[nfbmi-talk] Fw: the past hasn't gone anywhere

[joe harcz Comcast]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Donna Rose 
To: joe harcz Comcast ; nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org 
Cc: vincent.cheverine at ed.gov ; MARK CODY ; Lynnae Ruttledge RSA Commissioner ; Craig McManus RSA ; Ussery, Karla ; Elmer Cerano MPAS ; TOM MASSEAU MPAS ; John Scott MCB Comm. ; lydia Schuck MCB Comm. ; Larry Posont MCB Comm. ; Richard Clay Advocates f/t Blind ; Richard Bernstein Esq ; Mark Finnegan ; Peter Berg ; Patrick Cannon MCB Dir. ; Sue Luzenski MCB Admin Ass. ; Jo Anne Pilarski MCB, Chair ; Steve Arwood LARA Dep ; Joe Sibley MCBVI Pres. ; Michael Geno MCBVI ; Charis Austin 
Sent: Friday, July 29, 2011 7:54 PM
Subject: Re: the past hasn't gone anywhere


Joe H.,

As a tax payer, I really think you should have to pay a reasonable amount for the gathering of documents and videos passed the first couple of requests or so.  For goodness sakes you are asking them for stuff every five minutes and I don't want to have to keep paying the workers for these distractions.  If you hadn't created such resistance among these individuals they might be more cooperative.

They are getting paid to run the government and I am certain they don't mind a couple of reasonable requests for documents, but when you constantly hound them they are taken away from work.  Maybe you don't remember the demands of work?  Are you angry with the Commission because they didn't help you find a job?  I am certain they could help you with that, but even that is your ultimate responsibility once you have been trained.    

Joe this constant wining is making people who are blind look like helpless cry babies.  You need to get on with your life and stop taking the stance of a victim.  Why are you allowing these governmental shortcomings to ruin the one shot you will get to grab opportunity and have a happy life?  People who are blind or visually impaired are capable human-beings, just like any other citizen.  The fact we are blind doesn't have to be the issue you are making it.  You have the intelligence and ability to be something other than a bother to everyone else.  Throughout my entire work life I have had to make my own way in a sighted world which has always been less than perfect, regardless of the laws.  This has not hurt me in the least.  Actually it has improved my problem solving skills immensely.  It can be frustrating sometimes, but doable.   

Government will never provide everything you want or need in life, even at its best.  People who are blind or visually impaired all over this country are making their own way everyday, with or without the ADA regulations.  You will live a sad dreary life if you wait for anyone else to rescue you from this noncompliance hell you apparently have put yourself into.  

Anyone being served through the Michigan Commission for the Blind can walk away at any time.  The services they offer aren't mandatory.  They aren't even required.  In America we have the freedom to move anywhere we want and seek help from any service we choose.  In 1975 I took $300 and moved to Little Rock, AR, where I learned to appreciate the services in Michigan and came back five years later.

It is really amusing to me how many people who the Commission spent a lot of money helping, have the most complaints and they never went to work after training.  This is the real issue and why some believe rehabilitation fails for people with disabilities.  If you had a job you wouldn't have all of this time to complain and you would be spending your extra money enjoying your existence.  Maybe it is time for you to consider trying it somewhere else for a while.  Short of this, just file a civil rights complaint and be done with it.  Are you afraid of losing?

Joe, don't continue to allow others to dictate your happiness.  Everyone runs out of time faster than they realize.  You are no exception.  


Go Bravely,
Donna Rose, LMSW
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: joe harcz Comcast 
  To: nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org 
  Cc: vincent.cheverine at ed.gov ; MARK CODY ; Lynnae Ruttledge RSA Commissioner ; Craig McManus RSA ; Ussery, Karla ; Elmer Cerano MPAS ; TOM MASSEAU MPAS ; John Scott MCB Comm. ; lydia Schuck MCB Comm. ; Larry Posont MCB Comm. ; Richard Clay Advocates f/t Blind ; Richard Bernstein Esq ; Mark Finnegan ; Peter Berg ; Patrick Cannon MCB Dir. ; Sue Luzenski MCB Admin Ass. ; Jo Anne Pilarski MCB, Chair ; Steve Arwood LARA Dep ; Joe Sibley MCBVI Pres. ; Donna Rose MCBVI ; Michael Geno MCBVI ; Charis Austin 
  Sent: Friday, July 29, 2011 5:47 PM
  Subject: the past hasn't gone anywhere


  In fact to this very day, July 29, 2011 all findings and all corrective actions relative to this RSA monitoring report coverring four fiscal years is not forthcoming to members of the MCB Board, members of the public, RSA itself, or anyone and constitutes gross and willfull violations of the effective communications requirements of the ADA, Section 5904 and even common sense. It is hardly "timely" in accordence with tyler v. Manhattan given the passage of time.

