Re: Christmas Wish List

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I read the Christmas list. I agree with every sentiment on it save one. Don't rewrite "A Christmas Carol". There's a good part in it, the part when a man calling on Scrooge to for a donation. In reponse, Scrooge asks whether or not the prisons and workhouses are still in operation. When the man confirms that they are, Scrooge replies:

..."'I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.'

'If they would rather die,' said Scrooge, "they had better do it and decrease the surplus population...'" (pg 11, A Christmas Carol, Bantam Books, 1995)

As far as society is concerned, the "surplus population" includes anyone that isn't normal. According to Webster's New School and Office Dictionary, "normal" is defined as "according to a rule or standard pattern" "Standard" is defined as "something established by authority as a fixed rule or measure", and "a basis in comparison in measuring quality, value, etc."

Who is the authority who establishes these rules? To date, human societies have been ruled mostly by able-bodied people. It has been this way since the begining of recorded history. The men hunted and the women gathered herbs, made clothes and cooked. Those who were too old or too sick to contribute to the tribe's welfare, were killed so that their continued existamce would not threaten the rest of the tribe. There have also been numerous instances in history where the strong oppressed or eliminated the weak. Too often, the oppressed were and are the people who do not fit within the society's definition as normal. They are measured against standards set by the authority in power (often considered to be the ideal), and are found wanting.) Sometimes the oppressed react to their mistreatment, sometimes through violence, other times through peaceful means. Authority reacts to this resistance by force, sometimes millitary, sometimes political. If the upheaval caused by the resistance is large enough, outside forces may notice and pressure the oppressing authority to change.

We all know about Martin Luther King, Mandela's struggle against apartheid, the slaughter of aboriginal peoples by various colonial powers. In those cases, the oppressed forces could count on strength of numbers for their resistance, peaceful or otherwise, to be able to cause enough of a disruption to effect change.

In the case of the disabled, we are in comparision relatively few. Discrimination is much more subtle. There are no "Handicapped not allowed" signs posted on every second building, no National Guard troops barring us from entering school. A concrete step can do a much better job of keeping the disabled out than 100 armed soldiers and of course, doesn't attract outside attention. In the old days, a storekeeper could freely throw a disabled person out of his establishment without fear of retribution. We have laws now, supposedly to guard against that sort of thing. But it is so much simpler to move your business into an inaccessible location and to hide behind by-laws and miles of red tape. Which disabled person has the money, time, patience and resources (and perhaps the lunacy) to take you to court over a flight of steps. And then when you're done there after years and years it takes you to finally get that ramp, there's that pizza parlour down the street, the college across town. One bank I know of took six years to build a ramp into their establishment. Another store I frequent has been trying for three years. Has anyone ever gone through the phone book to count every building in town? One could spent their whole damn life fighting and not get anywhere. And since many people with disabilities have health problems, their lives can be short.

And those that do resist, well, cut a housing subsidy there, an attendant care program there, and you can effectively silence your opposition. And we're the only minority where the powers that be can convince everyone else that our lives are wretched enough that putting us to death would be an act of kindness. One can't argue with kindness.

Today, society celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, a man celebrated for his ability to cure the disabled. But think on this: Christ said: Treat others the way you would want to be treated. If someone treated another minority the way they treat the disabled, there would be a massive protest and outcry.

Re: Christmas Wish List

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Last changed: October 20, 2003