Disability, Discrimination, and Neglect

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Nobody wants to be disabled. Every type of disability carries a stigma with it. People stare at the disabled like they are freaks or shake their heads with pity. They look at them as an inconvenience or a drain on society.
What people do not under stand is that one day they are likely to be disabled in some way. Whether it is arthritis, heart disease,aztheimers, or the ravages of cancer; people will probably be disabled at some time in their life. Disability cab become personal real fast. Imagine being stricken with a stroke and loosing the ability to walk in seconds. Suddenly you are the inconvenience. Suddenly you are the one without insurance, who has to wait a year to get medicare. On top of that you are unable to go to the county office building to ask for help. Imagine all the places that are not wheel chair accessesible. You pass them every day without a thought. One day it could be you that needs togain entrance to them.
Discrimination take many forms; from indifferent to blatant. One example is Syracuse, N.Y.; where many people have been denied permission to build wheelchair ramps on their houses, because the city considers them in the same manner as they would adding an addition to their house. These people are trapped in their homes now and have no escape if a fire should start in their homes. Thei only choice would be to burn alive screaming in unbarable pain because they have no exit. Their flesh melting from the heat and dripping off their bones as the fire burns uncontrollably around them. Maybe your city or town has the same housing code.
Maybe as in Syracuse, the disabled have to wait years for affordable housing or live in residentials to have a roof over their heads. I could go on, but this blog would become a book. The bottomline is that the disabled are unwanted and excluded. The only reason they are not allowed to die is that it would be bad publicity for the politicians.
Instead they are placed in homes where they are neglected or worse yet sexully abused. Imagine your grandmother being sexually abused daily by an evil employee of a nursing home or residential facility. I'm sure you don't think this could happen in your area or to your relative.
Maybe you think that people who are disabled cost too much money, so you believe that they should just be allowed to waist away. Funny how when it is a dog or a cat people will spend tens of thousands of dollars to meet their medical and sheltering needs. The fact is, that when it is your dog, you will spend freely on them. Some people even buy medical insurance on their pets.
In the United States today the services that the disabled receive vary from town to town, not just state to state. There is no equal treatment under the law for the disabled. There are no rights that cross state lines, county lines, city lines, or county lines. Some day when your sitting in the wheel chair or bed ridden you'll wish that you had payed attention to the plight of the disabled.