Letter: Remembering Minnie Thompson

To the Editor:

I keep thinking of Minnie Thompson and some of her attempts to make things better for Oak Ridge citizens.

She showed the documentation of how she had attempted to get automatic doors added to the Oak Ridge Post Office.

I said, “Minnie, this is a prime example of how Oak Ridge sets up a power of ‘four’ that never writes letter for its citizens that have no spokesman.”

I told Minnie that the Post Office property was not government-owned on Administration Road.

Minnie had a private P.O. box. She had great difficulty pushing the front doors.

Minnie, you need to get a power wheelchair where you can apply 50 pounds of foot pressure.

As a wheelchair-disabled citizen, it partially works for me until I reach the internal bowels of parcel mailing. I still rely upon people who feel good about opening a door.

Personally, I try to rely upon civil rights laws to supposedly give the disabled access to public facilities.

“What really disturbs me,” Minnie said, “is why the larger distribution post offices have automatic doors.”

I pointed out that the state had revised handicapped parking regulations and placed them in Tennessee’s Code Annotated.

The only way this could have happened was to make the law benefit the disabled more fully and to protect businessmen.

But if you are observant, property owners have created its laws. I get a laugh where the standard ADA sign gets manipulated into circles without reserved parking. Shame on you.

I pass by a quote at the Oak Ridge Hospital hidden amongst the historical photos by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that suffers for the lack of prominence: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question: What are you doing for others?”

Minnie Thompson—a person truly missed.

Lee Roy Gilliam

Oak Ridge