What Was Pope Francis Doing?

Pope Francis washes the feet of disabled people as part of Easter celebrations

Delia Gallagher, CNN - April 17, 2014

"Those chosen for the special honor included a 16-year-old boy from Cape Verde who was paralyzed in a diving accident last year, a 19-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman diagnosed with cerebral palsy, and two 86-year-olds with mobility problems.”

I know that the sensible, non-obsessive thing to do in situations like this is to compartmentalize and appreciate. Compartmentalize that it’s nice for the Pope to make such a gesture to a group of lowly and disadvantaged people, and set aside the question of why people with these disabilities are housed in a “home for the elderly and disabled”, and not living at home, with their families, or on their own if they choose? And then just appreciate the act of compassion … or is it respect?

Then there is the theological meaning, which is probably more important, but which I am not qualified to say much about. From what I have read, this Pope has often used the foot-washing ritual to buck high-church tradition and show love and respect for socially stigmatized people … like pregnant women in maternity homes, youth in drug rehabilitation, and AIDS patients. In which case choosing to focus on disabled people is significant, possibly a unique way of highlighting and de-stigmatizing them.

This would be a significant if subtle break from another Church tradition of a compassion towards disabled people that tended to further stigmatize and condescend. Think Mother Teresa, whose order wouldn’t install elevators required by local codes in their orphanages because they considered them, a luxury. They would carry disabled patients up and down flights of stairs. For them, the symbolic sacrifice of the giver was the whole point, and the recipients of their acts were little more than bit players in their interpretation of compassion. It’s the classic misunderstanding of compassion as something primarily for the giver, in which the receiver is nothing but an inert vessel.

That’s what I worried was going on with Pope Francis’ foot-washing. It still looks a little bit like that to me, though ultimately I don’t sense that Pope Francis thinks this way. I appreciate the idea of the highest Catholic Priest serving rather than being served.

Wouldn’t it be interesting, though, if one of those disabled people had reciprocated, and washed the Pope’s feet? Or, washed one another’s feet? Not to reinforce the perception that disabled people are humble or subservient, but to underscore that we can be givers as well as receivers.

Scheduling Note

I am going to wait until Monday to post the first of my three-part series of blog posts, Disabled People Need Three Things. I’m thinking of writing something today about Pope Francis washing disabled peoples’ feet. Maybe today, or maybe tomorrow. Anyway, I have been reading the headline about that for a couple of days and I’m really curious what that was about.

Disabled People Need Three Things

I had fun a couple weeks ago writing a three-part series of blog posts on different forms of "Ableism”. So, I have decided to do another series, this time fleshing out another “grand unified theory” of disability. I will argue that disabled people of all kinds only really need three things:

1. Accessibility

2. Money

3. Agency

Over the next three days, I will explain what I mean by each of these. For now I just want to clarify that when I talk about things disabled people need, I don’t count things everyone needs … like food, clothes, and shelter. I’m not talking about curing any diseases or lessening our disabilities through therapies. To me, those are separate concerns. What I am looking it is what people with disabilities uniquely need to live well with their disabilities.

Why am I doing this?

I'm doing it because I think we sometimes get so caught up in specific goals that we lose sight of what we really after. There are thousands of disability-related policies to advocate, hard-won victories to defend, and small, incremental improvements to shoot for. But really, they all relate in some way to these three things ... Accessibility, Money, and Agency. Or, they should relate, and if we are working our asses off for something that doesn't relate, then maybe that's a sign we should reassess what we are doing.

Stay tuned!

Photo Of The Day

From the Fight Tumblr blog.

Best Article On Assistive Devices

I Am My Wheelchair and My Wheelchair Is Me

That Crazy Crippled Chick - March 30, 2014

One of the interesting things about “disability pride” is that for people who don’t actually have it, it probably seems like kind of a feeble, made-up attempt to turn lemons into lemonade. I used to think that, myself. I never really felt bad about my disability, but the idea of showing it, embracing it, or celebrating it seemed almost nonsensical to me.

