More comments on Boston

 So there was this stupid article on Alternet Boston a taste of a police state
I am getting really tired of articles like this, and once again I had to give a long most likely ignored response. Which I want to remember so I am posting it here.
Wow quite the long article there, lots and lots of points, some good, some bad, some so far out in left field the Green Monster can't be held responsible for what happens.

Let me make one point right away. What is happening in Chicago, and in our own Roxbury is terribly sad, young men who don't think they have any value, or much of a future are killing each other for a small payout, or a bit of respect. It is horrible, but it is not the same thing as the bombing victims. In Roxbury, and I bet in Chicago and any other area subject to gang violence the community turns a blind eye to finding the people who do the shooting.

Do you know much about the Boston area? Do you know our politics? Or our history? This is a city that knows martial law, and the pain of innocents, we remember the first Boston Massacre. None of us living today experienced it, but it is a part and parcel of our DNA,

Yes lots of crazy people used the bombing as a way to pump up their own nut job agenda, on both sides of the discussion. Reminding us once again of the crazy comments made after the bombing is meaningless. The comments were stupid, the speakers more so. Although I still can't get Iman Webb's comment about wanting to wrap Boston in a blanket and smother it out of my head. A poor choice of words, hopefully not want he meant to say the two different times he said it.

Now to the suspects, who were the unknown. We knew what they looked like thanks to the brave people who described them to police from their hospital beds. We knew they knew we were after them when their faces were shown by the police. After that happened we also know that some friends helped then hide evidence, while others called the police to give them their names. We then discovered they were willing to murder a police officer, to car jack an innocent man and threaten him with death. They bragged how they were the bombers and loaded pipe bombs in to his car. He bravely escaped and let the police know what happened to him. Would any of us have been that brave to do the same thing?

He did not know if there were just two people he did not know the number of pipe bombs loaded into his car, or the sum total in both vehicles. The police had no choice but to expect the worse. They did not know if the second suspect ran to a safe house, or ran in panic after killing his own brother. We did not know if there were other people involved or if his was on his own. We knew he was someone who had no problem with killing, the police knew they did not want to give him another chance to add to the body count.

So the people of Boston, the people of the Greater Boston area were asked to remove themselves from the equation. To make sure the bombers were the only ones on the chessboard. We did something that few people appear to understand, we got out of the way. When your neighbors house is on fire do you grab a garden hose and put it out your self or do you stand back and let the professionals do their jobs? During a blizzard, who clears your street, you with a snow blower or the city with a snow plow? When a person who has already shown a willingness to kill do you run outside with a gun to look for him your self, or do you let the police do their job? Remember Officer Dorner, the innocent people shot by the LA police? That did not happen here, it did not happen because we did what any civilized people would do, we got out of the way and let the professionals do their job.

I dread to think what could have happened, I am beyond happy that it did not. I'm also very tired of the second guessing, the idea that tragedy is a competition to be won. 

Boston after Bombing

Got back a little bit ago from attending Boston after the Bombings WBUR reporter Tom Ashbrook put it together on short notice with the help of Emerson College.

The room was packed, I'm so proud of my city for getting together to find answers. One of the speakers was a doctor who was running the Marathon who did triage after the bombing. She was amazing said she was not a hero, she was just doing her job. She only stayed for a short time as she had to get back to the hospital. She started crying as she talked about the people she helped at the blast site and how she was still helping today. The audience totally disagreed and gave her a 3 minute standing ovation as she left. We also heard from the incident commander of the Boston Police force. Yes he got a standing ovation too. He talked a little bit about what went on that horrible day, and the search for the two suspects. He talked a bit about how the brothers had many guns and pipe bombs, how the police worked together to find the brothers. He refused to use their names, still referring to them as suspect 1 and suspect 2.

Sadly Imam Suhiab Webb of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center apparently thought the entire thing was a big joke. He wanted to talk about the Celtics game, and complain how he was not allowed to speak at the interfaith service. He brought up the fact that there had been shootings since the bombing and no one was having an interfaith service or big meetings about that. They totally do have community meetings about that, I guess he just does not attend. He also said the brothers were more influenced by Grand Theft Auto than they were Islam. I don't play GTA is there a player option where you get points for sneaking behind innocent people and kill them with bombs.

