I say that we must find a way to integrate the disabled among us into society, even if it means finding government jobs for them:
Posted on 03/15/2008 11:49:08 AM PDT by wagglebee
Images used in society reflect the way a culture views disability, said Rosemarie Garland-Thompson, a professor of women's studies and English at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Garland-Thompson presented a lecture Tuesday that encouraged community members and professionals who attended to view images of disability in a different way. She is a visiting speaker for the first annual Disability Studies Forum.
"Images of people with disabilities are out in the world. I read images for the stories that are in them," Garland-Thompson said to the audience in the Health Sciences Education Building.
Garland-Thompson analyzed how people take these received stories, remake them and recirculate them to make them new and change them into different kinds of stories. She showed photographs of conjoined twin slaves, a paraplegic Playboy model and a Barbie doll that uses a wheelchair.
She also showed how people with disabilities are used as inspiration, such as Bethany Hamilton, a teenage surfer who lost her left arm to a shark attack.
"Disability is a new way about thinking about difference, and we've talked a lot in the university community about issues of gender, race and class," said Nadja Durbach, a history professor at the U. "Now we're starting to talk about disability, and I think it's a great way to think about how cultures organize difference in society. I think disability is kind of the wave of the future."
Garland-Thompson presented a slide show that portrayed stories about disability found within a variety of different images, including historical and modern images. The photographs showed examples of how people with disabilities were depicted through contemporary portraiture. She discussed how different techniques, such as posing in a different way, gave the subject of the portrait dignity, value and recognition.
"Portraits are important to look at because they are public stories," Garland-Thopmson said. "They are made to be displayed in public, and they do a lot of important cultural work."
During the lecture, Garland-Thompson also addressed eugenics.
"Decisions are being made in reproductive technology and genetic engineering about who it is we want to be in the world, and those decisions primarily involve deciding that we don't want disabled people in the world," Garland-Thompson said.
She cited the attempt to find the supposed gay gene as an example of eugenics and compared the desire for human diversity to how environmentalists try to maintain the diversity in non-human species.
"It's a form of eugenic euthanasia," Garland-Thompson said. "I think we should have a lot of ethical conversations about a kind of reductive set of assumptions about who we want to be in the world and what we're going to lose when we reduce human variation the way we're doing through reproductive technology."
We should simply allow babies to form the way God wants them to.
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For hundreds of years the disabled were “throwaway” people, locked in asylums, poorhouses and such, or even left to die, as they ancients did. With the rise of Christianity and knowledge of individual worth, brought to fruition by the American philosophy, we began to educate and value our disabled.
It started first with teaching the blind to read so that they could be exposed to God's word. But it has grown far beyond that. The secularists fail to note that with their positions, such as that on abortion (the destruction of undesired life) they would never have come to this place.
I’m deformed. I have a birth defect, that not only gave me near-suicidal childhood thoughts growing up amongst cruel peers, but also made me quite a unique individual. I like to massage my ego to even say that I turned out “better than them”.
Someone else here mentioned that they have a deformity. Who was it ?
The real brainbuster is this: I now have the chance to make sure that my offspring do not suffer the same as I did - Perhaps even moreso in a future society of designer babies. Do I pass on my genes, the horror and enlightenment that comes with them, or do my best to ensure that it’s NOT passed on ?
This is not an easily answered question. I’ve been working on this all my life.
I say that we must find a way to integrate the disabled among us into society, even if it means finding government jobs for them:
Political correctness can bite me...
Should we aspire to what disable can do - very little in the world history or, we we accept and assist the disable but aspire to what great non-disable have done.
>> “I think we should have a lot of ethical conversations ...”
Yes, and let’s also include the uniqueness of each womb inhabiting child despite the judgment there’s no apparent deviation from what’s considered normal. In other words, they all deserve a chance.
It is very sad we need to have a conservation in defense of the unborn who are diagnosed with disabilities. It must be heartbreaking for the disabled and their families to be exposed to this nonsense. The ‘disabled’ are part of the fabric of mankind and it’s completely asinine to suggest they’re undeserving of the same God given rights the unaborted enjoy.
"Disability is not a brave struggle or 'courage in the face of adversity.' Disability is an art. It's an ingenious way to live." - Neil Marcus
At some point, the disability is going to "have a lot of ethical discussions" with the feminist community, and they're all going to turn out pro-life.
If they are honest with each other, and they think it through.
"Disability is not a brave struggle or 'courage in the face of adversity.' Disability is an art. It's an ingenious way to live." - Neil Marcus
At some point, the disability is going to "have a lot of ethical discussions" with the feminist community, and they're all going to turn out pro-life.
If they are honest with each other, and they think it through.
My son has been severely disabled for 29yrs and is filled with Love along with a great chrismatic personality and has overcome barriers in life that non disabled could not hurdle.
The only physical aspect that work are his eyes and hearing (no verbal speech all augmented) and a wonderful intelligent mind with a sense of humor that is wild and fun.
I hope you come to terms with your heart, mind and soul.
Just from reading your post I didn’t sense it was your disability that was the issue.
Be Well.
At State meet Jerry Wayne was entered into the mile race. This was the last event and the championship was up for grabs. Johnny would finish 3rd in the mile and the team would garner enough point to win the Championship. The crowd roared and the team exhulted in their win. Meanwhile Jerry had completed two laps and continued on. The whole team followed Jerry as he stumbled, fell, got up and continued. When he fell, again and again, the team rooted him on and finally he crossed the finish line.
The team roared and clapped him on the back in congratulation. Johnny hugged him and said, "I wish I could overcome the rough road ahead like you did." Jerry replied, "find out what's wrong and fix it!"
A year later the team was remembering their moment of triumph and Jerry's triumph of the moment. Unfortunately they were gathered at Jerry's funeral.
Lesson learned? God puts the pebbles in the way and it's for us to fix it.
I once taught swimming at the Jersey shore and one of the kids in my class had atrophied legs from polio. He had strong upper body strength since his parents had installed parallel bars next to his bed. When I saw him on his crutches I thought, "How Am I goning to teach him to swim?" I got that thought out of my mind and decided that I needed to evaluate his abilities and use them to his advantage.
His upper body strength was that of a grown-up although he was only 9. He legs hung like noodles from his hips but his buttock and hip muscles were strong due to his exercise regimen. His arm stroke was powerful and his dolphin kick supported and powered his swimming. He was the best most improved that summeer.
I taught him how to swim and he taught me how to look at a person's capabilities not his inabilities!!!!
The culture of death pushes aborting babies with club feet. Troy Aikman, Mia Hamm and Kristi Yamaguchi all had club feet and they all reached the top of their sports.
I don’t have disabilities. My left arm doesn’t twist or bend too much, and I can’t touch my feet from the tumors in my hips, back and the such. And pain is just a part of life for me, but it’s not a disability. I’ve managed to date some super-model looking girls, and gain respect and fear alike from able-bodied men.
But it wasn’t always like that. I grew into that. My quandary is this: I wouldn’t trade my deformities for ANYTHING right now. I believe I have been blessed or rewarded with this condition, and it’s made me a far better man than most.
The meat of the pie is this: Given modern science, any way that I reproduce is a conscious decision : It’s hereditary and congenital. My offspring WILL have the condition. Do I reproduce and pass that along, or do I engineer it out ?
Just by knowing that it’s hereditary, I am “engineering” the fetus.
I like the quote too.
Exhilarating and risky, I know, but it has worked out with bodaciously creative consequences for millions.
I like your attitude. And not just this post. I’ve seen quite a few of your posts over time, and I can’t help but like your attitude.
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