Giving Up On Giving Up: Check-In Post #2

[nanila]

Hello Fine Crew Members,
I meant to post this yesterday; my apologies that it's a day late. How are you doing on your Giving Up On Giving Up?

This week was very busy at work, so I mostly expressed my determination not to give up through the medium of donations. I gave to a friend who's raising money for the UK charity Shelter, which helps homeless people and those trapped in substandard housing. I gave to another person who's crowdfunding their art. And I bought a ticket for a friend who wanted to attend an event but couldn't afford it. I also kept up with the news [sigh] and tried not to bang my head on the desk too much.

Here's hoping you've had some successes, however small, as well!

Action: Protect the Americans With Disabilities Act

[tassosss]

The House just passed H.R. 620 to drastically weaken the ADA.
It's time to light up your Senators phones to make sure this does not pass.

http://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/373546-rolling-back-the-civil-rights-of-the-disabled-harms-us-all

The ADA, which passed in 1990 with overwhelming bipartisan support, was carefully crafted to balance the concerns of businesses with the need to ensure access for people with disabilities. It did not require costly retrofitting of buildings built before the ADA; businesses were required to remove barriers in those buildings where that could be done without significant difficulty or expense. But the law contemplated that businesses that could easily remove barriers would do so. They would be accessible when people with disabilities showed up at the door, to shop, to obtain services, and to work. If H.R. 620 were to pass, many more people with disabilities would encounter barriers when they showed up and getting in would require a long and arduous process.

That’s because H.R. 620 would eliminate any incentive for businesses to comply with the ADA proactively. A business that did not comply would face no consequence until after it received a legal notice from a person with a disability who was harmed, detailing the specific violation of the law. And then the business would have six months to do something about it and would merely be required to make “substantial progress” in removing barriers, instead of actually providing access.

Emphasis mine.

Quick script

-- I am strongly against HR 620 and please tell [Senator] not to vote for it.
-- HR 620 functionally legalizes discrimination against Americans with disabilities by allowing businesses to get away with barring access
-- It's not just a "people in wheelchairs" problem - disability and mobility issues affect parents with strollers, the elderly, and those injured - conditions that the majority of Americans will have at some point in their lives. (I realize this is potentially an ableist point, but disabled infrastructure helps more than just the chronically disabled and you're potentially trying to convince someone who doesn't give a shit about disabled people. Take or leave as you see fit.)