[Ct-nfb] the governor's Thanksgiving message

[Chris Kuell]

Ed (and others)

That was a press release from the governor's office which was passed along to me from a friend. It wasn't ever on this list until I posted it. As an update, I sent letters to 4 newspapers in CT, and so far the Danbury News-Times has called to tell me they will publish it. Here's a preview:

Thanks for Nothing

 

On Wednesday, November 23, Governor Malloy's office sent out a press release detailing the governor's Thanksgiving message. At the very bottom, where the disabled reside on the governor's priority list, he wrote:

"It is bad that some of our fellow residents are afflicted with handicaps that make their lives immeasurably difficult, and leave them hovering on the edges of our society.  But it is good that we have service providers who work tirelessly and selflessly to care for and comfort them."

 

Firstly, the term 'handicapped' gives us great insight into the mindset of the governor. It's an outdated term used by those whose only vision of the disabled is for us to stand/sit on a corner with a cap in our hands begging.

 

Secondly, we don't want to be cared for and comforted. We want training and opportunity. We want to work and live and pay taxes and contribute to society. We want to laugh and love and make friends, not be shut away so people don't have to look at us and be reminded of what could easily be them. Thanks to Governor Malloy's vision for our future, we no longer have the oldest and best performing agency for the blind in the country. There's no longer a Commission for the deaf and hard of hearing. Services for the bottom-dwellers have been lumped together, buried in the state's largest bureaucracy, and labeled more efficient. A first step toward cutting services, employment outcomes, and hope.

Thanks for nothing, governor. 

 

Chris Kuell

Danbury Connecticut

         

 
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