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WASHINGTON_President Bush highlighted a week of promoting his favorite themes, compassion and inclusiveness, with a proposal Thursday to provide technological help for the disabled, making it easier for handicapped individuals to travel, worship and work.
Seated behind a 37-inch lectern designed for wheelchair users, Bush outlined a $1 billion plan that echoed and built upon one of his father's biggest domestic successes, the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act.
"Wherever a door is closed to anyone because of a disability, we must work to open it," said Bush, with former Chicago police officer James Mullen at his side. "Wherever any barrier stands between you and the full rights and dignity of citizenship, we must work to remove it in the name of simple decency."
The ceremony brimmed with the good feeling Bush is trying to promote. Among those appearing onstage was Mullen, the Chicago officer who was shot on duty in 1996 and paralyzed from the neck down.
Bush exchanged a few sentences with Mullen, calling him a "hero" and a "courageous, fine American." The two met in September when Bush was in Chicago to accept the endorsement of the city's branch of the Fraternal Order of Police. Mullen runs a foundation that has distributed more than 1,000 computers to disabled people.
In his second week in office, Bush has extensively promoted initiatives that reflect his self-designation as a compassionate conservative. He began the week, for example, by announcing an Immediate Helping Hand plan to provide prescription drugs to poor senior citizens under Medicare.
He spent several days promoting his faith-based initiative, which would allow religious or faith-based groups to receive federal funds to provide social services such as job training and drug treatment.