So, about all the disability rants I've been posting, this year.

[capri0mni]

I've ranted a bit, now and than, randomly, about discrimination against the disabled, ever since I started this LJ, back when my user's name was "Pomeroyschild." As a matter of fact, I vented about well-meaning bigotry in my first post-midnight entry here: Well, it happened again (so it shows up as being on my second day here, but it was still in my first wake-sleep cycle -- you know how it is).

But this year, the same sorts of "minor annoyances" that I use to let roll off my back and then forget about, have been really bothering me, as when I casually scratch a mild itch, and open up a tiny spider bite into a huge-attention-swallowing-and-spreading rash that I have to bite my lip to keep from scratching again. I think it all started after seeing Dick Cheney in wheelchair at Obama's Inauguration, and I did some web-surfing to see if anyone else noted the irony that he was in an E&J chair. And I came upon a few very eloquent and impassioned essays about the indignity he was forced to endure. And once it was pointed out to me, I saw it everywhere, and it bothered me -- as a fish living in water all her life might not even be consciously aware of the pollution she's breathing in until a migrating fish points it out.

Anyway, in reading these other blogs, I came across this logo:



And, though following a link that spiralsheep sent me last night, I learned that there is an annual Blogging Against Disablism Day on May 1st.

So, I woke up this morning thinking that maybe I should sign up, and write one more new, fresh, non-recycled post on the subject as a sort of Beltane fire cleansing ritual, and then put a bandaid over the spider bite and not scratch it again until next year. What do you think?

[Poll #1389951]

Comments

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Okay, now you've got me curious. What were you going to ask (if you remember)? If it's insensitive, I'll tell you. And I reserve the right not to answer.

But there's no harm in asking.

(And yes, I'll be posting a reminder on Thursday night, too. ...Would you like a PM, too?)

[scarfman]

It was going to be something like, "I know you've said you wouldn't change yourself in any way, and you value the person you are as a result of your adversities - I feel the same. But, with the ranting you've been doing lately I can't help but wonder, don't you sometimes wish you could get out of bed and go down to the corner for a paper without more than half an hour elapsing or society being wholly reformed?"

Do you know how the PM on LJ works? I don't, though I've received them.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do wish I could go to the store for my own carton of milk and a magazine on my own...

That's not the same as wishing I could walk.

It means I wish my neighborhood had sidewalks. If my neighborhood had sidewalks, I'd have no trouble getting to the grocery store -- there's one right around the corner from me, practically.

Sometimes, I do wish I could magically make my CP disappear for an hour, just to see if and how people would react to me differently. But that's just idle curiosity. If some well-meaning wizard magically cured me in my sleep, and I woke up with my body "perfect" by society's standands, I would go through a period of deep and profound mourning. I'd also probably have a panic attack.

But, just as survivors of trauma are perfectly capapble of living happily after being able-bodied, I'd probably (eventually) be happy after being disabled. But it would take time, and psychological counseling.

And sidewalks and accessible mass-transit are easier to accomplish than hiring a wizard, and less expensive and soul-numbing than chasing down every conventional and alternative therapy for the rest of my natural-born days, longing for a cure (and besides, they'd benefit a lot more people in my community besides myself).

[scarfman]

And the reason, in the end, that I didn't ask is that I know all this, really, at least intellectually. The wouldn't-change-myself argument goes a long way with me. But even when my id gets the better of me, it's not that I wish to "fix" you per se - I just want you to be happy. I only feel that way when you're ranting.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know...

Once, when my father and I were on a family vacation with cousins, and he'd had one too many Guinesses, he let it slip out loud that he wished I hadn't been born with CP. And I knew that's what he meant, too: that he wished I had an easier life, because no man wants to see his daughter (or his friend) struggle. So I forgave him. :-) At least, he was never a mean drunk.

But my life would also have been easier if I had been born to be a tall, blond, althletic man. And hearing my dad wish I didn't have CP stung almost as much as if he'd said he'd wished he'd had a son instead of a daughter.

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

Do you know how the PM on LJ works?

Go here:

http://www.livejournal.com/inbox/compose.bml

(The link is accessible from your inbox. It's a button @ top left in the horizon site scheme but I don't know which scheme you're using.)

You can also pm people from their profile page,

e.g. http://capriuni.livejournal.com/profile ,

via the "send message" or "private message" links.