The Broke, the Brown, and the Broken

I know this workshop is supposed to be about the effect of climate change on people with disabilities and I will spend a lot of time discussing that, but I’ve concluded the title should be Climate Change:  It’s effect on the broke, the brown, and the broken.  First off, let’s clarify the terms of the discussion.  By broke, I mean people and families who live below govern mentally defined lines of poverty, those who work at minimum wage jobs, those who accept for pawn shops and high interest payday loans have no access to emergency cash, no matter how big the emergency might be.  Frequently, such individuals have no access to debit or credit cards, which you need to buy plane, train, and bus tickets.

The second group “the brown” are people of color or non-Caucasians.  These are the people who’ve been systematically oppressed along racial lines as well as nationality based lines. According to the discovery channel, the people most affected by global warming are going to be economically impoverished island dwellers – the people least responsible for the situation.  In the United States, we have are own example.  A tiny Alaskan island called Shishmaref is sinking due to global warming.  The several hundred natives that live there have decided to move as a group to a mainland area but they are having some problems negotiating this with the government.  I’ll come back to that later.  

“The broken” is the term I’ve picked honestly because it sounded nice with the other two as far as alliteration is concerned.  By this, I mean people with all matter of disabilities; physical, sensory, and cognitive.  I don’t know about you, but I remember watching as literal lines of disabled people sat waiting in New Orleans for help that never came or was not accessible to them when it did.  People were forced to abandon there service animals because no animals were allowed even if they were working, their assistants because they were not related to them, their wheelchairs because nothing was accessible for any wheelchair user.

According to Wikipedia, at least 1,836 people lost their lives in the actual hurricane and in the subsequent floods, making it the deadliest U.S. hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane.  Hurricane Katrina – and damage suffered was $81.2 billion (2005 USD) $86 billion (2007 USD).  I tried to recalculate that into 2009 dollars but couldn’t do it.  No matter what year you’re looking at for inflation rates, it’s an amazing amount of money.  

I theorize but cannot prove that most of the 1,836 people confirmed dead fell into one of the three categories above.  They were either for the most part broke, brown, or broken.  This is not to say, that white people or people in the higher classes or ability status lost nothing.  That’s an idiotic assumption and I’m not making it.  My point is it’s easier for people like that to get out of situations like Katrina because they can afford things like hotel rooms and plane tickets.  And even if they stayed until the end they could jump on any form of rescue that came along.  

Being from Massachusetts, I did not personally experience Katrina (Thank God), but I was keenly worried about my friends who were in her pathway.  There’s a saying that when a white person gets a cold, a black person gets pneumonia.  The same applies to disabled people.  People assume we have tons of money and that the people who work for us are either related to us, sleeping with us, or in some kind of indentured servitude which causes them not to have lives of their own.  This is not the case.  90% of disabled people live below the federal poverty line.  Most transit systems require at least 24 hours notice to transport you in a specialized vehicle to an airport or train station.  If you take the interstate buses and need a wheelchair lift, you have to give them 48 hours notice.  Not everyone can rent a van as I did to get here today thanks to Sundeep who lent me his credit card.  Renting a van costs $80.00 day plus mileage.  When you live on a fixed income of $789.00 as I do, where are you going to get that money?  Moreover, while you can get on a bus or plane same day (the powers that be don’t like it but you can do it) such forms of transit are always more expensive than buses.  

I have a personal story here that I’m going to tell you which relates to the situation.  My friend lived in Mississippi thankfully not New Orleans or I don’t think we would have gotten to her in time.  She had already made arrangements which I think was very clever to have one of her PCA’s who was single and had no responsibilities to worry about to stay with her until the storm blew over and they were no longer in a warning.  The most she thought was going to happen, she later told me, was the power was going to go out and she wouldn’t be able to charge her chair for a few days.  As a person who uses a powerchair, I can tell you that pushing the mechanical beast around when it’s decided to stop being mechanical is not fun for any of my assistants but we get through it.  

As we all know, in the case of Katrina, this is not what happened.  Because my friend is more observant than many people she realized it was going to get bad and sent out an email “Help call” asking for $50.00 from each person or whatever they could spare.  My friends in Texas who are also disabled opened up their house or more specifically their basement to her, her personal care assstants, and several other refugees.  As it was nearing the end of the month, my own wallet was looking pretty bare but in my world it’s community before self 99% of the time.  I counted out my last $50.00 and hustled over to Western Union to send it to her.  

It was really hard for me to part with that money, but I’m really glad I did it because I don’t think I could have dealt with anything happening to her knowing I had money in my wallet.  I also knew, honestly, that if I got into a situation I could call my mother and explain things and she would help me out.  She might not have been happy, and I’m sure I would have gotten a long lecture about responsibility which I would have thought was funny because I thought saving a human life was responsible.  However, she wouldn’t have left me starving in the end and even if she did I have other friends who I can borrow small sums of money from should the need arise as well as places like the survival center to go for food.  

I’m pretty connected person.  I don’t always succeed in getting 100% the resources that I need to solve every situation.  For example, the day before I came here my PCA who was supposed to stay with me overnight got sick supposedly and for all my resourceful nature I could not find someone to come in.  Finally, I had to ask my shrink to come and bring her spouse to help me (which was horrifying but worked out in the end) , but I’m aware that most people in my situation do not even have the level or resources that I do.  What these people do when confronted with difficult situations I don’t know.  Even my friend in money distress from Katrina knew how to use a computer to send a help message.  She also knew that she could rely on the community to which she belonged to spend it’s last dime to help her out.  Not everyone has that.  

I’m happy to report that my friend is fine.  Her PCA is fine.  They got on a train to Texas where they stayed with my friend.  I’m also happy to report that she’s not one of the actual victims.  She went back to her house that was still standing. Water damaged yes, but still standing.  

Many other people were not so lucky.  They didn’t have a network of friends poor though they might be to lean on and ask for support.  We came through with money and housing when the need arose, but I’m scared that I won’t be able in fact that we all won’t be able to keep doing that.  Every once in a while an emergency is fine.  You can tighten your belt and live on mac and cheese for three days so your friend will be safe.  What kind of person are you if you don’t do that?  But as more and more of these disasters happen to people with special needs or who are in the lower economic brackets.  How long are their friends who often belong to the same disadvantaged brackets going to be able to keep helping them.  I don’t know, and I fear it won’t be as long as necessary.  

Now that you are all depressed, I promised myself I would talk about things you can actually do.  Number one, go to your town’s emergency preparedness meeting.  Ask questions like, “what are you going to do to assist people who cannot get into standard vehicles?  Do you have any wheelchair accessible transit available for emergency purposes?  Have you re-written your policy on service animals to allow such animals which make you more independent in an emergency to accompany their owner?  Have you thought about everyone’s needs for housing if there’s an emergency?  What about medical supplies and sign language interpreters?  What about PCA care or sighted guides?  Chances are that they’ll say, “No” they haven’t thought about this.  Encourage them to start thinking.  Further, remind them that if things are universally designed to be used by all people it means ALL PEOPLE disabled or not can use it.  Not to be too graphic, but if I in my big power chair can enter the bathroom, pee successfully,  and return to my chair. You as an able-bodied person, can pee, too!