[Access] Immobility at the Auction

[Mary Otten]

On Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:09:40 -0800, d. maria wrote:

>I agree with you about getting accessibility with physical 
>accommodations being different from getting access to civil rights in 
>general.  Accessibility is a right!  It is not so easily accommodated 
>when physical changes and engineering must happen and be paid for to 
>realize those rights... that does not make them any the less, rights.  

I have problems with anything being called a "right" that then has a
ton of strings attached to it, as do all the civil "rights" laws that
pertain to the disabled. I think such use of language raises
expectations to levels which cannot possibly be reached, not now and
possibly not ever. That doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Maybe I'm just
being picky on language usage here, and I'm not sure what you call it
if not a right. but to me, rights are something that are not dependent
on a whole host of stuff happening to make them a reality. 


>I agree we should cut people who are trying some slack.  I also believe 
>that, as a religious community, we serve all people in our community.  
>It is a 1st principle issue.  If a fund raiser will make less money if 
>everyone is able to come, then do another fund raiser or find another 
>way to raise the money.  If we are not serving all of us, why serve any 
>of us?  It is an issue of inclusion and the right to autonomy.  We need 
>to re-think (a little higher?) our priorities and goals if we cannot 
>have events that can accommodate everyone.

You know, we can't accomodate everybody at church right now. We have
something close to 400 members and many who are not members attend. If
all those people actually want to attend church on sunday, even if they
divided evenly between the 2 services, we could not accommodate them.
If even half of the members of the church had wanted to attend that
auction on Saturday, we'd have been totally out of luck. that space was
woefully too small to accommodate anything like the number who could
theoreticaly have chosen to come, never mind the issue of people who
need to use wheelchairs and walkers.  Of course, we know not everybody
will come. I'm all for doing the best we can. But I don't believe it is
realistic, and it would be paralyzing if we said we can't do an event
if it can't accommodate the entire congregation of members and friends.

I wonder what other venues exist that are significantly larger in terms
of usable space and are also not too expensive such that the goal of
the event, fund-raising, is wiped out by having to pay the big bucks
rental. I also can't help but comment that putting on a fund-raiser of
this scope takes no small amount of work. so to do another big event
would likely require more of the same, with a finite numnber of people
who are willing or able to do that work. Maybe we will have a
fund-raising committee that will come up with more ideas, and people
will jump at the chance to pitch in and make them happen. One may hope.


mary