Yesterday I was miserable. Today is much better. Not normal but close to it (or what passes for normal when one is paralyzed). Regardless, I take the New York Times to task when it comes to disability rights and for good reason. But once in a while the NYT hits a veritable home run. Yesterday was one of those days. The below editorial was in the NYT yesterday June 1. I have taken the liberty of quoting it in full below.
A United Nations report, “The State of the World’s Children,”underscores the moral bankruptcy of Senate Republicans who blocked ratification of a treaty to help disabled people around the world. There is scant data on how many children have such disabilities or how their lives are affected. One outdated estimate is that some 93 million children, one in 20 of those 14 or younger, live with a moderate or severe disability of some kind. The issue is how they might be helped to overcome their disabilities and become productive members of their societies.
Today's Editorials
Editorial: A Failure to Police Chemical Plants (June 2, 2013)
Editorial: Restoring the Vote in Virginia (June 2, 2013)
Editorial | Notebook: After Years of Progress, a Setback in Saving the Wolf (June 2, 2013)
Editorial | Notebook: ‘Hamlet’ Meets ‘The Hangover’ (June 2, 2013)
A United Nations convention would ban discrimination against persons with disabilities and accord them the same rights as those without disabilities. It has been ratified by 127 countries and the European Union. President Obama has signed it, but, in December, the Senate, though supporting the convention by a hefty 61 to 38, fell five votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification.
This was mostly because Senate Republicans caved in to far-right ideologues who contended, erroneously, that the convention would infringe on American sovereignty, usher in socialism, and allow United Nations bureaucrats to prohibit home-schooling or wrench disabled children from their parents’ arms.
The new United Nations report finds that children with disabilities are the least likely to receive health care or go to school and are among the most vulnerable to violence, abuse and neglect, especially if they are hidden away in institutions because of social stigma or parental inability to raise them.
The disabled children and their communities would benefit if the children were accommodated in schools, workplaces, vocational training, transportation and local rehabilitation programs — and if all countries ratified the convention and a related convention on the rights of children.
I'm rather fed up with members of the Republican party calling everything "socialism", typically without understanding what the term means, and insisting that everything they don't agree with is an entitlement. Until, of course, they need it.
ReplyDeleteOf course, a bunch of men who sit in Congress who get big salaries from both the Government and private practices, have incredibly comprehensive health care (and if they've been there for a while, for life), and often have never had to wonder if they can pay next month's rent or whether they can put food on the table, cannot be expected to understand the needs or desires of anyone but people like themselves.
Compassion used to be some part of the Republican party. It's long gone.
Moose, You will not get an argument from me about the Republican Party. Bob Dole wrote a scathing piece recently about the Republican party unwillingness to compromise and put aside partisan politics to get things done. The hard line Republicans (conservative Christians and Tea Party types) have brought government to a virtual halt and defeated benign treaties like the UN Charter on Human Rights of Disabled People (screwing up the name here). I wish I had a solution. Complaining here seems pointless. I consider elected officials, all of them, a class apart from the rest of the country. Privileged in the extreme.
ReplyDeleteThere is a long way to go. Actually in the larger country towns in Australia, most schools (state) have facilities for disabled kids and their mates at school learn how to help them etc - but in the small towns or the large city - its not so good. In the cities the buildings (schools) are usually older and unable to be made accessible easily - in small towns its just there are not the numbers and the Government is very tightfisted re funding...
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