Category: Uncategorized

Airline Employees Abuse Disabled Veteran and His Service Dog

See full story here

 

Paws and Stripes founder and disabled veteran Jim Staneck is seeking support from fellow dog lovers after he and his service dog were insulted and assaulted by United Airline employees.

Staneck and his service dog Sarge spent 48 hours stranded in the Dulles Airport after numerous flight cancellations and delays. Wounded in battle, Staneck suffers from a brain injury that makes it difficult for him to concentrate under stress. When he struggled to understand changes to his itinerary an employee at the ticket counter insulted him.

“He said, ‘Just read it’ and I said, ‘Sir I can’t read it,’ and he said, ‘What are you retarded?’” Staneck recalls. “Prior to this I told him I have a brain injury and PTSD, I’m a disabled vet, this is my second night here; I need help.”

To make matters worse, Staneck says Sarge was kicked twice by United employees. He said the second kick was so hard that it sent her flying.

Micro Memoir, Again

 

I fell out of a tree in 1955. Entered the world like a cicada.  There’s a chain of coffee places in New York City called “Pan Quotidien” which we are supposed to imagine means  “customary bread”–but I generally hear it as “ordinary pain” which brings me back to the cicada. He walks around and then gets eaten. Once when I was in college I asked an entomologist why insect scholars aren’t more philosophical. He said that science is exact. Which I still take to mean “being eaten is being eaten” and that’s that. You see, there’s no meaning in being eaten. And across the street from “Pan Quotidien” is a Methodist Church. For those who hope being eaten means something. I fell out of a tree. Talk a lot. Make a clatter with my unsupportable wings. That’s it.     

Couple Claims Park Ranger Got Violent Over Service Dog

Couple Claims Park Ranger Got Violent Over Service Dog
(News-Press)
July 19, 2012

EAST NAPLES, FLORIDA– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] An east Naples couple say they are fighting for the rights of the disabled and hope to raise awareness of those who use service dogs after a recent confrontation that, they say, turned physical.

The couple, who were on vacation at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park in early May, will return Wednesday to fight charges issued by U.S. park rangers. Robert Taylor, a 48-year-old disabled Navy veteran and his wife, Lauri Housworth, a Naples dentist, received a pair of $275 citations for failure to obey a lawful instruction. Taylor received another $75 citation for failure to crate, restrain or confine a pet.

The couple and Taylor’s service dog, Kona, were having a cookout May 10.

According to Taylor, Anthony Lutz, a park ranger, pulled up to the picnic area at the military camp where the couple was staying, put his hand on his weapon and demanded to know the couple’s identity and why they were there. Taylor said he explained that they were staying nearby and having a cookout.

Lutz then turned his attention to Kona, said Taylor, adding that the German shepherd was leashed and wearing its service dog vest. Lutz told Taylor that he couldn’t have his dog there. Taylor explained that Kona was a service dog.

“He then ordered me to show ID for the service dog,” Taylor said. “I told him, ‘Sir, according to federal law, he doesn’t have to have an ID card.'”

Entire article:
East Naples couple claim Hawaii hassle over their dog
http://tinyurl.com/ide0719125

Fed Up With Guide Dog Discrimination

Last night I was denied entrance to a pub and restaurant on Central Park South in New York City. The place is named Whiskey Park and I was subjected to harassment by the door man and then “Manager Girl” who proceeded to ask me if I could produce papers or authenticating documentation for my guide dog. I told her the question is illegal, and she didn’t give a shit. So I’m filing a grievance against these sub-Cartesian merchants via the NYC Human Rights Commission. 

I was only going to this pretentious, yuppy fern bar because Micky Mantle’s Sports Bar has closed. An era is over. 

As for Whiskey Park, I’ll see them in court.

God Almighty! It’s 2012 people! 

 

 

 

 

Dole, Coehlo Urge Congress To Ratify Convention On Rights Of Persons With Disabilities


(The Hill)
July 18, 2012

WASHINGTON, DC– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] As two individuals with disabilities who served in Congress, the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 was not only a proud moment in our careers, it was also remarkable bipartisan legislation that has benefited millions of Americans. Twenty two years later, this important legislation continues to support the independence and dignity of Americans with disabilities.

During this Congress, the United States has a rare opportunity to share our disability rights commitment with other countries. On July 30, 2009, the U.S. signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). On May 17, 2012, the administration transmitted the CRPD treaty package for ratification, and a bipartisan group of Senate leaders immediately expressed their support for its ratification. By ratifying the treaty, the U.S. Senate will stand up for the equality and dignity of people with disabilities around the globe, just as Congress did for Americans in 1990.

To date, 114 countries have ratified the CRPD, which provides a framework for countries to enact and enforce legislation that recognizes the rights of all people with disabilities and is based on our own ADA.

Since the U.S. has been a leader in ensuring rights for individuals with disabilities, ratification does not require changes to laws in the U.S. Ratification would signal to the world that the U.S. is committed to international standards for disability rights and will play a leadership role in implementation of the treaty obligations.

Entire article:
Ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
http://tinyurl.com/ide0718122

UN EXPERT URGES US AUTHORITIES TO STOP EXECUTION OF TWO PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES

 

New York, Jul 17 2012  2:05PM
An independent United Nations human rights expert has urged United States authorities to stop the execution of two people with psychosocial disabilities who are scheduled to be put to death tomorrow in the states of Georgia and Texas.

“It is a violation of death penalty safeguards to impose capital punishment on individuals suffering from psychosocial disabilities,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on arbitrary executions, Christof Heyns.

“It is also contrary to the United States Supreme Court ruling <i>Atkins v Virginia</i>, which held that such executions are unconstitutional,” added the expert, who reports in an independent and unpaid capacity to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Warren Hill and Yokamon Laneal Hearn were convicted of murder in separate incidents, and the convictions have been the subject of a number of legal appeals based on the defendants’ mental health, according to a <“http://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12364&LangID=E“>news release issued by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

However, their death sentences were upheld despite claims that the defendants had psychosocial disabilities, and the existence of a federal ban on such executions. On Monday, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected clemency for Mr. Hill.

Mr. Heyns called on the state authorities “to demonstrate the moral and legal leadership expected of the strong democracy that the United States is by commuting the death sentences of Hill and Hearn, and show the importance it gives to the fundamental right to life.”

In respect of Mr. Hill’s case, the Special Rapporteur voiced particular concern that Georgia is now the only US state that requires proof of what it calls ‘mental retardation beyond a reasonable doubt,’ rather than a preponderance of the evidence as in other jurisdictions, although Georgia was the first state in the US to recognize that such defendants should not be executed.

“This higher standard of proof, making it very difficult to demonstrate that one actually suffers from a psychosocial disability may, I fear, mean that Mr. Hill, scheduled for execution tomorrow, would be a fatality in violation of international as well as domestic law,” Mr. Heyns said.

Regarding Mr. Hearn’s scheduled execution in Texas, the expert noted that “there is evidence to suggest that he also suffers from psychosocial disabilities. This includes an expert opinion that he is affected by structural brain dysfunction likely to have been caused by his mother’s alcohol abuse during pregnancy.”

According to the OHCHR news release, information received by the expert raises issues of a lack of a proper investigation, including mitigating factors, arbitrariness and non-compliance with fair trial safeguards that potentially constitute violations of international standards applicable to the death penalty.
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For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news