Presidental Campaign - Promises To Keep

The economic turmoil has gained most of the news stories followed by the presidential election. Here is a presidential election story about an issue that has not made the headlines.

Outlined below is summary of the Obama-Biden plan to help people with disabilities.

• Providing Americans With Disabilities Educational Opportunities.
• Ending Discrimination and Promoting Equality of Opportunity For People With Disabilities.
• Increasing Employment Rate of Workers With Disabilities.
• Supporting Independent, Community-Based Living For Americans With Disabilities.

The republican ticket of McCain-Palin plan appears to cover changes to the health care systems without directly targeting the disabled.

• John McCain's Vision for Health Care Reform
• Making Health Insurance Innovative, Portable and Affordable
• A Specific Plan of Action: Ensuring Care for Higher Risk Patients
• A Specific Plan of Action: Lowering Health Care Costs
• Confronting the Long-Term Challenge
• Setting the Record Straight: Covering Those With Pre-Existing Conditions
  

Clicking on underlined campaigns will take you directly to their website for more detail. The election is still three weeks away so my suggestion is to review the information if you have not decided how you will vote.

Currently, the Democratic ticket of Obama-Biden appears to be leading the presidential election based on the latest polls. Taking into account the current difficult economic realities that the new president will have to face. It may be difficult for either Democrats or Republicans to implement the programs they campaigned on.

Forgotten Casualties of Iraq & Afghanistan Wars

Most news organizations report the latest U.S. fatalities in fighting the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The latest numbers are 4180 in Iraq and 610 in Afghanistan. Those numbers are tragic to the families of the service men and women involved. Also, those numbers represent a great loss to the country of our brave men and women. In addition, another reported cost of the Iraq war is is the estimated cost to exceed one trillion dollars.

The forgotten casualties are the disabled veterans returning from the wars. A report out lately outlines that up to 200,000 of the 600,000 war veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are looking to the Veterans Administration (VA) for health care. The U.S. is preparing to stay in Iraq through 2010, so that number will undoubtedly increase.

In addition to combat related injuries, veterans are dealing with long-term medical issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD usually develops over a long period of time.
It is estimated that 100,000 servicemen and women are also receiving disability compensation for their injuries.

As a country, we need to take care of our brave men and women. They have risked their lives and future for all of us. We can help by supporting worthy veterans organizations. One such example is Disabled American Veterans, they are an organization helping the disabled veterans with valuable assistance and services beyond what the VA is providing.

Heart Warming Stories

Lately, there have been a batch of very negative stories in the news with the economy, banks, unemployment etc. So today, I decided that I would write about a couple ABC News stories that are both positive and enlightening.

The first story is about a Walgreen's Drug Store executive Randy Lewis, whose 19-year old son has autism, made it his mission to set up an Employment Opportunity for the disabled at the Walgreen's Anderson distribution center. Currently, more than 40 percent of the 700 workers there are disabled. The Anderson distribution center is actually more productive than other Walgreen distribution centers. In addition, the company should be eligible for various federal and state tax incentives. This is a win-win situation for both the company and the disabled employees! ABC News Story Lewis

The second story is about Heather Kuzmich made it to the final five competitors on "America's Next Top Model," despite suffering from Asperger's Syndrome. Most people are not aware of Asperger's, it is a type of autism. Asperger's makes understanding social interactions difficult. For someone like Heather, even the best of days can be a struggle. But Heather inspires all of us to excel! ABC News Story Kuzmich

Government Website

One of the purposes of this blog is to give the disabled substantial and helpful information. Today, I thought I would outline a federal government website that is very helpful! This site is http://www.disabilityinfo.gov.

The site covers a number of valuable topics and contains a wealth of information:

• Employment
• Education
• Housing
• Transportation
• Health
• Benefits
• Technology
• Community life
• Civil Rights