So, I have been writing this and rewriting this post for a week or so now. A state agency has been doing what I consider to be some shady work (involving cutting back on social workers). I wanted to write some clever screw you post. But I cannot quite get on paper the words and tone I wish to convey. And, no, it's not because I simply devolve into swearing and banging my head off the keyboard. (What?!? I swear it's not, honest.) I have been worrying a lot about where we are heading as a nation lately. So let's get out a few facts first. When any culture devolves into authoritarianism, several things always happen. There is a cultural buzz all about law and order. Political opponents are turned from rivals into enemies or criminals. (Chants of lock her up anyone?) Any criticism is marked as a criminal and treasonous. ("Lying media" and "gotcha journalism" anyone?) Certain segments of society are singled out as "vermin" and "free loaders" and a criminal class. (Can any of you tell me exactly what sort of crime an illegal alien has committed? Hint it's not a felony- it's more like a traffic infraction. And seeking asylum is not a crime at all.) Crimes against this segment now marginalized now become frequent and then commonplace.
AND THEN THEY GO AFTER THE PHYSICALLY VULNERABLE. You know, like the elderly and the disabled. It always happens. DO NOT KID YOURSELF. Look at orphanages and nursing homes behind the iron curtain. Read the reports of forced euthanasia and torture of the disabled in Nazi Germany. Hell, google Willowbrook or Pennhurst right here in the US. Go ahead, I'll wait right here. Then come back and read the next few paragraphs. After you're done gargling holy water and giving your soul a bath.
It has not been very long - only in my lifetime has the treatment of the disabled by society begun to change. My older sister had Down Syndrome and my older brother has spina bifida. My parents were originally turned down for adoption (I'm an adoptee) because they refused to put their children into an institution. They had to sue a state to get my sister an education. It has only been in Feisty Pants' lifetime that she was not automatically doomed to live in poverty. Her birth injury is an automatic pre-existing condition. It is only because of the Affordable Care Act that she has the opportunity to grow up and be a tax payer and get a real job like everybody else. Otherwise she has to live under the poverty line in order to qualify for medicaid.
So you'll have to forgive me if I look upon ANY cutback with skepticism. On any step backwards with horror. It has been a long, dark slog through bureaucracy and intolerance and outright fear and bullying and hate to get this far. Not even on just a governmental level. It hasn't been too long since society itself expected the disabled to hide away as if they were somehow contagious and unclean. The disabled are still often treated as expensive nuisances who just ought to be grateful for any pittance society deigns to throw their way. If I had a dollar for every time someone (who usually was making a buck off my kid's disability) acted like I was just such a utter shocking bitch for demanding quality and service like Feisty Pants was a regular person, I would be having my secretary transcribe this whilst my servants fed us chocolate bonbons.
We are living on the precipice of tyranny. We will not go quietly back into the dark ages and dungeons of disability rights. In other words, do not expect us to be grateful for what we are paying dearly for. Do not expect quiet obedience. Do not expect us to not question your morals and motives. Do not expect us to not push back and push back hard on any perceived set back. Disabled kids are notoriously stubborn. The only thing more stubborn are their mothers.
