Submitted by Howard Renensland,
CEO & Founder, [with]tv
I have recently become aware of Mr. William Peace and his writings on a Bad Cripple through Connie Kuusisto, Blogmaster at the blog for [with]tv and PWdBC, two businesses I have started. As key volunteers, Connie and her husband Steve have been boundless with their energy and support and instrumental in helping us go forward. I would characterize them as Batman & Robin, but I am not sure who wears which cape. I am also aware of the fact that they have their own "Rin Tin Tin" in the person of Nira, Steve's guide dog. Rumor has it that Connie has on her own taught Nira to wash and dry dishes along with offering an opinion on new wall colors and carpet samples for their new home. Knowing what she has taught me about blogging I see no reason to doubt this.
Anyway to Mr. Peace and his recent articles on Senator Obama and politics in general I have two points I would like to cover. First let me say that while I do not know Mr. Peace I have the utmost respect for his work and opinions and great interest in his work as a cultural anthropologist. (My own daughter recently hosted a discussion of Disability issues where Mr. Brad Saul of Matrix Media and Professor Morris Fred, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Chicago both spoke.)
While I have great respect for those like Mr. Peace and so many others who man the barricades of public advocacy for the community of people with disabilities in so many different arenas my own advocacy has not gone down that path. Until recently I have been active, rightly or wrongly, closer to home. My conscious, directed, organized advocacy for people with disabilities began with the birth of my first daughter Victoria, a now 23-year old young woman with developmental disabilities. Go figure, right? Her civil rights have been a huge focus of mine. Not to totally self-denigrate my efforts I should add that I have made plenty of "enemies" close to home while serving on various playground committees (where I would steadfastly insist on at least a modicum of accessibility) and in the process of defending special education budgets, as well as volunteering as a parent advocate for other new parents of children with special needs.
As an advocate for Victoria, and by extension all people with disabilities, I have and will continue to appear at various conferences on inclusion, including a public speaking tour in the UK a number of summers ago through the invitation of Mandy Neville and The Circles Network, a wonderful organization out of Rugby, England. All that being said, it is largely Victoria's life that has consumed me for the past 23 plus years.
Now to politics, which is the theme of the recent discussions centering on Senator Obama. Firstly I should say that I am a supporter of Senator Clinton. I was raised by women and live in a houseful of women and feel that this is still such a misogynist and paternal, fraternal, male dominated society that I should vote for her for no other reason. Enough said. This is supposed to be about disability issues, right?
Okay.
It is my experience that those political figures that have done the most for our community and "our issues"are those closely, personally linked to a person with a disability. The political figure either had a disability, or had a family member with a disability, or had a meaningful relationship with a person with a disability. This is not always true but largely so. Politics is like any other field of endeavor; there must be a motivational factor. The interest usually has one or two pulls. It is because one feels deeply and passionately about an issue or one feels that support of an issue will benefit them in some key way. Clearly most politicians and people in general feel this way.
Why should Obama, Clinton, McCain, and Huckabee, etc.care an iota, or at least more about us than any other voting segment? They shouldn't and don't. Generally speaking, people with disabilities are not organized in any way other than our own splintered causes based on our own disability or our own area of interest: housing, health care, employment, media participation, etc. Beyond that, one could argue that we do not matter. There are many more reasons for this than I can go into here. But largely we don't matter because we don't matter. It is that simple. We have to stop asking others to let us matter and make ourselves matter.
Lastly, I wish to make one small, but to me, important point. In William Peace's article he made mention of the translator for spoken language into ASL that was evidently present but not visible at a recent event. I believe that it is important, not just for those in attendance who happened to be Deaf to be able to view this interpreter, but for the general public to be able to observe this as well. The presence of an interpreter serving as an accommodation demonstrates something to all that a thousand requests cannot in terms of breaking down myriad barriers.
