World Wish Day

Yesterday was 4/29/3013, just another day for most, but for a select group of people, that day meant the world to them. When we are children, we often let our imaginations run wild. We sometimes play games where genies grant us wishes from a lamp; in fact, Aladdin's popular Disney movie is based around this concept. However, life is a different struggle for those with terminal diseases. Those with terminal illnesses often do not get the same experiences as the rest of us. When they should be going to a high school football game, homecoming, or a prom, they can often be found, instead, in hospital rooms, battling for their lives. One organization decided to change that.

One Kid's Wish

They say that if you put your mind to it, you can do anything you want. For Christopher Greicius, there were many obstacles in his way, but he had a great imagination. Every day, the 7-year-old dreamed of being a police officer. His wish was only granted for one day, but it would help inspire an organization that would change countless individuals' and families' lives. On April 29, 1980, Chris was made into an honorary police officer. Sadly, he passed away the following day. However, in his seven years of life, he has made a more considerable impact than most adults do¹. Chris would help launch the world's largest wish-granting organization. To this day, the Make-A-Wish organization has granted more than 250,000 wishes worldwide. The organization is active in more than 50 countries—one of its key partners in the WWE.

Not Such a Fake Impact 


I will admit, I do watch professional wrestling. It is my man, soap. A lot of people knock it because it is pretty scripted. I like to consider it "athletic acting."  Last night, WWE did something that reinforces why they are such a good organization. The babyface (Top good guy) John Cena was part of a special ceremony coordinating with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and World Wish Day. Since 1982, WWE, formally the WWF, has helped grant 5,000 wishes. This, in itself, is a staggering number. However, even more staggering is that John Cena, himself, has personally granted 300 wishes. He is not a character that I like; however, I respect him and his work ethic, along with his charitable efforts. To find out more about what the WWE is doing and what you can do to help, please visit the link below². However, I am not writing this blog to be shameless to promote a television show I watch. I am writing this blog for three reasons. 1: To highlight a day of national celebration. 2: To highlight an organization's great charitable work on behalf of kids with life-threatening illnesses, some of which include that illness under the Muscular Dystrophy umbrella. 3: To highlight an essential issue in the disabled community. 

The Debate: For or Not For Jerry's Kids

When I was growing up, I was not surrounded by many other people with disabilities. However, I knew I was different. I knew I had a disability, but I did not realize that there were other kids with disabilities who had it worse than me until one year on Labor Day, I turned on the T.V. and started watching this funny little man talk about kids who needed help. A lot of them were in chairs, so I thought to myself, "Oh, that boy is like me." I showed the telethon to my mom and asked her what it was for. She said. "It's the annual Labor Day telethon for the MDA." The MDA is an organization devoted to curing nearly 40 different diseases that fall under the umbrella of Muscular Dystrophy. Those unfamiliar with the disabled community may not understand when I make the following statement:  Some within the disabled community are not too fond of the MDA. How is this possible? A lot of people with MD do not agree with the way the organization spends the money. One gentleman by the name of Rory M. once said to me, "If they would spend more of your dollar on research and less on lavish corporate headquarters, we might have a cure by now." I have no problem with the organization, myself, and seeing as how I do not have an MD; I feel it is inappropriate for me to take sides in this argument. While the debate may continue over organizations like the MDA, the Make-A-Wish Foundation is different.  

The Make-A-Wish foundation brings joy to countless kids each year. This group seems to have risen above the internal politics and debate of the disabled community to remind us that we should not quarrel over the little nuances of disability but to make each other's lives better, regardless if we do or do not have a disability. 

John Cena surprises Nick for World Wish Day

Make-A-Wish President & CEO


Footnotes:
1.http://neny.wish.org/about-us/history/
2.Make-A-Wish and WWE

Everyday Trials

According to my friends, I am a twenty-six-year-old male who is funny, charming, and intelligent. Apart from these traits, I do have one that makes me stand out from the crowd. I have a disability. It is known as cerebral palsy. This is not a life-threatening disability, but it does limit my movements and other activities in my life. I am currently going for a master’s degree in education and hold two bachelor’s degrees, one in history and one in the theater. By many people’s standards, I would be considered well on my way. However, there are still obstacles I must overcome.