One of the first ways I began to understand a different view was through observing how a lot of disabled people come to see their wheelchairs, crutches, and other assistive devices as more than just tools. I experienced it myself when I used a scooter throughout college and graduate school, and in the same period started using a ventilator at night to help me breathe. I never felt stigmatized by them, and soon I started to feel grateful for them almost like one is grateful to a person. Seeing my scooter or my ventilator after being away from them for a bit made me feel comfort, like I was coming home in a sense.

As I met other disabled people, and got to know some of them online, one thing thing that the happiest, most independent of them had in common was an intimacy and sense of fun about their devices. I don’t know which comes first though. Do you come to embrace and love your wheelchair because you embrace and take pride in your disability identity? Or, does incorporating a wheelchair into your look and personality help you accept and embrace your disability?

This isn’t quite the same discussion “That Crazy Cripple Chick” is having, but what she’s writing about here is closely related, and it is a great starting point for someone who, for whatever reason, can’t seem to view assistive devices with anything but sadness, disappointment, or fear.

Photo Of The Day

From the Disable Seeker Tumblr blog, via Ramp Your Voice!

My Cup Runneth Over

This morning I watched a few episodes of the British TV show QI, a a sort of comedy quiz show hosted by Stephen Fry. One of the questions was about how many steps a person can take before definitely spilling a cup of coffee. The answer is between 7 and 10 steps. It is predictable like that because of the physics of liquid oscillation. The liquid in your cup starts moving, and as you take each step, the ripples in the cup build on themselves so that no matter how smoothly and carefully you walk, eventually you are going to spill some.

I was thinking that this would be a good way for disabled people to measure just how off-kilter our walking is ... if weird walking is part of our thing ... or how skilled our handling of a wheelchair is I suppose. Judging from the blotches of tea on the tile floor of my kitchen, I can go at most 3 steps before I start slopping.

On "QI", after Fry explained how oscillation works, he talked about how it might be possible to invent a cup that counteracts oscillation so it would be spill-resistant. I literally did not understand the explanation, but I would buy the hell out that cup.

The Mayor Of Swindon

How did this disabled-hating bigot ever get elected mayor of Swindon?

Frances Ryan, The Guardian - April 15, 2014

"Are we still letting mongols have sex with each other?"

Apparently, Nick Martin, the now ex-Mayor of Swindon in the United Kingdom, said this during a council discussion of the "challenges of disabled adults in modern society". He was officially required to apologize for the words he used, tried several times to do so but with obvious insincerity, and has now resigned.

I have no problem with certain kinds of statements by officials being deemed off-limits and requiring apologies. But the words themselves might be only part of the story. I would very much like to know more about that discussion. Was the Mayor's offensive statement accompanied by regressive policy ideas? What did the other people in the discussion think? Were they all appalled, or did some of them chuckle or nod? Was it a casual chat, or were actual policies being debated that could affect real people? What policies were being discussed that could produce this specific statement about disabled people, sexuality, and fertility? That would seem to be important, but so far I haven't seen anyone mention the context.

Absent any other information, I am glad the man resigned. In all likelihood, this wasn't an isolated incident. Martin probably has regressive views on all sorts of people and ideas he disapproves of. However, it does seem like focusing on the words themselves rather than the meaning behind them serves both sides in a rather unfortunate way. The higher officials get to feel good that they have punished the Mayor for a tasteless, embarrassing indiscretion, without reference or apparent impact on any substantive policy issues. Meanwhile, as this Guardian column points out, the ex-Mayor gets to feel like a martyr to "political correctness" and a defender of free speech and old-fashioned plan-spokenness. And he still hasn't been asked to explain why he apparently thinks "mongols" shouldn't have sex. What is he suggesting? Does he think that government entities that were under his Mayoral control should have the legal power to regulate disabled peoples' most intimate choices?

