The R-Word Campaign: Spread the Word to End the Word

OK, so I know I haven't blogged in a really really long time, but I'm sorry. I just emerged from an avalanche of homework.

So. Onto the R-word campaign. I've been involved informally in the R-word campaign for years, but *thank god* people are starting to take it to the next level. Anyway, March 31 is The First Global Day to Eradicate the R-Word. For more info, go to http://www.r-word.org/. The R-word (retard) is incredibly insulting to not only people with intellectual disabilities, but those who care about them.

I know BADD isn't until May, but can we have a Blogging Against the R-Word day on March 31? Please, if anyone is reading this, please blog against the R-word to show your support for the campaign! And if you don't have a blog....write a Facebook note, make a video and upload it to youtube, anything to show your support!

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NaBloPoMo and a Crippled Halloween

To start off this lovely post, I must inform you all that I have stumbled/wobbled/fallen over National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). This is, quite simply, where you attempt to blog every day for a month. Since I'm a couple days late for November, I guess I'll just go til December...umm...December...what day is it again? Oh yeah, the third. Yeah, so I'll go til December 3rd. I won't be eligible for any fancy prizes or anything, but I don't care. I'm going to be absolutely astonished if I actually manage to do this. No, make that...what's a stronger word than astonished? Shocked? Bowled over? (I'm bowled over by a breeze, if you're thinking in the literal sense, so that's not the best one...) Wow, my brain's really on today, isn't it? Now I'm tired. I'll tell you all about my crippled halloween tomorrow. With the amount of homework I'm getting at the moment, I deserve some sort of trophy if I manage to blog every day for a month.

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A post of NOTE...

I've been having issues with notetakers lately.

I hold a pen very awkwardly due to my CP, as I think I mentioned here before. As a result, I write slowly and I get bad hand pain when I write. I usually use an AlphaSmart to type my notes, but obviously I can't do that in math. So I have a notetaker. In past years, all of my notetakers have been more than happy to do my notes, and I've had no problems. Not the case this year.

First of all, it took my math teacher a week just to find me a notetaker. That in and of itself was annoying. She picked a girl who sits two seats behind me, which was also slightly annoying, because then my notes have to go through a whole assembly line before they get to me. But I could live with that. Until my notetaker started annoying me...

First she told me she didn't want to carry the looseleaf. I let that one go. After all, I have a whole backpack, I can carry the looseleaf. Then she told me she didn't want to carry the carbon paper because it got all over her clothes. I was slightly more annoyed at that one, but again, I let it go. Again, I have the space to carry it. Then on Friday:

Notes Girl: *groans* "Oh, I'm so tired!! Do I have to do the notes today?"
Me (slightly grumpy): "Yes. You do."
Notes Girl: *shoves looseleaf and carbon paper into Random Girl's face* "Here! Do you want to do the notes today?"
Random Girl: "Umm...okay."

Then Random Girl asked her how to do the carbon paper. Not me. She asked the girl who's only been doing my notes for a month and didn't get the hang of the carbon paper for like two weeks. Am I just being picky, but isn't that just so wrong??

And that whole exchange came right after I heard one of the custodians comment to another that "The wheelchairs are coming." when he saw my friends coming down the hall. Hello?? Wheelchairs don't ride down the hall by themselves! There are people in them!!

Yeah. So I asked Random Girl to do my notes from now on because there was no way I was asking the other girl again. She seemed to want to do it. Seemed being the operative word. We'll see how this all unfolds....

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What defines disability? The Disability Experience

This question came up on a thread on my very favorite disability site, Ouch, where some people were pondering the vague comment by some of the moderators that "80% of Ouch users are able-bodied". Here was my response:

Hmmmmmmm....very interesting. See, the thing with this is I think we have to go past the stereotypical, medical definition of disability and start thinking of disability as a MINORITY group, much like any other racial or cultural group out there. Most of us have agreed in past threads that disability does have a culture, and even those who don't quite agree with that statement know that disability is a whole different world than the so called "able-bodied" or "normal" world. This board is not made up of all "disabled people" per se, however, it is made up of people who, "disabled" or not, are a part of the disability community in some way, shape, or form, and understand the differences b/w "our" world and "theirs", as I like to think of it. We have our own humor, ideas, etc. as this site clearly illustrates. The people who post on this board "get it", as I always say. Disability is not a medical condition, or even a state of mind so much as an....experience. We experience disability. Some of us, like myself, live it, and have lived it all our lives. Some of us are just beginning to tiptoe into this wonderful experience now, and are still coming to terms with the drastic differences. Some of us experience it through others, as some people have already mentioned. But no matter what, disability is a roller-coaster experience that will never leave you, no matter how "able-bodied" you may become. We are disabled. All of us, on this board, we're all disabled. We all know disability. We all experience it. We cannot, I repeat, CANNOT start defining who is really "able-bodied" and who is "disabled" on this board, because we know where it'll lead. First it'll start with animosity towards the supposed "ABs" and then, who knows? I mean, are we going to start moving towards a society dominated completely by those who we consider "disabled", and anyone who isn't disabled enough is eliminated? I know it sounds like something out of a science-fiction novel (one that I would probably write!), but that's what we're heading towards with all this pigeon-holing of people. Like I said, anyone who knows the disability experience is "disabled" in my eyes.

