I suppose it's fitting that a diary that falls on Father's Day might begin with a father's wishes for his children. Far less fitting was the Representative's gratuitous swipe at young people with disabilities as being a "drain on society." Really.
Rep. Cresent Hardy (R-NV) said recently at a Libertarian Party event that he hoped his children would never be a “drain on society” like people who were disabled. In audio published this week by the Nevada State Democratic Party, Hardy can be heard speaking to attendees at the Libertarian Political Expo in Las Vegas.
Although some local papers are already trying to cover for him by referring to his comments as merely inartful, rather than stemming from a prejudice his whole party seems to share (in my view they've gotten too much benefit of the doubt on that for too long). Having been one of those young people, I can only say that this mindset is far from motivating, although ranking on the comparatively poor and powerless has only minimal consequences for conservative Congresspeople in whacked-out Western districts. I'd like to change that, somehow.
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Democrats in the area have been pushing him to
apologize.
I'm not in Nevada, but I don't want that. (First, because, apologies that you get after such incidents tend to have less sincerity than thanking a little-seen relative for an ugly sweater at Christmas; and second, because he is probably just going to offer us prayers or a heartwarming boyhood encounter with his neighborhood's answer to Boo Radley.)
In a perfect world, I'd go out to Nevada and work hard for his opponent, but we don't live in one of those.
But I figure I could still help by donating to an the Center for Independent Living in his district in hopes that some advocates there help to remove him from office. I also wished that Rep. Hardy could feel the power of an ADAPT(American Disabled For Attendant Programs Today) action, as his office could be besieged by angry attendant-care advocates having a sit-in or something since even the Congressman can admit that disability advocates, many of whom have heard for a lifetime that they are a drain of some kind or other, can be really terrific at sitting. Alas, however, Nevada, like my own unfortunate state, does not have a local chapter of ADAPT-ers. I'll donate and pay for a separate copy of "Incitement", the ADAPT newsletter, to go to Rep. Hardy's office.
It's the least a drain can do.