayor and TLC have their way nothing will change for decades. If they lose, I hope NYC cabbies of the future may actually change--there would at least be hope someday I can hail a cab like other New Yorkers.