Access service may end for many (Here it comes!)

[theHandpuppet]

Now playing in Cincinnati, coming soon to a town near you!

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/12/03/loc_sorta03.html

Access service may end for many
------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Liz Oakes
The Cincinnati Enquirer


As many as 5,000 people with disabilities who rely on Hamilton County-funded bus service to get them to jobs, school and even life-saving dialysis soon could find themselves stuck at home.

Starting Feb. 1, Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority proposes raising certain fares for those with disabilities from as low as 75 cents to as much as $5 one-way, which, advocates for the disabled say, threatens to keep those who live on fixed incomes house-bound.

Proposed cuts in service and fare increases for Access, a local bus service for those who qualify under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, are accompanying a proposed fare increase and other changes in SORTA's Metro routes.

More....

I expect to see a lot more of this in the U.S. within the next year, ie, the effective dismantling of programs for the poor and/or disabled.

[izzie]

1. Well that is silly.

I am sure with new welfare laws they can not get that for long so where do these people work?Who is thinking up these things?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. The whole point

is to loot the government treasury so that there is no money left for the poor and disabled. As I read on a thread here not long ago, the mentality of the people in charge is that God favors the rich; anyone poor is simply lazy and stupid and doesn't deserve any help. This is not a humane attitude, nor does it follow the practices of any of the major religions I know of, including Christianity. What scares me is the karmic implications of all this-I'm afraid Bush is sowing the wind, but that all of us will reap the whirlwind.

[Kanary]

7. Looting the treasury

Yes, that's exactly right. And, unfortunately, I don't see many people speaking up about it. It doesn't seem to be much of an issue.

I promised myself yesterday that I wasn't going to post anymore, as I have very rarely received any kind of reply, but this one I'm going to go ahead and say:

I'm one of those who is affected. It's very likely that next July some big cuts will affect me, and I will no longer have a place to live, nor any hope of finding one. With my health problems, there is no way that I could live on the streets, so I will simply cease to be. I realize that, in the large scheme of things, that's hardly momentous, but when it is oneself who is facing that prospect, it colors everything that happens, or is said, or thoughts that cross one's mind.

I'm finding it impossible to watch all the petty bickering, and the inability to receive new people, because of this hanging over my head. I see how much passion the BBV issue stirs in people, and other things of that nature, but I haven't seen any mention at all of the over 100,000 who will be affected by the HUD cuts next year. It would be nice if even a handfull of people could get interested in that, and try to start some agitation around that issue, before more lives are lost. Yes, these cuts are REAL, and REAL LIVES will end.

I'm sorry for sounding so irritated. I know that there are some people here who *do* care. But, when I see all the silliness here, I know that this is one more place I don't belong, because I don't think anyone can even comprehend what it is like to deal with something of this magnitude. Just a small "for instance"... a while back there was a thread, asking people what they are going to be doing next year on election day. I can't look that far ahead....... I don't know whether I'll be breathing or not. It would be nice if that mattered somewhere.

OK, now I'll shut up. As you were.

Kanary

[CivilRightsNow]

9. Dear soul...

I was unaware that these issues were existant. I think right now, atleast for me.. it is so hard to keep it all straight. There is just so much damn ridiculousness going on.

Every time I turn around there is some new issue that I really want to mobilize on. But, mostly, Ive barely got enough time to simply inform myself on the basics of these issues. Until I get hit personally, or stumble across something so appauling that it grabs my interest, I find myself stumbling 'round the internet like a chicken with it's head cut off screaming the sky is falling :(

That being said, I will indeed look into these issues you mention. I think it would be fantastic to have some type of issue chart at DU that didnt get buried 4 pages deep in an hour so that everyone could get a clear picture of what we are looking at and what we need to be looking at.

You are in my prayers.

[Kolesar]

3. (Meanwhile) Private motoring is heavily subsidized

Taxpayers who don't even drive must subsidize Ohio's highways through sales and income taxes. Nobody talks about eliminating the passenger and truck traffic subsidies.

[Le Taz Hot]

4. This is what Dean has been talking about

when he points out that those "tax breaks" which, for most of us, amounted to $300-$400, will have to be made up elsewhere. Our property taxes, usage taxes, sales tax, value added tax, blow-your-nose tax are all on the increase and it's still not enough to make up for lost federal revenue.

Social services are being cut at every level, Medicare has just, in essence, been privatized and they've promised to go after Social Security next. Notice what segment of the population all of this affects -- the poor, the disabled, the elderly, students -- all portions of society least able to fight the cuts. And yet, these multinational corporations are allowed to take advantage of tax breaks despite moving their companies offshore and "outsourcing" American jobs.

THIS is why it is vital that Democats take to the polls in DROVES in November. We need to not only take the White House back but take back the Congress and the Senate.

[Hubert Flottz]

5. You've got that right, time to vote like we've never voted before!

Let's hope the votes count this time! Greed has blinded the Reich-wingers!

This seems to be where they are headed now and they want to drag everybody with them:

Nazi 'euthanasia' children buried

Snip>
More than 800 children, mainly mentally and physically disabled, perished in the Spiegelgrund Children's Hospital in Vienna during World War II.

It was one of 30 so-called "euthanasia" centres in the Third Reich where 75,000 people across Europe, including 5,000 children deemed racially, mentally or physically unfit, were systematically murdered by doctors who daily betrayed their Hippocratic oath.

The deaths of hundreds of Spiegelgrund children were accelerated through lack of food and neglect.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1942335.stm

Nurses' Participation in the Nazi Euthanasia Programs

SNIP>
During the Nazi era, so-called "euthanasia programs" were established for handicapped and mentally ill children and adults. Organized killings of an estimated 70,000 German citizens took place at killing centers and in psychiatric institutions.

Nurses were active participants and killed over 10,000 people in these involuntary "euthanasia programs". After the war was over, most of the nurses were never punished for these crimes against humanity although some nurses were tried along with the physicians they assisted. One such trial was of 14 nurses and was held in Munich in 1965. Although some of these nurses reported that they struggled with a guilty conscience, others did not see anything wrong with their actions and believed that they were releasing these patients from their suffering.

http://www.baycrest.org/Winter%202002/article4.htm

[oscar111]

6. OWS=old,weak+sick..(TOPIC TWO job shortage PROOF)

let's start using the term OWS, a neat short way to refer to welfare recipients and the disabled.
from tv commercial "freedom river"/

Also,... the RW says the poor are lazy? Perfect answer is the JOLT statistic from DOL. It reveals the

JOB SHORTAGE in millions.

It did, in feb or so, then they started hiding the raw number in an algebra transformation. aflcio even had it on site, about feb. never seen since. Was, three million openings nationally... with nine million jobless. Ergo, JOB SHORTAGE = 6 million.

Poverty thus not the result of laziness. but from a job shortage. Thus, tax money SHOULD go to the poor. Not the fault of the poor. Dept of Labor.. dol... has the JOLT project statistics monthly. But as i said, hidden now in an algebraic transformation. Backalgebra it, or nudge some advocacy group to do that and post it on their site monthly.

Isn't anyone here a higher-up in some advocacy group? Doesn't anyone understand the critical importance of this stat? Is every advocacy group full of nothing but turkeys?

[ClintonTyree]

8. All of these things will be taken care of............

by Bush's "Faith Based" initiatives. :eyes: