{"id":14945,"date":"2012-04-20T18:04:21","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T22:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.www.liveactionnews.org\/?p=14945"},"modified":"2013-04-03T01:14:45","modified_gmt":"2013-04-03T05:14:45","slug":"discrimination-against-people-with-disabilities-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/discrimination-against-people-with-disabilities-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Discrimination against people with disabilities continues"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\"\"<\/a>I have a piece out in the\u00a0Human Life Review<\/em>\u00a0decrying the \u201cunrepentant bigotry\u201d that allows people with profound disabilities to be denigrated as \u201cskin bags\u201d (as one example) or, if profoundly cognitively disabled, as mere flora. From\u00a0\u201cThat Unrepentant Bigotry<\/a>\u201d (citations omitted):<\/div>\n
\n

\u201cStop the hate!\u201d we are often told. \u00a0To be sure, that is a worthy goal.\u00a0 Indeed, in recent decades great strides have been made throughout society in accepting most of us, as indeed, truly and clearly, \u201cus.\u201d\u00a0 For example, the worst forms of racist speech are now far beyond the pale\u2014to the extent that the despicable N-word can no longer be uttered publicly without serious social consequences\u2014even to popular entertainers\u2014and racist jokes are, thankfully, mostly an ugly anachronism of the unlamented Jim Crow past. Meanwhile, most frown at sexist, homophobic and other epithetic utterances intended to demean whole categories of people based on personal characteristics or creed. \u00a0Finally, after decades of effort and consciousness raising, Martin Luther King\u2019s dream of a culture that judges people on the content of their character is encouragingly close to reality.<\/p>\n

But the news is not all good. Many of our brothers and sisters remain the victims of a pervasive but nearly invisible bigotry\u2014and indeed subjected continually to profoundly demeaning and hateful characterizations\u2014mostly without social protest, cultural opprobrium, or even notice by the usual enforcers of cultural comity. \u00a0Indeed, the \u201chate speakers\u201d may even be applauded or their denigration either not noticed or ignored, perhaps because the denigrators are often themselves unaware that they have engaged in hurtful rhetoric.<\/p>\n

Ironically, this still-discriminated-against group is also our most diverse. Its membership comes in all races, ages, nationalities, genders, sexual orientations, and any other human identifier one can conjure. \u00a0In fact, if not already within this scorned cadre, any one of us could become a member at any time, and all of us have\u2014or had\u2014loved ones who could be so identified. So, who are these despised unfortunates?\u00a0 People with profound cognitive disabilities and catastrophically debilitating diseases, against whom it remains respectable to employ profoundly demeaning descriptives both in public discourse, public policy advocacy, and private conversation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I go into the history of\u00a0such\u00a0bigotry, including eugenics,\u00a0Permission to Destroy Life Unworthy of Life<\/em>, and other matters, and give examples from the contemporary scene such as David Brooks using the “bag of skin” pejorative and “Family Guy” attacking Terri Schiavo as a \u201cvegetable.\u201d I also describe the impact of the \u201cunrepentant bigotry\u201d – for example,\u00a0how the organs of such people are now coveted within some elements of the transplant medical and bioethics communities. Also, how some are now saying that it would be right to\u00a0euthanize such people for the benefit of society.<\/p>\n

I conclude:<\/p>\n

Activists and their supporters who struggle against racism and other forms of discriminatory thinking have long understood that the words we use express how we think, which in turn, leads to action being taken\u2013both private and public.\u00a0 By working to make racist and similar epithets beyond the pale, activists like Martin Luther King understood that better behavior would follow\u2014and so it has.<\/p>\n

Yet, there remains in society one group of people who are still mocked, dehumanized, marginalized, castigated, blamed for woes, and subjected to threatened actions that present a clear danger to their lives and futures. If we are to have a truly equal and moral society, if our health care system is to have any chance of caring properly for the least of those among us, to use a Biblical turn of phrase, we need to watch our mouths and cleanse our hearts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a long article, but it puts\u00a0a lot of things we have discussed here into a broader mosaic. Check it out.<\/p>\n

Note<\/em>: The full article, “Unrepentant Bigotry,” was first published in Human Life Review<\/em>, and this article was reprinted with permission of the author.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How can we allow people with profound disabilities to be denigrated as \u201cskin bags\u201d or as mere flora?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":349,"featured_media":15032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDiscrimination against people with disabilities continues - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/discrimination-against-people-with-disabilities-continues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Discrimination against people with disabilities continues - Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How can we allow people with profound disabilities to be denigrated as \u201cskin bags\u201d or as mere flora?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/discrimination-against-people-with-disabilities-continues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-20T22:04:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-04-03T05:14:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/terri.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"275\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"184\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Wesley J. 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