THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE A D A ..........

Twenty Years ago today, the United States made a great stride forward in Inclusiveness and Equal Opportunity for the marginalized, by the enactment of The Americans With Disabilities Act, (ADA). The ADA, originated as a bill authored by US Senator Tom Harkin, of Iowa, whose own brother is a disabled American. Senator Harkin shepherded his bill through the Congress of the United States to final passage and US President George Herbert Walker Bush, signed the American With Disabilities Act into law, a concrete example of what he referred to as, "Compassionate Conservatism", and, "Points Of Light". So on July 26, 1990, the long held hopes of millions of disabled Americans became a reality that gives us the possibility for fuller access and wider participation in American society. I myself am among those who are disabled persons. I was born with a physical birth defect that has challenged me all my life. The left side of my body was left diminished by my left leg being an inch and a half shorter than the right leg at birth, and then by
contracting a high fever for several days at 3 months of age, which caused the entire left side of my body to be underdeveloped,and leaving me with deficient coordination. At five years old as a Kindergartner, I was fitted with a cast on my left leg and measured for a steel and leather orthopedic brace on my left leg and foot; which I wore from the summer 1962, through to the fall 1973. At age seven, the weakness in my left side resulted in seizures in my left arm, and to control them over the following ten years a Phenibarbitol prescription, which I took four times daily. Also from age five to eleven, I underwent physical therapy weekly, at the old Washington Elementary School at 17th and 'E' Streets in downtown Sacramento. There I discovered a world of disabled children, most of them with physical or intellectual disabilities, greater than my own. I considered myself fortunate and grew into a lifelong sensitivity for the disabled, even though my physical condition kept me from PE in school, or playing sports at home, and made it impossible to learn to ride a bicycle. Due to a misunderstanding about my physical capability and over protectiveness, I did not learn to drive a car until I was 28 years old, in the third year of seminary formation. That was five years after I owned a car and came about because my valued friend, Patricia Hornback, agreed to be my driving teacher..........So on this 20th Anniversary Day of the Americans With Disability Act, I salute our country and the millions of our fellow citizens who have benefited and been made a more inclusive, empowered, part of our society. And I express my personal, professional, and fraternal, gratitude to my cherished friend, disability mentor, and advocate, Curtis Richards, for teaching me so very much about the disability community, from his work in the California Department of Rehabilitation, and as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Education for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, in the Clinton Administration, to his continued work the past decade as Founder and President of the Advocrat Group, in Washington, D.C. My gratitude is also deeply felt for the late Dr. Bernard Lewis, M.D., and Dr. Eugene Smoley, M.D., who were on the front lines with me in the 1960's and '70's; and to the Easter Seals Society of Sacramento / Northern California, and the then Crippled Children's Association, who provided me with physical therapy and the braces, at no cost to my family. All that it cost me and my family out of my father's nominal Campbell Soup salary was $30.00 -$40.00 every three months, for the Groh's Shoes, I required, due to the wear and tear, of my leg and foot brace. And I pray everyday that others may grow in their sensitivity and desire to include and empower the disabled in every way..........In The Power Of Positive Thinking For Inclusive Empowerment, Fr. Troy