{"id":57435,"date":"2014-12-23T13:32:31","date_gmt":"2014-12-23T18:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=57435"},"modified":"2014-12-23T23:55:15","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T04:55:15","slug":"powerful-video-shows-that-every-life-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/powerful-video-shows-that-every-life-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Powerful video from paralyzed boy shows that every life matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>Many people don&#8217;t get the opportunity\u00a0to come face-to-face with a person who has a disability.\u00a0Rarer still is getting\u00a0an honest view of how a person feels about their\u00a0disability. But millions\u00a0caught\u00a0a glimpse into the life of an extraordinary individual living with a disability after actor Ashton Kutcher shared the following video with 18 million of his followers on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Cashel Gardner is a 17-year-old living with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, which, for Cashel, means that he cannot move, breathe, talk, or eat on his own. But he made this video to show that his life is fulfilling and valuable \u2013 and that everyone matters.<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5dTWZNGXfzM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Cashel describes himself as a computer expert and web designer, an avid gamer and someone who has many friends, an inspirational writer and motivational speaker. Nowhere does he describe himself as someone who is &#8220;suffering&#8221; or wishes that he were not alive. Though Cashel has a severe disability, he says that he does not see that as a bad thing \u2013 as he says, &#8220;SMA is just another part of who I am, and without every piece of my puzzle, I would be incomplete.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If only more people would hear Cashel&#8217;s words.<\/p>\n<p>Some view\u00a0disability negatively, or\u00a0as\u00a0something to be avoided. Babies with a prenatal diagnosis of <em>any<\/em>\u00a0form of disability, no matter how minor, are routinely aborted. And why? Because their parents believe they will be suffering\u00a0and\u00a0that their lives will not have value. Children and adults with disabilities are often targeted for euthanasia because their parents assume\u00a0their lives are not worth living.\u00a0Some may\u00a0have a mindset that if someone&#8217;s life is not (or potentially will not be &#8220;perfect&#8221;), then the more merciful option\u00a0is to kill them. Thus,\u00a0perfection is transformed into a false idol when, in fact, perfection doesn&#8217;t really exist.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps if more people spoke to individuals\u00a0like Cashel and heard firsthand that these are people who love life, love themselves, and are happy to be alive, their attitudes would change. Cashel is right. Everyone does matter, regardless of disability. Everyone matters. Every <em>life<\/em> matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many people don&#8217;t get the opportunity\u00a0to come face-to-face with a person who has a disability.\u00a0Rarer still is getting\u00a0an honest view of how a person feels about their\u00a0disability. But millions\u00a0caught\u00a0a glimpse into the life of an extraordinary individual living with a disability after actor Ashton Kutcher shared the following video with 18 million of his followers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":57474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[3093,3092,496,1049,3094,2438,2437,3096,3095],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Powerful video shows that every life matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A video created by Cashel Gardner shows the value of each human life, regardless of disability.\" \/>\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\/powerful-video-shows-that-every-life-matters\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Powerful video shows that every life matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A video created by Cashel Gardner shows the value of each human life, regardless of disability.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/powerful-video-shows-that-every-life-matters\/\" \/>\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=\"2014-12-23T18:32:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-24T04:55:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" 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