KEEP THE UNPRODUCTIVE OUT OF SIGHT AND OUT OF MIND

KEEP THE UNPRODUCTIVE OUT OF SIGHT AND OUT OF MIND BY MATTHEW LUCAS BECKETT “MR. Speaker, I call for a vote on my bill to repeal The Americans With Disabilities Act,” said United States Representative Pauline Wigman. “After all, if you cannot be a productive member of society, you are subhuman and should not have equal access to public buildings. The Supreme Court has already said it should not apply to State and Locally owned Public Buildings. I say there should be no such requirement anywhere.” I was stunned as one by one a sweeping majority, including every single Republican and even several Democrats from rather Conservative States voted in favor of declaring those of us with disabilities, essentially subhuman, no, not 'essentially', entirely subhuman. MRS. Wigman had even said as much in her speech. The Senate had already passed the very same bill since after the 2012 Elections Republicans had gained a sixty plus vote majority of it as well. President Roberson had already pledged to sign it within the hour if it passed, which as I sat here contemplating, Speaker Bogmanboondoggle declared that it had. I wanted to stand up and shout 'So I'm just subhuman to you', but having been confined to a wheelchair most of my life, I had to settle for just shouting. “So, I and everyone else like me are just subhuman to you people?!” “Yes,” Michel Bogmanboondoggle shouted back. “And if you interrupt again, you shall be removed and miss the really good stuff.” I quieted down, horrified. What else were they planning? What more could they do to people like me than what this vote had already done? How could they possibly make it even worse for us? I had to ask. “Now that the 'Restoration of Liberty and Personal Responsibility' Bill is on its way to President Roberson's signature within the hour,” said Representative Conny Bonebreaker, standing. “I call for a vote on the 'Keeping Subhumans Where They Belong, Inside Their Homes' Bill.” They're going to lock us up permanently inside our homes, I thought, only my desire to learn the full horror of the matter keeping me from shouting again. It was, as it turned out, if possible, even worse than that. “Yes,” said another Republican Representative, I wasn't sure of his name. “Material used in wheelchair ramps is being just as unproductive as people in wheelchairs and with any other disability are. So every wheelchair ramp in the country should be smashed immediately and its materials turned to more productive uses, not that MORE productive is too hard, since at present that material is just as unproductive as the people who use those ramps, so any other use, in being at least somewhat productive, would be much more productive.” I COULD NOT believe what I was hearing. How could a party that called itself 'Pro Life' have that little regard for my life and the lives of others like me. I didn't have to worry about getting thrown out for another interruption, though, because I was too stunned and angry to say anything. As the vote was overwhelmingly for this measure as well, for a moment my heart stopped beating. Then it resumed, faster than ever, but I still could not speak. “Begin at once,” said The Speaker. “The Senate voted as we did at the same time we did, and the President has already said that he will sign it.” Suddenly, I and everyone around me was on the move, wanting to reach the doors and get down the ramps while they were still there. Some of the people in the very front made it, but most of us did not. Those already on the ramps when the hammers began to fall were flung screaming to the ground and most of them were buried in the debris and or trampled to mush by the people doing the smashing. When all of the ramps were beaten into rubble, the workers left without even a glance at those of us still trapped on the platform the capital is set upon. “What do we do now,John?” my friend Titania asked me. “I guess we just wait and hope some of The Democrats will help us down,” I replied. “For what, a life of total isolation?” she asked. “Completely cut off from everyone except when they choose to come to visit us? No, thank you.” Before I could say or do anything, she wheeled herself to and then off the edge of the platform. She did not even scream as she hit the ground and burst apart, so great, I guessed, was her despair at this turn of events that even dying in that way seemed less to be feared. Several others followed her example, but the rest of us waited for and eventually received help getting down. Not that our problems ended there, with this taking immediate effect nation wide. But by begging, bribing, crying and some luck, I eventually made it home. Since then, I've been here on my own, since I live alone, although once a week a friend does come by in secret at night with some food. This is how I have lived for the past two months, and I cannot stand it any longer. Titania was right. This is no way to live, human or subhuman. I have agonized over this for weeks, but I simply CANNOT go on living this way. So, having typed this account for whomever finds me, in the hopes that they will care, I load my gun, say a swift prayer imploring forgiveness since there is no other way, stick the gun in my mouth and eat a bullet. ANYONE WHO OPPOSES EVEN ONE COMMA OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT FOR ANY REASON AT ALL WHATSOEVER AND ITS APPLICATION TO ALL PUBLIC BUILDINGS, FEDERALLY, STATE AND LOCALLY OWNED, SUPPORTS THE COURSE THAT THE NARRATOR OF THIS STORY TAKES IN ITS ENTIRETY, PERIOD.