Any way, it was a real learning experience.

The rest of you shut up!

I really hate listening to people who say Boston cowered, or Boston was under martial law. We were not scared, we are not stupid. We got out of the way and let the PROFESSIONALS DO THEIR JOBS!

So tell me, all you "I would have grabbed my gun and found the bomber" if a house in your neighborhood is on fire do you get in the way of the firemen with your garden hose? No you get out of the way and let the professionals do THEIR jobs. Which is what we did this week, just as we did during Snowstorm Nemo, we got the hell out of the way and let the professionals do their jobs.

 I tremble to think how many other people would have been injured if every person in the Greater Boston area grabbed a gun and went out looking for the brothers. Do the police arrest everyone? How many scared people shoot each other because they "might" be the bad guy?  What Boston, and Greater Boston did was the right thing, we got out of the way and let the professionals do their job. One of those professionals lost his life doing his job, a second officer is fighting for his life. For both those men we are grateful. For all the people injured we stand with you, and will help you live again. For those who lost their lives, we can never replace you, but we will stand with your families and they will not morn alone.

For the rest of you jerks, shut up.

Interesting post on Alternet

http://www.alternet.org/immigration/major-victory-against-language-bigotry

The author mentioned that no one calls Bernie Madoff, (what a perfect name  BTW you think someone would have had second thoughts there) . an illegal. Apparently missing the connection between the different level of crime being committed. 

More interesting to me my response.

Oh where oh where do I start.
Bernie Madoff is not an "illegal" he is a criminal who is serving his time in prison. David Vitter is a scum bag, but not an "illegal". Being in this country without proper documentation is a civil offense. We should change that and make it a criminal offense, coming here illegally should be a greater crime than skipping jury duty.
Now like most people in this country my ancestors came from some where else. Yes I am glad for that. All of my ancestors came into this country legally. Waiting to be processed at Deer Island in Boston Harbor. They had to prove they had a job lined up, or a family member ready to take them in and support them until they could support them selves. They had to show that they would not be a burden on this country. Or that they had some special talent that this country needed. I believe in Boston we call that the David Ortiz clause.
I live in a wonderfully integrated neighborhood. I hear Spanish, Cambodian, Arabic and Russian on an hourly basis plus I am sure others I can't even guess, no Klingon though bummer. All of my neighbors are people who applied to immigrate to this country. They had to apply and wait for permission to come here. Some came her straight from refugee camps. Others are displaced persons who have been without a country for many years. Both groups I think more than deserve respect for following the rules and making this country their home.
I am only asking for a couple of things. First that people should only come to this country legally, that our borders are sealed. Secondly that the people who have already entered the country illegally admit they did something wrong. If they want to stay in this country well it's time to meet the same requirements my neighbors have, and the ones my distant ancestors had to as well. To prove that they can support themselves, that they will not be a burden to this country, that they learn English, as my many neighbors are struggling to do.

Readercon fail - my mother asked me to post this. Then I thought of something

So when I was out in Hopkinton, making plans to bring her down to Plymouth, my brother and I started talking about the Readercon Fail. She wanted to know what we were talking about, so Joe and I described what had happened. My Mom is in her 70's still going strong and one hell of an opinionated lady. Her feeling was that if Rene Walling had done that to any one he deserved to get two things. First a fat lip, and second banned for life. We starting talking a bit more, she has been asking about Readercon Fail every time we talk.

Yes Readercon fail has gotten so big a woman who is not even on the web is following it!

When I went to Plymouth today she asked about what was going on. I let her know that other people had come forward to say he had harassed him, and apparently the only reason something was happening this time is the person he harassed had some serious fan cred herself. Apparently, he has been in the habit of using his position in fandom to harass woman for many years. So ya, now back to the regular hoots

I got down to Plymouth just before noon. Mom had made dinner and we sat down and ate. I had told my aunt that I would take her shopping again if she needed it, but her daughter-in-law is going to take her tomorrow. I had also said that I would take my uncle to the store if he came over when I arrived. Well my aunt called and he did not want to come over, he said his legs hurt.

