HOME    text version of navigation bar

Thoughts on Thinking Differently

Tanis M. Doe
When The Ragged Edge Anthology was published in 1994,
Tanis Doe described herself as an alien living in California,
recently defected from the land of socialized medicine
(Canada) to the home of the brave (no insurance!)
to accept a research position
at the World Institute on Disability.

FROM
The Ragged Edge:
The Disability Experience from the Pages
of The Disability Rag
Edited by Barrett Shaw

During all the work I have done with the disability rights movement, working against inaccessibility, for support services, equal education for deal people, independent living for severely disabled people and political lobbying at the national level, there has been a steady message invading my thoughts: fear. Yes, fear. Call me phobic, but I believe that fear is our greatest handicap in society.

No matter how many articles are written and read, no matter how many media campaigns are held or accommodations are made, the very last disability to be understood, accommodated and then accepted will be disorders of thought. We can’t seem to accept the idea of thinking differently. By "We" I mean everyone, people who identify as having disabilities and people who don’t, because we have a hierarchy of disability that puts mental illness and mental disabilities among the least desirable.

It is difficult enough to accept differences in physical appearance, speech, behavior, ways of coping etc. But people are afraid of thinking differently.

Perhaps I should personalize this, or "own" it, and say that I am afraid of thinking differently, too. I can assure you that I already think differently than most. I am both qualitatively and quantitatively "different" in my thinking. I am certainly more radical than most; still, I am open-minded. My thoughts are interconnected so that one small idea will trigger several related concepts and set my mind in a search mode looking for similarities and differences, applications and storage.

[Continued On Next Page: Click Here]

STORIES FROM OUR VISITORS

[ Ragged Edge Home | Contents | Search | Post ]

text version of navigation bar  

Send mail to jhasse@jvlnet.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 1999-2004 The Advocado Press. All rights reserved.