By Staff
It seems that Renate Haselhoff doesn't like the fact that I likened Tami Hirsch's opposition to a group home to racial bigotry (Letters, Oct. 26). But the fact of the matter is that bigotry is bigotry, whether the discrimination against an individual is based on race, gender, ethnicity, religion or disability.
Perhaps Renate Haselhoff is not familiar with federal and state civil rights laws. Making the analogy in the context of opposition to a group home, which allows disabled people to live in their communities, is quite appropriate, no matter how uncomfortable it makes some people.
We are somehow supposed to be swayed by the fact that 63 people signed a petition against the disabled. Anyone care to guess how many thousands of people marched to keep public schools segregated? Racism, anti-Semitism, ethnic intolerance and opposition to anyone who is “different” — it's all part of the same sickness.
But feel free to join Ms. Hirsch and the other 63 bigots who signed the petition to try to keep a few disabled adults from leading normal lives within their own community.
Cindy Leahy
Hillcrest Estates