Yesterday, I attended a disability conference for my job. Well, of course in a day conference, it is impossible to discuss all the various disabilities that are out there. But the few disability groups that the presenters touched on was quite informational. I enjoyed learning about disabilities that are different from mine.
After leaving the conference, I had a thought. People with disabilities are often segmented and disjointed from other people that may have a different disability. For example, people with hearing impairments are over here in this clump. Then you have those that use wheelchairs in another group. And then the HIV and AIDS population is in another barrel. The visually impaired and blind population is in this section. And so on and so on.
I thought about how if we would unite our efforts, more could be done in the disability community. I realize how powerful people with disabilities would be if we would forget about our limitations/differences and connect our strong points. We would be a powerful force. Different, but strong...
The way people with disabilities are disjointed reminds me of the African American community. We are so broken apart, so disconnected. We would be a much stronger force if we would forget about our differences, the petty stuff, and instead use our energy to connect, to build, to become alive.
In my opinion, both groups are dead... Dead? Yes, dead when it comes to being truly effective in creating and sustaining change. But we are dead because we will not connect all the parts.
If the head is disconnected from the body, what good is the head? If the hand has no arm, what good is the hand?
It's time to connect and be one. It's time to become alive.
This message is for both, the disability community and the African American community.
Angie Braden
1 comment:
Amen, Amen.
Folks don't want to hear this. They want to talk rhetoric, they want to pose as this image or that. When it comes down to it, to quote Krishnamurti, most people are second hand. They are too insecure to live with ambiguity, live in process, just be where they are which isn't anywhere at all.
I don't feel a movement, a real movement of fed up, motivated people flowering anytime soon because this culture has successfully blinded us, confused us, put its disease in us. We aren't mature enough, wise enough, smart enough to do EXACTLY what you were talking about...GET TOGETHER. We aren't even close to knowing how to do it.
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