No long time I have written an article for the blog! I know that many of you have taken a notice that I am no longer active in blogosphere, you have noticed that correct and I have some reasons behind why I haven’t written an article for a blog in a long time. I believe last time I wrote an article for the blog on the first week of February, but it was really more of an open letter to a person or a company, in that case it was for a company and it was written to Google about their new policy on YouTube which is owned by Google about their requirements for YouTube users. Here is a link to the open letter for you to read if you would like to or you can easily find it by going to the front page of this blog and look for the title called “Google, Reconsider YouTube Requirements”. Long story short, Google decided to change their policy for YouTube users with new requirements or criteria to be eligible to monetize their videos on their YouTube channel(s). Because of that new policy, anyone who was able to monetize their videos before the new requirements went into effective on February 20 have lost the ability to monetize their videos and only way for them to gain that privilege once again is that they have to met their new criteria again so that was a bit unfair especially for the Deaf people or people who have a disability because they have to work as five times as the people who aren’t Deaf or disabled. To get a better understanding of what happened, I suggest that you read the letter I wrote to Google regarding their new YouTube policy and why it is unfair especially to the people who are Deaf or who are disabled.
Now, moving on to other things. Before I get into it, as always, I would love to know how you everybody are and let me know by leaving a comment below! I have been out of touch for a while, even the last article I wrote doesn’t really count anything because it was a public letter to Google instead of information type articles and whatnot.
2-26-2018 Snippets
There are a few of things that I feel the need to address in this article, I apologize that I haven’t written any new articles lately and as above I mentioned that there are reasons behind that. In case if you don’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I said that the biggest reason of all is that I have lost motivation in blogging and I am struggling to find a momentum. I have tried to find a momentum to get back into blogging, more actively as I was before or at least half of that and I always must try to convince myself to blog. In fact, I am not motivated to write this article at all and I am working hard to tell myself that I am overdue for one, but I often would procrastinate. While I was trying to find a momentum, I have written a list of topics that I feel important to address and so here I am!
Pension System in Kentucky
There are two fields of employees that rely on pension system more than anything, people who works in education and people who works in law enforcement. Really, pension system is for workers in different fields rely on pension system especially who decided to retire or have retired. Pension system in Kentucky is one of the worst out of all other states, it is so bad that the lawmakers struggles to find a solution for more than a year and it causes worrisome for the teachers especially who works in public education. In fact, another state that has pension system that are bad to the point that the entire public education employees (teachers, aides etc.) forced every schools in the state to close for few days so that they could go to the capitol and protest to demand a pension system reform. This state I am talking about is West Virginia, a neighbor state of Kentucky and Kentucky’s pension system are as bad or worse, yet they haven’t decided to do what public education workers in West Virginia did. I am even puzzled to the fact that it wasn’t Kentucky who decided to do this first before West Virginia, now that public education workers in West Virginia forced most if not all public schools in their state to close last week and today I have a very funny feeling that Kentucky is getting ready to do the same because they were looking for a encourage which West Virginia public education workers just gave them that. Like I said, pension system in Kentucky are worse if not as bad as the one in West Virginia, in my observation it seems that the pension system in Kentucky are way worse than the one in West Virginia and my guts tell me that if nothing is done in matter of few days or weeks if the lawmakers are lucky then Kentucky public education workers will do what West Virginia public education workers are doing now.
The reason I am talking about pension system in Kentucky is because my mother is one of Kentucky public education workers, she is retiring this year as she decided two years ago that she would be retiring when she reached a certain age which I am not sharing (for my mother) and she reached that age last month in January. She has already filed retirement few weeks ago, she has work for Kentucky’s public education longer than half of my life and she will be in the Kentucky’s pension system. For her hard work that she has done for public education, especially for the people with disabilities as she has become a special aide who works close with the students with disability and she take pride in it. Guess who was her first disabled student? The one who is writing this. Yes, her son became her student which is what inspired her to work very close and alongside the students with disability in public schools. She has only helped me for a couple of years until they found someone new to help me, in this case an American Sign Language interpreter and she went on to work with many of other students with disability for several years from elementary school starting with me then middle school with many different disabled students. Her job is to be with students who has disability at all the time, she has done so for so many years and two or three years of these many years were with me. Nonetheless, she is retiring at the end of the school’s year and she is to be put in pension system. A pension system that is crumbling, it has been crumbling for years and democrat lawmakers such as representative Chris Harris have decided that the lawmakers have let the pension system crumbles for too long so he among with other lawmakers made pension system a priority this year because they know that if they wait a bit more longer that there wouldn’t be a pension system in Kentucky.
