Comments on: “Dear Senator Obama” http://www.kneedeepinthehooah.com/2008/09/dear-senator-obama Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:46:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Ian http://www.kneedeepinthehooah.com/2008/09/dear-senator-obama/comment-page-1#comment-2387 Ian Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:31:16 +0000 http://www.kneedeepinthehooah.com/?p=1357#comment-2387 Unfortunately Mr. Graham’s email in defense of Mr. Obama is equally offensive: to people with disabilities. I work in education and see people with disabilities not only send email, but perform every computer related task and command as a person with full use of their arms, hands, and eyes. You see, there is specialized hardware and software that allows these brave men and women to overcome their disabilities. Never tell a person with disabilities that they can’t do something, if there is a means of overcoming it they will. Never take pity on a person with disabilities by doing something for them that they can do on their own. I don’t care if Mr. McCain can use a computer, but I don’t think he or any person with disabilities would use their disability as an excuse. It would have been much better (less dramatic, less offensive, and closer to the truth) if Mr. Graham didn’t take this approach. A much better approach would be to point out that Mr. Obama offended thousands of people who can’t use computers or send email because they don’t even have access to them. Obama basically insinuates that you need to be computer savvy to be part of our culture, unfortunately, that leaves many people out. This would have played right into the idea that Obama is an elitist snob. Unfortunately Mr. Graham’s email in defense of Mr. Obama is equally offensive: to people with disabilities. I work in education and see people with disabilities not only send email, but perform every computer related task and command as a person with full use of their arms, hands, and eyes. You see, there is specialized hardware and software that allows these brave men and women to overcome their disabilities. Never tell a person with disabilities that they can’t do something, if there is a means of overcoming it they will. Never take pity on a person with disabilities by doing something for them that they can do on their own. I don’t care if Mr. McCain can use a computer, but I don’t think he or any person with disabilities would use their disability as an excuse.

It would have been much better (less dramatic, less offensive, and closer to the truth) if Mr. Graham didn’t take this approach. A much better approach would be to point out that Mr. Obama offended thousands of people who can’t use computers or send email because they don’t even have access to them. Obama basically insinuates that you need to be computer savvy to be part of our culture, unfortunately, that leaves many people out. This would have played right into the idea that Obama is an elitist snob.

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