Denying Humanity
Monday, June 29, 2009
When Sarah Palin mentioned special needs children in her speech at the RNC last year, there should’ve been a reaction akin to opening Pandora’s box. There wasn’t even a puff of smoke. Glenn Beck has a daughter with Cerebral Palsy. Fox News analyst Neil Cavuto was diagnosed with MS a number of years ago. Columnist Charles Krauthammer has been paralyzed since the 1970’s due to a car accident. Limbaugh received clocear implants. The more I watch the news, the more I see Washington pundits affected by disability. And still nothing changes.
Disability, of course, knows no party lines. It is a true equal opportunity force that will mess up your life. But it does seem that key figureheads leaning right are being affected by disability. The lack of attention given to the subject shouldn’t be particularly surprising of course. It is often part of conservative ideology to ignore weakness and hide any deficiency. But for a party that is attempting to win back public favor, they’re missing a huge chance.
If we are to define conservatism as a strict interpretation of the US Constitution, disability access goes under the heading of Jefferson’s promise. The role of a conservative government is to protect the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” while assuming that “all men are created equal.” In terms of simply physical access, the Untied States have a very long way to go in creating equal opportunity for those of us who are disabled. I’m not talking about expert programs and government cheques which are designed to increase dependency. Democrats are really good at this technique, but it only serves to cripple people even more. But what about physical access issues. For example, most people forget that Brown v. Board of Education does not guarantee equal access to education for all children. Ask any mom who has battled special education and she’ll tell you, schools will often place advanced placement classes in a room that isn’t wheelchair accessible assuming that no student with a disability will ever be smart enough to attend those classes. Sarah Palin knew this. Most Americans do not.
What if the conservatives understood the disabled population as disenfranchised people rather than leeches trying to work the system? An inaccessible main street is as taxing as any tariff the government may impose. What good are constitutional rights when you can’t even get out of your own home? The rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not inalienable as Jefferson claimed. You just need to injure your back to figure that one out.
Even with a strict interpretation of the Constitution there are still human rights battles which need to be fought. We haven’t outgrown that document, as some politicians would have us believe. The fact is we haven’t even fulfilled it. We are people who love life and see potential in everyone. We are feeble humans fighting a losing battle against gravity and age. To deny our own humanity is to shrink our rights when they are no longer self evident. Which is when one needs them the most.
