By the way, the link to the scathing letter will produce a letter with enlarged words for the sight impaired. At any rate, these are the secrets that the Democrats do not want you to know about Kerry and Edwards' condescending attitudes toward disABLED and deaf and hard of hearing people.
March 2, 2004
Mr. Terry McAuliffe, Chairman
Democratic National Committee
430 S. Capitol Street SE
Washington DC, 20003
Re: Disability Issues and the Democratic Party
Dear Mr. McAuliffe:
The disability community is appalled that disability issues have been excluded from the speeches and debates of the Democratic Presidential contenders. We are further outraged at the actions of one candidate in particular, Senator John Edwards.
As you are aware, there have been significant issues with the way that Senator Edwards has interacted with people with disabilities. During a campaign stop in Rochester, NY, Senator Edwards’ staff did not make American Sign Language Interpreters available, despite the fact that Rochester has the largest per capita number of Deaf people in the world. During this same campaign stop, while Senator Edwards was shaking hands with the audience, he actually patted two women who use wheelchairs on the head.
As if this was not enough, on March 1, 2004, the NY Times ran an Op-Ed piece written by Senator Edwards, in which Senator Edwards provides a comparison between a person’s life before the person acquired a disability and after. To illustrate this comparison, Senator Edwards writes, “And the once broad-shouldered man now spent his days hunched in a wheelchair, surrounded by fast-food containers, overflowing ashtrays and plastic bags filled with his own urine. He was forced to communicate by typing words on a keyboard.”
Once again, Senator Edwards has managed to reinforce a deep systemic bias that individuals with disabilities must confront everyday. His description of this person with a disability is actually a perpetuation of a stereotype of our community. The perpetuation of stereotypes about any minority group is simply unacceptable behavior. In addition, his attempt at conjuring sympathy for people with disabilities is equally offensive. Our community does not want sympathy or pity; we deserve the same respect that is afforded to any other group.
That Senator Edwards, and the rest of the Democratic Presidential contenders, refuse to talk about our issues and instead resort to stereotypical depictions of individuals with disabilities is an outrage. Senator Edwards’ actions, and the lack of disability issues in the public discourse, reflect badly on the entire Democratic Party.
Therefore, we are requesting a public apology from the Democratic National Party regarding Senator Edwards’s behavior and the exclusion of disability issues. In addition, we are requesting that you meet with ADAPT and leaders from the disability community by March 31, 2004 to discuss how the Democratic Party will address the issues that are important to voters with disabilities.
Please contact Bruce Darling at 585-370-6690 to arrange for this meeting.
Sincerely,
Bruce E. Darling, Center for Disability Rights, Rochester, NY
cc: Becky Ogle, Director Disability Outreach, DNC
Daniel Okrent, Public Editor, NY Times
Senator John Edwards
UPDATE: Well, not really but prior to the scathing letter to Terry McAuliffe there were several efforts by people and the Center for Disability Rights to get the attention of Kerry or Edwards and get them to speak about disability issues. Not much success. Then there was a Senator Edwards' Campaign Rally in Rochester that Sunday, February 22nd. The people from the Center for Disability Rights attended the event. However, Edwards made the famous mistake of not getting an interpreter for the Rochester event as well as the "head patting" incident.
Before the event, we struggled to find out if there would be a sign language interpreter for our Deaf members. Several staff reported that they did not know then we finally found one staff that knew the answer. No. We asked them to honestly address the issue by having Senator Edwards apologize for this oversight. Edwards' staff denied this request and instead offered a private photo and brief conversation with the Senator for the Deaf people at the rally. Our people turned down that offer, because the conversation would do them no good since there was no interpreter!
You'd think Edward would've learned from all of this and apologize for the oversight. But Edwards being the lawyer he is would probably rather take a chance of not apologizing if it's the last thing if he ever did. As far as I could tell, no apologies were ever issued after the letter was sent to Terry McAuliffe of DNC. This will be confirmed soon.
