Mayor Jack Orr was running for reelection.

As a candidate running for reelection, he planned to pop in at a group of people with disabilities called People Helping People, which was meeting once a week on the University of Miami campus. Members of this group were disabled students and disabled citizens coming from off campus. Dr. Calhoun, was the faculty advisor, who came back to work after a stroke.

Mayor Orr only expected to spend about 10 minutes with us.

And did Mayor Orr get an earful.  Time and time again he got horror stories from the disabled activists.  Between glancing at his watch and clearly wincing at the comments of the activists, Mayor Jack Orr finally gave up trying to meet his busy schedule of making several stops at other groups that night.

He spent over an hour and a half that night taking verbal barbs and hits for status quo situations that he did not create. Some of the finest student minds were heard that night by the Mayor. and the disabled citizens were having a field day with Mayor Orr. I was one of them and I will never forget that historic night with Mayor Orr.

When we were through, and I mean after over an hour of our ventilating, the Mayor then took over. He explained that the County Government process of involvement began with Boards. From Boards came proposals and planning. Mayor Orr challenged us to submit our resumes to him personally and he would make sure our voices were heard. I know both Ann Barber and myself took him up on his offer and we both were put on Boards or influential committees.

I was assigned to the Mayor's Housing Symposium which was chaired by Commissioner Harvey Ruvin. At one point, Commissioner Ruvin challenged me as to why I was appointed to the group by the Mayor. He stated that the Commission had just improved the building code for the handicapped. I recall laughing in his face and outlining what a weak document it really was, filled with loopholes, omissions and exceptions.

Commissioner Ruvin turned the tables on me and challenged me to rewrite the ordinance. Commissioner Ruvin saw that I was serious, and decided to take a few of us young radicals in wheelchairs to the Dade County Board of Rules & Appeals. He introduced us, and urged the Board to set up a committee and review what we wanted in the Building Code.

A committee was set up with some people with disabilities, a county employee and several Board members. What ended up happening was Tom Hendricks, a paraplegic attorney, and myself would meet nights and we developed what the new code should consist of. I recall how tough Tom stood on the issues. Tom, to me was a genius, which seemed to just pour out of him on this project. This man and I were talking about complete access, now what is called "the accessible route".

Each time the Committee met, they seemed impressed that we came to the committee with written text and that we had done our homework. After all, these guys were engineers and plumbers who worked all day and really didn't have the man hours we were more than willing to contribute. See, we were on a "Mission for God" and they were just going along for the ride. That Tom and I worked many nights developing our language just made their duties easy and their committee time very short.

We kept getting closer and closer with finishing the document. Tom kept breaking my heart, by being insulting and obnoxious with the county employee and others. He got so bad that I began to keep him from the others. We worked well together, and he never got obnoxious with me and his genius poured into the document.

We, as a committee, finally brought the document to the full Board, who accepted the work product as finished. The kicker was that they refused as a Board to send it to the County Commission, like they would with most building code changes. I recall the frustration and despair of many months of hard work.

I took the problem to Commissioner Harvey Ruvin. He stated that he had bucked the construction industry before, and was willing to do it again. He asked for a copy of the final product, asked a lot of questions, and said that he would place it on the Commission agenda, without the Board support.

On April 2, 1974, the ordinance passed 8-0. Two days later, Larry Hawkins and I arrived in Tallahassee, Florida for the second stage of the plan. We wheeled into Senator Myers Office and presented ourselves to Seth Gordon, and said we "finally made it". Seth was speechless. It was obvious he didn't think I would make it to Tallahassee. Like I said, we were on a "Mission for God". Poor Seth began to give us quick lessons.

I couldn't get Larry out of bed mornings. We had just met in Miami, and I knew I was going to need all the help I could get. Day after day, he didn't get to the legislature until late in the day. Several times I asked him to just go home. In the beginning, nights he was awake and helpful. We read about a constitutional amendment out of a newsletter, called The Law and the Handicapped, where Texas was considering an amendment to the Texas constitution about basic rights, to prohibit discrimination of the mentally and physically handicapped. That became Larry's baby and I guess I was stuck with the other 16 issues. When the session ended most of the important issues sat on the Governor's Desk, and this included the Building Code Ordinance right out of Metro-Dade County, now a state law. And so important, as county ordinances can be rolled back so easy.

I have often given Mayor Jack Orr full credit for beginning the Disabled Civil Rights Movement in Florida. He was reelected and I visited him once or twice with issues, and he personally set things in motion, beginning with a massive curb cut program around the courthouse. Then, the worst happened as the Mayor had terminal cancer. He went fast, too fast. Yet, after his death what he began continued. Curb cuts every where. I kept thinking Mayor Orr would love to see the Civic Center, with all the new curb cuts. He probably did see them. I think God would have wanted him to go back and see what he began back in 1973. He certainly laid the foundation for the Americans With Disabilities law. He certainly was one of the most major stepping stones in my life, which has been steered and controlled by someone other than me.