And His Quest for a Fountain of His Own
There is a park by my house that has three public water fountains more or less right next to each other. One is very old looking, but still works quite well. The second is nearly identical in size and shape, but looks a bit newer. The third is very new and modern looking with a quite different size and shape. They all, however, let spout out a clean, cold stream of fresh water, that provides a welcomed respite on a hot summer day.
It turns out, this park and its history of water fountains is quite old. Long ago, there was just one water fountain, but it was for "WHITES ONLY." Blacks were allowed in the park, but they never ventured near the water fountain for fear of being accused of trying to drink from the fountain.
After Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, which allowed that facilities be "separate but equal", blacks started demanding that they have a water fountain of their own. The whites, who controlled the municipal government, wanted to place a separate water fountain on the opposite side of the park. To allow this, however, the pipe supplying water to the fountain would have to be extended to the opposite side of the park, and the town, being quite poor, could not afford to do so. So they erected the "BLACKS ONLY" water fountain a mere ten feet from the "WHITES ONLY" fountain. Blacks and Whites would still lounge in separate areas of the park, but every so often they would meet at the middle when a white person and a black person went to drink from the fountains at the same time.
Later, after Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, the blacks argued that they could drink from whichever fountain they wished. If the BLACKS ONLY water fountain already had a line of people waiting to drink from it, but the WHITES ONLY was free, they said they should be allowed to drink from that one, too. And so they did, and eventually the WHITES ONLY and BLACKS ONLY signs were removed, and people drank freely from both fountains. Some whites, feeling both fountains were now dirty, refused to drink from either.
No one argued that either fountain should be torn down, since after all, it's better to have two perfectly working water fountains than just one. After awhile, no one really remembered which was the WHITES ONLY water fountain and which was the BLACKS ONLY. Eventually, even the feeling that the fountains where blacks drank from were dirty mostly subsided among the whites.
Later, a family whose child used a wheelchair moved to my town. The child had difficulty reaching the spout of the fountain, and the parents complained that the facilities were not accessible to their child. The town wanted to help, but they said, "the park already has two working water fountains. We can't afford to put in a third. You will just have to put forth the extra effort to help your child reach the fountain."
Then, the Americans with Disabilities Act passed in 1990. The parents quickly reminded the town officials that they were now required by law to erect a fountain accessible to their child, and the officials conceded that this was true. Again, no one thought of tearing down one of the other fountains because, after all, its better to have three perfectly working water fountains than two. So a third handicap-accessible fountain was erected in the middle of the two older fountains.
Finally, one day a strange man moved to town. This man had no family, and most people thought his style of dress and general lifestyle were quite strange. He would lounge in the park, and no one would bother him, but they did not interact very much with him. People noticed that he would always carry a green water bottle with him to the park and drink out of that instead of the water fountain. They thought it was strange that he didn't ever go to use one of the three water fountains, but no one bothered to ask him why.
Then one day the man showed up at a city council meeting and made a very strange plea. He claimed that he could not drink "regular water" and instead always drank a saline solution, or as he called it "sea water." He said he had a condition that required this, and if he drank "regular water" he would be repugned by the taste and proceed to get sick. He demanded that the park, which was required to provide equal facilities accessible to all, erect a salt water fountain.
"How strange? Why most people get sick if they drink salt water, but you say you get sick if you drink normal water!" gasped one city council member.
All the council members thought this was very strange, but most truly wanted to help. The problem was though, they didn't even know where they could buy a salt water fountain. Wanting to help the strange man with the odd condition, they did some research and found that it could be done, but would have to be specially designed and purchased at a great initial cost plus a nontrivial operating cost. They wondered how they could justify this spending for one person to the taxpayers of the town.
The strange man continued his demands and said that despite the costs, they had to install a salt water fountain, or else they would be discriminating against him. He said there are many people with such a condition, and if they were to move to this town, they would gasp at the lack of a salt water fountain in the public park.
Again, the city council did its research and found that this condition did, in fact exist, but it was very rare, and its medical basis was controversial. Doctors could not agree whether the bodies of people with this condition required saline solutions in great quantities, or if it were some type of hypochondriacal condition, where there mind and tastes were conditioned to reject anything but saline solutions.
One city council member found the strange man's claim to be completely ridiculous, and remained firmly opposed to erected a salt water fountain. This council member was a lawyer by profession, and he rejected the argument that the ADA required such a special arrangements, especially if it was not medically certain that people with this condition required salt water. He said directly to the strange man, "You are welcome to continue as you have been doing and bring your own salt water to the park to drink. You are even welcome to use our water fountains to fill a glass and add your own salt. We are sympathetic to your condition, and the inconvenience it must cause you. But we can NOT justify spending exorbitant tax dollars to serve your exorbitant, and as far as we can tell, singular needs."
The other council members thought this member was being quite harsh, and felt embarrassed by him. They had been thinking many of the same things though, but were afraid to say them.
The opposed council member truly felt bad, but he stuck to his beliefs and principles. He could not justify spending the taxpayers money for something he considered outrageous.
Thinking further, he added, "There is one exception I see to this. As we live in a democracy, and make decisions with the people's will in mind, I tell you this: If you were to circulate a petition, and collected enough signatures to prove that there is significant public support for this spending, we could place this question before the voters. If a majority were to approve this spending, we would have virtually no choice but to approve it."
The man smiled and got quite excited. "Great! I'll start working on that right away."
The man wrote up a petition, and everyday he went to the park and asked all the park goers if they wanted to sign it. He explained to them his condition, and his argument of why the town should accommodate him, why they had a moral responsibility to do so. Some people signed the petition, but most just found it very strange, and said they could not support his request. Some though just signed the petition because they didn't really care and kind of just wanted him to go away.
The "sea water man", as he came to be known even went practically door to door, and in the end he collected 647 signatures in the town of about 15,000. The city council then voted on whether it was enough signatures to put the proposition to a general vote. By a narrow margin, 4-3, they decided it would go on the ballot.
The sea water man was overjoyed with glee. A date was set for the vote, and the sea water man began furiously working on an education campaign to get the word out to everyone in the town about the condition and to convince them why he had a right to not be discriminated against in the park by not having a fountain that served his unique needs. He even called all the people knew from other cities and towns who had the condition. They felt so passionately about the issue, many of them came to the small town to campaign with him.
Election day came and the votes were cast. The measure failed, receiving less than 30% of the vote in favor. The sea water man's hopes were dashed, for now at least. He eventually even stopped going to the park, though he could sometimes be seen jogging around the town carrying his green bottle, which everyone now assumed carried his "sea water"
The park remained with its more than plentiful three fountains of clean, cold, "regular water", enjoyed by all...that is, nearly all...for many generations to come.