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bjbjD First thing comes to mind, and maybe we ll tie it together. During the sixties,
people who were black, African Americans saw their color as a source of shame and they
were by dominant standards, white America, they saw their color, their hair and their
features as being inferior. And it wasn t until the late sixties for the most part where
people were proud of their blackness, felt good about who they were. I think people with
disabilities, it s hard for non-disabled people, but people with disabilities like who they
are. It s not like, I just heard, because you re disabled, your life is tragic, or meaningless,
that people like who they are and given the choice, many people, a colleague of mine I
work with, it was a quad, was saying I m satisfied with who I am. I don t need stem cell research,
I m fine. You know, I don t need to be changed and reconstructed, that there is value and
we as Americans miss the value of people with disabilities when we close our eyes or walk
away. We all talk about inclusion and the diversity and the greatness of America and
I think too long Americans have discounted the contributions of people with disabilities.
It has become, it s a very, it has been, and it s sad that it s a silent revolution because
I think people miss out on the abilities of people with disabilities. And we re not talking
about those few stories of people who overcome all the obstacles. It s the day to day heroes
of people who just feel good about who they are and go about, whether they re on Medicaid
and SSI and who live independently, there s value in all, I think in all peoples and
I think the disabled. It s so interesting the people who ve been involved with civil
rights, sometimes some, you would think that they get it, that everyone, everyone I have
not seen a Newsweek, anything about, you know anytime there s a trend Newsweek and Time
fight to get that trend. I have not seen anything related to the disability movement. Not so
much a disease or a procedure, but the disabled as a group. And how the media has missed the
boat on this, so I think they re valuable contributions and we as Americans who are
non-disabled who will more than likely experience a disability somewhere in our life or have
a family member, and I just want to say, too, I ve worked in this field since 1973 and I
used to work with parents, again I say parents are the biggest barrier to independent living
and they were hysterical, always crying and they change their mind everyday about things
and I d say oh these people are just crazy. In 1992, I had a daughter diagnosed with a
terminable disease and I became the craziest of the parents. I think none of us are immune
to being disabled or having a child with a disability and sooner or later it may affect
us and even if it doesn t, we would be better citizens by honoring inclusion. urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
country-region urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags place It was called Heritage House Owner Normal
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