In disability circles there’s no future planned beyond this: your tomorrows are being erased in the halls of Congress. After health care and social security are gutted will they bring back the ugly laws? Will they lock up the disabled in ruined shopping malls?
This morning I found myself thinking of Aristophanes who I read assiduously in college. Here he is:
“Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy.”
Meanwhile we’re being asked to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the ADA which, as we know, is about to be gutted. If you think I’m joking I’m not. Trump’s hot button dismantling of the Department of Education will destroy the capacity of the disabled to gain equal rights in education and even employment. So I’ll add to Aristophanes: when the normates are fattened on the public funds they conceive a hatred for equal rights.
Most of the ADA anniversary video celebrations I’ve seen are just treacle. As my late friend Bill Peace (known online as “The Bad Cripple”) used to say, “I’m not impressed.”
Planet of the Blind 