DJ bites back!

I have always disliked being patronized. Its one thing that will get my goat quicker than anything. Its where my singular dislike for anyone using the term "dear" comes from, after spending a life time having "yes dear" said in a oh so patronizing way.

Disabilities can be hard at times for other folks to understand, and that's fair enough. I have actually found the biggest bigots against disability if it doesn't fit into a regular category, are the disabled themselves. Not one person I know whose able-bodied has had a problem with me becoming disabled even tho when we were first friends I was physically active, and new friends who are able-bodied the only thing they are at times shocked about is my size as they've never seen me stand up, and assume I am average size, largely because its only my legs which made me exceedingly...ummm.. okay short!

But I saw this poster on my travels, (web-wise) and it kind of appealed. At least as a statement to those who do patronize. I mean sometimes, you feel like folks are just about to pat you on the head, for no other reason than one is disabled! Lord save me from well meaning yet off the mark do-gooders. I know in my own situation which tends to not be the norm amongst the disabled community, I would rather have understanding than pity.

This poster is a graphically engineered euphimism of the subject, and you will see why it say DJ bites back. (clicking on the thumb-nail opens a larger picture)

[Edited blag]

I saw this posted at a friend's site, and since it further reflects societies views on the disabled and its something that needs to be heard, thought I would post it here:

OUR LIVES ARE WORTH LIVING - Remembering Tracy Latimer

Please find below:

1. article by Catherine Frazee, "Our Lives Are Worth Living" - Comments from a Vigil for Tracy Latimer (1995) 2. interview with Catherine Frazee, "A Wake Up Call - Why is the Latimer case important?" (1994)

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Our Lives Are Worth Living Comments from a Vigil for Tracy Latimer by Catherine Frazee (1995)

It's a simple question - -why have all these people left their homes and their jobs to be here? Why have we made the considerable effort that it always takes for most of us to get anywhere in this big inaccessible country? Why are we huddled together out here in the February cold, sacrificing the comfort of our regular routines and risking our health?

We are here because on 23 October 1993, a twelve year old child named Tracy Latimer was murdered by her father, and in 16 months since that event, our ears, our minds and our hearts have been assaulted by the voices of Canadians who believe that this was not a crime.

Fear brings us here. Vulnerability brings us here. Pain brings us here. Anger brings us here.

People with disabilities are afraid for our lives. We are afraid that others could be empowered to decide whether we live or die. We are afraid to be in a society which weighs the severity of a child's disability in its judgment of whether and how to avenge her murder.

People with disabilities and our allies across Canada have been touched on a very deep level by the murder of Tracy Latimer, and the subsequent and similar death of Ryan Wilkieson. We feel Tracy's vulnerability. And we feel our own vulnerability heightened as our neighbors and our colleagues suggest that there was something noble and humane in what Robert Latimer did to his daughter. We grieve Tracy's senseless death. We are pained and horrified each time we see Tracy Latimer portrayed as a creature less than fully human. We are enraged by the insinuations that Tracy's life was not worth living. We came together today with feelings of fear, vulnerability, pain and anger. And much more than that. In honor of Tracy and Ryan and other vulnerable children and adults whose names and stories we do not know, we came to affirm our humanity, our passion for life and our solidarity.

Insight brings us here. We know what it means when a society abandons its fundamental standards of respect for the dignity and Human Rights of every citizen. In a civilized society, there should be no debate about whether it is right or wrong for the more powerful to cause harm to the less powerful. It is wrong. It is wrong, no matter what the motivation or rationale.

Courage brings us here. The courage which has served us well in our daily struggles to resist the labels, to preserve our autonomy, to live with dignity and to refuse to see ourselves as we are seen by others. The courage to speak out. The courage to confront the insidious stereotypes which underlie public sympathy for Robert Latimer. Strength brings us here. The strength of conviction which sets us apart from the ambivalence and indifference of those who say that this is not an issue that affects them. The strength to say no. NO to the segregated schools. Today we are saying no to death as an option. Strength, not death, is our response to the immense personal, social and economic challenges of disability.