What say you? Let me know YOUR opinions!

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We're all just so darn special.

Am I the only one who thinks that the term "special needs" is not only annoying, it's also somewhat patronizing?

Seriously. The more I watch the presidential debates (*cough* GO OBAMA!! *cough* oops, straying off topic...lmao) the more I want to vomit all over my TV screen every time I hear the term "special needs". And it didn't escape my notice that the other night, McCain actually had the audacity to use the term "very special needs"! Oh, so now we're very special?? I guess the normies weren't content enough to just label us plain old special!

I mean, I know special means unique and unique means different and we are different, technically, it's just...it seems so condescending. I know! Let's ask the dictionary!

Hmmmmm...I didn't realize there'd be so many definitions for one of my most hated words of all time! But one of the definitions for special seems to fit my point...

spe·cial–adjective: extraordinary; exceptional, as in amount or degree; especial

Someone please gag me. I mean, I know crips are fabulous and all, but I wouldn't call us extraordinary or exceptional. We're just ordinary old people with some extra challenges to face.

In other news on Spaz Girl's Political Rants, I started a post on Sarah Palin forever ago that I never finished. Maybe I should go do that now...

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And here it comes...my rant on Sarah Palin.

OK, I've been waiting for a chance to post this for a long time. Let me make this LOUD and clear: I HATE SARAH PALIN!! You would think I'd be all for her, right, with all this talk she's touting about the disabled having "a friend in the White House"? Hah, guess again. She's a liar and a phony and I despise the way she's exploiting that poor son of hers.

That's right. "That poor son of hers." Oh no, I don't feel bad for him because he has Down Syndrome. Sorry, I'm not going for that. You all know how I feel about pity-it makes me want to GAG!!! I feel bad for him because he's being shamlessly exploited by his own mother and he's too young to even know it.

Take a look at her website. Instead of anything substantial on her views, there's a rather large and fluffy page devoted to "comments and blessings" on her son, Trig. Also notice that in the picture to the right of the site page, she's holding her son. She was also holding her son when she made her acceptance speech. She's obviously going for the pity factor to get more votes. It makes me SICK the way she's exploiting that baby.

In her acceptance speech, Sarah Palin said "And children with special needs inspire a special love." Ugggggggh....we're all just so special! Ah, no, we're people. To me, the word "special" used in relation to disabled people, as well as the term "special needs" is condescending and idiotic. I want to ban it. Why should we be loved any different than a "normal" child? Aren't we just as important as a "normal" child, aren't we on equal terms with a "normal" child? Apparently Sarah Palin doesn't think so.

And did anyone else notice the other night when a question came up about autism and McCain said Sarah Palin would know better about autism than he would?! I mean, what was up with that?! He can't possibly have been lumping autism and Down Syndrome together, can he? God almighty, please tell me he did not do that! And as for Palin's supposed understanding of autism, have you heard she's being sued by the family of an autistic boy because she won't provide 24 hr care? Uh huh. Check it out. And you can also read the First Amended Complaint of the case here. That's understanding, all right.

All I can say is that if McCain/Palin win, us crips are in serious trouble.

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I have a brain, thank you.

The trials of being a short bus rider...

Short buses usually have an aide on the bus, more commonly known among us crips as a driver's assistant or D.A. These aides are supposed to help you with various things, but most of the time they're pretty much useless. Other than that, though, I've never really had a problem with them. Until now.

The D.A on my morning bus seems convinced that me and my fellow cripples are mentally retarded. She has continually tried to help me put on my seatbelt, and when I put it on *gasp* she gives me a thumbs up and says "Good girl." in the tone you'd normally use for a puppy. She has also told me to "move my pretty toe" when she's wheeling my friend into her spot. She's terrified that my other friend is going to crash her power wheelchair when she's a perfectly capable driver. Basically, she thinks we have no brains. It's half funny and half infuriating. And it's only the second week of school! God knows how I'm going to put up with her for the rest of the year...

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