In my usual shopping fashion today rushing my way through Walmart getting the last minute needs for the shoebox project I almost, ALMOST ran into about 18 people. The place was crazy busy being the season and all. And then it happened. I DID run into someone, ran my shopping cart right into her side. It was someone I knew, I apologized, we laughed, we chatted for a few minutes. We shared some of the new things happening in our lives and we decided we would get together after the holidays for a tea. Apology accepted, good giggle, good conversation and a date made. On with my rush.
And then IT happened. A couple walking within feet of myself and my friend commentated our entire meeting and it went like this:
Person #1 - "Did you see that chick? She just ran into that Re&^$#@# girl."
Person #2 - "What?"
Person #1 - "You know the girl that rides the short bus?" That chick ran into her and then actually stuck around to talk.
Now first I must say I hope my friend did not hear any of this and if she did I apologize for not advocating for us both by sharing my thoughts with this couple. Secondly I must tell you that I don't think she heard it because she is much bolder than me and would have confronted them.
There is just so much that is not right about this whole situation.
Don't get me wrong I don't have a problem with the "R" word used in its proper context, however it has been used for so many years to refer to human beings that it makes me quiver. The definition of the word refers to inanimate objects, NOT HUMAN BEINGS! PERIOD! The word, today, was used to refer to a human being.
What does it mean to ride the short bus? For many years children of all shapes, sizes and colors have ridden small buses or vans to school. How did people with intellectual or physical disabilities become "short bus riders"?
Yes my friend uses a wheelchair. And as I said I ran right into the side of her. Was I ignorant? Yes, because I was rushing and not paying attention. It was ignorant to run into anyone, the wheelchair had nothing to do with it. I don't feel any worse for running into her than I would anyone else, in fact I am glad it was her and not a stranger who would have growled at me. At least we had a fun conversation to follow our crash!
So at least one of these people assumed that my friend was the "R" word because she uses a wheelchair and probably because when she speaks its takes more time to listen to understand what she is saying. Let me tell you what she was saying. She was telling me that she has just been invited by a provincial organization to be an advocate for the Parry Sound area for people with disabilities. This is an honour. She is a good advocate. She will do a good job. When the first person spoke of my friend like this the second person listened and laughed and tisked at me. They agreed with eachother and thought that my friend and I were the people who were involved in the most mortifying situation. They didnt even realize that they made themselves look way more ignorant than I.
I had to check my calendar. It is 2013. Yes, yes it is. In 2013 we have come far beyond referring to people as the ``R`` word or ``short bus riders``. So if I were to refer to any human using the ``R`` word these days it would be those that are a bit SLOW at realizing that this is unacceptable, ignorant and downright degrading not to mention we just don`t do it. PERIOD out of RESPECT for human beings. That is the definition of the word, afterall, SLOW or some variation of that.
But I digress because I realize that some people are not exposed to the progression of society in the area of disability so I am forgiving and understanding. I remind myself of this everytime something erks me like this.
So my challenge to myself and anyone who reads this. Next time you hear someone speaking in a derogatory way about another human being, educate them. No need to be rude or angry just give them a little bit of education about todays way of doing things. It may not always be recieved well but at least you tried. The goal is to share our knowledge, repsect eachother and advocate where needed.
The old saying, ``You can lead a horse to water, but you can`t make him drink``. Well, I agree but if you never take the horse to the water they never see the opportunity to quench their thirst, whether they choose to use it or not is not our problem. Lead the horses to water.
No comments:
Post a Comment