Texas Capitol Off Limits to the Handicapped

Last week, I spent some time at the Texas Capitol visiting legislative offices and attending hearings. I was reminded that the Texas Capitol is essentially off limits to the disabled. Because of security, there is no handicapped parking available to the public within a block of the Capitol. Even then, there is remarkably little handicapped parking available anywhere around that building. The Visitor's parking garage is over two blocks away. The only drop-off areas are at least a block away from the Capitol. This does not see to bother our legislators one whit.

"Ah," they will say, "Look at the people in wheelchairs who visit us."

Of course, some people in motorized wheelchairs can get to the Capitol. They have their own transportation.

How many people on crutches do you see? How many with a cane? Or perhaps with a bad limp?

Very few.

Before my hip replacement, I found it extremely daunting to go to my state's capitol. I had to plan carefully. I would park as close as I could with my disabled parking permit, then begin the hike to the Capitol. I tried to park where my walk would allow me to rest frequently and let the pain subside before proceeding. I would perch wherever I could until I felt able to proceed. Many times, I wondered if I would make it, but there was no alternative.

This arrangement has advantages for the legislature. Lack of access means they are not bothered by those pesky cripples. Oh, they have to put up with those in wheelchairs, but that is only a small fraction of the mobility impaired. If legislators never have to see the less than physically perfect during a legislative session, then they don't have to consider their needs. Afterall, if there are so many disabled, wouldn't more visit their offices? The elderly can be ignored for the same reasons. Who wants a bunch of hobbling seniors cluttering up the place?

Is there any solution?

I do not want security weakened. I understand the need to control parking near the Capitol. I propose a shuttle service from the Capitol to the Visitor's parking garage. Use modified golf carts to carry the public to and from the Capitol's doors. The shuttles should run as long as the legislature is in session and on any day as long as there are hearings being held.

If shuttles are not the answer, then perhaps the legislature could find other means. If more officers are available to examine vehicles, then cars, after careful examination, could drop the handicapped at the north doors of the Capitol. I would even submit to a background check, if it meant I did not face that hike to the Capitol to exercise my right to speak.

Texas should allow all its citizens to frequent the halls of the legislature. Make the disabled full citizens of Texas.

Photos by David Berkowitz

Tea Bags to Washington

I received an email from a friend in my Sunday School class this morning. The missive was a general tirade against any bailout spending, similar in tone to the Rick Santelli tirade. I will not address the simplistic thinking behind the tirade or the lack of Christian love contained in such a message. Suffice it to say that the underlying assumption of misbehavior on the part of all needing help is questionable. Even if all had misbehaved, Christ instructed us to love our enemies and if financial miscreants are enemies, which I doubt, I believe Christ would have wanted to help them. Moreover, who are we to judge?

My focus was on the instruction to mail a tea bag to Washington on April 1, 2009. The idea is a new American Tea Party, a way of protest. While I think the underlying protest is misguided, I believe fully that those who support this anti-Obama tirade have every right to complain. However, I believe these protesters have chosen an absurd and deleterious method of protest.

Tea bags should not be mailed anywhere unless they are completely empty. What if a tea bag punctures while in route? Tea all over post office machines is not a pleasant thought. What will loose tea leaves do to the machinery? Nothing good, I bet. Of course, the sight of a strange substance contaminating a sorting center will lead to a security shutdown of that site which it should. How does a worker know that the crumbled leaves are pristine? What if the tea has been mixed with a toxic substance? The Post Office could be disabled nationwide.

If the tea bag stuffed envelopes do make it through the post office machinery unharmed, what will happen when they reach their destination, say the White House. A squishy envelope will surely not survive security. How much extra will it cost us, the taxpayers, for the additional security to scrutinize each of these envelopes? I suspect that even if empty teabags were sent, they would have to be examined to determine what substances they contain or contained. Either way, a taxpayer expense. Isn't taxpayer expense being protested?

What will keep a terrorist from using this protest to slip an illicit substance into the mail? Remember anthrax? Think of hundreds of poison-laced tea bags making their way through the mail to Washington. How many would make it to their destination? How many would harm people on the way? Even if there were only one such poisoned tea bag mailed, how could it be stopped except by finding all such mailings? One person growing careless because of the deluge of tea bags would be all that is necessary for a disaster.

A new American Tea Party would be better held on the local level. Throw teabags at each other, don't endanger the rest of us.


Photo by House of Sims