Regarding the Americans With Disabilities Act
a writing draft I
am proud of, will type in as computer
availability allows
Regarding the Americans With
Disabilities Act
Why is the Americans With Disabilities
Act important?
Because in between the lines can
be read in Bold,
we, meaning someone, who knows, lots of people I guess, but anyway, we will
stop parents from burning their children with cigarettes while collecting
checks from the government AND whining about how hard it is to put up with a
damaged child.
* * *
I was sexually molested in my hospital
bed as a child.
Then molested again in a different hospital bed as a teenager.
In between molest, when I was outside
of the hospital re
learning to walk on injured healing legs, while trying to pass as traditionally
normal despite my now slurry speech and tilted tower stance, relying on a fore
arm crutch to keep me upright, I didn't say anything about my invasive sexual
experiences. Our family lived in low level crisis mode, functioning through
pain. Te weight on our shoulders incomprehensible to strangers, friends and
ourselves.
Everyday we lived to put a foot
forward followed by the
next until it was time to rest. Reflection, a luxury. When I was raped by
acquaintances as a teen I stuffed my pain without being able to define rape as
rape.
A law alone will not stop child
molesters from sexually
violating children. But as an adult, the Americans With Disabilities Act, the
United Kingdom's Disability Discrimination Act, the United Nation's Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the United Nation's Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide remind me there is
universal agreement that communicates over geographical borders off my rights
to speak of my abuse and heal physically and emotionally. A single act of
sexual domination has long term effects on individuals, as well as all the
communities that when puzzle pieced in conjunction form the human population.
social construct
research more but pattern is Women
with disabilities are
raped, assaulted and abused at rates more than two times greater than women
without disabilities.
...to be continued
Disability is a legal term. The
word disabled does not
accurately describe an individuals physical or mental capacity's. "We are
all disabled" is a phrase I have heard when speaking with others who did
not apparently seem to fit into the legal category of disabled, My
understanding of the phrase is a crucial attempt is being made to comprehend
and articulate insight into centuries of fear of our human, fragile bodies and
minds. When I try to translate, "we are all disabled" as if I had
never experienced severe loss my feelings are that the speaker of the phrase is
reaching to accept that regardless of human arrogance about our self delusions
as a species, we are a small part of the cosmos rather than being the cosmos
itsself.
The American's With Disabilities
Act is more than
questioning the nature of existence. It is more than a challenge to centuries
old established notions of who has the right to exist. The Americans With
Disabilities Act is a tangible document which defines the meaning of
improvement regarding our relationship with ourselves, each other, our
environment and our use of financial resources. The Americans With Disabilities
act is an answer that each individual must ask him or herself. What does it
mean to live in a fragile, temporary human body?
My statement written in hesitant,
self doubting words,
which is the way I actually speak, when speaking out loud, is my way of answering
my own questions. Questions that I couldn't consciously ask myself as a child
and teenager. Do I have a right to say, "don't touch me there" while
being in a hospital? Do I have a right when in the ******* world outside of the
hospital to refuse a sexual proposition?
Can I expect to hire a councilor
to assist in finding
behavioral solutions to my painful emotions about sex, intimacy, and human
trust, without the councillor focusing on my partial physical paralysis as
"the problem" to overcome? Just as when I visit a medical physician
about, for example, ingrown toenails, it would be a waste of our time and my
money if they focused instead on a decades old injuries to my left shoulder.
What I hear when I hear the words
Americans With
Disabilities Act is an application of the realization that the human race's
purpose is more than passive suffering. The Americans With Disabilities act
serves as a reminder that individual and group solutions can always be found
using active communication, a willingness to put assumptions and discrimination
on hold.
As a child, I knew I did not want to be forced to endure certain invasive
touches to certain personal areas but the words, rights of a child" was a
phrase absent from my vocabulary. As an adult reading the 1949 Geneva
Conventions, the United Nation's Convention on Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women, the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of
the Child and the United Nation's Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, I can articulate that I believe
an individuals daily dedication to refrain from aggressive behavior is the most
cost effective solution to the collateral damage caused when humankind's search
for meaning becomes defined as an isolated individuals quest, absent of
awareness of history and a growing population.
Listening, talking, and being reliable
about promises
made are inexpensive activities enabling problem solving techniques in a world
where "we are all disabled", meaning living lives with limited
resources of time, energy and money.
An example, going back to emphasize
the Americans With
Disabilities act, and the how-to's of living an active, meaningful life with
permanent disability is when I saw a woman bout my age walking quickly with a
four wheeled seated walker. After an orthopedic operation in my 30's, I lost my
ability to saunter at a brisk pace using my forearm crutch. My quality of life
suffered as I began to resent my dependence on the availability of friends and
family while my worry about future physical limitations increased as being
active without the proper structural support raises the risk of injury, as well
as putting an imbalance of wear and tear on my delicate skeletal system. My
expenses increased with reliance on taxi cabs and easy to prepare food while my
cultural influence, overall enjoyment of life and ability to do activities to
preserve my health decreased.
When I saw the woman walking using
a comparatively
inexpensive mobility aid, I simply asked her if using a walker helped her and
was a Doctor's prescription necessary to purchase an item answered my lack of
ability to accept that severely broken bones and injured nerves necessitate
sitting in a room, alone, remembering remorsefully all the people I knew and
all the plans I had when I was younger and more mobile.
Rape, sexual molestation of children
and teenagers and
violence against women thrives in secretive environments. Dehumanizing values
based on obvious physical attributes, such as differences in disability, race,
physical attractiveness, and age, encourages violations against what is often
considered socially inappropriate or dirty.
Bans on communicating about sexuality,
being sexually or
intimately attracted to someone different than ourselves, or someone who
doesn't meet the requirements of appropriateness of our peer group often leads
to crimes of opportunity or senseless tragedy, using Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
as an example.
Is there a simple cost effective
solution that
counteracts the sloppy emotional habit of discarding some people as
dispensable, often without intention? Laws and subsequent enforcement are
practical, usually devoid of surrealism, philosophy or poetic licence, as they
should be.
I will, however, add my suggestions.
Start with saying, "I love you"
to someone.
Progress to looking in the mirror.
I dare you to say,
"I love you" out loud. Improve history. Difficult, but not
impossible.
If still not satisfied, try touching
someone gently,
with their permission.
If you want an advanced challenge,
try touching someone
you want to have sex with gently, with their permission.
If in doubt of the power of one
individual to change the
world, hold your own hand while singing love songs to yourself (out loud or
silently).
I'm going to try this in public
without being too
obvious so I don't look too crazy, but I can never remember the words to love
songs so I might have to improvise.
Be warned the above suggestions
might lead to dancing,
conversation, intimate feelings, kissing, possibly poetry writing.
If they lead to anger, yours or
someone else's, I
recommend treating yourself and all involved like a child you care about who
has fallen down and skinned his or her knee.
Convention against Torture
and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment
On the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination
,