SHOULD I TAKE THIS RISK? Healdsburg Breaks Federal Law.

I received a caution from one of my best friends who has stood by me for fifty years or more.  It came the other day.  She must feel deeply because she has never used this tone with me, even though my life is a long story of getting in and out of trouble, but mostly always in.

After giving it a lot of thought I wrote a loving reply. An apologia.   She is a highly successful, much respected professional, wife, mother, grand mother, friend.  The honors that she has received would take a long time to recount.  She is a superb member of her community, her professional organizations.  She has a generous heart.

She may not agree with me but I think it is important for me to share my reply to her with you because if she does not understand then there may be others who do not understand why I take this risk, why I am "playing with fire".  I will not quote exactly what I wrote but it is almost word for word, leaving out passages that may identify her.



Dear Friend,

Every professional woman in the United States is standing on the shoulders of women from an earlier time who risked their lives, their reputations, their friendships and families so that women could be educated, work, vote, and receive some semblance of equal pay ... Because those women of not-so-long-ago were willing to sacrifice themselves you and I have had privileges that did not exist for them.  They marched, wrote, speechified, were beaten, abused, went to jail, were shunned, burned at the stake and humiliated.  But they were strong.  They were willing to "play with fire" so that you could do a post doc at a famous university, I could become a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, so that you could ... work your way to an eminent position in a huge country and receive the same rank and pay as men.

I am proud of what I'm doing.  If anyone loses their job or if an institution or business collapses under my campaign for human rights for people with disabilities it is not because I made it happen.  Job loss and institutional collapse will come (to the Best Western/Dry Creek Inn in Healdsburg California and to the City's employees who issued permits for hotel rooms that are not up to U.S. code for people with disabilities) because the people doing the jobs and the institutions that collapse were violating Federal laws that protect people with disabilities.

That's how the Americans with Disabilities Act came into being.  Cripples like myself petitioned the government for help.  They didn't get it and so they engaged in "street politics," calling upon the vast powers of the media to shine a light on injustice.  The press covered the indignities they suffered and then pressure was put on governmental representatives to make laws to protect women.

Let's keep in mind that there are 50 million people with disabilities in America.  That's 20 million more than the entire population of Canada.  It is the combined population of Florida and California.  ...

The ethical issues you brought up are as old as time.  But if I don't do this job of advocating for people with disabilities then will you do it?  If not, to whom may I delegate it?

Three or four times in the last twelve months I have been in situations where elevator doors closed on my wheel chair, there was no chair to sit on at Stanford's Cantor Center for the Arts for a 92 year old woman who was tired;  walkers and wheelchairs could not get through San Francisco's new DeYoung Museum's cafe, or the cafe at Stanford's museum, because there are too many tables.   Stanford's ramp for cripples is too far from the parking lot, a real hike, and their elevator for people with disabilities is a broom closet in size, and a shake, rattle and roll experience up to the first floor.   Scary for some people.

I wrote to the president of Stanford ... I suggested that a year be used to make some changes that would be helpful for people with special needs.  They agreed to some of the changes.  It wasn't everything but it was progress.  (It was because a "little old lady" took a stand and threatened to go to where the real power is in America, to the media.)

My suggestion to Healdsburg is to withhold a permit for occupancy until the Dry Creek Inn shapes up the few rooms that are set aside for people with disabilities (it's just a handful of rooms) but to allow them a year to get it done.  At the very least provide a bed that can be sat upon and slept in.  But the victorian style beds, so fashionable in California's wine country, are as high as your dining room table.  I could not get into them.  There were no stools, which in any case are dangerous.  There were no risers to put on the toilet bowls.  There were no rollaway beds.

But, there was lots of arrogance.  The woman at the front desk was cold, condescending, supercilious.

Already, Dry Creek and the City of Healdsburg have responded to this "little old lady" with a  sensible solution for the first room which was reserved for me:  It was taken off the list of accessible rooms (suitable for people with special needs).  In that room the toilet was too low, the sink was too high for someone in a walker/wheelchair, the shower was in the tub (not accessible), and the I could not get into the bed which was too high because it was Victorian style, about the height of your kitchen table.  So, the owner of the hotel, and the City of Healdsburg, used some common sense, which cost nothing.  The other room, to which I was sent after complaining,  has a great shower and toilet.  The bed, however, is still too high to be used by a person with my disabilities. Why not use common sense again:   Cut down the beds to a useable height, or supply ordinary beds that a cripple can get into.

Nobody is picking on Healdsburg.  Federal law surpasses state law.  Every city in the country has to inspect hotels and award permits of occupancy only if the few accessible rooms are up to the U.S. Department of Justice's code.  As soon as I get some reasonable accommodations for a few rooms at the Best Western/Dry Creek Inn I will go back to doing the other things that make up my life.

I appreciate your note, so full of concern for me and the well being of others, but this is the American Way.  Early Americans fought against England for independence because it was unfair to have taxation without representation.  People of color fought to get out of slavery, to have the same rights as white people: Though progress has been slow and sometimes horrifying things are a lot better than they were.

When the hummingbird was cautioned that she was "playing with fire," she said:  I must do my bit, small though it is.  This she said while flitting back and forth from the river to the raging forest fire, filling her tiny beak with water and dumping it onto the inferno.  Then back to the river for another run.

I am doing what I can, my imperfect best.

This is written with love, with respect, and with the hope that you will wake up every day thanking your courageous women predecessors who were willing to "play with fire" in order to  made your life possible.

Anne