So once dinner was done we headed out to Hopkinton. Tomorrow would be my Dad's birthday so we went to the grave site and planted a white mum. From there I headed back to Revere. Got caught up on a few things, and now I'm watching Hoarding:Buried Alive on TLC. It's mother daughter bonding time. We call each other to talk about the hoarders just like Dad and I use to do with sports. Kind of tired, going to go to bed pretty soon.

I was reading more about Readercon fail  this great article my policy  When I had an odd thought, if an unknown nobody 20 something first convention attending woman had been harassed, would we be having this conversation?

Convention and accomidation of the hearing impared

This is a Title III question, so I contacted the Department of Justice. I had a lovely chat with an ADA consultant after staying on hold for 30 minutes.

First I want to clarify a misconception about ADA

According to DOJ we are required to follow Title III public accommodation regulations. We are private group putting on a public event. Our event is open to anyone able to purchase a membership. So we must make accommodations for any disabled person who attends our event.

Also, DOJ prefers to mediate instead of going straight to court. We would have to fail on many levels before opening ourself up to a DOJ law suit. Lets not do that DOJ, lawyers make the IRS check under the bed for monsters.

When a person registers for the convention there should be a section of the form asking if they need accommodations. I tried to look at the Readercon web site to see the current registration form, but the site was no loading in the time frame where the consultant could look at it. The form should simple ask “Do you need accommodations and if so what?” If we receive a registration from someone who requires accommodation it is within our rights to contact the person and ask them what accommodations they need. We can NOT ask about their disability, nor can we request proof of their disability. We are only allowed to ask what accommodations they need.

DOJ recommended that a member of the Registration staff working with our disability coordinator contact the registrant regarding accommodations. There are three levels of accommodation for deaf or hard of hearing individuals. Assisted listening devices, Captioning and interpretor.

Captioning is most likely well out of our price range, and not effective for a live event.

Assisted listening devices are not as expensive, according to DOJ. I have been given some companies to contact regarding renting or purchasing a device. The information is provided at the end of this report.

Our third option would be providing the services of an interpreter. We could in our accommodation conversation ask if the individual knows someone they regularly use as an interpretor. We can go a couple of different ways here. If this person brings their own interpretor we must make the environment accessible to them. Reserving lines of sight for the interpretor. Request panelists speak slower and are in the line of sight of the interpretor. I'm not quite sure, and neither is DOJ how we would handle people asking questions from the floor. They would have to stand so the interpretor could see them, or use a mike so the interpreter could hear them. We would not have to allow this interpretor a free membership or a reduced membership. Although that might be a very good option if only to provide a positive experience for the attendie.

If the deaf person requests we provide the interpretor. In that case we might want to look to the fannish community (Or as DOJ put it, contact other events like yours) to see if any of them could recommend a person we could use. We would then have to work out a contract with them to attend. My suggestion would be to look to the fannish community if we have an sign language interpretors and offer them a free membership in exchange for being with our deaf attendee

We could go in a different direction and place sign language interpreters in each panel. That way the deaf person is not attached to one person for the entire convention. Again this could be in our best interest. If we find a few sign language interpretors who are willing to station them selves in a room for an entire day we might be able to connect them with programing and give them the additional duty of being the room monitor.

I hope this has answered everyones questions regarding accommodation of disabled persons. Our responsibility is limited to our events. The hotel is responsible for general access and most likely has a person on sight or someone at the corporation level who deals with accessibility issues as they relate to the physical building. The only way we would have responsibility for physical accessibility would be if we set up a special event that required mobility. Say a maze that was not wide enough for or passable to a wheelchair or motorized scooter.

Resources used for this report.

Department of Justice ADA Home Page hhttp://www.ada.gov/index.html

Job Accommodation Network www.askjan.org

Searchable Online Accommodation Resources www.askjan.org/soar/