It really sucks to be reminded just how bass-ackwards some people's and some states' thinking can be. A group of people with disabilities is suing the state of Tennessee under the ADA in an attempt to get that state to make its courthouses accessible. One woman in the suit, a court reporter, has had to turn down 23 jobs because she was unable to get to the second floor of the buildings due to lack of elevators. In one job she had taken, a judge had to carry her into the bathroom and sit her on the toilet because she couldn't get her wheelchair through the door. A man in the suit whose legs were in casts due to a car accident was forced to pull himself up the stairs to his hearing while court employees and a judge laughed at him from the top of the stairs. His case wasn't heard that morning, so he had to make his way back down to the first floor for lunch. When he refused to struggle back up the stairs for the afternoon session, the judge had him arrested for failure to appear.

One would think this would be an open-and-shut case of blatant discrimination with no danger of being thrown out, but the state of Tennessee and other states facing similar suits are yelling "11th Amendment" in order to not have to make any accomodations. For those of you not up to date on your Constitutional amendments (admittedly, I'm a little rusty myself), the 11th Amendment reads, "The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state" (thanks to Cornell's law school for providing the full text of the Constitution online). The states aren't being sued by citizens of other states -- they're being sued by their OWN friggin' citizens! Unfortunately, there seems to be a real danger that federal appeals courts may allow this cock-and-bullshit to fly and declare that the states don't have to provide reasonable accomodations for employees or plaintiffs/defendants. I don't think I need to go on for lines and lines about that injustice, nor do I need to bring up comparison after comparison of other discrimination suits in a similar vein which were ruled in favor of the plaintiffs (Brown vs Topeka BOE, anyone?). The author of the editorial I read did that well enough, so I'll refer you to the NYTimes online, Sunday edition.

I do, however, feel the need to comment on the judge's and employees' behavior in the incident of the man in casts, which has undoubtedly been repeated by them and other states countless times. I'm outraged that people can take such obvious pleasure in another human's pain and humiliation. They basically took this man's dignity and stomped the dog shit out of it right there in a building meant to uphold the law -- the same law which includes preserving the dignity of people. The courts in Florida upheld the right of a woman to die with dignity by ordering the removal of her feeding tube, but the same federal courts in other states may say, "To hell with your dignity. You're just a second-class person anyway because you're a cripple." It's so ironic to read this editorial when we're about a week away from celebrating the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It's unreal to celebrate the emancipation of a group of people when there is still so much blatant discrimination in our country of all groups that are not American-born, white, Protestant, middle-class (or should I say upper-class nowadays?), able-bodied people. We are not the land of freedom and equality that our leaders love to claim we are; rather, we are a country full of people suspicious of and hateful toward anything and anyone different than us. When I think of that, a deep sadness begins to mingle with the outrage.