So, I ask the lawmakers in Kentucky to please do everything to reform the pension system so that every public education workers and my mother can be at ease knowing that they have a working pension system in place rather than being put in one of the worst state’s pension system. It’s time, pension system reform must be done soon as possible or otherwise we are going to be seeing what is happening in West Virginia and be the lawmakers that do something about it instead of waiting for the constituents to come a-knocking on the capitol’s door in Frankfort. It is disappointing that a governor of the state is doing everything to sweep a rug under the public education workers feet. I ask the lawmakers to do what is right, do what constituents asks of you and that would be a good start of gaining our confidence in you enough to fill in a square box with your name on a ballot next election.
Teachers face big cuts in pension plan that would save state $4.8 billion by John Cheves and Daniel Desrochers at Lexington Herald Leader
H.R. 620 – ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) Education and Reform Act of 2017
There’s a bill passed by United States house called ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017 or H.R. 620 in short. What is it? It is a bill that would severely cripple the strength of Americans with Disabilities Act, an act that United States citizens who have disability rely on to have a better life. When you see any business buildings that is accessible or friendly for the people with disability, such as a ramp, fire alarms with strobe (flashing light), elevators, closed captions on their televisions or screens it is because of Americans with Disabilities Act and without Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in place there wouldn’t be any of them. Census has said that every one out of five would live with a disability, so there are millions of United States citizens who have disability and it isn’t only that but there are million(s) more coming in from other country such as tourist who’s visiting our beautiful country for a few days or weeks. They are including myself as I am one among of United States citizens with disability, or in my case disabilities as I have several disabilities and disabled tourists need accessible to business buildings so that we can enjoy ourselves the same others who doesn’t have disability would enjoy visiting. Whether it be buying groceries, going for entertainments such as some festivals or theaters that provide closed captions (there are very few theaters that provide closed captions). We rely Americans with Disabilities Act to make sure that we have access to whatever it is that other people who doesn’t have a disability have access to, otherwise that would be unfair to millions of us and for us to have an independent life we more than ever rely on Americans with Disabilities Act.
United States House under a representative named Ted Poe from Texas who is Republican (no surprise there) wrote a bill calling it ADA Education and Reform of 2017, but in reality it is Americans with Disabilities Act Reform and in that bill which was passed recently by the House will make it even harder for United States citizens to ask the business (both private and public) to provide accessible such as a ramp for the people who is in wheelchair. With that new bill, any business buildings that aren’t accessible will not be required to provide any kinds of accessible such as a ramp until a customer/client write a letter to the business stating that they need a ramp or other accessible things then we have to wait for 30 or 60 days (can’t remember which one) to hear from them such as questions on what we need from them and then wait for another 30 or 60 days to see if they follow it through or not before we can file lawsuit against them for not providing access for the people with disability. So, in total 180 days I believe before we can finally have accessible in their building, when I say they would have 30 or 60 days until they respond then you can bet on that they will wait until right at the end of the deadline to respond so in attempt to delay in providing us access. Before this bill, businesses must provide access to us people with disability as soon as they opened their business for the first time (grand opening if you will) and now with that new bill they can pretend not knowing that there are people with disability who need accessible such as ramp or others to avoid from providing them on the same day they open their business for the first time. That isn’t right, even the current Americans with Disabilities Act are weak already and ADA Education and Reform of 2017 will make it even weaker. People with disabilities have already been suffering from the current one, now with that bill being passed in House and is being sent to the Senate for a vote will make United States citizens suffer even more. Why it is already weak is because Americans with Disabilities Act are outdated, in fact it needs improvement and has been for several years now so with that bill will just make it even worse.
Americans with Disabilities Act are like 2nd amendment to us people with disabilities or to the Deaf community, so imagine lawmakers making 2nd amendment weaker and how would you feel? Your rights being taken away. Exactly. Americans with Disabilities Act are our fundamental rights, just as 2nd amendment is to us and everybody else. We need your help, even if you aren’t disabled you can always help us just like we would if we see anything happens to 2nd amendment. Call your senators, there’s two senates in each state so call both and tell them to vote nay on H.R. 620 aka ADA Education and Reform of 2017. We would greatly appreciate it!
You can find who is your senators by visiting this link, select your state and then there will be contact information for you to contact them. You can either call the number that it’s shown there or click the links below their phone number and this will take you to their website’s contact pages for you to fill out through online (they will act as an e-mail).