I suspect that there are many more government officials who feel the same way about the rights of intellectually disabled people, who would never expose their beliefs with such offensive words. That is not a comfort.

Would Martin still be Mayor of Swindon if he had used more polite words to advocate state control of an entire population's fertility and sex lives? Words can be hurtful in and of themselves, but they also reflect ideas, and ideas can be translated into action. It's the actions I worry about more.

One Year Later

In honor of the Boston Bombing survivors, one year later, I am re-posting this great video by AmputeeOT:

Most of what she says applies equally well to anyone experiencing a new disability.

Survey Results

A big thank-you to the 29 people who have completed my survey on what they’d like to see in a disability-themed website. Here are some of the results so far. I have organized the top rated choices in each section … with ties grouped together. I will be using these results to help shape a more extensive Disability Thinking website. In the meantime, the survey is still open, so if you haven’t done it yet, feel free.

Website Features

First Place

• Disability News - Links & Analysis
• Articles by Invited Writers

Second Place

• Resources - Links by Topic

Third Place

• Blogs by Selected Bloggers

Fourth Place

• Personal Stories by Invited Writers
• Advocacy - Features & Campaigns

Topics

First Place

• Accessibility

Second Place

• Assistive Tech & Mobility Aids

Third Place

• Disability Rights Laws
• Disability In Popular Culture & Media
• Identifying & Combating Ableism
• Disability Policy & Politics

Fourth Place

• Medical Care

Who Did The Survey?

• 72% Disabled
• 12% Disability Services Providers
• 8% Family Member of Disabled Person
• 8% Other

Of The Disabled People ...

• 85% Physical / Mobility Impairment
• 30% Mental Illness
• 30% Chronic Illness
• 15% Sensory Impairment

Photo Of The Day

From the Disability Fashion Project Tumblr blog.

Tax Day!

Where your tax dollars go, in one chart

Matthew Yglesias, Vox.com - April 14, 2014

"As the saying goes, the government is an insurance company with an army — it takes care of the elderly and the sick, and it projects force abroad.”

Since today is tax day, I agree with Vox.com that it is a good time to look at the broad outlines of what the Federal Government spends money on. I am also including the chart they use, from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The quote above seems to say it all, and I must say, put this way, it doesn’t sound so terrible. The “insurance” part … Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare I happily support. The military? Well, that’s another matter. Still, until we decide to become an entirely different kind of country, it seems like the United States’ position in the world means that the military will always be a big portion of the Federal Budget, with modest fluctuations as circumstances change.

A few more thoughts:

- It is hard to pick out spending for disabled people, because most of our direct benefits are parts of the Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare categories, plus portions of the 12% “Safety Net” category for things like Food Stamps and Housing Subsidies. This report doesn’t say how much of Social Security is Disability and SSI, and how much is Retirement, which I might try to find out.

- It has been said before, but bears repeating. Non-miliary foreign aid, shown here as “Non-Military International” is only 1% of the Federal Budget. So the notion that we ought to stop spending money on foreigners and help our people here is really kind of an empty idea. The same goes for things like government worker salaries and pensions, and paying Members of Congress. We might begrudge them their perks and benefits, especially when we disagree with them anyhow, but paying them nothing wouldn’t add much to programs we actually like, or reduce the deficit.

- Why is “Education” so low? Because this is the Federal Budget, and most day-to-day costs for public education are borne by states and localities. Federal money for Education generally goes for grants and extra supports which, again, don’t amount to much in comparison to the rest of the Federal Budget.

- Where is Obamacare? It isn’t here yet, in a chart of the 2013 Federal Budget. Next year it will probably be split between the “Medicaid and Medicare” category, and maybe have a category of it’s own for the subsidies people will be getting to buy private insurance.

Photo Of The Day

From the Oldmaninsorrow Tumblr blog, via Wheelchair Problems.