Who're we quoting? (BADD edition)

Alright guys, I'm about halfway through the BADD posts, and they are sooo excellent!! I mean, just mind-blowingly amazing pieces about the political, the personal, the polite, the rude, the ramps, the wrongs and rights, the feelings and the future. I thought I'd give you a glimpse, if you didn't have hours of time to devote today, although I'd go back to Goldfish's place and just start wandering if you had a few minutes. Here are some of the highlights I've found so far: This post by Hoyden About Town, who talks a lot about the political ramifications of disability, good crip vs bad crip, and "shiny happy super powers:" What more could you want? But the reality is, people with disabilities are far more varied and complicated, not a collection of conveniently-cliched characters in morality plays and Hallmark specials. Some of us have carer responsibilities ourselves. And hobbies. And political ideas. And social lives. We are not potplants, pets, malingerers, inspirations, handfuls, beds, wheelchairs, freakshows, mascots, superheroes, or angels. Just people. With lives that aren’t reducible to being an economic unit or someone else’s encumbrance. From the comment section of Missnomered's BADD post, Amanda's comment about CFIDS and how people are always volunteering cures: It seems as if you’re supposed to devote your entire life to “getting better,” and nothing to just living your life. If you try to just live your life, then that is oddly enough called “giving up”. A fabulous line from Cripchik's ... I'm going to call it a call to arms: Life happens to be of higher quality, you know, when you can actually do things like breathe. Then there's this post about Stereotype Threat, and the self fulfilling prophecy, a notion which I find both unendingly complicated and frighteningly simple, but ends with this wonderful tidbit: Activism--feminism, anti-racism, anti-classism, and most relevantly anti-disablism--by challenging stereotypes actually makes them less true. Isn't that brilliant? Doesn't that give you hope? There were a ton of CFIDS/ME/FM illness related posts, (that I've read so far), which is a hard thing to swallow. It's sad, on the one hand to know that there are so many of us out there suffering, and on the other? It's so heartening to know that there are people who understand. Like this line from tigertale7, who's experiences with doctors are eerily familiar... Chances are, if you're only seeing me every several weeks or longer? You're not seeing the reality of my illness. And then there's JayAngel's post... with a fabulous description of healthy privilege, and how you can have it and not even know (Don't worry, I used to be the same way.)& what it means in your interactions with People with Disabilities... When you get sick, and you feel crappy and people expect you to function normally and you can’t and you’re grumpy and you feel awful, you know you’ll get better, and you get treated or wait the cold out and then you feel okay again. I don’t get to do that, I don’t get to know that. Healthy people don’t have to fight for every ounce of energy they have. And that comes across, all the time, when you have no idea it does. And all I want from you, those with healthy privilege, is to see and acknowledge that there are disabled people in this world, and you can’t expect them to be able to do everything you can do at the drop of a hat. Don’t come upon the words “I can’t come out tonight” and hear “I don’t want to come out with you”. Hear what is being said, which is “I don’t have the energy to do all of the activity needed to come out tonight”. If a doctor is told by a patient that they are bedbound and need a home visit, I would like that doctor to hear “I am bedbound and wish to be cooperative and get treatment; I am asking you for help” instead of “I just need to be encouraged to make the requisite effort”. If you go to a friend’s house and their sister’s friend, who has CFS, is lying exhausted on the couch and declines the offer of joining everyone else on a walk, please try to hear what is being said, “I am ill and exhausted, but appreciate being included in the offer”, rather than hearing “I’m too lazy to go for a walk, I’d rather lie here”. ...And I'm in danger of copying her whole post... just go over there and check it out, will you? I'm taking them as I can, so we may be back with even more fabulousness, as I get to them. Happy Sunday, all.