You Don’t Look Like Me!

pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/437/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Leroy Moore/PoorNewsNetwork/p pOn July 26 the Bay Area and the rest of this country celebrates the eleventh birthday of the Americans with Disabilities Act, what disabled Americans call Independence Day. However, as a disabled man of color, Independence Day is still far away and I see no reason to celebrate! On July 26, 1990 President Bush turned to the four White activists with disabilities near him and proclaimed, “Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down.” Take another look at the picture and ask yourself who is missing from it. This picture doesn’t represent my disabled brothers and sisters./p pIn the middle of July, Disability Advocates of Minorities Organization (DAMO) got a call from a Washington, D.C. disabled organization that wanted DAMO to speak at their Disability Rights Rally in Berkeley, California. You know what I told them? I invited them to the first ever Latino Disability Awareness Day on July 26 at the Mission Council in San Francisco, where they could hear DAMO speak! You know what they said, they were “too busy”! /p pDisability Advocates of Minorities Organization celebrated, educated and organized with our Latino disabled brothers and sisters to put some color in the picture, and in the disability rights and disability culture movements. The whole week was a rainbow that brought color and energy into the San Francisco disability community. Stay tuned for a look back on the first Latino Disability Awareness Week by David Aldape. I’d like to share my Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) story through a poem. /p pbMy ADA Story/b/p pTime to educatebr / br /Always need to advocatebr / br /But there is no time to celebrate/p pWe’ve the highest unemployment ratebr / br /What is going to happen to our fatebr / br /Our leaders are not awake/p pThe independent living movement is fakebr / br /While we blow out the candles on the cakebr / br /For God sake speak the truth for the youth’s sake/p pWe’re segregated, incarcerated and discriminatedbr / br /In every statebr / br /Do you see a reason to celebrate/p pDon’t want to straybr / br /From the old waysbr / br /No wonder our youth can’t relate/p pThe eleventh anniversarybr / br /Let’s get down and dirtybr / br /I’ve got an ADA story/p pBeen unemployed for a centurybr / br /Buildings not accessible in my communitybr / br /Disabled brothers and sisters are in the penitentiary/p pThe realizationbr / br /Is nobody looks like mebr / br /In management position in your organizations/p pAnother year and another ADA celebrationbr / br /Here I am telling you the real situationbr / br /There you go playing down my contribution/p pThe movement needs an earthquakebr / br /We don’t deserve cakebr / br /It’s time to debate the story that created the ADA/p pb pBy Leroy F. Moore Jr.br / br /7\01br / /p/b/p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p