To the editor:
Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It did not pass. Why? Because a very few politicians, misled by former Sen. Rick Santorum, stirred up a cockamamie concern about the treaty somehow undermining American sovereignty. It does no such thing. Another irrational twist was that the treaty was a plot to keep American parents from home-schooling their children. Nonsense. The treaty was supported by virtually all U.S. disability and veterans’ groups and would have formally launched the human rights concepts inherent in the Americans with Disabilities Act into the international arena.
But here’s the unkindest cut of all. Despite Sen. John McCain, a supporter, reading parts of a letter written by former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, who came to the Senate in his wheelchair to support the treaty, BOTH Sen. Pat Roberts and Sen. Jerry Moran voted nay. This should be unbelievable, but it is not. Moran was an early supporter of the CRPD, but he apparently changed his mind recently.
If all it takes to compel ostensive “statesmen” to kowtow to conspiracy theorists or to quake in fear of right-wing opposition in future primaries is this brand of nonsense, then we’re in deep trouble.
Kansas’ two senators owe Bob Dole and people with disabilities in Kansas the humblest of apologies. This vote is not only embarrassing, it is truly shameful.