Manic Media

So a few weeks ago I went to a local "convenience" store and, as usual, the access ramp was half blocked by a cooler and now there was an ashtray tower thing between the ramp and the door making getting in completely impossible for me. An elderly gentleman coming out as I was trying to get in say my problem and helped by moving the ashtray thing and holding the door. He then said to the manager, who was working at the time, that that thing is in the way for people who need to use the ramp. I added that that cooler partially blocked the ramp too. The manager responded with "Well I didn't build it, it was like that when I bought the place". Maybe, but that was 15-20 years ago. This stuff isn't cemented to the ground either. So, granted, I was a little pissed off. So when I got home I wrote the following letter to the local paper.

The following week I got an email from the editor of the paper asking if I would be willing to do an interview with them on the issue of handicapped accessibility around town and in general. I said I would be glad to and we met up that week. 2 weeks after my letter was published they ran the following article.

Now I do wish to point out right now that there are a few inaccuracies in this article. First, it was 11 months before I ever went home for the first time, and that was only overnight for the local car show, and I had to beg and plead with my rehab doctor for that to happen. It was over 17 months before I went home for good (or at least for longer than a few hours). Also, the Shell is just ONE of several places in town that's a pain in the ass to get in. And nothing at all was done until after this article was written. When it was just me, it wasn't important.
Anyway, shortly after that a reporter from the local news station contacted me via facebook and wanted to interview me for Access Awareness Week. The timing just worked out well. And so on June 1, 2011 the following was on the local news;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDkRDc1G4Jg

And so, the following week in the other local paper, this letter appears.

Now where did that come from? Funny thing is, none of the 4 people whos names are signed at the bottom were in any way involved with any of the rest of this. In fact, in my original letter I never even mentioned the name of the stores involved. But they had no problem mentioning my name several times in their "response". Which also brings to question, why "respond" to an article in one paper by writing to a different one? "We have helped him put his purchases in his lap and opened the door for him." So as long as there is someone to save me I'm alright? They obviously missed the point of the article and the letter and the news story completely.