Don’t forget that the Deaf and People with Disabilities matter. Too often, People with Disabilities are left behind. We’re not even thought of. We’re very often the first people hurt by fascist governments, and no one knows it.
I expect that the Trump regime will mean books like Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl will disappear from American libraries, schools and bookstores. But MAGA morons are okay with that. They want to rewrite history and live in denial of what they voted for. I’m disgusted with the people in my life who voted for Trump, again, for selfish, ignorant reasons.
Anne Frank was 13 when she went into hiding with her family and four other people. It was eight people in small rooms, hidden behind a bookcase in a factory. They called their hiding place The Secret Annex and they survived there for two years, unable to go outside, even for a minute, because the risk of being seen and captured was extremely high.
(While I’m writing my review here, about to start the next paragraph, my brother sent me this: “Demonstrators wave Nazi flags outside local theater performance of ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ in Michigan”. That was last night, in Michigan, where I’ve lived all my life. They shouted “Heil Hitler! Heil Trump!” MAGA morons, this is what you voted for, and you know it.)
They had to hide simply because they were Jewish. I think most people know that the Gestapo eventually found them. All eight of the Secret Annex residents were sent to concentration camps, where everyone except Anne’s father, Otto, died.
I thought I would have a better review, one with better flow, but I’m too angry. Nazi Germany happened because people supported Hitler for all the same reasons people are supporting Trump.
Almost a year ago, I called my credit card company to try resolving an issue I was having. After my credit card company hung up on me, the Relay flagged me for fraudulent activity and had me banned from using the relay service.
I filed a discrimination complaint against the relay service. The relay service finally responded eight months later. In their response, they admitted that they shared judgments about me with my credit card company and advised my credit card company to hang up.
I gave the government investigator a lot of information and evidence that show how the relay service was committing acts of discrimination against the Deaf community. Two months later, the investigator tells me the relay service did not commit any acts of discrimination because I was not treated differently than others who use “relay services”.
The issue isn’t whether I was treated differently from other Relay users, the issue is whether I was treated differently from hearing people who do not need to use a relay service. I clearly was treated differently than a hearing person would have been treated.
Hearing people do not need a Relay between them and their credit card company, who can advice the credit card company to hang up. Deaf people need a Relay between them and their credit card company, and if the Relay advices the credit card company to hang up, how is that not discrimination?
Those of us in the Deaf community believe that relay services are there to accommodate us, that relay operators do not make judgments about us, that their sole purpose is to make it possible for us to communicate over the phone.
The government’s Department of Civil Rights just demonstrated to me how the system continues to fail the Deaf community.
I’m feeling a lot of anger toward hearing people right now.
The struggles of PoC, the LGBTQ+ community, women, the Deaf community, People with Disabilities, etc, should all be acknowledged together and the fight for civil rights, inclusion, justice, equality, for all should be happening now. None should be waiting for their turn. All should be in this fight together, working together to make the changes. All need to be heard.
I’m angry that I can’t walk anywhere without worrying that the police will detain me again. It’s hard for me to be friends with people who oppose the peaceful protests against police harassment and brutality of marginalized people. Marginalized people see and feel the world differently than the majority does and we recognize things the majority doesn’t consider or care about.
Not liking the country and wanting the country to do better are two different things. I love this country, but I want it to do better.
The Bible does not condemn abortion, but instead gives instructions on how to perform abortions. The Bible, however, has quite a bit about controlling women, and I think that’s what the overturning Roe v Wade was really about.
