I read Michael Moore’s e-mail newsletter, and am psyched to learn that Mike’s coming to speak in Cambridge. Even with an event featuring the take-no-shit author of the best seller "Stupid White Men" and the movie "Roger and Me". I still take my usual precautions. I call the church to find out about accessibility, and guess what? Parish Administrator Linda Baker urges me not to come.

So the day before his talk I e-mail Michael Moore, writing in the subject line: "I want you to escort me into the First Parish Church in Cambridge MA! Embrace disability rights!" Then, trying to be funny and all, like Mike, I write:

"No, Michael, I’m not blonde and beautiful, but I have a wonderful opportunity for you to embrace the cause of millions of Americans who are excluded and left behind every single day. Disabled people.

"I just spoke with Linda Baker from the First Parish Church in Cambridge, and she actively discouraged me from coming to your speaking engagement on Wednesday February 27. The only wheelchair accessible entrance to the church is at the back in a ‘dark and dangerous alley’, where ‘unsavory elements’ tend to gather after dark. Please rescue me from such a fate!

"I was assured that the church has been trying for years and years to make itself accessible, but you know how hard it is when architects leave you in the lurch and you have no sidewalk space for a ramp and your building is an historic monument. As a quivering, quavering quadriplegic, I am oh so frightened of any unsavory elements, and I know that you, too, try to avoid such societal detritus at all times.

"So, please, Michael, would you escort me into the church so that I can watch you speak, meanwhile making a point about disability access and the importance of all progressive people only holding events where EVERYONE can come?"

No response.

On the day of the event, I ask my partner, Kristin Schneider, to call the church and ask about accessibility. She gets the same, breathtaking, condescending routine. I can’t reach the church to find out whether the church is actually, officially, accessible or not. Thinking that Michael Moore may have been the victim of a church that bills itself as accessible, I first write a flyer asking that everyone demand the church to stop this outrageous discrimination.

But then, just as Kristin, my friend Jim and I are sitting down to our pre-activism meal, Linda Baker returns my call. The ramp, she tells me, was installed years ago for a one-time event, is too steep, has no handrails, and is not easy to get to. I tell her that Wordsworth says the church is accessible, with a pretty good ramp. Revealing a more human side, Linda tells me how she never says the church is accessible, that Wordsworth knows better, and that the store has been renting the space for years. She is clearly upset by being responsible for talking to wheelchair users about access that is no access, while renters think the situation is fine.

Linda’s off the hook. Quick, a new flyer:

This Is Not a Wheelchair Accessible Event!

Wordsworth has booked this venue with callous disregard for the access needs of disabled people. The church does not advertise itself as wheelchair accessible, because of a steep and dangerous ramp that does not have handrails. It is dangerous for any wheelchair user to try to enter this church. Wordsworth, the booking agency, and, ultimately, Michael Moore bear responsibility for this outrage. An inaccessible venue is the equivalent of a ‘Whites Only’ establishment. As progressives, you should be appalled. We disabled progressives expect to be welcomed at every public event, and should not have to point out the irony of such discrimination occurring during a discussion of empowerment and true democracy.

Please write or call:

Sanj Kharbanda, Wordsworth General Manager 30 Brattle St. Cambridge, MA 02138 617-354-5201

Please email Michael Moore at StupidWhiteMen@aol.com, and respectfully demand that all of his speaking sites be fully accessible. And please remember to demand that all progressive events advertise their accessibility, and take action if they aren’t fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act!

We make 200 copies, park in the handicapped spot right in front of the church and, after maneuvering some locked-up bicycles out of the way, drop my lift down on the quaint and historic (i.e., heaved and pitched) brick Cambridge sidewalk. There is no wheelchair access sign at the foot of church steps and the gate through the cemetery is locked. Kristin and Jim go hunting while I watch long legs bound past me up the steps. One couple pauses and tells me that there is no ramp and there is no access. After ten minutes or so, a friendly fellow opens the gate onto a dimly lit walkway with some scary puddles that I can’t see the bottoms of. The ramp is a bit on the frightening side, and I begin to have more respect for the content (if not the style) of Linda Baker’s message. It is an L-shaped, wooden ramp with no handrails, all slicked-up with unshoveled slush. We get in fine.