As I’ve stated before, in 1990, a piece of legislation was introduced known as the Americans with Disabilities Act. This Act attempted to eliminate as many barriers to inclusion in society for people with disabilities as possible. It specifically focused on five areas, which included making it easier for people to seek public education, making it easier for people to get into public buildings, improving communication opportunities, improving access to the job market for people with disabilities, and the broad-sweeping term “miscellaneous provisions” ¹. Because of this Act, life for persons with disabilities has improved tremendously. However, federal legislation cannot influence one aspect of life, that of social interaction and acceptance.

From an early age, a child is interested. Babies explore their environment, testing and prodding the world they have been born into. Humans are not born with any preconceived notions about one another; I believe that they develop them based on the environment and society they are raised in. In my twenty-six years in this great country, I have never been judged by a five-year-old. It is more often their parents that do the judging. The five-year-old is merely curious when he or she may ask their parents, “Mommy or Daddy, why is that person in a wheelchair? What is wrong with them?” These questions do not bother me. The parents respond that baffle me. Several months ago, I was at a local mall when the same situation occurred, and I distinctly could hear a parent react to the same question with the following, “Honey, be quiet. Don’t ask that. That’s rude.” Is it rude? Or, as my friend said to me and as I truly believe, have we as a society become so comfortable walking on eggshells that we are afraid to ask questions because we might offend someone?

In my head, I would much prefer the parent’s response to the child’s question to have gone as follows, “I don’t know, why don’t you go ask him?” The ability to question is what makes us human. It is how we learn. But we are taught from such a young age not to question and not know that bias and fear of difference are ingrained in us by the time we develop into young people and adults. This thought can be seen on my college campus.

I currently go to a school in the Northwestern part of PA, and it is a reasonably good school. But, it is here where the idea that society has become so politically correct that it would rather be ignorant than knowledgeable has been reinforced. There are three key areas which disturb me. The first of which can occur when I am merely rolling around on campus with friends. It’s gotten to the point where we make a game out of counting how many people stare at us. Let me explain first by saying, typically, I hang around with females. Not due to any other reason, except I tend to get along with them better. Most of my friends are “friends.” There are only two or three that I would like to date, but somehow everyone who sees me with any of my friends either looks at us like, “Aww, I feel so bad for that young man and what an incredible person that girl is for helping him.” Or “I wonder, are they dating?” Forgive me for being so blunt. It got so wrong when my friend and I counted thirty people staring at us in two hours. Maybe I missed the memo, and maybe staring is the new en-vogue thing, but I don’t recall staring at every other person I roll by as if they were something I have seen before.  

The second thing that bothers me has to do with communicating with people daily. Most of the people I interact with can tell that I'm reasonably intelligent within the first few minutes of our conversation. I do not go around quoting the dictionary, but I do have a large vocabulary. I say most can tell that I'm reasonably intelligent. The people that make me want to pull my hair out are those people that make me feel as if I am mentally challenged just because I am in a chair. My favorite example of this occurs nearly every time I go out to a restaurant. Let me set the scene: I sit there with a group of friends or my family holding a conversation and looking over what I want to eat when the waiter or waitress comes by to take everyone's order. They will go around the table, and when it is my turn, they tend to look at the person next to me for my order instead of me. If that does not happen, they tend to raise their voice and say the following, “well, what would you like, dear” (in a booming voice). I am not deaf. I do have terrible vision and, by my admission, am a really bad driver and run into more objects than I care to admit, but not being able to hear is not a flaw of mine. Indeed, some say that I hear way too well. When someone speaks at me like I am completely deaf, I am often tempted to respond with a snotty unsuspected comment. I’ve only done this once or twice, but let’s say it catches them off guard. Every time one of these exchanges occurs, I am baffled and more and more frustrated with society. Just because someone has a physical disability does not mean they are deaf and mentally deficient. The above two examples are annoying and frustrating when you are disabled; however, they pale compared to my third pet peeve.

