Important New Developments.

And like I said, to review my new argument now. I am concerned by the suggestion people think that certain groups, mainly poor people, the handicapped and just people who live in the city of Detroit, don't have to drive. In the United States, to have any quality of life, you definitely do have to drive. The US is just not designed for people who don't drive, and no one could really function without a car. I started hearing about this 20 years ago really. I started seeing stories in the news around then about that subject ironically. How easy it was to take away people's license. Like the old, mentally ill woman who was taking her cat to the vet. And she argued with these two police officers. Just argued really, nothing else. And so they had a judge suspend her license. Like I thought then, she had her cat in a pet carrier. How was she supposed to take it to the vet without a car now? Or they also showed this story of this middle aged African American man in another state. He looked well-dressed, so I think he had a pretty nice job. But he couldn't afford a car and there was really no public transportation where he lived. So he had to walk to work every day. Ten miles. When I saw that story it made me think of my life before a car. You know you can walk ten miles if you give yourself enough time. But it would take at least an hour. And I didn't have neuropathy or mobility issues yet then. Or the way in the US driving is considered a privilege, not a right. Like I was reading back then, as I was researching this in other topics. This man in Rhode Island in 1974 was denied a driver's license. For being a flaming homosexual, they said. Homosexuals were more common by then, and that was the last time that happened. But they said the fact he was "flaming" affected their decision. I started hearing all those stories and thinking about this subject seriously back then. And that was just 2005. My life if very different now. And now I have to deal with what happened September 15 too.

And it all began ironically in my life after the police and medical professionals in my life drove me to suicide in April 2004. That didn't affect my driving ability in any way, but it seemed to change the discussion in my life surrounding the subject of my car. That along with the real reason why I was given a car and a license. It was so vital to my independence, consent and being able to function, even then. Just as I became well and free and able to really function in 1989. That is why my mother insisted on it in 1988. And that is also why the people in my life who opposed my independence, consent and functioning in any way were so against it right from the start. And why my mother dying in 1996, and just the new discussions that seemed to start behind my back in 2004, led to the suggestion that some people thought we should revisit that topic. My independence and driving. That, and frankly the fact some people just don't view me the same way they do others. The police would never try to take car away from even someone with a suspended license or warrant for their arrest for a traffic offense. They'd respect their space. And they'd realize what that would do to them and their life. But they view me below those kinds of people apparently. And they think they can just take away my nice things. Judges who steal themselves, like Shakespeare once said. My car is vital for me, it is not and never will be negotiable. Not just for the reasons I already knew in 1989 and 2005, when ironically my life was much different. My financial situation, who I could rely on for help, my family and others to support me, etc. But now I am in danger. And Eric has left me for good. I don't even know now who will take me for my yearly colonoscopies. And what if I got a flat tire? What if someone plowed into me again, like they did those two times in the past? Auto insurance doesn't replace you whole car you know, they only pay for part of it. And now people are talking about that again. Actually what they are talking about is that most people in Detroit don't have cars, and people somehow think they don't need them. I don't agree with that at all.

No. And that is going to be my claim from now on. The rights of the mentally ill to drive, the rights of the handicapped to drive, the rights of poor people to drive. And the rights of Detroiters to drive, and why people view them differently on this, differently at all. And my situation which of course is much different. And made different from all the harm and secret damage and abuse I have received up till now, along with people disobeying their own rules and the laws, and putting me in danger. But Detroit in general too, like I said. We need policy change with that alone.