Rachel, I cannot thank you enough for reporting on the death of Judy Heumann, a wheelchair bound advocate for
the
rights of the disabled who suffered from polio she caught in1948. As a
survivor of polio in 1954, six months before the Salk vaccine, I
appreciate every day what her efforts mean to me. I can drive and find
a closer parking space and/or a ramp that makes it easier for a
disabled person to enter a building which must be navigated.
Polio paralyzed my right leg entirely up to and including my hip. I am 74 and now realize the difficult impact of losing
entirely
the use of that leg. I am at risk of falling and have broken my right
leg femur three times because of it. I cannot fracture it again.
Thanks to Judy Heumann for making my life and countless others in this
nation and even the world just a little bit easier.
Moreover,
we must eradicate the separate but equal concept not only for the
handicapped but we need, of course, to eradicate it for every other
minority group that still suffers from its paralyzing effect.
Keep
fighting the good fight, Rachel, for all the other minority groups in
our land. Let us make the "John Lewis Voting Right Act" the law of the
land once again this time permanently because separate, in fact, never
means equal.
