Let’s be honest, you can’t be too critical of Donald Trump’s supposed comments about Army Capt. Luis Avila at a 2019 meeting at the Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. Up until about 10-15 years ago, Trump’s comments were echoed by most people. People in wheelchairs and especially burn victims were mainly treated badly by our society. I mean, Trump himself mocked a disabled reporter and people still voted for him.
And they’re the same people who would criticize their own children and grandchildren for mocking someone with a disability. I think Simple Jack, the fake movie in the real movie Tropic Thunder, opened people’s eyes to the fact that we’ve only viewed disabled people as “inspiration porn” or “SuperCrips.” Everyone has to look a certain way or else they’re “freaks.” But in reality, P.T. Barnem was far more cruel than any disfigured person he exploited could have been.
As Simple Jack put the hypocrisy of our society in the spotlight, another thing happen – YouTube, Facebook and MySpace took off. Now, people who had deformities or disabilities weren’t shunned from society. All you had to do was a Google search and there were people out there who may have no legs or missing an arm doing regular things. It was like an eye-opener that someone with a human disability could still do something “normal.” And now, we have TikTok and SnapChat while MySpace is rarely in use anymore.
According to info on the Gary Sinise Foundation, Avila is from a military family who grew up in southern Louisiana who joined the Army in 2000 and became an officer in 2004. He served five combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. But on Dec. 27, 2011, a mounted improvised explosive device (IED) detonated nearby him and other military. Three of his fellow soldiers were killed by the blast and two others were severely wounded. Avila, himself, suffered an amputation of his left leg, two strokes, two heart attacks, and severe lack of oxygen which caused anoxic brain damage. Ultimately, he was left almost completely paralyzed. He was in a coma for 40 days and has soent the last 10 years recovering.
Avila sung “God Bless America” to Trump. However, Gen. Mark Milley said that Trump later told him to never let Avila appear in public again. “Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded,” Milley recalls Trump saying. Milley has invited Avila to attend his retirement ceremony.
Video shows Trump openly welcoming Avila with a hug but he knew the cameras were rolling. I’ve been around a lot of people who put on a different face when the cameras were rolling. Remember this asshole was a game show host. Even Bob Barker and Johnny Carson had people recalling how they really acted sometimes when the cameras weren’t rolling. And Milley is a four-star general who is the current Chair of the Joint Chiefs. Prior to that he was Chief of the Army. Why on this or any other planet would he dare making something like this up if it wasn’t true?
I’m sure just a decade ago, no one knew what “ableism” was. Now, it’s something that’s frowned upon. Younger people (and older) are learning to be more inclusive and realize that people are different from them. We’re not all made from the same mold. And someone like Avila risked his life. If he wants to sing in public, let him sing. I’d say he’s earned that. And everyone else can keep their opinions to themselves about it. For someone who has reportedly had a problem with incontinence, I don’t think Trump has the right to tell people who should be in public and who shouldn’t.
But Trump is the result of what happens when we spend decades if not centuries trying to tell people they don’t exist. I walk with a cane. I can’t walk long distances anymore without it. At my neighbor’s annual July 4th cook-out which also doubled as the missus’ birthday, their four-year-old boy came up to me and asked me why I have the cane. Of course, some parents might have told him it’s not of his business. But he was curious and I didn’t mind the question. I told him my back and left leg have mobility issues from a series of falls and an early onset osteoarthritis in my 30s.
I’m 45 now. I have faced the reality one day, I may need a wheelchair. I’ve tried to walk when I’m in stores but sometimes I have to use the motorized cart. It’s not something that should be frowned upon or shamed. I remember growing up, my grandfather used to pay in a country-western band. It was nothing major, just a bunch of older guys getting around and having some jam sessions. One of the musicians was a double amputee. We didn’t ask what happened and he was a nice guy.
There was another family friend who had one of her legs amputated, I think to cancer. We never asked because my brother and I knew it wasn’t polite nor our business. It didn’t make her any less of a person. And with the history of diabetes on my mom’s side of the family, there’s always the risk one of us might be diagnosed and have to lose a leg or two. My other grandfather was missing his pinkie and ring finger as well as half his middle finger on his left hand as part of a workplace accident.
All these three people appeared in public. No one ever would tell them not to. And if you told my grandfather, he would’ve given a rat’s ass if it was coming from the President’s mouth. He would’ve whupped his ass if he had heard it. And he probably would’ve given the Secret Service and anyone else who defended Trump a good ass-whupping. What Trump was really telling Milley was that he didn’t want to see Avila. And Republicans want to tell us that Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who also didn’t serve like Trump, hate the military. My grandfather also served in the military. He may not have always been the most rational person but he would’ve been disgusted by Trump.
Trump only wants people who praise him. And he wants them to look like “normal” people. But judging by those at his rallies, he seems to see nothing more than a bunch of grumpy old people like him. I think some of his aides, mostly former, have said that he is very critical of those people at his rallies because he wants more “wealthy” and “clean-cut” people there. But judging by a photo taken earlier this month at Trump’s National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., both him and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani look like they’re on their way to the Early Bird Special at Country Kitchen Buffet. They have no reason to criticize how anyone looks.
Times are changing. People are realizing that it’s okay not to be “okay.” Our “imperfections” are what define us. I think it’s awesome an amputee like Brett Smrz, a stuntman/actor, has become the stunt double for Paul Rudd in the Ant-Man movies. But just because he can be a stuntman, doesn’t mean other people have to aspire to that. Not everyone’s life has to be an inspirational story. I remember Erik Stolhanske, a member of Broken Lizard (Super Troopers and Beerfest) said he went years without having his pic taken in shorts because his right leg had to be amputated when he was a child because he was born without a fibula bone in it. But just because he can do P90x workouts doesn’t mean others have to.
And not everyone can sing like Avila. Martha Wash was part of the duo The Weather Girls that had the hit song, “It’s Raining Men.” But, record producers used unrelated vocals she had performed in 1990 on the hit song. “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” by C+C Music Factory. She wasn’t in the music video. Zelma Davis lip-synced, because Wash is a heavyset woman and Davis had more an average build. Walsh filed a lawsuit. The case was parodied in the comedy Fear of a Black Hat where an Asian woman speaking in Broken English lip-syncs to a song that sounds similar to “Gonna Make You Sweat.”
Nowadays, singers like Lizzo, Kelly Clarkson, Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj, and others don’t have to worry about being thin. It’s a different world. And people who spend their whole time being vain and thinking they’re the model of beauty have actually made themselves rather repulsive. Just look at Andrew Tate.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 