Disabled girl barred from theme park rides

The 8-year-old athlete was denied access to even kiddy rides at Busch Gardens.

TAMPA - Jessica Rogers plunged into an Olympic-sized pool and swam the 25-meter breast stroke this week at the National Junior Disability Championships in Tampa.
But Monday afternoon, the 8-year-old athlete was denied access to three Busch Gardens rides, including the 6-inch-deep kiddy water rapids.
Ride attendants took one look at the little girl with no legs, called their managers and turned her away, not wanting to be responsible.
"You got to be kidding," said her mother, Phyllis Rogers. "This kid jumps off diving boards."
When Jessica returned to the games Tuesday, her wheelchair carried a sign asking fellow athletes to boycott Busch Gardens.
"Everybody else got to ride, but I couldn't just because I don't have legs," she said. "I couldn't even get on a kiddy ride."
Jessica, from Springfield, Va., was born with lumbosacral agenesis, a rare condition that stunted the growth of her spinal cord and left her with undeveloped legs, later amputated.
The games, now in their 22nd year, draw athletes ages 7 to 21 from across the United States with physical disabilities, including spina bifida, cerebral palsy, amputations, visual impairments and brittle bones. They compete at track and field, pentathlon, swimming, archery, table tennis, basketball and weight lifting.
The competition travels to a new city each year. This year, it's based at the University of South Florida and the New Tampa YMCA.
In Tampa with four of her seven adopted children, all of whom have disabilities, Phyllis Rogers, a single mother, hoped to turn the trip into a vacation, including the visit to Busch Gardens. The other three children with her are hearing-impaired; only Jessica uses a wheelchair.
Jessica first tried to board the Riffle Rapids, a gentle, circular water ride for very young children in the Land of Dragons and was turned away. She got the same response at the Stanley Falls Log Flume and then at the Congo River Rapids.
The final straw came when her family tried to board an amusement park train. They walked to an area designated for riders in wheelchairs.
"The attendant said he wasn't loading from that end and that we had to go to the other side," Phyllis Rogers said. "By that time, I was like, I'm done. I had walked around the park for hours in the heat, the kids had not rode anything."
Rogers took her family and left the park.
She spoke with Busch Gardens officials, who refunded all ticket costs.
"You do things spontaneously as a family, and things usually work out," said Rogers. "But this time, it was like a full slap in the face because in spite of how unlimitless she is, she encounters the limitations that others impose on her and sometimes there's just no getting around it."
Gerard Hoeppner, Busch Gardens' communications director, said it was a matter of safety.
Jessica was denied access, he said, because makers of the Riffle Rapids and the Stanley Falls Log Flume recommend that riders have at least one bracing lower extremity. The Congo River Rapids maker recommends three bracing extremities, including arms.
Prosthetics can be considered bracing extremities, but Jessica had left her artificial legs at home.
"If the manufacturer's guideline states that a functioning bracing leg be required, we follow that," Hoeppner said. "We do follow their guidelines because they designed them (the rides) for the human body to ride them."
Height restrictions also apply on the Log Flume and Congo River Rapids, but not with an accompanying adult.
"Our goal is to allow our guest to enjoy the park to the maximum extent possible," Hoeppner said. "We try to practice a ride of admission, not the ride of restriction mind-set."
Fellow athlete Doug Forbis, 18, was surprised at the reaction that Jessica received at Busch Gardens. The sophomore at the University of Illinois has the same condition and visits theme parks often, he said.
"I went to Universal (Studios) last December and there was only one ride that I couldn't do, and that was because my wheelchair is custom-made," said Forbis, who hopes to race the 100 meters in the 2008 Paralympic Games.
"I understand the roller coasters, but when you can't ride a kiddy ride that only has six inches of water, that's kind of stupid. The girl is an athlete and a swimmer. The kiddy ride, that was a bit much."
He recalls having similar problems at Jessica's age.
"My parents tried to take me to Dollywood and they told me that I couldn't ride anything," Forbis said.
At Universal Orlando, workers assess double amputees on a case-by-case basis, depending whether a sufficient portion of the lower body is present to make the guest safe on the ride, said spokeswoman Cindy Gordon.
The Busch Gardens experience reminds Phyllis Rogers to plan ahead.
On Tuesday, she checked out Adventure Island and said she was assured that her daughter would face no roadblocks.
So, on Thursday, Jessica will use her hands to walk up the steps at Adventure Island. At times, her mother might carry her.
Jessica is excited at the prospect of jumping off a rock cliff.
"She's an 8-year-old," Rogers said. "She can do almost everything that any other 8-year-old does.
"I don't think of Jessica as being limited."
Times staff writers Graham Brink and Stephanie Hayes contributed to this report.

EVERYONE NEEDS THE LIST TO LIVE BY ….

