January 4, 2004

President George Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 60001

Dear President Bush:
The New Year is now beginning and a new year of opportunities for those with disabilities is beginning. It is also a new opportunity to see that the Americans with Disabilities Act is going to be properly enforced.

President Bush, since you have been elected to office in 2000 you formed the US Government Access Board. Everything they have proposed is exactly what every person with disabilities needs for accessibility. These proposals will never be enforced because they are proposals and not law.

I could never figure out why persons with disabilities young or old using a cane, walker, wheel chair, motorized cart or wheel chair were still having accessibility problems. The Justice Department was called and I asked for a complete copy of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Americans with Disabilities Act has more loopholes in it than Swiss cheese. I wrote to you previously, formed the Unified Voice of Disabled America and spoke to the Justice Department several times since I wrote to you.

The Unified Voice of Disabled America phone call to the Justice Department was in December and by asking WHY to every answer to every questioned we asked. The WHY WAS ANSWERED? The Vietnam Veterans thought with the signing of the ADA LAW was their answer for freedom. It was a political maneuver in an election year. They got nothing for a war we should not have been in. Some boys died. Some boys became disabled.

Our soldiers came back to a their country that treated them like dirt. The ADA Law was to be their thank you but again they got shafted. This law was to be the freedom for those with disabilities.

The Unified Voice of Disabled America found out the WHY. The Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the Justice Department, is mostly proposals and could be enforced by any state the way they choose. The states, cities and suburbs do what they want because they know no one will hold them responsible.

We were told by the Justice Department they have no legal way to hold the states accountable for not enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act because it is not defined. This is why persons with disabilities are having problems with the handicap parking spaces, the openings in curbs, sidewalks and doors. We were told to make changes the way that is needed for us, that it has to be changed politically. It seems the Justice Department can't keep up with the thousands of complaints they receive daily. This is why you formed the US Government Access Board.

President Bush, if this is not a political issue then we are going to make it a political issue. After all, this is an election year. There are fifty-four million disabled Americans in the US. That is twenty percent of the population. We are not going to be discriminated against, allow our rights to be violated or the Americans with Disabilities Act not to be enforced for us.

President Bush, we want a meeting with you. Please do not make this so political that our government is embarrassed. After all, we are trying to tell other countries how their people have to be treated humanely and have rights. What happened to the rights of persons with disabilities? Aren't we citizens of the United States of America? WHAT HAPPENED TO US? DON'T WE HAVE RIGHTS TOO?????????

Please visit our web site http://www.bonewits.net/UVDA-0.htm

UNIFIED VOICE FOR DISABLED AMERICANS


Rosemarie A. Botthof

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