I love that quote and I love what it means - allowing and freeing a person's spirit to soar no matter their physical disabilities or their mental or intellectual ones... we all matter...we all count...we all have a voice.
I find myself frequently saying out loud and alone - WHO MAKES THESE RULES - ??? Who decides who is at the top of the pyramid and who is at the bottom. And what makes someone "worth" something, salvageable, important, and worthy... what are those ingredients that make one person more important and worthy than another? Money...looks..intelligence...talent? all of the above or none of the above.
Money surely buys power.. intelligence - well sometimes - many highly intelligent people scream into the wind, against the insanity that seems to be so incredibly pervasive these days.... looks - surely one simply has to look at a Victoria's Secret model's bank account to agree - looks count - Talent? that's variable for me - one person's version of talent is not necessarily agreed to by all. But sure talent certainly can bring in the big money...
Where does that leave the rest of us? Not sure. I am assuming there is no formal caste system in the United States - but being the parent and friend of individuals with disabilities - I would tend to tell anyone who would listen that the caste system is alive-well- and fully functional.
If you cannot speak/communicate and make your needs/wants known there are a whole host of agencies and entities that will speak for you in the name of humanity - but their voices are prejudiced to their own viewpoints of how someone with a disability should live, and not how the individuals themselves WANT to live.
NO ONE is listening - they are speaking FOR them but not to THEM and not with the voice of the voiceless but their own agenda - as to what is available and what THEY think not the disabled individual is telling them by virtue of their actions or nonverbal communication. Their "listening" is biased.
My frustration as a long term advocate for my son only grows by leaps and bounds as he turns into a young adult. It does not abate it crescendos and erupts. The more I am exposed to the more frustrated I become....
IF you look, if you listen and if you BE STILL you will hear the voices of the voiceless and they are SCREAMING to be heard.
cate
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