I had an idea in mind when I volunteered to write the diary for today. It was going to be about being a direct support worker, meaning I help an intellectually disabled (aka mentally retarded) man with his daily living, self-care and activities. It is intense, low paid work--although I must admit I am better paid than most others in the field. I work only two days a week, but they are two eight and a half hour days. And the man I work with is not easy. He has a great deal of anxiety, even though he takes meds for it. He has an awful time with transitioning from one activity to another, even when he enjoys the activities. He is often inappropriate in public, but I take him places anyway. Oh, and did I mention I have a child with an intellectual disability? He is much better off than the man I work with because his disability is not as severe, and special education laws were put into place requiring schools to educate all children regardless of disability. The man I work with was not so lucky. I could write volumes about him, but that will wait for another day.
KosAbility is a community diary series posted at 5 PM ET every Sunday and Wednesday by volunteer diarists. This is a gathering place for people who are living with disabilities, who love someone with a disability, or who want to know more about the issues surrounding this topic. There are two parts to each diary. First, a volunteer diarist will offer their specific knowledge and insight about a topic they know intimately. Then, readers are invited to comment on what they've read and or ask general questions about disabilities, share something they've learned, tell bad jokes, post photos, or rage about the unfairness of their situation. Our only rule is to be kind; trolls will be spayed or neutered.
More below the fold.
Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education, among other things, once said that societal prejudice against the disabled would be the last prejudice to be eradicated from human culture. I'm not sure where he said it, but I know I read it somewhere among his thousands of lectures and other writings. His two younger siblings were disabled and he supported them through his lectures and other activities. A hundred years ago things were not very good for disabled people, who were either sequestered at home or put into institutions. After Steiner's death, some students of his founded what is known as the Camphill Movement. This way of living and working with the disabled is worthy of its own diary. The reason I am mentioning it here, is that the goal of these intentional communities is to create an environment where disabled people can live and work without being seen as having a "problem." Small businesses are run out of some Camphills, for example, Turtle Tree Seeds, an organic seed catalog, is based out of Camphill Copake in upstate New York. "Normal" and "disabled" people work together to sort and dry the seeds, fill orders, etc. It is the way society should be, but is not yet.
Close your eyes and imagine a world where there is no "disabled" designation. A world that is safe enough for an intellectually disabled person to go about her business as a "normal" person would. Where caring and nurturing each other as individuals were the priorities, not the selfish, greedy and harsh society we live in today. Where things were wheelchair accessible as standard practice, not "special" needs. Where the medically fragile do not have to justify their existence as this person recently did.
Let's face it, we all have special needs. We all have aspects of ourselves that are one sided or out of balance. I have a very high IQ, but I cannot fix anything mechanical. I often say, I may be smart, but I am not shrewd. Is shrewdness intelligence? Maybe. It counts for a lot in our society.
Ethnic jokes and belittling minority groups are looked down upon now. But I still hear jokes about "retards" and the "short bus". References to low IQs and how pathetic they are are made regularly, even in the hallowed halls of DailyKos.
Actually, most, if not all of the intellectually disabled people I know vote Democratic. They know who is looking out for them politically. I almost cried when I saw a man I knew who could not read or write because he spent his formative years in a state institution volunteering at his local Obama HQ in 2008.
I also might point out, where did intelligence get us, anyway? Intelligence by itself has no morality, and I submit that amoral intelligence is extremely dangerous. It brought us the atom bomb, high tech torture techniques, the "banksters", etc. Just because someone takes longer to process information, or will never understand certain concepts, does not make him less than another. There is a difference between intelligence and wisdom.
Just as we have to look at every human being we encounter as an individual first, we have to do the same with disabled people. They are just like the rest of us: some are nice, some are unpleasant, some we will like to be around and others not. How many of us spend recreational time with an intellectually disabled person who is not a family member? Invite them over for dinner?
Another thing I remind people of, especially when speaking about public policy and the disabled is that the disabled is one minority group anybody can enter at any time.
When society has evolved to the point where being "disabled" isn't a problem, then we will be where we are supposed to be. After all, society is, or should be, there to serve human needs, not the other way around. Think about it. Imagine such a world and help create it. It is possible.