Whatever Happened To The Rights Of The Majority?

One of the earliest lessons in the study of our democracy is that our country is based on the rule by the majority along with the rights of the minority. Somehow over the past three decades, this edict has been turned on its head with the tyranny of a minority ruling the nation. Whether it is the disabled, environmentalists, ethnic groups or religious factions, laws have been enacted to benefit these groups that seem to overlook the majority will. This has been accomplished because of powerful legal and political connections that are unavailable to the average American voter.

Consider the American Disability Act passed in 1990 by George H.W. Bush. It was originally intended, as co-conceived by Lex Frieden and Mitchell J. Rappaport, to create civil rights law protections for people with disabilities that would be permanent, would not be able to be reversed or weakened, and would prohibit all discrimination. It has, however, turned into a costly oppressive entrapment that punishes businesses and communities.

I found out how militant the disabled groups can be in 2005 when I wrote a column for the New York Sun after experiencing an incident involving a city bus disabled by the malfunction of a wheelchair ramp. The bus had loaded a man's wheelchair but was unable to release the ramp back inside the vehicle. Consequently all the people on the bus heading to work missed the scheduled ferry and angrily could be heard calling their jobs to report the reason. Ironically, the disabled man and his companion had informed the driver that they were headed to a supermarket only three blocks away.

In my column I wrote; "I have no problem with providing access to the disabled for public services, but the implementation of such legislation can be less than efficient. New York City offers Access-a Ride paratransit service, which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A ride in one of the specially equipped vans costs only $1.50 - and would surely have been more comfortable for that couple stuck on the bus for who knows how long."

It cost millions if not billions for the city to replace regular buses with wheelchair accessible ones and these buses frequently malfunction inconveniencing the regular passengers. I wondered if political connections were behind the contracts for the replacement buses. Wouldn't it have been more prudent to purchase a fleet of modern paratransit vehicles to service the disabled and expand the service?

The newspaper received a complaint from representatives of disability rights organizations demanding I apologize for my "heartless" article. They threatened to push for a boycott unless I was censured by my editors.

As I grow older, the challenges to my mobility increase and I have had to adapt to the places I can access. If a restaurant has its dining areas on upper floors, I avoid eating there because my arthritis makes climbing up and down very painful. Likewise I have eschewed the subways because of the stairs and travel mostly via bus or taxi. If the future confines me to a wheelchair I will not expect special treatment to accommodate my limits but the ADA law has emboldened militant action that requires businesses to incur punitive expenses to allow access to the disabled.

Likewise attorneys for atheists and certain religious groups routinely sue at this time of year to remove all mentions of Christmas or the word Christ. This anti-Christian environment has fostered increasingly absurd complaints. Legal shark, and infamous attorney John Banzhaf III, filed a 60 page complaint against Catholic University on behalf of Muslim students which stated: "usually, or at least frequently, these Muslim students at CUA find that they must perform their prayers surrounded by symbols of Catholicism - e.g., a wooden crucifix, paintings of Jesus, pictures of priests and theologians, etc. - which many Muslim students find inappropriate and not especially conducive to praying according to their very different religious beliefs."

Unbelievable! It's unclear whether the Muslim students at CU had any direct connection with this particular complaint but there have been similar lawsuits demanding accommodations by Muslims that have been on the rise bizarrely since 9/11. I don't recall Muslims praying en masse on the streets in Manhattan before that awful day. Nor do I recall schools spending precious funds to build Muslim prayer rooms and foot washing stations.

Oren Dorell wrote an article in USA Today (7/26/07) reporting that, "Some public schools and universities are granting Muslim requests for prayer times, prayer rooms and ritual foot baths, prompting a debate on whether Islam is being given preferential treatment over other religions. The University of Michigan at Dearborn is planning to build foot baths for Muslim students who wash their feet before prayer. An elementary school in San Diego created an extra recess period for Muslim pupils to pray." Muslim detainees in Guantanamo Bay receive Islam friendly procedures that respect their religion covering handling of the Koran. Chaplains are given instructions to be on hand to provide Muslims with a Koran, a prayer cap, prayer beads, oils, and other religious books at the detainee's request. Can you imagine a Christian or Jewish prisoner being given such care in a Muslim country? I doubt that.

A further example of this encroaching special interests tyranny is that of the radical environmentalists and animal rights advocates who hold that the improvement of our lives do not matter as much as that of an endangered species.

It doesn't help that this administration has created an environment hostile to American history and in particular to Christianity. The latest outrage is its objection to adding FDR's D-Day prayer to the WWII memorial in Washington, D.C.

Tony Perkins President of the Family Research Council was unsurprised at this and told FoxNews: "I hope America wakes up and realizes what this administration is doing to this country and how they want to radically and fundamentally change America."

Christians are still the majority in America thus they are the target for unscrupulous attorneys getting rich on class action suits that only benefit themselves not the plaintiffs. Now that Hispanics are the largest minority in the country, politicians are seeking to engage us in class warfare.

I was born and raised in Spanish Harlem during a time when most television programs depicted white middle class families. Living in a tenement at the time, I could not possibly identify with their standard of living yet it made no difference to my enjoyment of these shows. Nor did I ever think that such a lifestyle was beyond my reach in life. I knew that with a basic education and hard work I could achieve that same standard and I have.

What a pity that because of a corrupt legal system and a political correct administration endorsing class envy, the rights of the American majority have been usurped by the tyrannical whine of the minority like the 99 percenters occupying Wall Street.

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com