Theft at the Public Till
can thus be "recognized." The majority suffer so that the minority whatever minority - can feel the surging self-esteem of recognition. Group politics can lead to absurdities. For example, when the District of Columbia was in the final stages of completing its subway system, the Metro, some of the stations were ready to receive physically normal passengers many months before they would be ready to accommodate the handicapped. Officials apologized and offered interim solutions, including unlimited free taxi rides for any handicapped people who requested them. This was on its face a far better deal than actual use of the system, and if the handicapped had been smart, they would have proposed that it be made permanent. It was cheaper, it was safer, and it was bound to be more convenient because it would be door to door. But no. The handicapped insisted on keeping the system closed to everyone until it was fully accessible to them. Of course the handicapped are right to insist on having an opportunity to do everything that everyone else can, including commute to work. But it flies in the face of reality to insist that they ought always to be able to do everything in exactly the same way as everyone else. That the concept of "separate but equal" was a public failure should not condemn new efforts at "separate but better." In another early 1990's example, we learn from the Times that for fif- teen years the New York Police Department been hiring people who fail to meet even minimal physical fitness requirements. In some cases the city has issued guns and badges to recruits whose physical fitness is worse than 99 percent of others their age and gender. And even more outrageous a number of officers currently on the force do not have the hand strength to pull the trigger of their service revolver. Call it the p.c. NYPD. Or take the lack of public toilets in New York. They exist fine in Paris. But in New York, advo- cates of the disabled argued that it was discriminatory to have toilets on the street which could not accommodate a wheelchair. If it can accommodate a wheelchair, it can accommodate prostitution. So much for public toilets. Once again quality of life is reduced for the majority by the assertion of some "equal right" that the society as a whole cannot afford. Either democracy is the affirmative action vision writ large, a society is democratic because all groups are proportionally represented in all its
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