Gimp Like Me.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, should be forced to face some kind of discrimination for at least one year. 365 consecutive days. Maybe that tactic might help eliminate some of the subtle and perhaps even a portion of the blatant oppression many people are forced to put up with.

Believe me, I’ve experienced more than my share of discrimination since joining the ranks of the severely disabled. Some of it intentional, most of it unintentional. But regardless, it hurts just the same.

Do you know what it feels like to be out and about doing your thing and you see people intentionally avoiding you simply because you’re using a wheelchair or perhaps you walk a little differently? It really makes you think. What is it about a severe physical disability that intimidates some people?

I remember reading a book when I was younger titled Black Like Me, by John Howard Griffin. Published in 1961, it was about a white man who dies his skin black and then travels through the deep South during the height of the black civil rights movement. He almost lost his life simply because he changed the color of his skin. The discrimination he encountered was outrageous and resulted only because of the color of his skin. Nothing more, nothing less. Why is that?

The human species is by far the most intelligent form of life walking this planet, yet our behavior can be so primitive it’s sickening. We can figure out how to fly a spacecraft to the outer regions of our solar system while at the same time we can’t figure out how to embrace everyone else on our own planet.

Discrimination. Sometimes I just don’t get it!