Please Take What I Can Give

cell phones often don't work during disasters or other unusually high phone traffic. payphones are landlines, so they still work as long as they're not cut from their line.

this is also true for some remote areas: there's a reason people working on remote sites (camp sites, forestry, emergency responders, etc.) have landlines, especially in places with changeable weather that could affect radio/walkie talkies/cell service.

payphones are extra important if someone is being threatened or held against their will: a kidnapper or other nefarious person could take/break a cell phone, but the payphone is bolted to the ground, and it would look suspicious if they dragged a victim away from it. a while ago a lost kid used a payphone to call 911.

in a similar vein, many emergency systems haven't been updated to keep up with modern cell phones (we haven't even had maps on our phones for 10 years yet), so depending on where you live it can be difficult for dispatchers to figure out where you are if you're using a cell phone. since payphones don't move, dispatchers know exactly where they are and can send help faster.

It's no wonder so many people are profoundly lonely and disconnected from their communities when maintaining a social life in what little free time we have is incredibly difficult. If you have kids, a second job, a very long commute, or other responsibilities, it's nearly impossible.

but then with disabled people, there are a lot of objective truths to the discrimination we face. people with IDs/LDs do fall behind and struggle with certain concepts. physically disabled people are often weaker and less capable of performing demanding tasks than able bodied people. many of us with mental illnesses are more reckless and less responsible. a lot of us are dependent on others and do not contribute much "worth".

and guess what? disabled people still deserve a place in the world. disabled people still deserve the supports they need. because they are people, and that should be enough to support them and believe they deserve a place at the table.

if your only rebuttal against discrimination is its objective inaccuracies, you are meeting bigots where they are at. you are validating the very concept that if and when people are truly incapable of being equal to the majority, that means they are worth less. this causes some leftists to then try to deny the objective realities of disabled people and/or become ableist themselves.