Paula,
I hear what you are saying, and can empathisize. However, I still
struggle with the "I've got it worse..." mentality. It may well be that
epilepsey is stigmatisized. But so are many other
disabilities/impairments. Where I come from (in West Texas, USA) they
call that a pissing contest. Nobody wins those.
Common ground says that people with disabilties often will be stigmatized
and ridiculed, and trivialized etc. I do not have epilepsy but I have had
those things done to me. If we took a survey of people with disabiltiies
(and often their family members) I believe we would discover similiar
responses from many of them.
If we are to impact society, and make life better for persons with
disabilities we must realize we are in this boat together. People who are
blind may not be able to see where they are going, and persons using
wheelchairs may not be able to walk where they are going --either way you
cut it they both face an obstacle. It doesn't do anygood to try to
trivialize the other because we have an impairment also.
Jimmy
Dear Maria, Glen, Jimmy & All,
Maria's passage which I will quote next had much
meaning for me:
"If in effect violence is about power then what are
these individuals
really doing to those of us who do not have the
privilege of hiding what
society devalues and considers unwanted?"
First I would say that we exist as we have been made.
Next, I would point out that we are exercising choice
(the little that we have) as an adaptive tool. There
is little "power" here and we are doing the rest of
the disabled community no violence. We are eyed
suspiciously by both the disabled and non disabled
communities and welcomed by neither.
I am epileptic. I have been this way since three years
of age. I am 52 now.
Unlike other disabilities, epilepsy remains highly
stigmatized. People with it often find they cannot
discuss their condition with family members. Doctors
frequently are poorly educated about this condition
and society at large fears it and the people with it.
Superstitions abound and individuals often act from
this base of understanding rather than from a factual
one. Needless to say, epileptics are often deeply
isolated individuals and this adds to the damage they
endure.
Laws preventing epileptics from marriage remain on the
books in certain states, it is still a separately
articulated reason for divorce, radical "preventative"
techniques like forced sterilization still occur, and
misdiagnosis and institutionalizations wreck the lives
of persons
as much as false imprisonment would. Many families
with newly diagnosed members seek out religious
"cures": the Epilepsy Foundation receives calls asking
for information on exorcisms every week in the US
alone.
We are often denied housing, our right to drive is
continually in question, employment is difficult to
achieve and then to sustain, and on and on.
Society does not want to engage any of us with
disabilities, certainly. But it is far more willing to
engage what it can readily identify and comprehend.
Cordially,
Paula Ogburn-Apodaca
On 12/28/04 10:59 AM, "Smith, Glenn"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From a feminist stand point, and Independent Living
point we claim
> that we support choice for all, and from the
feminist stand point I
> learned that power is the roots of violence against
women. Violence
> against women begins in a very slow way with conceal
messages from the
> abusers. As a survivor of institutional violence I
accepted that as
> confirming my experience
>
>
>
> If in effect violence is about power then what are
these individuals
> really doing to those of us who do not have the
privilege of hiding what
> society devalues and considers unwanted?
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