AIDS patient wins in McDonald's case
CLEVELAND, Ohio (AP) -- A jury has ruled that McDonald's Corp. discriminated against a restaurant manager who claimed he was forced out of his job after the company learned he had AIDS.
The jury awarded Russell Rich of Akron $490,000 in damages in the second trial on his claim against the fast-food chain. Rich, 41, won $5 million in a 2001 trial but that verdict was overturned on appeal, based on faulty jury instructions from the judge.
Rich's lead attorney, Paige Martin, said she would appeal the amount of the damages based on alleged errors by the judge in the latest case, retired appeals court Judge John T. Patton.
She said the errors included the failure to let the jury decide to award more damages based on costly state-provided prescription coverage that would be lost with a higher income. (Rest of story)
What if your close family member or best friend had HIV or AIDS and you didn't know it, but then learned that s/he did? Is that person suddenly any different from before the admission? (The correct answer here is no.)
What if you had HIV or AIDS? How would you feel if your family and friends (and society as a whole) ostracized you? Let us not forget the golden rule of treating others as we wish to be treated.
I'm not judging you, I'm just encouraging you to think about a topic people generally choose to ignore.
3 comments:
I'm not quite sure I follow you. Are you saying that some people deserve to be shunned because of the method they contract a disease?
If someone got HIV from a dirty needle or sex they should be treated as a second class citizen?
I have a hard time thinking that one life has more value than another, even if a person makes poor life decisions that most of society would not make (dirty needle sharing).
How he contracted the disease is completely irrelevant to his ability to do his job. This is a clear case of discrimination.
What if mono was equivalent to HIV in today's society and you contracted it from fluid contact with your monogomous (or so you thought) partner - would you then think it was okay to be shunned by society?
Again, I'm not trying to judge or anger you, I'm posing questions to help people think this out, and to show me different points of view than my own.
I understand you, and I'll agree to disagree. I have compassion for pretty much every human being, I can't help myself. I don't think everyone can be "reformed" but I do think everyone plays a specific role in society. Shutting out a "crack whore hooker" from society only encourages her to continue being a "crack whore hooker" instead of the Nobel prize winner her hidden potential would allower her to be if she were given the same opportunities as other Nobel prize winners.
I also can't see very well right now because of my salty eyeballs, so maybe I missed a point.
I still like the new skin. :)
Oh, and I just realized that "crack whore hooker" is redundant. Allow me to shorten it to the derogatory term "crack whore" instead.
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