Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg wonders whether the wheelchair protesters in his town are poisoning public opinion with their anger. Excerpt follows:

The group behind the protest — ADAPT — has been doing this for years. They appear at various locations and jam up the works with their wheelchair-bound bodies, though how denying access encourages somebody to care about your own access issues is a mystery. In my understanding of the world, annoying others generates hostility, not support.

Had the AMA already rejected the chance to endorse the issue at hand — a federal bill that would make it easier for disabled people to live independently instead of in nursing homes — I could see how a little vindictive guerrilla action might be in order.

But given that the AMA — not my favorite organization — met with ADAPT to hear its arguments, and is considering the issue with apparent sincerity, it strikes me that this sort of protest is counterproductive.

Anger can disable you as handily as any physical malady. Yet who protests against that?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 9:37 am and is filed under advocacy, commentary, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.