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Vancouver is accessible, but is it enlightened?

Posted by Michael Klassen on June 2, 2008 in Soapbox

Here's today's editorial page cartoon in The Province. Mayor Sam Sullivan caricatured as Dr. Strangelove, the morally bankrupt ex-Nazi scientist in Kubrick's brilliant 1964 movie. The reference is probably lost on anyone under 40.

Also in the news today, Translink announced that it has now become a fully accessible transportation system for the first time in 118 years of moving people around greater Vancouver.

So on the one hand, we're constructing our city to accommodate its citizens who are physically challenged.

On the other, we equate our quadriplegic Mayor with a cartoonish Nazi figure in a wheelchair for laughs. In other words, a bit of a freak.

Never mind the lame joke that I'm sure had many Province readers coughing up a bran muffin during their coffee break. We all have days when the well is dry.

Murphy's little jab has me wondering if we are discomfited having someone who is disabled as our mayor. It might explain some of the nasty words and vitriol used to describe Sam by those without an inkling of interest in politics or an understanding of how a city is governed.

We like to think of ourselves as a modern and progressive city, but do some of us draw the line when it comes to having a disabled guy running the show?

Tagged: uncomfortable questions, vancouver politics

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