In the last few months, as I have struggled with inner ear problems, and have been bed ridden and house bound, I have had a lot of time to think.  I have come to the conclusion that the greatest waste that our men, women, children encounter in our society is the lack of participation in our lives.  I am very passionate about these thoughts and feelings, because first hand, I have seen human beings turn their backs on others.  They are more interested in helping oneself get ahead than helping advance a cause of a particular group.   Every time I think about the unfairness of these inequities, and the time of day by day empowered experiences wasted, it hurts and drains my spirit in a way I almost cant explain.  Where is the kindness?  Where is the help we need to help ourselves?  And where is the understanding of what we are really trying to do?

Isn’t  it awful that we have to spend a lifetime proving ourselves over, and over, and over again because men and women in and out of power think that because we have a disability we aren’t capable of making the run!  It is a non-verbal, uphill battle, of delay and deal making which never gets us anywhere, fast.  Thus, we are pronounced to be…mentally deficit, with scattered thoughts, and unrealistic goals, and why?  I ask you why? Because, someone in power is threatened by what we want to do.   No where in my life, on the internet, or blogs has ever cared enough to talk about just this.   So I am.  I am the rebel with a cause!  We are meekly by-passed, ignored, and forgotten.  Nobody wants to deal with US.   The full and equal participation of our or any disabled community in public life is squandered by prejudices and limited ways of thinking which was designed to hold people back, lock them far away in a closet, and leave them to rot on a mere social security check for the rest of their lives.  They don’t want to deal with us.  They don’t want to make any sacrifices,  and they don’t want to spend their week-end trying to help us, help ourselves.  It is so much easier to spend time on the most sever and obvious cases which only want an ice cream cone now and then.  People would be shocked at the amount of bargaining, sacrifice, and cunning required to deal with the very organizations which claim their purpose is to help.

When I am labeled “mentally retarded” on three separate occasions, when the speech impaired person have there talents ignored, and when a person who has spent eight years proving their abilities,  spent a hundred thousand dollars for a doctorate,  is told he belongs in a workshop- something is very wrong!

We need to “…look in the mirror and change our ways.” We need to reach out and help-  we need to replace expert directed thinking with self created choices.  We need to overhaul the way people treat others.