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From: Walter.Siren@p18.f5.n396.z1.fidonet.org (Walter Siren)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: hot topic
Message-ID: <16115@handicap.news>
Date: 17 Jun 91 20:30:14 GMT
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Index Number: 16115

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 DG> Well, now that i got your attension with this subject line, here's what's
 DG> on my mind! This echo is in great need of new and fresh HOT discussion, so
 DG> I will initiate.

     You can say that again.

 DG>      As many of you surely know, many services around the country,
 DG> (services of all types) offer discounts and various price breaks for us
 DG> handicapped folks, especially us poor blinks. For example, in Philadelphia,
 DG> (my home town) a blind person can ride a bus or train for half the normal
 DG> fare. Amtrak offers similar discounts, although not 50 percent off, of
 DG> course.  Personally, I NEVER accept such discounts or favors just because
 DG> I'm blind and I encourage all of  you to do the same.  I am in favor of
 DG> discounts for groups of people such as senior citizens, people on low
 DG> incomes, but why should I get a discount on the train when I make just as
 DG> much money (maybe more) than the sighted guy sitting next to me

Of course that same arguement can be the same with any other group
that gets a discount.  There are some senior citizens who are very
well off also, but they still get the discount.  Yet, they are
getting it just because they are old.

 DG> fork out the bucks.  Once, while I was paying the fare on the train, I
 DG> nearly got into an argument with the collector because he thought I was
 DG> nuts.  A woman next to me defended him by saying to me that other groups of
 DG> people get discounts too, such as (my favorite) folks in the military.
 DG> Well
 DG> She just pushed the wrong button.  I told her that I do not deserve a
 DG> discount just because I am blind and furthermore I felt her argument was
 DG> rediculous as I feel people in the military deserve a discount even less,
 DG> as the military is involved in the profession of killing.

Well, there I think that you went astray.  They are in the
proffession of defending us, and the killing is unfortunately a
result of that defense.  Well, I know that there are those who say
that the desert storm was not defending us, but it depends how one
looks at it.  If we let agretion remain unchecked, then it will
eventually get to us.  We saw that with world war 2.

 DG> i realize I am mixing a variety of topics, but ther's only so many times I
 DG> can read about airlines and the Nls Database.

You can say that again.  It would be a nice change to have
something different, but even this subject was touched on from the
various aspects before on here, but it has been a while.

As far as turning down the discounts that are available to us, if
they are there, then I will accept them.  Some of them I have mixed
feeling about, but if they are going to give them to other groups,
then I have no problem with getting them for us.

The free mailing privelege, when it was first given to us, I felt
weird about that one, but I can see the arguements for it.  Of
course back in the olden days, it was strictly for reading material
and the like, and not for letters.  I deffinitely think that it
should stand, because we can't go down to the local library like
our sighted friends and borrow a book.  I realize that our mailing
media does cost more to send if they would charge for it, so I can
understand the free privelege, but if they would charge us the same
for sending a tape letter, or braille letter, as a print letter, I
would have no problem with that one.  However, there are a lot of
blind people that are not very well off financially, and there only
form of entertainment is those pen pals, or tape pals, and I would
not want to see them deprived of that.  So I am afraid that there
probably is no easy solution.  If the privelege is there, and if
you take advantage of it or not, should be your business, and if
you don't, it will not make any difference to others anyway, so why
not take it.  Btw, do you accept your extra income tax exemption
for the fact that you are blind?

               Walter

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