8.15.08: What they're saying ...

"Most certainly, legislators will come to hear about the impacts of this decision from constituents and interest groups of every competing philosophy and occupation."

- Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Bill Schuette, concurring in Woodman v. Kera, LLC.

Schuette, along with COA Judges Michael Talbot (lead opinion) and William Bandstra (concurring opinion), earlier this week ruled that because the common law provides that parents can't waive their children's rights, pre-injury liability waivers that parents sign on behalf of their children can't be enforced absent a legislative abrogation of the common law.

"The decision in this case is bound to have enormous consequence and profound impact throughout Michigan," Schuette wrote. To emphasize his point, Schuette included exemplars of a variety of pre-injury parental waivers for marathons, field trips, athletic camps and summer camps.

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"I expected a punch line to a bad joke. He was dead serious."

- Frank Sila, quoted in The Kalamazoo Gazette.

Sila, a volunteer who conducts Bible studies at the county jail, was reacting to a participant who saw himself as a responsible man because he didn't beat his wife in front of his children. The statement prompted Sila and others to round up the funding and equipment to replace some of the regular network television programming the inmates watch with educational shows about parenting, resume writing, sexually transmitted diseases, jail rules, addiction, drugs and depression.

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"They suck. They're loud. And it keeps me up all day."

- Kalamazoo County Jail inmate Anthony Hood, quoted in The Kalamazoo Gazette.

Hood was reacting to the new television programs at the jail.

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"Whenever I come across a business that has a step or two to get in, the owner usually says, 'No one in a wheelchair ever shops here.' I think it's pretty obvious why they don't."

- William Milzarski, a rights representative for the Michigan Commission on Disability Concerns, quoted in The Detroit Free Press.

Milzarski noted that handicap access is still a problem at many public places. Erica Nader, who works to highlight access issues, took a wheelchair tour of Ferndale in commemoration of the 18th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. At one business, the door met regulations and was 32 inches wide. The bathroom was also up to ADA snuff but a 6-inch step prevented Nader from gaining access to the business without assistance. The owner was receptive to upgrade suggestions.