Entering into the front of the church (one of the great perks of using run down, dangerous ramps is that they often put you right into the action), I run into a helpful looking guy who tells me that I can sit anywhere. When I discover that he is from Wordsworth, I tell him that this is an inaccessible venue. "It is about as accessible as they come", he says, and a church committee has been working on the issue for a few years. I say that real priorities get taken care of (who was that powerful person who occasioned the single-use ramp?), other issues get referred to a committee. He nods understandingly. I compliment him on his niceness but say that we’re handing out flyers condemning Wordsworth. I forget to tell him that there is a fully accessible church less than 100 yards away.

I sit by a piano, 20 feet from the podium. Kristin and Jim fan out through the church, passing out our little flyers. One audience member says to Kristin, "but was anyone unable to come who wanted to?" Another asks, "Is this really true?" Jim puts a flyer on the podium so that Michael Moore will run into it, but it, and the one Kristin plops there later, is immediately removed by people I assume to be from Wordsworth.

I look around the audience, fantasizing that a rustle of appallment will develop any second. The friendly Wordsworth guy takes the podium, and I wonder whether he’ll address that little matter of civil rights. He promos Wordsworth and launches into a MM bio.

Michael comes out, and gives a rousingly funny one-hour speech on the depredations of the stupid White men running our country. I have Kristin all poised to raise her bright red-gloved hand so I can ask the first question. I say "This church is not legally accessible and actively discourages wheelchair users from coming to events here. Would you commit tonight to only speaking in fully accessible venues?" There is some short-lived applause in the church, but it doesn’t sound sincere enough. I’m suspicious of this kind of crowd.

Michael stuns us by shifting from his irreverent, take-no-prisoners self into a polite middle-classish apologizer: "I’m sorry, I didn’t know that". Buying time, he asks me for more information about how the church discourages people. I tell him some stuff. Audience members participate, one shouting (cynically, or was it hopefully?)"They’re putting in an elevator in 5 years".

Mike doesn’t make any jokes about "unsavory elements" or anything like that, but calls out to the crowd for a volunteer to call or write to Wordsworth (the representative of which is sitting 10 feet to his right). Then, with mock solemnity, he puts his hand over his heart and says "I shall never set foot in this church again". General laughter. I call out, "Will you talk to your booking agency?" Kristin says he said yes, but I didn’t hear anything. Just as I finish speaking, someone calls out, "Next question!"

He answers some more questions, at one point detailing to us the hilarious story of how he won an Elks-club-sponsored speech contest by railing against the club’s "Caucasians only" membership policy. I’m thinking about you-know-what.

The Wordsworth guy cuts Mike off, and invites everyone back to the store for a book signing. He and Mike walk out the back together. As audience members go past me, a few take a look, but no one says anything — mostly a relief. The crowd heads off to the store, which is, of course, utterly and absolutely inaccessible! As for me, slushing down the ramp with the church guy trying to brace my chair but actually just sliding away, pivoting my chair with my footrests out in mid-air, is kinda scary.

A few days later, Mike writes in his Tour Diary that the Boston event "is packed, people are turned away. The crowds in Boston are always great. This one doesn’t disappoint". I think we know what kind of "people" he was talking about – those who tried to come up the stairs. The crowd might have been great for Michael, but the sheep factor seemed awful high for me.

It’s always so disappointing to discover that another progressive is completely clueless about disability rights. Imagine, sometime in the past, a national, big-time White male labor organizer detailing the struggles of white workers to a roomful of whites and a light-skinned Black, who tells him that he has been booked into a whites-only club. He apologizes, calls for a volunteer to write the club, mock-solemnly promises never to set foot in the club again, and then, after basking in the ensuing general hilarity, repairs to the local, whites-only, union hall. You can be sure things like this happened then, just as they continue to happen now.

Michael Moore has now been told about the need to speak only in fully accessible venues. He is now on a speaking tour across the country. Progressive people in other cities need to monitor him, and if necessary, protest out in front of an inaccessible, or not fully accessible, site. Click here for his tour dates.

