Quote:
Retarded man can't ride moped again.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
JEREMY GRAY
News staff writer
Edward Milton's moped is chained to a tree in front of his Pelham home.
Until last week, the 54-year-old mentally retarded man regularly rode the bike up and down his street, Overhill Road, stopping to talk with his friends in the neighborhood.
"He knows everyone here, and everyone loves him," said his sister-in-law, Debra Milton.
"Half of them know me; half of them don't," Milton interjected.
Last week, police told the family it's illegal for Milton to ride the bike without a license.
Debra Milton said losing the freedom to ride the moped essentially cut off her brother-in-law's access to the world outside his home.
While she is quick to say she doesn't blame the police, Debra Milton said there are not enough opportunities for social interaction for people like her brother-in-law, people she refers to as lost angels.
"They're just forgotten people," she said. "They don't have a voice and can't speak up for themselves."
"It would be good for him to have something at least once a week away from the house," said Helen Chance, a neighbor and longtime friend of the Milton family.
Milton had enjoyed talking on a CB radio under the handle Mini-Bike Rider, but the family stopped him from using it recently after neighbors complained that the radio was interfering with their telephone service.
Fred Pinto, director of the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Healthcare Authority of Jefferson County, said programs are available for the mentally retarded, but families often have difficulty participating in them.
"Transportation is a problem for some people, and being able to pay for it is another," Pinto said.
Susan Ellis is the employment coordinator for Arc of Shelby County, a group that provides services to the mentally retarded. The main programs available in Shelby County are the People First program - a personal and political advocacy initiative - and a program designed to help them hold jobs, Ellis said.
Friendships often are born from the monthly People First meetings, Ellis said.
Debra Milton said the responsibility to meet the needs of the mentally retarded should rest with churches and not the government. "The government doesn't owe us anything; this is something we owe to God."
Her brother-in-law needs to interact with people, Debra Milton said.
"I'm sick of seeing his heart broken all the time. He's a social being," she said. "Everything he's ever had has been taken away from him."
She said she would like to see church services, with songs and arts and crafts, available for people like her brother-in-law.
"He's an adult, yet he's still a child," she said. "I'd like to see someone minister to his needs on his level."
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Orginal Text.
More than anything else, I just want to express that this made me sad.
The last thing I want to do is argue with anyone that if this guy should or should not be on the 'ped.
I think the human spirit suffers a tiny bit from each thing like this. That's all.
BTW: I call BS on the CB interfering with phone service. Call the FCC and prove that, because I don't think so. Haters...