Dear friends
I have noticed that sometimes people in the list tend
to lose sight of what I would call "the big picture"
and to get into personal attacks. Let me say, I am not
interested in people's personal attacks on one
another. Quite frankly, I dont give a damn. Really, I
would personally prefer not to receive these emails. I
agree with others. Send them off-list.
I've come a long way from my accident, and I've really
had to struggle to cope, and to survive. So I am not
interested in pettyness.
In the personal bitchiness of academia, which is where
a lot of contributors come from, it is very easy to
lose track of what we as disabled people are fighting
for. But these are very simple things. We are just
fighting to be included, to be recognised, to have our
rights acknowledged and respected.
I regularly visit a 49 year old man who has a brain
injury who is in a nursing home. He wants desperately
to get out of there and to live in the community. But
through lack of services, advocacy, support, finance,
and basic compassion, he is stuck there. I would love
to have allies who could help. But these allies are
few and far between. Support for basic things like
this is what I and lots of other disabled people would
like to see.
Myself and another few friends of mine are disabled
people who are the victims of abuse. So we are
struggling every day to try and deal with that past,
and to move on and forge new lives for ourselves.
Quite frankly, I don't care if you are disabled, "AB"
or not, if you are willing to stand alongside my
friends and I in our struggles just to have our basic
human rights recognised.
Please, we are still trying to get basic things, eg :
* proper responses to our health needs
* a job
* included in education
* stop the abuse
* get out of institutions
Maybe I am over-reacting. Because of my brain injury,
I tend to over-react a lot. But maybe not. I never
know.
I just feel that when these basic things have been
achieved, then we can have the luxury of personal
bitchiness. Until then there seems a lot more
important things to focus on.
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