I am sure others can relate to me when I say that family and love are human desires regardless of physical appearance or ability. I, as a disabled individual, am no different. I am twenty-six, pretty successful academically and intellectually, making people laugh, and I have a decent personality. The one thing I don’t have is someone to look past my disability and love me for me. Some who may read this might say not everyone in their twenties finds someone, and with that, I fully agree; however, it is magnified ten-fold when you are in a wheelchair or have a disability. Not only does it seem one gets snubbed on the relationship front, but also many of the most common social interactions, the able-bodied community, from my perspective, does not know how to or feel comfortable with integrating the disabled community. A key example will be if I ask someone to go and do something. They will often give me a cursory sure, we definitely should, but then inevitably, they will blow me off for some reason or another. Don’t get me wrong. I understand that this is a problem related to my generation and the able-bodied community interaction with disabled individuals. But I am sure if you ask other individuals with disabilities, you will find that it tends to happen a great deal more frequently to individuals with disabilities than their able-bodied counterparts.

In the same vein, whenever an individual happens to catch my eye on a romantic level, more often than not, I am rejected and not for your typical reasons. The most common sense I get is, “you’re a great guy, but I can’t date you because you’re in a wheelchair.” Not only is that reason baffling to me, but it is also infuriating. I can’t tell you how many girls I played an emotional therapist or boyfriend in my life. Still, as soon as I want actually to pursue something on a romantic level, they finally realize, “Oh, wait for a second, he’s in a chair.”

All my rantings may have come off as complaining. However, I hope they haven’t because my purpose in writing this article is to bring to light an issue that many people are aware of but choose to ignore or make light of. Society in the twenty-first century is no different than it was in earlier times. Yes, we are now not dealing with bus boycotts or million man marchers, but it is clear that we are still fighting a silent battle. The disabled community and people who are outside your typical WASP America, in general, are fighting a war against difference. The disabled community’s voice was heard loud and clear in 1990, but it is about time our voice was heard once again.  

 

Footnotes: 

1. http://www.bu.edu/cpr/reasaccom/whatlaws-adaact.html

 

I Was Not Born With a Label; Society Gave Me One

Today, as I was preparing to write my next post for this blog, I was bouncing around with my head topics. I thought my next blog would be about the social security problem (i.e., How social security is designed to keep individuals with disabilities on it, rather than intended as an incentive to assist them in better their lives.) While this is an important issue and one that I will discuss later, I came across an article that I feel is my duty as a blogger for disability rights. 

An article by a lady named Sunny Taylor titled The Right Not to Work: Power and Disability. In the article, Miss Taylor indicates that she is an individual who has arthrogryposis multiplex congenital. According to Web MD¹, "Arthrogryposis is a general or descriptive term for the development of nonprogressive contractures affecting one or more areas of the body. A contracture is a condition in which a joint becomes permanently fixed in a bent (flexed) or straightened (extended) position, completely or partially restricting the movement of the affected joint."  

When my friend first told me about this article, we got into an argument about how I thought Miss Taylor was incorrect in her view. I said that everybody should be a contributing member of society. However, as I read the article further, I see that while I may disagree with Miss Taylor on one level, I agree with her. (Miss Taylor, if I am mistaken about the point of your article, let me know) I believe she made a good point when she said Disability is more of a social term than an actual name. Miss Taylor puts it more eloquently than I can. If one uses the term disability over the term impairment, it implies something they cannot overcome or workaround. It is a term that immediately subjugates them and reduces them to a lower level of being. That term does not take into account an individual's intelligence or worth to society. This is an ingrained term, and perhaps it can explain why many disabled people have such a negative view about not only their disability but what they can do with it. 

Instead of me summarizing Miss Taylor's article, I have posted it below to draw your conclusions. We need more individuals like myself and Sunny Taylor to begin to discuss the change necessary in society and the disability rights movement overall.  

The Right Not to Work: Power and Disability Article


Footnotes:
1. http://children.webmd.com/arthrogryposis-multiplex-congenita.