...makes for a more whole society.
Isn't that great? I was reading Mouth magazine today and there was an article dealing with keeping people with disabilities in the community, rather than placing them in nursing homes or institutions.
Martinez de Pedro of New Mexico is an artist, an oil painter who is a Native American who was featured.
She is eloquent when she criticizes policies that rip "people from their community and institutionalize them" because it leaves the entire community dysfunctional,shattering the lives of others related to the disabled person. *
A quadriplegic at the C5-6 level, she was one of the early quads to have a baby. She feels that modeling a lifestyle outside of an institution has helped to change peoples' attitude toward disability.
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I read about a retired Christian pastor who left his congregation after his disability put him in a wheelchair. He said that the congregation couldn't handle it. Some felt that his disability would have been healed if he was spiritually stronger and that he must have sinned. This attitude made it impossible for him to continue to lead the congregation and he left. He felt that people subscribed to a "theology of glory" meaning that " if you're right with God, then everything's right in your life, that you have health, wealth and prosperity."
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Having me around makes for a more whole society.
So whose loss is it when inclusion doesn't work?
Everyone's.
*Mouth magazine Issue 95-96 "There Is No Place Like Home"
3 comments:
My Daddy is well on his way to being 102 years old. Whenever he has trouble getting dressed or anything else frustrates him, he always says he wishes he would go on and die. And I always tell him there's a reason why he's still here.
My mother lingered for a long time with Alzheimer's, as we cared for her body long after her mind was gone. It would be way too easy to agree with Daddy that some people are of no use here and would be better off "somewhere else".
I can see in my own self the truth of why Daddy is still here and why Mama needed care for so long. I grew up during all these years of care giving. I had never been a spoiled only child, but I also had never had to deal with any unpleasantness. I had not been hardened in the fire, so to speak. Dealing with the old, the ill, the disabled, anyone with an impairment of any kind, has the potential to bring out the best in the rest of us. We learn compassion, empathy, helpfulness, courtesy, patience, and so many other positive character traits that good times and perfect health cannot teach.
What I'm trying to say, Ruth, is that you and others like you, are actually GOOD for the majority of us! If society isolates the handicapped, they deprive themselves, not just you.
This is a great commemt! I am thinking of moving it to a post, would you mind?
Not at all. I'm flattered!
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