Solidarity brings us here. Whether or not we have disabilities, whether or not we have "severe" disabilities, whether or not our circumstances are similar to those of Tracy Latimer, we consider Tracy Latimer to be our equal. Because she was. In her humanity, in her entitlements, in her citizenship, she was everyone's equal. Yes, we came together today with feeling of fear, pain and anger. And now we bring all of our strength, all of our courage and all of our insight to this moment in the history of disabled persons in Canada--the moment to confront those who assault our ears, our hearts, our minds and our very lives with their misguided notions of "compassion". In solidarity let us affirm that our lives--however much pain, however much struggle -- OUR LIVES ARE WORTH LIVING. Taking our lives to spare us OUR pain and OUR struggle is a crime. A crime that must be met with the full force of the law.

Source: ARCHTYPE, August 1995

Tracy Latimer - Backgrounder & Facts click here
We have to be aware of the perspective the media is projecting and to challenge it with an alternative. We have to be mindful there are people who believe that what Robert Latimer did was right and/or that he should not be sent to prison. We don't get very far taking a position of indignant outrage, when we are confronted with people who believe differently than us. We have to be sensitive, persistent, and very persuasive in attempting to bring people to an alternative point of view. We also have to make the links for people. There is a tremendous irony in that we have all the allies in the world when we want to remove ourselves from the planet but very few allies when demanding that our human rights be respected.

How will the Latimer case end?

I am reluctant to make any prediction. In the Latimer case, two courts have been operating: the court of law and the public opinion. I wouldn't want to speculate on what the Supreme Court will do. In the court of public opinion, I am hopeful we will see a more balanced presentation of the issue. That at least would be a step forward toward a greater understanding and a possible victory at some time in the future. Hopefully, we can lay the foundation for the further work we must do.

Why is Austin Bastable's assisted suicide so often cited in discussion of the Latimer case?

In any debate people are always anxious to find individuals on the opposite side of the debate. In this debate, the nondisabled population is only too happy to find persons with disabilities who share the view that our lives are worth nothing and that we would be better off dead. In this case, we saw a great deal of attention being paid to Austin Bastable and his choice to commit suicide. It "proved the case" for those who support Robert Latimer and for those who seek the legalization of assisted suicide, although the two cases are quite different. Our position being, of course, that Latimer's act was an act of homicide. Still the premise that underlies the public response is the same premise--that a person is better of dead than severely disabled.

What I think is particularly important about the Bastable case is that within our community we have to be aware of the fact that there are disabled people who do support Latimer and disabled people who do support Austin Bastable, that he ought to have had the right to chose when and how to end his life. When you are very vulnerable and very very depressed and you have been programmed, as it were, to believe that disability renders life not worth living, then you will make the kind of "choice" that Austin Bastable made. What we have to realize is that as an oppressed group in society we have been bombarded with messages. Not just by the broadcast media but by virtually every person we encounter in our day to day lives, that having a disability is a tragedy, a highly negatively charged phenomenon. To be quite candid most of us spend a great deal of our lives believing that. We have to remember that there really isn't a choice when there is such a pervasive set of negative messages, values and conditions in society really shaping that choice. It is my firm belief that someone like Austin Bastable simply didn't have the support, the positive experiences, the time to work through the issues and to come out on the other side of it and declare, as many of us have, that our lives are extremely rich and gratifying and we have no desire to end them simply because we have a disability. That takes time, support and a good measure of pure luck--the luck of circumstance of having the resources to live comfortably with a disability. We don't know all the details of Austin Bastable's life, but I think from what I have been able to glean from the information available about his live that he had very little choice but to believe that his life was not worth living.

With our community history of advocating for choices for people with disabilities, it may seem inconsistent to oppose assisted suicide. I don't believe it is inconsistent. It is a very shallow understanding of choice that underlies the arguments in favor of legalizing assisted suicide. In our current social context one cannot make such choice freely.
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