Il Paradiso

Manipulating a disability post into something political?



Yes, that is what happened this past couple of days and it has gotten me furious.
I received an email the other day about Bush taking away Closed Captioning for the deaf and to sign a petition. My ex-father in law, a dear sweet man I will never forget who died a few years ago, was deaf following a bomb exploding near him in Vietnam. To say that he relied to closed captioning is an understatement. There wasn't much he could do so he watched a lot of television. My son also uses closed captioning 24/7 to learn how to spell, so... I signed the petition, no brainer. I then forwarded the message to everyone I know including other lists so they would be aware of this travesty and sign the petition too.

What happened after that is baffling. For one, a relative that never replies to me (not even to say how cute Nicky or Connor are in the pictures I send him) immediately went on the Bush defense and stated that not only he thought it was a hoax, but that this had nothing to do with Bush but congress. Hmmm? Doesn't Bush sign or vetoes this sort of things? Whatever.

For two... I have a few mailing lists that I moderate, and there are three taboo subjects, politics, religion and abortion. I did that to basically 'keep the peace' on lists that have nothing to do with politics, religion or abortion per se.
When I forwarded this post to sign the petition to keep closed captioning, everyone on miscellaneaous lists thanked me for letting them know about it and either signed or basically I assume, ignored the email. But not on my high school reunion list. No sirreee.... While one classmate thanked me and signed it, a group of others, one after the other, blasted me for stating that I do not allow political talk, yet I post about a political issue. "This is not a political issue, it's an issue, I stated, nothing to do with your party affiliation"... but, no, I got blasted somemore. To say I was livid is the understatement of the year.
These people showed a heart of stone, and I told them that I duly noted the fact that they don't care about the disabled community and then I further stated that if they want to talk politics on the list SO BAD that they blast me and manipulate a post in being political, then to, by all means, go ahead and start talking politics all they want, to go right ahead.

Sickening... sickening... sickening... ugh!!!
Silvia