Some like Robert Dole came home disabled and ran for Congress. Dole was an early supporter of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Tammy Duckworth, is the latest disabled vet. She was in a helicopter when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into her chopper taking out her legs.
I don't mean to slam other minorites, mostly its the media that fails to report these things, not necessarily the minorities fault, but when speaking politics and minorites the usual suspects are limited to blacks, and hispanics with Asians and women. Then you break down the women into subgenres, security moms, soccer moms, Sex and the City women, stay at home mothers. Then you have the men,who are not really minorities especially Nascar Dads but they make the cut, mostly because they're the group Democrats have failed to reach out to. One minority that consistently not mentioned are the disabled. Why? They're not a force.
Interestingly enough, in his partisan campaign against Democrats in 2002 during the mid-terms, Bush targeted Max Cleland who had a similar experience to Duckworth on how he got his disabled but instead of getting the grenade fired at him, he picked up the grenade. And he was the only very noticable disabled person in the Senate-and Bush targeted him. And Cleland lost to a sunshine patriot. So now the disabled community is back to square one, but if we elect Tammy Duckworth, the people of Illinois have that Abraham Lincoln spirit of equality then they could have two firsts under their belt, the first Black Senator since at least Vietnam and the first disabled Representative from Illinois. My history's shakey on Illinois but the meaning is there.
So elect Tammy Duckworth 6th district in Illinois as Representative and turn a Republican retirement into a loss, this November and help move the disabled community forward at the same time.