Each time I think we, as a culture, have hit a new low in our dealings with our fellow citizens, along comes a story to prove me wrong.
This is just another depressing piece of evidence to prove me wrong again:
Portland Commission on Disability says fliers posted in neighborhoods are 'hate speech'
Portland's Commission on Disability released a statement Friday condemning the fliers that someone spread across Portland this month threatening to name people on disability. It reads:
"Our Commission is deeply troubled by these fliers, and we find this behavior threatening in both tone and content. The vast majority of people with disabilities who receive disability benefits genuinely need those benefits just to survive.
We view this act as hate speech against people with disabilities in our community. Given the nature of this message, we are necessarily concerned for the safety of our neighbors with disabilities who are being targeted here.
We ask that the community help us put an end to this before it escalates further."
The flier has been posted in the Irvington, Laurelhurst, Eliot, University Park and Belmont areas. The Laurelhurst flier -- signed by the anonymous "Artemis of the Wild" -- promises to reveal the names of 16 people in the Portland neighborhood who vote and receive disability payments.
"The names of these people are being posted where they can be seen by taxpayers and the neighborhood can decide who is truly disabled," it reads.
Joe VanderVeer, chair of the commission on disability, said anyone who has received or seen this flyer should report it to admin@portlanddisability.com or call 503-823-4432.
h/t Infidel753
20 comments:
According to another report from yesterday, they're still investigating but haven't caught the person who distributed these.
I'm disappointed by how many people in the comments on the newspaper articles support the flyers. I don't think they're typical of our city, but it's repulsive.
Hate feeds off hate. Perhaps growing exponentially.
A frightening and dangerous possibility.
Civilization itself may very well hang in the balance.
It is all so depressing.
Yet America seems happy dwelling on it all.
Monkeys might experience higher levels of sanity than some humans.
Oh, that's right. We evolved from monkeys.
Perhaps that explains it all?
Correction:
Homo sapiens did not evolve from monkeys.
We share a common ancestor with the great apes.
I know two local folks on disability who are leaders in the area Tea Party...but would never reveal their names.
This is truly sickening. Reminds me of a fellow from the Capital Research Center who said that registering the poor to vote is "like handing out burglary tools to criminals".
Matthew Vadum, the Right-wing fool who wrote the article voicing his belief that signing up poor people to vote is "un-American", added that he thinks "it's about helping the poor to help themselves to others' money".
Sounds to me like this view is one that Ayn Rand would have shared.
Monkeys, chimpanzees, apes... somewhere, sometime in the VERY distant past all life started from a single cell.
Opps, that's right life still does. Damn, it can all be so confusing.
But the Shawdow Knows.
In fact, humans are classified as a member species of the great ape group. We're more closely related to the chimpanzees and bonobos than the chimpanzees and bonobos are to gorillas and orangutans.
Apes can be pretty vicious, and unfortunately humans are no exception.
You're missing the point Shaw. And as a republican I can now explain it. You see my good lady, we are all created in the image of The Creator. At least those of us in good health. The disabled are flawed so they must not be God's children as God is perfect and He would not allow anything unperfect to run around saying they are as Godly and no different than the rest of us who are. But as such we still have a duty I suppose to care for them so we graciously drop change in the Salvation Army box and hope they stay out of sight so as not to offend God or make us give awkward explanations to our healthy children about why God allows people to be handicapped. We figure it must be their own fault.
You're absolutely right to single this incident out and deride it as "sickening" and "depraved."
Besides being unconstitutional government initiatives designed to suppress freedom of expression -- and those inclined to support them -- invariably are -- sick and depraved, that is.
"We can never be sure that the opinion we wish to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still."
~ John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
Infidel753,
Sadly we probably are more closely related to pan troglodyte than to pan paniscus, the gentler chimp.
Dear Joe,
Thank you for clearing that up. One of your finest, who is running for the New Jersey senate seat had this very loving, very Christian thing to say about health care:
"During a debate on the Affordable Care Act, Republican Frank Lonegan, who's running for New Jersey senate seat said:
“Well, I’ll go one step further. I’ll be as callous and uncaring as you can imagine. I have no interest in paying for your health care. I’d hate to see you get cancer, but that’s your problem not mine. I’m going to pay for my health care, I’m going to take care of my children’s health care and tend to my wife. And when I stand for charity care (inaudible), you no one else has the authority to infringe on my right (inaudible) dig into my pocket and my ability to pay to pay for your health care or anybody else’s.”
from Crooks and Liars
Interestingly, if fiscal conservatives are followers of
Freidrick Hayak, he wrote-
"Nor is there any reason why the state should not assist the individuals in providing for those common hazards of life against which, because of their uncertainty, few individuals can make adequate provision. Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance – where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks – the case for the state's helping to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong.."
..a grudging recognition of universal healthcare. But social conservatives are followers of Ralph Reed & Co. and somehow believe Jesus hated the poor as much as they....
Don't let them wear you down, Shaw.
It's almost street festival time
Ducky, we've had two already: Saint Agrippina, and last weekend, Madonna della Cava.
Coming up this weekend, The Fishermen's Feast! On Fleet Street.
Some fantastic street food. One vendor from Eastie had incredibly delicious tripe!
My cousin plays the drum in the St. Alfio band.
Good times. Good times.
Current paleoanthropology puts the evolutionary divergence of the human near the end of the miocene , although those early hominids were
hardly of the sapiens variety.
It's usually those who don't believe in evolution, who don't understand correct evolution.
Really. Another fab generalization.
BB-Idaho,
Libertarians/Conservatives ignore anything from Hayak that doesn't fit their ideology.
And yes, the Christianists also ignore what Jesus said about doing for the least of His.
They're cafetaria libertarians and Christians.
Didn't read all the comments, but wanted to chime in on a pet peeve of mine -- the "evolved FROM" line.
Nah. We ARE apes. We didn't change into something better or non-ape, non-monkey. "From" implies that we are no longer apes. That we are something better and different and the like.
As for violating people's privacy and posting names of disabled people, gun owners, members of a certain party or group, etc, we all know that it's only illegal to spill the beans on the government. You can violate a private citizen's privacy and rights all day. But don't do it to big bro.
And liberal/ progressive ideologues of course ALWAYS are perfect?
Yeah, Yeah, I know the approved patented response.
TSoT,
Did anyone actually say that?
No.
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