The mayor of Philly is going to "crack down" on unregistered, uninsured drivers.

This campaign, as usual, is packaged as if it’s about "cutting costs" and "safety". It’s about neither. If one can or cannot afford to patronize private, for-profit insurers, these compulsory insurance laws offer many grounds to call for rejecting the system. This is privatization, at its worst, of a public interest area, that creates endless nightmares, dangers and costs for the people while illegitimately benefiting one private industry…big insurance. It’s no small concern to also consider that the idea of a business-linked government compelling a large segment of the public to hand over profits to a business is a very ominous precedent that ought not be tolerated. It’s not that big a step, now that the public has been conned into accepting it, to the idea of compulsory private health insurance, for all. This isn’t fantasy-land. Sen. Bill Bradley actually promoted just such a policy before the last national elections.

Here’s a collection of problem areas with the Philadelphia car insurance situation.

* Unless City Council did a sneak law change somewhere along the line, it is the CITY which is the scofflaw by tolerating the use of the Parking Authority for non-parking-related matters…such as this registration/ insurance thing. The Authority’s tow trucks and lots will be used for impoundments. The Authority’s establishing ordinance doesn’t just ignore this to let officials fill in the blanks as they please…the ordinance specifically FORBIDS use of the Authority for things not directly related to parking and the free flow of traffic etc. The Parking Authority’s establishing ordinance does not authorize it to be a Revenue Enhancement operation either…but that’s another topic.

* The real and virtual lies used to sell this vicious campaign indicate that it is invalid and that officials know this, but do it anyway. Lie Number One has been somewhat addressed in a March 2 Inquirer article…the parts about how "rates will come down" etc. Often officials sound like they’re advertising Snake Oil by saying things like "we HOPE that rates MAY come down" etc., but notice…there is NEVER any guarantee demanded from the insurers. Who’s in charge anyway? Also, Philly’s invaluable CEPA…Consumer Education and Protection Assn., confirms that nowhere in the country has it been found that rates came down no matter HOW much compliance increased. Insurers can always find an excuse to maintain or raise rates, and officials let them. Lie Number Two, often heard, is that it’s about "SAFETY". This is patently preposterous. A piece of paper in the glove compartment does nothing to increase safety. The absurd cost of this insurance means that low income people will keep older and less-safe cars on the road and will avoid getting new tires and brakes etc., AND…if one had to pay for their OWN repairs and doctor bills (if not covered elsewhere), one would tend to drive more safely. So…this insurance thing COULD be actually LESS safe.

* Viciousness abounds. It’s a big part of the War on The Poor. What’s the average income level of those 400,000 uninsured drivers? As Welfare Cuts kick in for real, along comes the City, not to HELP…but to impound what may be a vehicle that’s necessary for jobs. As public transit rates go up and as routes and schedules are cut, along comes the City to make it even MORE impossible for many to go to school or work or to medical care or relatives or shopping or the works.

* It is not hyperbole to note that this program reeks of classic, dictionary-definition and even Mussolini-definition fascism. It is the merger of private business and Public Governing, as the POLICE are used as tools to compel drivers to purchase a PRIVATE commercial service… and, of course, to contribute profits to one of the wealthiest corporate entities in the land, AND to fork over investment money for the insurers to increase holdings in god-knows-what all industries…like cigarette manufacturing, weapons, cigarette ingredients, pesticides, nuke plants, prison industries and the works. Though one may say the insurers can do what they want with their money…it’s not funny that drivers do not have this luxury. This isn’t a Free Market…it’s a compulsory market.

* Some say…well, no one’s forcing you to drive and…it’s a "privilege", not a right. Swell. The same people who created the driving necessity and who did all possible to make public transit as expensive and limited as possible now say drivers have to purchase private insurance.