The most destructive habit: Worry
The greatest joy: Giving
The greatest loss: Loss of self-respect
The most satisfying work: Helping others
The ugliest personality trait: Selfishness
The most endangered species: Dedicated leaders
Our greatest natural resource: Our youth
The greatest ‘shot in the arm’: Encouragement
The most effective sleeping pull: Peace of mind
The most crippling disease: Excuses
The most powerful force in life: Love
The most dangerous person: A gossiper
The world’s most incredible computer: The brain
The worst things to be without: Hope
The deadliest weapon: The tongue
The two most power-filled words: “I can”
The greatest asset: Faith
The most worthless emotion: self-pity
The most beautiful attire: Smile!
The most prized possession: Integrity
The most powerful channel of communication: Prayer
The most contagious spirit: Enthusiasm

US President Bush & PM Manmohan Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush told India's prime minister on Monday he wants to expand economic and diplomatic ties between the two countries but was expected to pledge only token help for India's nuclear energy technology.
At a formal arrival ceremony for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Bush said U.S.-Indian relations have already been "transformed." Calling India an "emerging economic power," Bush said the United States would push to expand economic cooperation, though he offered no specifics.
Bush is eager to improve ties with the world's largest democracy, attracted by its booming technology expertise, growing commercial market and strategic importance as a counterweight to China both militarily and economically.
Touting what he called the "vast potential" of India-U.S. relations, Singh hoped to persuade Bush to increase nuclear energy cooperation with India.
But Washington has so far balked at the long-standing request because of India's status as nuclear power that has refused to sign the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which was designed to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.
Officials said Bush is likely to offer to step up discussions with India about ways to increase cooperation on nuclear safety and civilian nuclear issues.
But an official said ahead of Bush's talks with Singh, "It would be premature at this stage to comment on where this dialogue may take us."
Congressional aides said that Washington could move to ease restrictions once India has tough export controls in place and agrees to put some of its civilian reactors under international safeguards.
John Pike, a national security expert with GlobalSecurity.org, said the administration's hands are tied for now because India has not signed the NPT.
But Pike said the United States will eventually find a way around the restrictions on nuclear cooperation because of the economic and strategic benefits.
"I think that they (the administration) will take the position that India is an exception ... because they are emerging as one of our leading strategic partners, and we're prepared to make exceptions in the case of countries that we need," Pike said.
The Bush administration has already said it will ease restrictions in order to allow American defense contractors to enter the bidding to sell new combat planes to India.
Bush's push to help India increase its coal and nuclear power generating capacity is being driven at least in part to give New Delhi an alternative to a proposed $4 billion gas pipeline deal with Tehran, which Washington accuses of trying to secretly develop nuclear weapons.
So far, India has shrugged off U.S. concerns over the pipeline despite objections raised by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other senior American officials.
Administration officials say increasing U.S. cooperation with India on nuclear power would not conflict with Bush's broader non-proliferation goals.
In February 2004, Bush promised to crack down on countries that refuse to sign new nuclear non-proliferation safeguards.
Highlights
· Sanctity of LoC must be maintained: Bush
· U.S. to encourage resolution of Kashmir dispute
· India, U.S. to work toward common security objectives

LOVE IS…

LOVE – A BEAUTY

Love is patient and kind
Love is not jealous or boastful
Love is not arrogant or rude
Love does not insist on its own way
Love is not irritable or resentful
Love does not rejoice at wrong
But rejoices in the right
Love bears all the things
Love endures all things Love never ends…

LOVE IS…

To love is “Something”
To be loved is “Nothing”
To love and to be loved is “Everything”

Discoveries of my birth month July

July 1, 1796: Physician Edward Jenner administered the first smallpox vaccine. Another lifesaving medical feat was performed this month: the first successful rabies immunization on July 6, 1885. The first respirator, the iron lung was installed on July 29, 1927.

July 5, 1995, saw the birth of Dolly, a cloned sheep, born at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh. July 25, 1978, was Louise Joy Brown’s birthday. Never heard of her? She was the first test tube baby. The Philips-head screw and screwdriver were patented on July 7, 1936. The first typewriter, called the typographer, was patented by William Burt, July 23, 1829. The rotary type printing press was patented by Richard M.Hoe on July 24,1947.

The steamboat took its first shortest trip in France on July 15,1973. The first turbine propelled ship, the Chester, was launched on July 26, 1907. And the Panama Canal was formally inaugurated on July 12, 1920.
Remember the articles about dams? The Aswan High Dam was completed in Egypt on

July 21, 1970. Another desert also had a large water supply project opened this month: The Yarkon Water Project, supplying water to Israel’s Negev desert.

Space first for July include the first walk on the moon, taken by Neil Armstring and Buss Aldrin on July 20, 1969, and the launching of the Telestar communications satellite, on July 10, 1962. The first “round the world” airplane fight was completed by Wiley Post on
July 22, 1933.

The machine gun was patented by C.E. Barnes on July 8, 1865. The destructive abilities of dynamite were demonstrated for the first time on the July 14, 1867, by Alfred Nobel, who went on to establish the Nobel Prize.