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Show 246 They are my battles but they are also the battles being waged by so many people throughout this state, throughout this nation. Cars parked illegally in needed accessible parking spaces. Parents fighting schools for proper education for their kids with disabilities. Employers and businesses grousing and non-compliant about the Americans with Disabilities Act and other disability law. People being needlessly institutionalized by a government funding bias, in spite of the law. Legislated poverty. The computer sits warmly on my legs. I do not lack for subject matter but instead lament that I cannot write more often to somehow address the burgeoning need forwarded to me, letter by letter. New columns, new issues. For the third time since Rex has been my service dog, we were being attacked by an illegally loose dog that had been lurking behind a building when we rounded the corner. I didn 't see him until he was in full charge, barking and snarling. It was an instinctual thing on my part - I jolted my shoulders tall in my wheelchair, thrust out my chest and jutted my chin skyward. Out of my throat came the loudest, meanest, most honest growl imaginable. It was Simbafrom "The Lion King, " grown up. I am fingering the foil tablet with my writing goal etched into it, feeling the responsibility of assuming - hoping never to presume - to be the voice for so many who are so unheard. |