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From: Bill.Higgins@p17.f122.n249.z1.fidonet.org (Bill Higgins)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Two points
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Date: 3 Oct 90 14:30:29 GMT
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Index Number: 10807

Hi Charlotte,

 Allow me to quote the letter you mailed on 24-Sep-90

 CF> ...that I'd like to follow-up on are as follows: I think it would be a
 CF> great idea to have Peoplenet (or its cousin) on-line. It probably
 CF> would take off like wildfire. Just the idea of being forced to use
 CF> snail mail is what keeps me from pursuing it. As far as I'm concerned,
 CF> snail mail is only good for paying bills. Another great idea: to share
 CF> our experiences with and opinions of independent living centers. I ran
 CF> one service department for 6+ years here in Austin's ILC, and the
 CF> tales I could tell.....also, I think it's high time we evaluated the
 CF> position of ILC's in our society. As was asked earlier, are they
 CF> serving us?  Are we running them? Are we on their boards?  And so on.

 I'm on the board of director for the Independent Living Resource center
 here in Kingston Ontario. Our Constitution requires at least 51% of the
 boards members have a disability of one sort or another. This has made the
 ILRC comsumer controlled from the day it evolved from another organization.
 I have been very satisfied with it's performance and the progress it's made
 into the community and hope that it will continue to grow with time and
 effort.
 CF> Just so you'll know where I stand, I came away from that job with a
 CF> bitter taste in my mouth.....some of it personal, most of it
 CF> professional.

 The ILRC gave me my first serious job. I found the experience to have been
 of exceptional value in that my job training included a Computer Literacey
 Course at the local college covered by the ILRC. This has given me more
 personal work experience that what I've had in the past from other things
 I've done (this includes a very bad stint in a March of Dimes "plant").

As I just mentioned I had a bad stint at a MoD "plant". To put it rather
plainly I was exploited for their profit. I was supposed to have been
trained there in computers but instead I was sent out to their "plant" and
put to work doing the most menial of tasks such as shredding shirts for
rags and sorting out stuff that people "donated". As far as I'm concerned
I was used as a slave of sorts. What made it more unpleasent was the
caliber of people working there as well, to put it bluntly, I out shined
them all when it came to intellegence. I finally woke up one day and said
'no more' and quit just before lunch. I've never really trusted the social
system totally since then and when I wrote them to complain the effectivly
told me I didn't know what I was talking about and to shut up!

Well that's all for now!!  TTFN!!

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