Alright everyone I NEED your help! I am a Crohns Disease sufferer from Chicago and I have started a campaign for change in the treatment of people like me in the workplace and school system. After a very disheartening experience with one of my past employers, I ended up filing with the Human Rights Bureau for discrimination. My case was accepted and will be seen before the Human Rights Commission Sept 15th! I am asking you guys to help me and join my crusade to change the attitudes in our communities. Attached I am putting a template letter that I encourage you to print out, sign, and mail to the list of representatives I have as well as those in your own community. With your help we can stop the discrimination those of us with these "invisible" disabilities face!
Here is the letter:
Dear ,
If I was a Vietnam Veteran who lives life from a wheel chair would you stand up for me against discrimination? If I was African American and was told by an employer I could not be hired based on my skin color would ...you stand up for me against discrimination? If I was born with a learning disability and was told by my school that I was not allowed to continue taking classes would you stand up for me against discrimination? What if I had a trendy disease like AIDS or Breast Cancer; would you stand up for me against discrimination?
What if I told you I had Crohns Disease? What if I appeared normal to you? Would you stand up for me?
I am writing you this letter because diseases like Crohns Disease and other invisible disabilities effect many people in your community and not enough is being done to support and protect its sufferers. It is time to wake up and smell the coffee. Every day, people in your community undergo discrimination in the workplace and school system because of ignorance about the severity of their struggles. It is very hard for healthy and able bodied people to understand the effect Crohns and other auto-immune disorders like Multiple Sclerosis and Lupus have on its sufferers and how the inconsistencies may occur. I imagine being in your shoes it would be difficult to look at someone who “appears” healthy and understand why someone may need the type of accommodations they sometimes need. People with these invisible disabilities are tough skinned; they learn to smile through their pain and enable ignorance by allowing people to believe what they want. However, as time goes instead of getting easier it is only getting worse for them.
In the words of AnnMarie Imbordino, Crohns Disease sufferer: “This is not just a matter of people being treated unfairly; but a matter of life or death. I throughout the years have met many other people like me with Crohns and similar auto-immune disorders and our stories are all very similar. Problems with keeping friends and romantic relationships, unsupportive families, hard time keeping a good job, hard time finishing school, and insurmountable amounts of debt that no twenty year old deserves to have. And on top of all that, having to deal with the mental and emotional trauma of being sick and realizing that your are limited and can not be like everyone else. I could not begin to explain what it feels like to be alone in a hospital bed at 18 years old and being told by a heartless doctor that you have a serious and possibly terminal illness. But what hurts even more than the doctors, is that when you get out into the world (school, work, ext) you realize that the world expects you to just stop living your life and go back to your hospital bed and die. When they say things like, “well if you are that sick maybe we should find someone else to work here we can depend on-manager from Ed Debevics” or “well if you are that sick than you will never make it in the real world-teacher from the College of Dupage” or “we can’t be giving shifts to people we do not know will always be here; we need to give shifts to the people who have been here and want to be here-manager from Grotto Oakbrook” or “well I just can’t deal with the always being sick; I need to worry about myself-close friend.” Do you hear these words in your life? I hear them every day and everywhere. And being under this type of constant trauma pays a toll of people like me. We become depressed, we begin forming drug and alcohol dependencies, we contemplate and attempt suicide, and we buy into the hate and allow our lives to remain stagnant and unfulfilling. We start to believe we are not dependable, that we will never make it, and that nobody will ever want us or be willing to deal with us”.
Enough is enough it is time to fight back; to fight the ignorance, the confusion, the selfishness, and the discrimination. I challenge you to stand up and care about these invisible disabilities; to educate your community and encourage local businesses and schools to change their attitude about Crohns Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and Lupus. I challenge you to stand up for people like AnnMarie Imbordino who have suffered greatly under your own roof. What can you do to stand up against discrimination?
Sincerely,
PLEASE MAIL LETTERS TO:
John W. Craig
Village of Oak Brook
1200 Oak Brook Road
Oak Brook, IL 60523
Human Rights Commission
James R. Thompson Center
100 West Randolph Street
Suite 100
Chicago, IL 60523
Mayor Richard M. Daley
City Hall
121 N. LaSalle Street
Chicago, IL 60602
Mark Pfefferman
Village of Glen Ellyn
535 Duane Street
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
Mayor A. George Pradel
City of Naperville
400 S. Eagle Street
Naperville, IL 60540
