Editor,
I read Craig Butler's Aug. 22 column in the Daily Lobo with some amusement, sort of.
While I admire his need to protest, it's really a problem when you don't have a worthy subject.
It occurred to me there are probably thousands of students with all this pent-up protest energy who are in need of a really good issue. Well, here you go, kids.
When the newly renovated Student Union Building opens, you are going to see the largest gathering of wheelchair users you've ever witnessed in one place. When the doors open, they will be wheeling in and checking out every inch of the new building.
They will not just be checking for American Disabilities Act compliance, but further, they will be checking to see if UNM did a great job for its higher-than-average population of wheelchair users, or if they grudgingly brought things to bare minimum specifications, also known as "classic architecture."
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Within a week, they will issue one of the following:
l A merit plaque to the University and the architects for their forward thinking.
l A scathing media campaign about their thinly disguised contempt for wheelchair users.
l An obsessively detailed complaint to the U.S. Department of Justice for each and every American Disabilities Act violation.
You probably think that there are people who are supposed to take care of this. There are, and it doesn't matter one hoot. Let's take the Journal Pavilion/Mesa del Sol Project, for example. The architects met with officials from the city, county and the Governor's Committee on Concerns for the Disabled, and agreed, in writing, to not only meet American Disabilities Act guidelines, but exceed them where city or state law did the same.
When the actual construction took place, however, they simply ignored the agreement, and proceeded forward. The result? More than 100 major American Disabilities Act violations. Of the nine sections designated for handicapped seating, only one is in compliance, and just barely.
This brand new amphitheater, the crown jewel of Mesa del Sol, is a death trap and an outright insult to wheelchair users. How could they do that? They're SFX. They can do whatever they want.
Local TV, radio and the Albuquerque Journal aren't going to report this and alienate their largest sponsor. Conroy Chino doesn't want to know. Funny, though, it seems the Justice Department takes a very dim view of anyone thinking they are larger than Uncle Sam, be it Al Capone, SFX or Ticketmaster.
When they received our complaint on Ticketmaster, they passed it around the office with high fives. It seems they have received complaints for over 15 years, but never one with detailed evidence. They were so happy they called us at 10 p.m. local time. They were very interested to find we had a similar complaint against SFX and Mesa del Sol, and they are in the process of coming down hard, very hard on these complaints.
I also was disappointed to find through an informal poll that many of our architecture faculty members are completely unaware of the violations at the amphitheater. I think everyone can understand why I have a sinking feeling that the same thing can and will happen to the Student Union Building.
So, if you really need an issue to protest, how about doing something for those folks who go through a crushing two to four hour aerobic workout every single day just to get themselves out the door and down here to study among us?
Save your tearful maudlin comments about how "inspiring" they are and speak up whenever you see a barrier, and keep speaking and shaming the powers that be into doing the right thing.
And speaking of those powers, consider this your fair warning. I always try to include a relevant quote from the great American composer, Frank Zappa: "Stupidity has a certain charm; ignorance does not."
Consider the charm removed.
Mark McKee,
UNM Staff