H.R.620 – ADA Education and Reform Act of 2017
The GOP H.R.620 will gut the Americans with Disabilities Act, pushing disability rights back to 1989 by Sara Novic at NBC News
HR 620 Could Put Disability Rights At Risk by S.E. Smith at TeenVogue
My Opinion on Guns Control
First, I must send my condolences to the victims and the victim’s parents of mass shooting in Parkland, Florida at Stoneman Douglas High School. No apology can ever be enough for the victims and their family for losing their loved ones due to a mass shooting by a boy with a mind of evil. Now, I see many students from that high school and from other schools in Florida joining together protesting for guns reform or guns control law. I must say that I am with them, I wholeheartedly agree with the students that there must be something done to prevent or to lessen mass shooting by putting the guns in wrong hands. Other countries such as United Kingdom and Australia – very few to zero mass shooting in their countries! It was done by banning guns, like in Australia and by doing so Australia along with United Kingdom has become the most least numbers in mass shooting. However, America are known for their 2nd amendment which is something that I strongly support and fan of allows the citizens to bear arms. The second amendment was created by the founding fathers of United States, I cannot be all for guns ban because the people will always find a way to have them even if the guns are banned because they can find a way to bring them in from another country such as Mexico and we would be in trouble ourselves from not being able to defend ourselves by not being allowed to legally purchase them. Handing guns to the teachers? Absolutely not! I am sorry but no, you can never know if there are some teachers in their own schools have issues without any of others realizing it but I am for hiring guards who has permits to defend schools by the doors or hire veterans because this would also create job opportunity for the veterans as we know veterans have hard time getting a job especially if they are disabled due to legs amputee or such. But we would have to make sure that none of them who has PTSD. This is a very sensitive topic for me to share to be honest with you, but bottom line for me is that I am all for “ANYTHING” to make sure that no student’s life is in danger and not only student, but ANYONE’s life isn’t in any danger. My best friend was murdered by a gunshot a few years ago, he was not even in his 30s as he was in his early 20s and his life was taken away from us because of a guy who had a problem with his wife choosing to see someone else (my best friend).
Just an idea, why don’t we have a law where no one can sell their guns directly in person and that if anyone wish to sell their guns then they can do so by selling their guns through an authorized guns dealer such as guns shop? So that way this can prevent people from selling them to the wrong person because when a person sells their gun to somebody, they don’t do a background check on them to make sure that there aren’t any red flags on them before selling their guns to some strangers and they can easily be in the wrong hands. This way we can have assure that our guns would be going to the right people instead of the wrong people and I think that this would be one of the best first steps that lawmakers can take. Creating a law that no person are allowed to sell a gun directly, that if they wish to sell their guns that they must do so by taking their guns to the authorized dealers such as guns shop and have them to sell their guns for them because they have the necessary tools to make sure that it is going to be in the right hands instead of the wrong hands by doing a background on them.
Let’s not protect guns, let’s protect people. Can we do that? Because people are more important than guns, their life are priceless and irreplaceable when guns are so let’s think about that. I highly recommend you listen to an amazing speech by a Kentucky Representative Chris Harris here! Unfortunately there is no closed captions in the video but here’s a link to the article about what Kentucky Representative Chris Harris talks about: Who’s afraid of NRA’s orange postcards? Not this Kentucky Lawmaker by Herald-Leader Editorial Board at Lexington Herald Leader.
… The End
Okay, that is all for now. These three topics have lingered in my mind for several days, I feel that it is important for me to address all of them three and get it out of my mind for once of all. I am sorry that I haven’t written anything good in a great while, so I hope that this will at least make up for it a bit. In the beginning of this article where I said that I have lost motivation to blog, that does not mean that I am going to quit blogging forever and I assure you that I will always blog, but it is matter of when. Like these three topics were very important to me, if there are any important issues in the future that I feel the need to address then I will obviously and not only that I would love for you to send me some topics suggestion that you would like for me to share my opinion or thought on. You can do so by either going to the submit tab at top of this website or click this link to go to the submit page where you can fill in some of the topics suggestion that you would like to hear from me! If there are any topics that you would like to know my perceptive on, please don’t hesitate and let me know by filling out that form. It doesn’t have to be through that page, you are more than welcome to suggest some topics to me on social media such as Twitter or Facebook and you will find a list of my social media by going to the link that I will be providing below. I thank you so much for all your time reading these new snippets which was overdue, I know that, and I hope that all of you have a great day or great night wherever you all are at. Stay warm or stay cool as it seems that we’re getting warm weather sooner than normal especially in the late winter as it is still winter until mid-March. I am not looking forward to spring nor am I looking forward to summer because I am not a fan of warm weather!
Thank you,
Joshua “Joshie” Sullivan
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