Sigh... I wanted to make this about cute Valentine's Day projects that
aren't too babyish. Feisty Pants is "almost fourteen harrumph" (read that with
rolled eyes and your best teenage sneer) and has a boyfriend and is just too old
for little kid stuff. Except for really cute Valentines, and Hello Kitty, and
puppies, and anything that makes her squee. But every time I turn around, the
world seems to want to wax the bottom of the hand basket we are going to heck in
so it will slide faster.
We have an idiot named as Secretary of Education, who seems to not
understand about things like the ADA or the IDEA act or FAPE or have any
effing clue about education being for EVERYONE and not just the rich. We have
a congress, full of people getting FREE health care that we pay for, determined
to take away everyone else's. We have an ignorant, sexist, racist leader who
is worried more about his own power and prestige without any seeming
understanding that political office is meant to be about public service, not
private gain. And a gazillion jackasses following behind him who think it's now
time for some weird orgy for bullying.
I am so done. Seriously, stick a fork in me. But while am
waiting for that moment when I shall spontaneously combust, (and please let it
be next to some d*ck who deserves to burst into flames with me...), I want to
get a few things off my chest.
1) There are NOT more and more people on SSI or disability
benefits simply because they are lazy. Or are getting better at scamming the
government. If it seems that way, it's because more people with disabilities are
living due to better medical care. (Feisty Pants is one of those people.) And
because better equipment means they can get out and about more. And just maybe, because we no longer hide our disabled away in institutions and attics.
2) Children with special needs are not just pampered wussies
who parents mollycoddled them too much. Autism is a difficult processing
disorder. ADHD kids want to be good. A melt down is NOT a temper tantrum. And
we are talking about CHILDREN, why do people expect children to be better
behaved than adults? If you honestly think that a special needs child just
needs more "discipline" (by which you simply mean punishment- not actual
discipline. Punishment is when you smack your kid. Discipline is what I use
when I don't smack you.) then you, dear reader, are an asshole.
3) Disabled children grow up to be adults with talents and
skills and value all their own. How dare you expect my daughter's education to
be a glorified daycare?! How dare you expect her to not have access to health care
as good as anyone else's?! How dare you not allow her to dream big, have
ambitions, contribute to society, and make the world a hell of a lot better then
this mess we have apparently created?!
I grew up with disabled siblings. Children of my older
sister's generation were usually shuttered away in horrible,
overcrowded institutions where they were neglected at best. My parents had to
sue the state they lived in to assert my sister's constitutional right to an
education. When my parents wanted to adopt, they were told they would have to
institutionalize my older siblings because it was too hard for my family or no
adoptions. (My folks very rightly told them to buzz off. Ended up with two
adoptions anyway. ) They, along with so many others, fought daily for every inch
of progress made for kid's like Feisty Pants to have a decent shot and a fair
start.
So, for my folks, who fought so hard. For my sister who never
was given the chances she should have had. For my brother. And most definitely for
Feisty Pants. We will not go quietly back into the dark ages of disabled
rights. We will not go quietly back into institutions and back bedrooms and
quiet poverty. We will not go back. And if I have to, I will gladly
spontaneously combust and take all you d*cks with me.
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