Work
I’m currently taking law classes and this semester is Tort Law, which is all the negligence, slip and fall, accident stuff. Â It’s a lot more than that too! Â A huge subject. Â As I read my textbook last night I felt rather furious about how suing for injuries works. Â If you get injured, then you find someone to blame, and you try to get money from them. Â Kind of makes me feel sick. I know we punish people in this society with money, with taking away money, but I wish there was a better way. The thing that upsets me is the whole thing is designed to squeeze as big a payout as possible by playing on people’s pity (for a disturbingly accurate portrayal, see the beginning part of the movie A Civil Action). Â It is a huge step backwards for disability...
Read MoreCosmo Profile
Just stated reading my Cosmopolitan magazine this month and imagine my delight in discovering that the “true story” section this month features a beautiful quadriplegic woman! This section is for “shocking” true stories, so of course it played a little bit on that drama with the title, “Her Bachelorette Party Left Her Paralyzed.” The article was good, though. It was interesting to me that she is less than a year post-injury and seems to have a very rational perspective on the whole thing. I suspect that part of that is simply the experience of being in the media. Profiles like this need you to be one thing or another, they don’t allow for the natural variety of one’s emotions and experiences. What I mean is, for...
Read MoreAbilities
I’m currently taking law classes in a paralegal program and it leads to some very interesting things to ponder and discuss. My class this semester is on Tort law and last night we talked about assault and battery. Battery is when you physically touch someone in an unwanted way (i.e., hit him), but assault is when you make someone afraid that you will soon touch them in an unwanted way (i.e., threats, telling someone that you are about to hit him). In order for it to legally be assault, the person being threatened has to believe that there will be imminent harm. Part of that condition is that the person who puts you into apprehension has to be capable of committing the act they are threatening. The teacher literally said, “For example, a...
Read MoreMillion Dollar Baby
I have never watched Million Dollar Baby. It won awards, people were talking about it, it was a big deal. I considered watching it until I heard about the ending. I am so tired of every movie with a quadriplegic character in it being about how that character wants to die. It is so trite and so ignorant. It’s lazy on the part of the writers. From what I’ve heard the depiction of quadriplegia is over dramatic and unrealistic. I should watch it for the sake of completeness in my “research” of disability in the media, but I’d rather keep my sanity. The only thing watching that movie is going to do for me is raise my blood...
Read MorePC Language
I don’t think that we are ever going to find a perfect way to refer to people with disabilities, unfortunately. There are a lot of kooky attempts to find politically correct language. As with all minorities and subgroups, different members will have different feelings about it and everyone should be respectful of that. There may be those who like the phrase “differently abled.” To me it sounds ridiculously, over-the-top cutesy and condescending. The phrase “handicappable” makes me want to throw up. But as usual, my opinion isn’t really the one that matters. Here’s an essay I like: “Differently-abled” There is no good word to use for this, there really isn’t. I resonate with the idea that society is what...
Read MoreA YouTube Video
Not my usual fare, but I ran across this on YouTube: I’m glad that the people in this video are happy with the program, I just don’t really understand it. Being able to walk doesn’t make you any less paralyzed. A wheelchair is such a terrible symbol that you would rather move in this painstakingly slow and difficult manner than use one? I think it’s the image of a wheelchair that needs changing. I don’t think people should feel the need to do absolutely everything they can to stay out of one, when it might be the most convienient and safe option for someone. It’s a chair and it has wheels on it. That’s all. It’s a useful, practical, and efficient mode of transportation for many people. It allows freedom and...
Read MoreProgress Trackers
At proofreaders; available for pre-order
What Is Meant To Be
Second draft
Homework & Homicide (working title)
Second Draft
Book Montage
RFW winner October 7, 2011
