Washington Post letter by John Smith

[SCI-Nurse]

By our own John Smith, in Sunday's Washington Post:

(you need to register to read the whole article, but it is free and pretty easy):

It's a Life, Not a Feel-Good Moment
By John E. Smith

Sunday, January 8, 2006; Page B07

I was dismayed recently when a university newspaper ran an article about my son Noah's return to campus. The story reported on the highlights of his 2 1/2 -year hiatus from school. During that absence he had been rock-climbing, surfing, kayaking and paragliding. The hook was that he is a quadriplegic, the result of a freak accident in December 2002.

The story delivered an inspiring tale with which I am all too familiar. In the past three years I have read dozens of these stories, and they are poignant, each and every one. I have also learned that the lives of those who are paralyzed are more about what is not discussed than they are about what is trundled out time and time again.

So, at the risk of being branded a parental ingrate, I admit to having a problem with the inspiration thing. We all know the devil is in the details, so why the charade? Must we persist in defining disability only in ways that make us, the able-bodied, feel good?

By doing so we delude ourselves into thinking their lives are some kind of fantasy camp. Obviously, they are not living happily ever after in an amusement park of accessible activities. Nor is their existence an endlessly grim continuum of incontinence and indifferent caseworkers. Somewhere in between is a life.

For the rest of the article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...010601485.html

(KLD)

[bigbob]

Where should I reply to this in the other one in funding and legislation or here?

[Jadis]

Here's the link to the one John started with the article in it:
http://carecure.org/forum/showthread.php?t=56576