Special Olympics in the White House Basement

Last night while appearing on the Tonight Show President Obama compared his family’s bowling adventures in the White House basement to the Special Olympics and within moments of climbing back aboard Air Force One his staff was hitting the phones to apologize to the Shriver family as a means of controlling the damage.That’s perhaps as it should be but this is something more serious than a mere P.R. gaffe. 

Because I don’t believe that the dignity of people with disabilities is negotiable it follows that when physical challenges are used as an analogy for able-bodied ineptitude the symbolic exchange values are skewed away from humor and toward bigotry. Like it or not President Obama must be held to a higher standard given his ardor for change and his well demonstrated sensitivity regarding people who have been historically marginalized in America. Translation: disability is a serious business particularly in these days when we are reading of criminality in the care of our most vulnerable citizens.

Yes, Queen Victoria, we are not amused.

For another post on this matter see what Bad Cripple has to say.

S.K. 

Author: stevekuusisto

Poet, Essayist, Blogger, Journalist, Memoirist, Disability Rights Advocate, Public Speaker, Professor, Syracuse University View all posts by stevekuusisto