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As soon as I saw him on my TV...
Jan. 21st, 2009 05:40 pmAs soon as I saw footage of Cheney in a wheelchair, yesterday, I knew I was going to have to write about it, especially after I saw which brand logo (
) was on the side of his chair. The Fates do, indeed, speak the language of poetic irony, if Cheney were being ignobly shuffled off the world stage in an Everest & Jennings chair!
But I also knew that that image would mean nothing to the majority of my readers. So the post would have to wait until I found a good online history I could link to. Here it is, from 2002:
Everest & Jennings - the corporate goliath that dominated the world's wheelchair marketplace for fifty years, then crumbled under its own corruption and arrogance.
I think, when I first caught sight of that distinctive silhouette (the chair today looks almost exactly the same as my old chair from the 1970's): I may even have said aloud: "How the mighty have been brought low!" Just the sight of it brought back flashes of dingy hospital waiting rooms, and the "Wheelchair corral" at airports, and, with them, a heart-piercing sense of personal humiliation.
So even while I was basking in a sense of glee that Cheney was getting the poetic justice (that I believe) he deserves, in the sense that wheelchair and rider were a perfect personality match, I was also checking myself for linking the disability of his morality and spirit with his physical disability, something I've railed against when I see others do the same thing (So deep is the cultural indoctrination, eh?).
And, as the procession of dignitaries onto the inauguration platform was delayed because Cheney was in a wheelchair, I experienced the feeling of "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy!" firsthand.
Cheney may not be a personal enemy of mine, but I do believe he is one of the worst ememies our nation and its Constitution have ever faced. Still, I was making an educated guess at what he was he was enduring, and I wished he could be spared from it. His trial probably involved the following:
(Okay. He may get a pass on that last one, as you need a sense of empathy for it to bother you).
Not even Cheney deserved as humiliating experience as that. No one does.*
And was that his wife pushing his chair? I mean, doesn't she, at least, deserve better than to be relegated to the role of caretaker, even if it's just for the day? It would have been so much more dignified to have one of those uniformed members of the color guard pushing him, so that he and she could enter the arena side by side.
I also noticed that Bush Sr. was mobility impaired, yesterday (has he had hip surgery recently, or something?). And I felt kind of bad that even he was being ignored, yesterday. As he was coming down the those red-carpeted stairs, he even kind of flailed out with his free hand and clutched at one of the guards standing by the door. I know I said aloud to him, through the TV screen: "Go ahead and use the handrail; there's no shame in it. That's what it's there for." He did, eventually.
I may write a letter to President Obama advocating putting some Universal Design into the White House. His father-in-law had MS, and he has pledged to make government more accessible to the people.
*I might have gotten more satisfaction from the cosmic justice of it all if I had any faith that he would have actually learned anything from it, or used it as an opportunity for some soul-searching. As it is, all that humiliation was just a waste.
Still, I applaud the Fates on their artistic use of irony.
Note:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
haddayr posted on this topic, too. She also has a link to another thoughtful blog post about it. I read both before I wrote this post, and both have influenced what I've written here. Good reads.
) was on the side of his chair. The Fates do, indeed, speak the language of poetic irony, if Cheney were being ignobly shuffled off the world stage in an Everest & Jennings chair!But I also knew that that image would mean nothing to the majority of my readers. So the post would have to wait until I found a good online history I could link to. Here it is, from 2002:
Everest & Jennings - the corporate goliath that dominated the world's wheelchair marketplace for fifty years, then crumbled under its own corruption and arrogance.
I think, when I first caught sight of that distinctive silhouette (the chair today looks almost exactly the same as my old chair from the 1970's): I may even have said aloud: "How the mighty have been brought low!" Just the sight of it brought back flashes of dingy hospital waiting rooms, and the "Wheelchair corral" at airports, and, with them, a heart-piercing sense of personal humiliation.
So even while I was basking in a sense of glee that Cheney was getting the poetic justice (that I believe) he deserves, in the sense that wheelchair and rider were a perfect personality match, I was also checking myself for linking the disability of his morality and spirit with his physical disability, something I've railed against when I see others do the same thing (So deep is the cultural indoctrination, eh?).
And, as the procession of dignitaries onto the inauguration platform was delayed because Cheney was in a wheelchair, I experienced the feeling of "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy!" firsthand.
Cheney may not be a personal enemy of mine, but I do believe he is one of the worst ememies our nation and its Constitution have ever faced. Still, I was making an educated guess at what he was he was enduring, and I wished he could be spared from it. His trial probably involved the following:
- Forced segregation from his peers, as they move straight ahead, while he had to find the long way 'round through a maze of half-forgotten and narrow corridors, given the same treatment as a shipment of office furniture or sacks of potatoes.
- White-knuckling, stomach-clenching nervousness mixed with bone-jarring bounces as he was hauled up and down stairs (especially as he was in a chair that did not fit him).
- The tiny, rickety elvator with the door that's barely wide enough to get through, and needs a key to operate, and has a brass gate that needs to be slid closed before it can be used -- was possibly put in as brand new when FDR was in the White House, and hardly anybody's thought about it since.
- The self-consciousness knowing that you're the reason that everything is being delayed.
(Okay. He may get a pass on that last one, as you need a sense of empathy for it to bother you).
Not even Cheney deserved as humiliating experience as that. No one does.*
And was that his wife pushing his chair? I mean, doesn't she, at least, deserve better than to be relegated to the role of caretaker, even if it's just for the day? It would have been so much more dignified to have one of those uniformed members of the color guard pushing him, so that he and she could enter the arena side by side.
I also noticed that Bush Sr. was mobility impaired, yesterday (has he had hip surgery recently, or something?). And I felt kind of bad that even he was being ignored, yesterday. As he was coming down the those red-carpeted stairs, he even kind of flailed out with his free hand and clutched at one of the guards standing by the door. I know I said aloud to him, through the TV screen: "Go ahead and use the handrail; there's no shame in it. That's what it's there for." He did, eventually.
I may write a letter to President Obama advocating putting some Universal Design into the White House. His father-in-law had MS, and he has pledged to make government more accessible to the people.
*I might have gotten more satisfaction from the cosmic justice of it all if I had any faith that he would have actually learned anything from it, or used it as an opportunity for some soul-searching. As it is, all that humiliation was just a waste.
Still, I applaud the Fates on their artistic use of irony.
Note:
haddayr posted on this topic, too. She also has a link to another thoughtful blog post about it. I read both before I wrote this post, and both have influenced what I've written here. Good reads.
