The disability is something I have, it is not something I am.
Over the decades (I am 65)I have had to deal with some very ignorant people and had the pleasure of knowing some very marvelous people - just like everyone else.
As a child growing up in the 1950s my parents taught me to become as self-sufficient as possible. If something doesn't work for me in the “normal” way I had to find another way to accomplish it. Learning to tie my own shoes was a toughie, but I did it.
I learned early to dwell on what I could do rather than on what I couldn't. I accepted early on that I would never be much of a pianist or learn to juggle, but I did learn to fly airplanes (single engine and sailplanes), drive cars in off-road rally competition, and be a pretty speedy one-handed typist.
I never let the disability I have decide for me how I was going to live my life. If I wanted to try something I found a way to do it. In college I discovered the theater. Forty years later I can point to a long list of credits in theater, films, more nightclubs than I care to think about and commercial voiceovers. I've written novels, plays, jokes for comedians and even a textbook used to teach traffic safety.
When I see stories about euthenasia of the disabled it makes my skin crawl because I know that they are talking about me.
If these people get their way in this world and “get rid” of those with disabilities then all of humanity will become a race of cripples.
And me. And especially my husband. Of course, it made my skin crawl before we joined this elite group of "defectives," because even if it wasn't us, it was still real people they were threatening. If I can see that, why can't the euthanasists see it? I think their inability to see disabled people as real human beings makes them the true defectives. Oh, the irony!
Thank you for sharing your story, Wordkraft. Thanks to all of you.
Well said! A disability of the body is external to our real selves, like wearing a torn shirt; crippled consciousness and conscience is infinitely worse in degree and in kind.