Yesterday Bobby received a copy of the New Mobility magazine, which we've never paid for, never ordered, tried to cancel, and yet we still keep getting it. The editor had some very rude and scathing things to say about Republicans, the south, and the biased hatred among people who opposed this bill.
So I did what I should have done several months ago. I spent forever trying to hunt this treaty down (would you believe NO news media, pro or con, had a link to it?!) and see what it said for myself. The more we're around politics, the more I find even "good" people distort what documents actually say to bolster their own points of views.
After skimming the 37 page document, and reading some pages very closely, here's what I found:
- There's no mention of home-schooling in it anywhere. (Opponents claimed it would prevent disabled kids from being home-schooled.) What it DID mention was that children with disabilities should not be locked away in institutions without the same access to activities and educations other children have, and that educational opportunities, including lifeskills training, should be offered to them.
- Technology should be made both affordable and adaptable to people with disabilities whenever possible. (Found it interesting that this wasn't talked about much here. For those of you who know me, you've heard my rants on how each "upgrade" in computers and cell phones make these items more inaccessible to my husband and how finding a cell phone he can operate is almost impossible now.)
- There's no national/international list or database required in this treaty. The only information even slightly resembling this was that statistics to collect information, such as statistical and research data, to help formulate policies, and that such data would be confidential and and any information collected must protect individual freedoms and adhere to ethical prinicples. That's not the same thing as a national list or database of disabled people.
- There was one reference to the Bill of Children's Rights, which always concerns me. While I do think as individual creations of God children have the God-given right to think and make decisions, nowhere does that right supersede the right of the authority, whether it be parental or governmental, that God has placed over them. As children mature, they should be consulted about their thoughts on medical treatments and such, but children alone do not have the capabilities of making the sole decision concerning their well-being.
The one thing that bothered me, and I'm sure bothered many Republicans, is that the signing of such legislation places the country under the governances of the United Nations. Once you sign the treaty, you agree to begin implementing its policies within 6 months, subject yourself to oversight should a citizen or another country complain, and if complaints are not adequately addressed, but subject to a visit by the UN Protocal of that division. Decide you no longer want to be a part of the group or treaty? Write a letter, and a year after its received you can quit adhering to it. A year. That totally astounds me. When you quit, you quit. A year's notice to stop adhering to something or removing yourself from a boss? That seems a bit overkill to me.
In my personal opinion, if politicians were truly concerned with helping people with disabilities, they would address the problems in our nation that we have instead of worrying about our neighbors. Enforce the ADA and make every apartment complex have a certain percentage of accessible housing. Make accessible house plans more readily available. Require companies to provide at LEAST one cell phone or computer that is designed to be used by people with impaired mobility. Enforce the ADA requirments on sidewalks and curb cuts, on parking, on seating at venues. Put some teeth to our laws. If it's illegal to park in a handicap zone, then provide a policeman or department we can call every week when it happends. If it's illegal in the US to not offer handicap seating at plays and theaters and movies, then have someone to enforce that. Saying something is illegal is worthless if every time we call a theater we are told we can only purchase two seats in handicap seating when there are three or four people in our group. Laws are only as good as their enforcement. Movie theaters that offer one seating option, where your head is titled at a 60 degree angle to see the screen, are not ADA compliant, and yet no one requires them to change. And I could go on and on and on and on.
Do I agree with placing ourselves under the auspices of the UN? No. But the UN Disability treaty was not the horrible document Republicans made it out to be. And if we're really concerned with disabilities and the rights of people, we won't need a UN treaty to make things better here.
