At 11:19 PM 6/15/2009, Quadius wrote: >It's guys like this who I had in mind when I was asked at the beginning of a >class in 1998 who my hero was. I was the last one to answer in the only one >who didn't cite some ridiculous figure.
Exactly how I feel. Heap on that the fact (for me) he lived in another town that starts with W, ONE TOWN AWAY from me, in another town that starts with W, with a third town that starts with W between us (I live in Waltham, he was in Wellesley. and Weston separates us), and i had the misfortune to never have had the gift of crossing paths. My loss, for sure. Put that squarely in the missed opportunity column. bob >On Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 3:04 PM, bob quinn ><<mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]> wrote: >Not a quad, but a hero to quads: > > >Charlie Sabatier; helped win access, respect for disabled > > > > Mayor Raymond Flynn put Charles Sabatier in charge of the city's access > effort in 1985. (Globe File) >By ><http://search.boston.com/local/Search.do?s.sm.query=Bryan+Marquard&camp=localsearch:on:byline:art>Bryan > Marquard >Globe Staff / June 12, 2009 > >A bullet severed Charlie Sabatier's spinal cord in 1968 as he crossed a >battlefield in Vietnam to help another soldier on the first day of the Tet >Offensive, and he navigated the rest of his life in a wheelchair. > >Four decades ago, he came home to intersections without sidewalk curb cuts, >public buildings without elevators, and policies that set the disabled apart, >sometimes in humiliating fashion. Mr. Sabatier made it his life work to change >policies, physical structures, and the way people thought. > >"My goal is equal citizenship," he told the Globe in 1988 as he prepared to >step down as executive director of Boston's Commission for Persons with >Disabilities. "Nothing less is acceptable. We're looking for equitable >treatment, although not necessarily identical. A disabled person should have >the same options as everybody else. I came within an inch of giving my life >for this country. The idea of being denied equal opportunity because it might >not be cost-effective is utterly reprehensible to me." > >Mr. Sabatier, who helped get an elevator installed in Faneuil Hall and took a >stand against degrading treatment on airlines, died of cancer yesterday in his >Wellesley home. He was 63. > >Raymond L. Flynn, who was mayor when he appointed Mr. Sabatier to head >disability affairs, credited Mr. Sabatier's leadership with making Boston more >accessible, including Faneuil Hall. > >"Here you have the cradle of liberty, America's most historic building, but >for people who were handicapped, there was no way of getting in there," Flynn >said. "Charlie was able to work through the process and get it done. Because >of him, the people's building really became the people's building, all the >peoples' building." > >As head of the city commission and more recently as senior policy adviser in >the US Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy, Mr. >Sabatier worked to ensure that others would have a different experience than >what he endured in the years after returning from Vietnam. > >In Boston, he helped get dozens more curb cuts each year at intersections, >pushed election officials to make polling places more accessible, and >initiated studies to determine the cost of making each building used by city >government accessible. > >"I look at myself as a gunslinger," he told the Globe in July 1988, a couple >of weeks before leaving the commission to attend law school. "I took this job >with specific ideas of what I wanted to do, and I've done them. Now it's time >to do something else." ><http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2009/06/12/charlie_sabatier_helped_win_access_respect_for_disabled?page=2> >Charles J. Sabatier Jr. grew up in Galveston, Texas, and was the first in his >family to finish high school, said his wife, Peggy Griffin. His first attempt >at college did not pan out, and he ended up in the US Army. > >Stationed in Germany, he was later sent to Vietnam, where North Vietnamese >forces launched an incursion in early 1968 that became known as the Tet >Offensive. Mr. Sabatier was 22. > >"He was shot on the first day of the Tet Offensive," Griffin said. "He went >out to rescue a fellow soldier who had been shot, who was calling and calling >for him. Just as he got to the young man, he was shot in the back. Ironically, >it's what ended up changing his life in many positive ways." > >First, though, came months of recuperation. Overcoming his initial >embarrassment at having to use a wheelchair, he graduated from the University >of Nevada at Las Vegas in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in political science >and became involved with the advocacy group Paralyzed Veterans of America. > >While working in Washington, D.C., he met Griffin, who was there for an >internship while attending Boston University. They married in May 1981 and >lived in the Auburndale section of Newton. > >Mr. Sabatier was assistant director of the state Office of Handicapped Affairs >in March 1982 when he decided he would no longer abide by a Delta Airlines >policy that passengers using wheelchairs must sit on a blanket, rather than >just the seat. The airline said it was for swifter evacuation in case of an >emergency, but Mr. Sabatier believed the policy was Delta's way of preventing >damage if disabled passengers had difficulty controlling their bladders. > >Arrested on a disorderly conduct charge for refusing to sit on the blanket, he >made more headlines when he was arraigned in East Boston District Court, which >was not accessible to wheelchairs. He refused the judge's offer to have court >officers carry him upstairs into the courtroom, and was arraigned in the >hallway. > >Within a month, Delta dropped its policy of placing blankets under passengers >who use wheelchairs and paid Mr. Sabatier $2,500 to avoid a lawsuit. The >disorderly conduct charge was dropped. > >After working with the city commission in the late 1980s, Mr. Sabatier went to >California, where he graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law >in 1992. During his first year at law school, his wife had triplets: Charles, >Caroline, and Danielle. > >"He always used to say he was the oldest disabled guy to have triplets the >first year of law school and graduate on time," his wife said. > >The family moved to Texas, where Mr. Sabatier worked on advocacy issues in the >years after the federal Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted. In 1996, >they settled in Wellesley, and Mr. Sabatier commuted to Washington for his job >with the Labor Department, where part of his work involved veterans injured in >Iraq and Afghanistan. > >"He knew how they thought; he knew the kind of information they would need and >the sequence in which they would need it," said his boss, Susan B. Parker, >director of policy development in the Labor Department office. "He knew what >those transitions meant." > >"My husband talked with them about the three miracles in his life," Griffin >said. "He'd say, 'My three miracles are, I got out of Vietnam alive, I met and >married my wife, Peg, and we had my three children.' And he would tell them, >'You will have your miracles, too, but you have to go out there and find >them.' " > >In addition to his wife and children, Mr. Sabatier leaves his stepmother, >Edith of Santa Fe, Texas; three sisters, Lisa of Santa Fe, Texas, and Sandy >Saeed and Crystal Foreman, both of Dickinson, Texas; and two brothers, Mark >and Michael, both of Dickinson. > >A funeral Mass will be said at 11 a.m. Wednesday in St. John the Evangelist >Church in Wellesley. Burial will be in Woodlawn Cemetery in Wellesley. > >obit url: ><http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2009/06/12/charlie_sabatier_helped_win_access_respect_for_disabled/>http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2009/06/12/charlie_sabatier_helped_win_access_respect_for_disabled/ > >
