So, what’s new with you, my kind and gentle readers? If you are like me, you’ve spent quite a bit of time at home. I’m taking a brief break from recounting my cans of beans and rolls of TP to offer a couple of thoughts on things not related to the coronavirus. While of course the pandemic continues to be the most important news story out there, and while I remain tempted to talk about the contrast in leadership between our Gov. Polis and President Trump, I’m going to resist the urge.

Heck, I’m not even going to make a joke about the recent highway tragedy wherein a truck outside of Dallas crashed. The driver was ok, thank goodness, but his entire trailer was filled to the brim with toilet paper rolls. Among the paper products, there were no survivors. 

Instead, let’s turn to a story on Colorado Politics that you may have missed, due to weeping uncontrollably over the loss of the aforementioned TP. The story tells us of a gentleman in the lovely city of Trinidad who moves about his city in a motorized scooter. This person filed a lawsuit against the city of Trinidad for failing to provide the curb cuts required by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. 

Signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in July of that year, the ADA outlaws discrimination based on disability. The ADA covers businesses with over 15 employees, as well as state, local, and national governments. I suspect we all pretty much agree with the intent of the law, and that we should not, as a community, a state or a country, discriminate against those facing disability challenges.  But the devil, as always, is in the details.

With a ruling handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding a lower Court’s ruling, the city of Trinidad agreed to a settlement with the gent, the details of which were not released. But one can reasonably assume Trinidad will get busy with reaching ADA compliance. Curb cuts, to those in wheelchairs and scooters, are not just a luxury; they are essential to being able to move freely about the community (in a post-corona time frame). 

Trinidad is a lovely city of under 10,000 or so. Denver has quite a few more. Should both cities be held to the same ADA standard? How about counties? Churches? How about school districts? In the “before time” (about eight weeks ago), I was pulling into a middle school parking lot to officiate an eighth-grade basketball game. With all the parents picking kids up, there were no open slots. The school safety officer on site told me to park in one of the handicap spaces. When he saw me recoil a bit, he said that the school, by ADA rule, had to have three such slots, but that there were no kids or parents at that school in need of such spaces. While that may well be true, there might be visitors or other guests with the need. I did park there, I admit, but I did so with feelings of guilt. Oh, and private clubs and religious organizations are also exempt from the ADA, which I understand from a constitutional perspective but not so much from a practical one. Presumably now, Trinidad and other Colorado cities will plan for curb cuts as part of the overall municipal planning process. And that is a good thing, but one can’t help but wonder a bit about a scooter operator using the curb cuts provided by a city, only to find his or her way obstructed upon reaching a church. Is there really a First Amendment issue with requiring churches to be ADA compliant? 

You may well feel that I’ve droned on quite long enough about Colorado’s curbs, and you may be right. But some of the most important principles of our national creed have found their initial foothold in the case of an aggrieved individual. Clarence Gideon, a drifter, sent a simple, handwritten letter to the U.S. Supreme Court to argue that he should have been given a lawyer, even if he couldn’t afford one. Rosa Parks took a seat to make a stand, and Mohandas Gandhi walked to the sea to gather salt. We are wise to remember the words of Margaret Mead, who observed, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

The world is changed one small step at a time, or perhaps, by one curb cut.

Hal Bidlack is a retired professor of political science and a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who taught more than 17 years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.