Hat tip to a longtime friend
Not linking ‘cuz he knows who he is…and prefers his anonymity.
and also to Keith Olbermann who mentioned this briefly on Countdown last night [Does he *have* to keep being so appealing and unatainable at the same time? I wish he'd turn out to be a real jerk...so I could stop wishing]
A London club banned a woman on crutches from entering the venue. The manufactured reason was concern that the crutches might be used as weapons.
Bu!! and Sh!t.
‘Weapons’ my shrinking but still oversized @ss.
By that logic, any expert in martial arts cannot be allowed into the club either, because their mobility devices, their limbs are deadly weapons…..
In my opinion, the real reason was that *someone* thought they were the Arbiter of Cool a la Studio 54, and that crutches *automatically* assign this woman to Those who will Never Be Hip Enough to Party Here.
From the article:
Disabled people face many hurdles and to deny a young person access to a nightclub, effectively because of their disability, creates yet another barrier between her and her friends. While they party, she is meant to sit it out.”
She went right to her MP with this.
Good for her…and if any other UK’ers with impairments manage to get into that club….
Party with her and for her all night long….
The club states in the article that there had been two previous violent incidents in the club and that based on legal advice they had banned this patron, but the tone and phrasing makes it clear *her* banning from the club is *unrelated* to any previous violent incidents, and in fact she had been admitted to the club on two previous occasions.
This and the Jena Six in the same month.
Someone’s been using timewarp technology on us, surely.
"Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right…"
The following links
are from Ragged Edge, and are from “before my time” in the blogosphere, beginning in 2004 Read them….it’s where people with impairment find ourselves…
And, the absolute Best Money Quote Ever, from the first link:
“Liberals say, ‘we support the social programs that you depend on, that you agree with — and because we do that, we should have your unqualified support, even when we support every ‘better dead than disabled’ cause that comes along.’ Folks on the right say, ‘Look, we’re out there on the protest line in Florida; we’re fighting for the lives of people like Terri Schiavo, so we should get your unqualified support, no matter how much we cut the social programs you need to function and even survive.’”
But why inthehell do I drag these out now?
There’s an election coming up. An important one… and no pollster has asked us, so no one really knows how we will split out what we think…so our vote, when we are able to cast it, won’t fall on one side or the other, and
will not be counted as a constituency per se, by either side…
*
I have heard, that we are, “such a small portion of the population…”
58 million, I believe, per the 2000 census…
Why is it okay for either side to ignore, as a constituency, 58 million persons?
I’m so *tired* of hearing the “We’re scared we might end up like you,” sociology argument.
If you might, then for *** sake, face it, prepare for it by giving reasonable accommodation in your head to the idea that access in the public (and one’s home) is a fundamental civil right as is access to affordable health care (the irony of being seen in only a partially acessible doctor’s office, believe me is not lost on me,) *as well as* the right *not* to die, so that a government or business or hospital or nursing home can save money, or that those observing us feel that we left this world with the correct amount of dignity…so that *they may feel better.* Think critically, as a self educator about these things…so that it will become easier, more common, for able people to know and interact with disabled people…fewer people will give into this internalized fear, things continue to get better ….
A particular sort of placeholder
It seems that even amongst women working for change. disabled women might as well be talking at the wall.
It’s discouraging.
If other minority women don’t hear us….then what’s left?
As the comment states below, links don’t work to get there unless you have a livejournal footprint.
If you are so inclined, create a livejournal account and go to:
