<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Apr 20, 2006, at 5:17 PM, <A href="mailto:jthorn65@sbcglobal.net">jthorn65@sbcglobal.net</A> wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><BR></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">If Marta had come out saying that she felt that disability issues were treated as issues of convenience<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">rather than the life and death struggles that they just as frequently are NO ONE would have said one<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">negative thing to her.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>I doubt it John. You all love a scapegoat just like the rest.</DIV><DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Instead she came out saying that Mexicans are taking benefits that she needs and she deserves more than<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">they do. That is the crux of her argument. The 'merican disabled are more deserving than "the other". <BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>I think I said that Vicente Fox is the real problem -- that he has done nothing but people in the position to flee across the borders, he has not taken care of his people. But that got ignored.</DIV><DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Then<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">she blasted people with crap about how they don't know how hard it is to live on $800 a month. How can a<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">person reasonably expect a sympathetic ear when they are scape-goating a group they perceive as both<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">weaker and less deserving than they are? <BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>I don't perceive them as weaker -- how could I when they have the center of the stage??? And they aren't less deserving. They deserve the best like everyone. It is just that the US cannot take care of the entire world. Those countries have to solve some of their own problems. With your take why don't we just let all the starving Africans in here too. What good would that do in the long run? They need to create their own economies and thrive like many have started to do mainly thanks to the organizing of women. Good grief. You put your own twist on things.</DIV><DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">If sympathy is your first response when you hear that type of<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">argument you're a better person than I. I don't mean that to sound snide. I wish I were up to that task.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Perhaps if I were a stronger willed person and/or someone who carried less baggage concerning racial<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">issues than I do I would be able to do that. <BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>Yeah, I think you are overly sensitive given that I started talking about my neighbors who are whites.</DIV><DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">It isn't that I don't know or care about Marta's pain. I really do. I<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">hate seeing anyone eaten up by pain, fear and desperation. I've been there as have millions of other<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">people. I've busted my ass helping people who were at the end of their rope and just needed some help. I<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">have no tolerance for racism however and almost no inclination to feel someones pain when they try to play<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">the race card and argue they are more deserving than some other. That is, in all honesty, just too much to<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">expect of me. Having been on the receiving end of too much racial prejudice I just see red when that<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">argument is trotted out.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV>Don't think I went there.</DIV><DIV><BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I know Marta is basically correct that a large number, probably even the majority of self-described leftists, <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">when they hear the phrase -disability issues- roll their eyes and think "Fuck, you already have the best<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">parking space and a ramp. What the hell do you want next?" The immediately visible signs of progress for<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">disabled persons are perceived as convenience issues that are not serious.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">My SO's sister just had her medicaid benefits cut by $100 a month. If it weren't for the fact that the drug<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">company that produces Remicade makes it available free to a handful of worst-case scenario patients (so<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">they can study them) she would be unable to walk. Medicaid won't pay the >$1000 a month the treatment<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">costs and her $650 a month disability check only covers the bare necessities. I nearly spend more time<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">helping her than I spend with my own wife. I really am Marta's ally. As I said I train therapy pets, deliver M-</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">O-W's and work with the elderly and disabled. I'm not ignorant concerning the issues she is frustrated<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">about. Obviously I'm sympathetic to her cause or I wouldn't do what I do. But I have a big "fuck you" for<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">anyone who argues they deserve medical care more than someone else based on their place of birth,<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">gender, race, religion etc.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>Does she also have Medicare or only Medicaid?</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Marta<BR><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000DD"><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></FONT></BODY></HTML>