* Radio news about this said that the program would not be about racial profiling. That’s nice. Imagine them saying otherwise. The racism is, conveniently, Built-In…since most of the worst poverty in the city is in the African American and Latina/o communities…for all the well-known historical and current reasons. These are people who are not asked to pay a PERCENT of their income or car value to insurance (as would be the case if the program was Tax Based); they are asked to pay the SAME as, or MORE (!!!) than, the richest drivers in Chestnut Hill! Annual insurance may cost a day’s wages (or interest earnings) or LESS for one person, but may be two month’s income or more for another. Money to come out of kid’s mouths, medical care, clothes budgets and all the rest.

If the impoundment program, instead of forcing great compliance, simply makes it impossible for low income minorities to drive, we have taken a step towards increased ghettoization. Absolutely despicable.

* Insurance would be easily affordable for almost EVERYONE if it was tax based…on blue book car value, tax on gas at the pump (to also get input from out-of-staters who DO no less contribute to accidents) and from some part of registration fee. Other countries manage such plans quite well. If the gov’t believes it is a Public Interest thing to do, IT must provide the system. Whatever happened to complaints about "unfunded mandates"?…or is that only when the mandate is on a business?

* This vicious system is yet another example (like drug laws, most famously) of The Law causing more crime and danger than would exist otherwise. It’s the LAW that caused 400,000 cars (they say), in just One City, to be unregistered and uninsured…and ALSO UN-INSPECTED! That’s SAFETY inspections remember. So…whereas we could have had ALL of those cars safety inspected via a public system, now we got 400,000 actually or potentially UNSAFE cars running around in Philadelphia alone. State-wide figures must be breathtaking. The LAW created a public endangerment of vast scale.

* And…it has proven exceedingly difficult to get official rules or statements about the safety of impounded cars and contents. Do, or will, cops do an inventory of contents at time of impoundment to make sure things don’t get stolen? Will cops do check of car condition (like they do at some car rentals) so that City will be liable for damages later? Or is it "tough cookies"…the apparent Motto of The City? If car is destroyed…where do all the fluids go? There’s battery acid, steering fluid, oil, gasoline, anti-freeze and who-knows-what a car may be carrying besides. How much just drains into the ground and then water table? I’ve seen one impoundment lot. It was a toxic swamp.

* INJUSTICE. Impoundment of car is a huge penalty for a violation that harms no one and, unless car is a danger, threatens no one. This may mean loss of one’s job or dropping out of school. It may impact entire families, innocents, in every way imaginable.

* Arbitrariness and cruelty will reign, unavoidably. Cops will pick and choose, guaranteed, who they will leave out on highways during what weather conditions or times of day…and who they will not. What ARE the guidelines re/ elderly or handicapped or children passengers, or pets? Will they be stuck on the roadside in strange neighborhoods in the rain at night? Will the cops take drivers and passengers to the police stations? Will cops wait til people are picked up by friends or a cab?…IF they have friends or money for a cab. (Can this all be done in the 15 minutes per stop that the mayor mentions?) Will people be able to remove their work equipment from vehicles? Some cops WILL be maybe less zealous and cruel to those who have those FOP stickers or U.S. flags waving…or to folks who are the right racial type, etc. They might just let them go altogether or not run a check in the first place. Others… a different story.

* What is the expected effect as over 400,000 people (add the affected family members) come to fear, hate and avoid police? And…with such a Draconian penalty awaiting someone, what’s the incentive for a driver to stop at even a minor accident? Add that to the huge economic and immobilization incentive to hit-and-run, with the dangers to ALL that represents.

* I fully believe that this program is NOT about safety or cutting costs for drivers…but is about REVENUE enchantment for the City…to fill the void left by corporate interests which do not pay anything NEAR their fair share of taxes…or which even GET public money for their various business pursuits. Also, of course, it’s about officials doing favors for campaign contributors, to increase their own economic holdings or those of their immediate family, AND to increase future job prospects.

Clearly the people (hundreds of THOUSANDS!) ARE scoffing at a law that deserves the greatest scoffing for a host of reasons, as noted above. Officials who enact such stuff are scoffing at the very idea of justice, democracy and humanitarianism…not to mention free-market business principles. If the Parking Authority ordinance has not been changed, officials may themselves be scofflaws here, as so many are in the Billboard situation.