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capri0mniI'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![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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]
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]
no subject
Date: 2009-04-26 02:27 pm (UTC)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.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-26 05:34 pm (UTC)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.