When it comes to LGBTQIA Pride Month or Black History Month, the stores can market it for their own gain. Clothing and apparel as well as other items can line the shelves throughout those months in hopes of being sold. But there’s really no way to market a disability.
July is Disability Pride Month. On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law. And 33 years later, no one really cares anymore. Not that they did to begin with, but maybe if they could market it a little better it might cause some people to take notice. You know, make TikTok videos and social media posts. That type of stuff.
There’s no way to market it. What do we do? Do stores sell wheelchairs at a reduced rate? How about Walmart, Walgreens, CVS and so forth offering walking canes for a penny? Buy any walking cane at a regular price and you’ll receive another of equal or lesser value for only a penny. Do men post selfies of themselves sitting down to pee to show they’re in solidarity with other men who have to sit to pee from now on?
While it might be finally “Okay to be Gay,” there’s still a discrimination against disabled people. I was at Wal-Mart the other day after my doctor’s appointments to pick up a few items. I would’ve a scheduled pick-up order through the app but the weather forecast was calling for rain and I wasn’t going to have someone rushing through the rain to bring me some yogurt and toaster pastries. It didn’t rain by the way, at least in this part of the area.
Needless to say, I went in and while there were motorized carts, I decided to stretch my legs a little and walk around. The Wal-Mart isn’t the biggest compared to others in this part of the state. But there were so many people using the motorized carts, I wasn’t sure I could find one. South Park mocked people who are morbidly obese using them and while it’s a fair cop, it doesn’t mean that people or other people with injuries don’t need to use them. It’s a Catch-22 on how people with disabilities can’t keep the weight off if they can’t do more exercise.
I’m a big guy who exercises and tries to watch what they eat. But I also have back and knee problems so sometimes, I can’t do as much as I did when I was in my 20s. It’s a way to still shame people for being disabled. And for people who have been in public in a wheelchair or motorized cart, we’ve come across the one person who immediately moves out of our way as if we’re were about to grab them like Jason Vorhees jumping out of the water. Just as people have been believed that if they get close to BIPOC or those in the LGBTQIA community, something “icky” will get on them, they believe the same thing about disabled people.
In Hugo Pool, Patrick Dempsey plays a person with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease, who jokes to Alyssa Milano’s character that she need not worry as his disease isn’t contagious. And while people almost a decade ago were becoming Internet sensations for doing the “Ice Bucket Challenge,” very few of them would’ve really stepped up to help the ways it needs to be done.
Mainly, the Ice Bucket Challenge, which I never did and would fucking refuse to do, was basically about making something that should help others really about themselves. And there’s the rub. People can say they support equality of people of all races and sexual orientations, because at the end of the day, “It’s all about me.” That’s what they’re saying. “Look at me, I’m not a racist bigot or a homophobic jerk. I care about people who are different than me.”
Seeing how people have treated those who became disabled through the military service, it’s very hard to see if they have any smpathy. Growing up in Georgia, Max Cleland, who was the former Secretary of the State for Georgia as well as a U.S. Senator, was treated so badly by conservatives, Republicans and Christians (Oh, my!) just because he was a Democrat. And this was years before that awful Donald Trump mocked a disabled news reporter.
And Cleland was an Army captain serving in Vietnam when he was injured near Khe Sanh when he reached to pick up a grenade that he though had fell off his flak jacket. But it was from another soldier who was with Cleland who been dropped off from a helicopter. Still, the rumor mill spread that Cleland screwed up and it was his fault. And thus, because it’s his fault, he deserves to be scorned and ridiculed for it.
Maybe that’s why it doesn’t get much attention. A lot of people become disabled for silly things “Monday Morning Quarterbacks” would offer their two cents. My grandfather, may he rest in peace, lost his ring and pinkie finger along with half his middle-finger for reaching into something he shouldn’t have in a factory. But yet, it’s these simple things that lead to major accidents. I’ve heard physicians say most of the accidents they see are from people who stepped wrong or leaned over to grab something and fell.
But what I really think it comes down to is the shameless way people are ableist but don’t want to admit it. They only care about disabled people when they do something extraordinary like climb K2 with no legs or run the Boston Marathon even though they were born blind. It’s the “SuperCrip” inspiration porn mentality.
Even many hospitals and physicians office buildings don’t have wheelchair accessible restrooms. No one really cares about someone who can’t go into a shop because there’s no ramp and they’re in a wheelchair. Or how most places still don’t have automatic doors and people in walkers have to fumble around with the door with no help while people inside watch and do nothing.
How are you going to put that on a T-shirt for people to buy? While people are calling for an end to the Simple Jacks and more disabled people to be in movies and TV shows, the time for baby steps is over. And many people can’t walk that long anyway. With people suffering from Post-COVID conditions and those working in Amazon factories and other places getting orthopedic conditions not seen in people twice their age, it seems that people only care when it happens to them.
I don’t want this to happen to anyone. But it happened to me and it may have happened to you or someone you know. We shouldn’t be ashamed of it. But I think some people don’t want to be reminded of what could happen to them one day.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 