Column victimized those with disabilities

In his column on Gov. Quinn's appearance at a Champaign rally against cuts to human services, Tom Kacich opines that the governor used people with disabilities ("these poor children and adults") to further his own agenda of a state income tax increase. He suggests they were paraded before cameras to emotionally manipulate voters and the Legislature. I suspect Kacich had his column pretty much written before he attended the rally. He wishes to view people with disabilities and their families as eternal victims, a perspective that victimizes those he would accuse Quinn of using.

Nothing in Kacich's article indicates that he spoke with anyone who has a stake in human services. As the mother of an adult son who lives in a DSC group home and attends DSC day training, I can tell Kacich that self-advocacy is taught and encouraged in organizations like DSC, and Gov. Quinn's appearance afforded an excellent opportunity to put self-advocacy into practice. As co-president of CCAMR, an organization that runs the only private group home for adults with mental disabilities in Champaign County, I assure him that the tears we shed at the rally were genuine tears of fear and empathy, based on the real possibility of enormous life changes should services be cut.