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When have you felt respect from someone who is not disabled?
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Name: Betty Alfred
Email: astrobrd@aol.com
Date: 04 Jul 1999
Time: 04:07:36
Remote Name: spider-wj071.proxy.aol.com
Remote User:
On behalf of those who fought -- and fight now -- for such noble ideals as equality of man and consent of the governed, I ask you to consider these words:
Our United States were established on the principle of advancement of the individual, rather than advancement of the state. The words "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" fall from the mind to the lips of many Americans on the occasion of Independence Day.
Yet, to those who know the heartache of exclusion, talk of liberty rings like a dull thud. The flag of our nation is a bitter thing to look upon through the darkness of such pain, for we have seen that what comes from the lips is not always born of the heart.
Nevertheless, do look upon the flag, and take heart and comfort in the knowledge that you are the very fabric of America. You are the fiber of every heritage.
Our people have carried the sword of justice many times in the history of the United States, from Governor Stephen Hopkins of Rhode Island, an early supporter of colonial independence, and who signed the Declaration of Independence (6th row, 7th signature down), to Harriet Tubman, who risked her life over and over to liberate African Americans from the bonds of slavery.
Some take pride in the heritage of their blood, but I say to you, find pride in the heritage of our people. Seek out the history of our "ancestors," those with disabilities who bravely fought for our behalf, even before we were born. Vow to continue this good fight for our children yet to arrive.
Pay homage also to those whom you cannot know, who live in obscurity, who languish in nursing homes forgotten even by their families, and who die without love. Do not forget these brothers and sisters.
There are no memorials this day to honor our dead; there is no public outcry for our missing forgotten. Our stories are not told unless we tell them, and for that reason I ask you to rise to this challenge:
Tell our stories. Speak the truth of our people.
Do not mistake those who speak against us as enemies. No man is an enemy who speaks the truth in his heart, and it is he whom we can trust.
Instead be watchful of those who take shelter in comfortable lies. They serve, by silence and fear, the ongoing injustice to our people. They betray us, they betray those who died for freedom, and they betray the children of today and tomorrow. There can be no room in the heart of a true citizen of the United States for convenient thought. Ours is not a flag of convenience.
With that challenge I offer this also:
Wherever we go, each of us represents all of us. We do not go alone; we go with the soul of every disabled citizen. We cannot be for our individual selves, because many of the able-bodied among us do not regard us as individual beings. In their eyes, each of us IS the disability community. When we are happy, it is "in spite of our misfortune." When we speak against wrongdoing, we "have a chip on our shoulder." When we are sad, we are quickly compared to those who are more severely disabled and are "always happy." The grand misconception being that we who are unhappy must be so because we are disabled.
In the eyes of some, we will be damned no matter what we do. Therefore, no friendship can be so dear, no arrangement so precious, that we can afford to compromise our honor, or the futures of our children to preserve the comfort of it. As it has been said, "Let us be damned for who we really are."
Tell our stories. Teach about our people who suffer most greatly and unneccessarily.
With your kind permission, I further suggest that our characters must be above reproach. As citizens with disabilities, we are watched more closely, and scrutinized more carefully, by members of every segment of this Nation. This is not always true, but there are too many who assert that our disabilities are motives for our behavior. If this thought is in the minds of our able-bodied neighbors, it doesn't matter that it isn't so. Everything we do is still a representation of our entire community, and we are obliged to act accordingly for our common good.
Indeed, if we were fully accepted as individuals, this website would not exist, as there would be no need for it. But each of us comes here for some purpose, to find some unity in fellowship that does not exist elsewhere.
We who are United States citizens have a great responsibility, and we make a bold statement when we display the flag of our Nation. Inasmuch as we are a government of the people, we are responsible to uphold the principles of its founding documents. If we have prejudice in our hearts, we must resolve it. If we bear hatred toward our neighbor, we must abandon it. I say in love that regardless of what has been done to us, we are still behooved to preserve the concept of liberty for all citizens.
There has been much injustice done to our community, we know that. We also know that laws to protect our rights were drafted because our rights had not been protected in the past. With a heavy heart I believe that we suffer more unjust treatment than any segment of the United States, and we are subject to unjust treatment at the hands of every community in the United States, from the moral majority, to every conceivable minority. Sadly, I also believe that we will have to protect the laws that protect us for some time to come. Be that as it may, there is no action they can take that can force you to renounce your citizenship. There is nothing they can do to take your voice in government. The most precious right that we have is that voice, our vote. Many died for us to have that right.
Therefore, if you have not registered to vote, do so. If you have not voted in past elections, resolve to vote from now on. Exercise that voice which blood was willingly shed for you to have. The disability community can speak more loudly than each of us can possibly imagine, if we rise together to the challenge of our duties as citizens. We can work together for good, not only the good of our people, but the good of all citizens, our able-bodied brothers and sisters of every color, every faith, and of every economic standing, to whom we are also pledged.
Let us devote ourselves to the whole of society, and the continuation of the fruits of our founding father's best deeds. The Disability Rights struggle is our heart and our soul, but we who are United States citizens must vow to promote just treatment for every United States citizen. Our rage for disabled brothers and sisters who suffer indignities, and for indignities we have suffered, has forged in us a kindred spirit. Nevertheless, I submit that we are beholden by moral code and constitutional duty to uphold the dignity of every American. Let us, therefore, work to forge a spirit of unity with all our Nation's citizens.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke most eloquently about civil rights for African Americans. In the face of great heartache, he spoke of loving one's neighbor, and peaceful resistance to wrongdoing. We who have disabilities know the harsh sting of oppression, and we know of injustice that ignorance continues to cast on our people. Even as I write, I feel the weight of responsibility to parents of disabled children who are engaged on the battlefield of justice. As much as we know these things, I ask what pain can be greater than that of a mother who has lost a child to gang violence, or drug abuse? What hopeless anguish can be deeper than that of a father in poverty who watches his young daughter play in a rat-infested ghetto apartment, knowing that the promise of future is not for her? Shall we not also fight for these children? Are they not our children too? They come in all colors, and of all faiths, but they are best represented in the African American community, where injustice has been so keenly felt these many years, and in the Hispanic community as well.
Each of us who fights for the rights of the blessed oppressed is a patriot. And when we fight for the liberty of all people, we find in that action a level of dignity that cannot be rivaled. In that action, we are the full citizens some do not want us to be, or do not see us as.
To each of you I speak in love, and in the spirit of that unbreakable bond. I have been blessed to be a member of the disability community, and I feel great strength in our kinship. We are the truest corner of America. We ARE America.
Copyright © 1999 Betty Alfred. All rights reserved.
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