Yay! My Idol Favorite Won!!!

All I can say is, hooray.  I loved David Cook from the beginning and now I can hope he’ll actually get to put out more music that I’ll actually like.  I bought his cds (with his old band and his solo album) before they were taken completely out of circulation, and I really like them.  So I have serious hope for his career… and he’s just downright adorable.  Yes, I’m too old to think things like that but… damn, it’s true.

Woohoo!

John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama!  I listened to his endorsement speech and I must say that it gave me chills.  I really liked Edwards for president and was sorely disappointed when he pulled out of the race.  But today made me hope that he might be interested in another Vice Presidential run, this time with Obama.  But if nothing else, this gave me hope that maybe this democratic primary debacle will actually end soon. 

Come on Hillary, I’m sure you would have made an excellent candidate, and I would have supported you.  But you are not going to win, and it’s time for you to end this thing NOW.  Please.

Discrimination

Recently I wrote a post for “Blogging Against Disablism Day” (BADD) about community and how the disabled population haven’t really come together to create a real community the way that other minorities have done.  As I thought about what I wrote it became apparent to me that it’s become the norm to discriminate against the disabled population.  We are the blacks before the civil rights amendment, and I think the reason we don’t band together is because we know it’s true. 

Want to ride the bus?  Sure you can, but you and your wheelchair will have to sit in the back.  And good luck if your companion can sit near you.

Want to sit in the movies?  Sure… here’s the designated spot.  You wanted to sit somewhere else?  Sorry no dice, those aren’t for you.

Want to go to a restaurant/museum/public building and find there are steps to get inside?  Sure, you can come in just come around through the alley and enter through the kitchen. 

Want to go on a cruise?  Sure there are a handful of accessible rooms… better book early (like a year in advance) otherwise the able-bodied folk who want a bigger room for the same price will take them. 

These are all things that have happened to me and only a small handful of the experiences that we all go through on a daily basis.  We have special drinking fountains, seats on the bus, special bathroom stalls, etc that everyone can use but we can’t use everyone else’s stuff.  I can’t reach the regular drinking fountain, get to the seat on the bus or fit my wheelchair into a regular bathroom stall.  It’s become acceptable to relegate us to second class citizens and we have gladly accepted it.  What’s sad is that before we were second class citizens what were we?  I shudder at the thought…

 

Coolest Gadget Ever!

As someone who consumes books the way others eat food, I think this may well be the COOLEST GADGET EVER.  I am so buying this when I have some free cash…

Totally amazing idea…

Community

Yesterday was “Blogging Against Disablism Day” and I missed it.  I sincerely intended to post but have been suffering from the most heinous cold in the history of mankind (okay, maybe it’s not quite that bad) and I figure Disablism deserves a two-day blog-fest so I’m blogging now. 

I’m a disabled woman in America.  That statement took many years to write although it was only a few simple keystrokes.  You see, being disabled brings with it the discrimination and prejudices that other minorities experience, but it doesn’t really bring with it a “community” with which to share those slights.   While we share many of the same obstacles we don’t really share a culture (music, politics, entertainment, religion, etc) that many other so-called communities share.  Unless there is a hospital or care-home event it’s rather rare to see a group of disabled people congregating together.  I really don’t have any other disabled friends, nor do I participate in any disability groups.  In fact, I don’t even know of any disability groups. 

Community, as defined by dictionary.com is: a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists.  In other words, a community is a group who share some commonalities.  There are communities all around us, some are very defined localities — Greektown, Chinatown, etc — while most are more casual.  However, there is no mistaking that people seem drawn to their mirror image and associate with others who are like themselves.  In my experience, that isn’t true of the disabled population.  We share many of the same experiences and obstacles, but, in my experience, we don’t want to be thought of as disabled.  Why?  Because prejudice is alive and well in America when it comes to the disabled population.  Though the A.D.A. has made a lot of inroads in physical accessibility to American buildings, little has been done to change the public persona of people with disabilities.

An example of this prejudice in American society is evident in movies and television shows.  While many movies are made with minorities in lead roles, very few movies include disabled characters let alone disabled actors.  The movie, “Unbreakable”, told the tale of a disabled man portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson.  Now while I like Samuel L. Jackson, he is not disabled and I felt a bit insulted that he was asked to play this part.  In my mind it is akin to having a white man slap on black face to play a black man.  Or for a man to put on a dress and portray a woman as was done in ancient theater.  It would now be absurd (not to mention highly politically incorrect) to ask a white man to play the part of a black man or to portray a woman’s role, simply because he could.  But for disabled people it seems to be the norm.  Sure there are exceptions, but they are few and far between.  I can count on one hand (and I probably wouldn’t even use all of the fingers, let alone the thumb) all of the disabled actors who are regularly seen on the large or small screens. 

Is it the media’s fault that there really isn’t a disabled community?  No, but I do believe it plays a part.  By not including more disabled characters and disabled actors the media gives the impression that it is ashamed of the disabled population.   And that shame bleeds into society as a whole, and hence I don’t want to be seen as a disabled woman, but simply as a woman.  But to be honest, being disabled has actually influenced my personality and my life more than anything else.  And I’m not a part of the disabled community.  At least, not yet.  Maybe someday I will be.