An Offensive Sight.
MayorBob.
Posted to Etcetera on Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 03:34:39 AM EST (promoted by wetkarma). RSS.
A little over two decades ago Rose Harn's normal life ended. That's when a drunken teenager plowed into her car causing debilitating and irreversible injury to the 58-year-old mother of three from Nampa, Idaho. Since that time, her husband Michael has transported his bed-bound wife to events where Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) set up booths. Their trips came to a halt in August when the pair was asked to leave the fair they had appeared as volunteers at the MADD booth.
According to various reports, Ms. Harns appearance was offensive to enough people that officials "feared for her safety." The Harns figured surely MADD would be in their corner. But when the organization responded by validating the fair's decision and apologized for any "problems and inconvenience our booth" caused the fair, the Harns had enough. They have broken off relations with MADD and have filed an official complaint against MADD and the fair organizers with the state human rights organization.
The routine for the Harns at most of these events includes Rose setting in a wheelable bed while Michael offers up her story of being hit by the drunk teenager. Then he explains her injuries: blind in one eye, paralyzed over her entire right side, unable to swallow, and fed by a feeding tube in her abdomen. Michael then explains how his wife has been like this for the past 22 years while the teenager only spent 90 days in jail for reckless driving. According to Miren Aburusa, a local MADD official, at the West Idaho Fair, the Harns had been doing this for MADD for the past six years.
Michael was taken aback when someone with the fair told him it was time for Rose to leave the fairgrounds. A fair employee named "Carla" approached Mr. Harn and said his wife was "too graphic" to be allowed to remain at the fair. After he removed Rose, he was told by Aburusa that MADD intended on not doing anything to support Rose's right to be at the fair. In fact, Aburusa sent this email to fair organizers:"First, I apologize for the problems and inconvenience our booth has caused you. Second, we removed Mr. Harn from tonight's schedule as a volunteer and we have vocalized this to him. So should he come to the fair it will not be as a volunteer for MADD."
In a message from the Idaho MADD chapter, the organization said it was "taking a closer look at how presentations by volunteers that include victim/survivors, are carried out in the best interest of the family and the public." The local county officials initially said they didn't believe the incident ever happened. Yet, as a result of a complaint filed by Harn with the Idaho Commission on Human Rights, the county officials are now not saying anything. Part of that might be due to the fact that the state human rights agency says it has turned up witnesses who vouch for what Harns alleges. One fairgoer, who must have overheard "Carla" speaking to Harns, says "I remember her saying something about getting lots of phone calls because Rose was offensive." Other fairgoers said that Rose Harn did look disturbing to children and other people at the fair and one said he believed her caregiver wasn't providing her with much care while she was on display. As far as Michael Harn is concerned, when the public sees Rose, they are seeing "reality" and "what happens when someone who has been drinking and driving hits someone." To which the ACLU, which has expressed an interest in the case, adds:"To our detriment, people with disabilities are still far too often treated as second-class citizens, shunned and segregated by physical barriers and social stereotypes, and this is unconstitutional."