  Where is government accountability of this federally funded program and, of course with the corrollary civil rights responsabilities to deliver to members of the public with disabilities information in accessible format and a timely manner?

  Mr. Cannon in his conversation with me over the telephone today again asked me what information he or this agency hasn't deliverred to me in a timely and accessible manner. Well they didn't give me or others information in the public domain relative to the RSA monitoring then and they still haven't now in full and in toto.

  How much do I have to prove about the malicious and deliberate violations over time of this scofflaw federally funded agency and the gross and malicious violations of Patrick D. Cannon in these regards.

  Oh, by the way the following segment after my signature line was my personal transcript in part done at extreme from the audio that I had to get by hook and by crook of that meeting at issue.

  Should I charge the State of Michigan, MCB and LARA the untolds thousands of dollars of unpaid labor for doing their job like one Melvin Farmer tryies to do with casual guesstimates about his spurrious FOIA requests?

  Say, I want the $24.0o0 per hour that all these state scofflaws try to charge me for getting information that is ddue the public and myself upon rrequest.

  It is far past time for federal enforcement agencies and the likes of Michigan Protection and Advocacy Services, Inc. another recipient of federal funds to enforce the ADA and Section 504 for not only myself, but for the entire class of people who are legally blind in this State and in these regards.

  This is a part of several ongoing complaints and documentation of same.

  Denote the e-mail and the date and the information after my signature line here:

  Sincerely,

  Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.

  Attachment:
  Note to Interested Parties at RSA, June 

  23, 2010

  These are a part of my transcripts from the Second Open Session of the Michigan Commission for the Blind May 3, 2010 meeting. They are starting with a public comment and then Commissioners respond they have none of the data and information required by the Rehabilitation Act for such a Commission in the implementing regulations. So it is clear that not only are consumers, stakeholders and others denied this information but even the members of the Michigan Commission for the Blind don’t have it.

   

  Again that is in violation of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 implementing regulations!

   

  This is simply incredible on top of more incredible.

   

  Sincerely,

   

  Paul Joseph Harcz, Jr.

   

  (Attached segment of transcript (COM mentors are MCB Commissioners and Director of MCB Patrick Cannon except for Joe Sonntag who was making the public comment):

   

   

  Joe Sonntag:

   

  Oh, yes Joe Sonntag (here) and I just wanted to say that in reference to the little discussion regarding the monitoring mission, or the visit from RSA. There has been attempts recently on the part of a few blind consumers who are attempting to get access to the findings of that report and (there are) some suspicions.

   

  I’m personally not alleging anything. I can only say to you here today that it’s my hope that the Director and commission board will do what it can within reason to see to it that that information becomes a matter of public record where it belongs of course. And that consumers and other interested individuals get easy access to it.

   

  It seems like it has been a long time in coming. And the only thing we know right now is that we’re being told that none of the details are available to us common folk because RSA asks that there be no release of the information until the final report has been prepared.

   

  ..To me that makes sense but it may not to others …

   

  One of the strongest cases I’ve heard allegations that the Commission for the Blind is keeping state secrets in the manner of the old Soviet Union.

   

  It’s not my position, but it’s out there and I think you need to be aware of it.  And I hope (couldn’t hear all) and I hope a change is made on that front very soon.”

   

  Pilarski:

   

  “Uh, I I would respond that we don’t have it yet. Right?”

  (Several commissioners hard to hear which ones…)

   

  “I haven’t seen it…I’ve asked…And it’s not here…some giggles…”

   

  Michael Geno:

  “It’s not available to me. I haven’t seen it. (But, it was referred to in this meeting.”

  Cannon:

   

  “No that was the draft report..”

   

  Geno:

   

   

   

  (I think Sonntag:

   

  “Yea that’s what we’re talking about.”

   

  Cannon:

   

  “And when the report is release by RSA we will distribute it broadly. We will post it on our web site. And we will give it to anyone who asks for it in the media of their choice.”