Talk About Kicking People When They Are Down!

I have it on good authority that the lovely 8th Circuit Court of Appeals (which circuit includes the state of Nebraska) has ruled repeatedly on the Americans With Disabilities Act in such a way as to have gutted its intentions, basically.

Instead of protecting disabled employees from being fired for no good reason except some supervisor's whim, the 8th Circuit has decreed that as long as the employer (or his agent) had a colorable economic reason to do so, firing a disabled employee does NOT violate the ADA. This includes situations wherein the employer has advertised vacancies which the disabled employee is qualified and able to fill. I thought the ADA was supposed to give some shelter to disabled employees, not make it easier for their employers to get rid of them.

Maybe my sense of smell is too acute, but that has the distinct aroma of three-day-old fish. In short, it STINKS ON ICE.

I'll bet none of the 8th Circuit's judges has ever tried to find another job while disabled. It's nearly impossible. The laugh is that the disabled person is told that if s/he feels s/he is not being hired because s/he is disabled, s/he can sue under the ADA. But the burden of proof is on the disabled person to prove s/he wasn't hired due to his/her disability, and not for some other valid reason (such as that another applicant was more qualified). All the records are in the employer's hands. It is nearly impossible to prove there wasn't some colorably valid reason not to hire the disabled applicant. Proving a negative in impossible. Talk about kicking someone when s/he is down!

I must confess to having to laugh nevertheless. Every time I hear people ranting about not wanting any activist judges who interpret the law instead of applying it, I marvel about the sheer volume of ignorance in our society.

All judges interpret the law; it's inherent in the nature of the beast. What the ranters are upset about is judges whose interpretations disagree with theirs. So I guess in this instance I am a ranter and the joke is on me.

But it's still wrong to make it even harder on people with disabilities to survive economically than they already have it. I am beginning to think that while most of this country professes to be Christian, Christ's teachings largely have not rubbed off on most of this country. Whatever happened to compassion, to the notion that what one does to the least of one's brothers one is doing to Christ Himself?

We trot it out during the holiday season and make a big show out of giving Toys For Tots, pennies to the Salvation Army (don't even get me started on Target's policy this year), and canned goods to the local food pantries. But doesn't it seem to you that we still somehow collectively look down upon the less fortunate, that we feel they brought their problems onto themselves, and that if they only weren't so lazy/drunk/drugged out, they'd be doing OK?

Shame on all of us, for our collective sense of smug superiority. And God forgive us, every one!