Not long ago we blogged here about Rand Paul’s exceptionality where civil rights are concerned. Dr. Paul’s revisionist narrative about civil rights is not a unique one. Those of us with disabilities (and who by turn pay attention to questions having to do with equal opportunity) are well acquainted with the backlash against disability rights.
By using the term “interregnum” I am of course implying that we are between two wars. In general terms I don’t like military metaphors for the body. No one who’s read Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor would want to employ military figuration when speaking of disabilities. Yet the culture wars are very real and the evident peril to people with disabilities is considerable. Again, not long ago we wrote about the effort underway in New Jersey to eliminate the Talking Books Library in that state. In these United States the “less government” crowd is often prone to Social Darwinism.
People with disabilities are standing, sitting, signing, Brailleing, between the ADA (which is having its 20th anniversary and being celebrated around the nation this summer) and the frightening realpolitik of the far right. I feel right now as if people with disabilities are in the eye of the hurricane. Things are calm for the moment. But the rightward tilt of the U.S. promises a far greater dismantling of social programs that benefit the vulnerable.
S.K.
Planet of the Blind 
Yes, I read that the public transport system is going to be cut back drastically in our urban and suburban area. The sarcastic me says that people must stop using public transport in a recession; the surprised me points to the fact that the trains are overcrowded and buses are more full than ever. I think we know which people those cutbacks will affect first.
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