Well, I'm listening and you are scaring the hell out of me. I had hoped things were changing just a little. I am prepared for the day my son comes home from school crying 'cause he was teased. I am prepared for his grief, his anger and frustration when it dawns on him that he is different physically from his peers. What I'm NOT prepared for is to watch him have to learn to accept the unacceptable "little things" as "that's the way it is". I HATE that anyone has to live like that.

Yvonne
Mommy to Anthony (spastic quad CP)

>>> [log in to unmask] 05/22/00 09:36AM >>>
I agree Ken. There are so many "little things" we encounter everyday that we
shrug off as "that's the way it is". The stares, the smirks, the "gee I didn't
know....". Even if we could remember it all, we couldn't tell it because no
TAB would take time to listen.

Bobby



>>I don't understand why disabled people I knew in the "before time" didn't
>>tell me about some of these things.  Maybe they thought I wouldn't have
>>listened.
>they listen, but just don't hear. just this week end my wife and i were
>talking about college entrance test. she just ask my scores. i told here and
>she said "my lord, why did you go into the government?"  i told her about
>graduating in the top 10 % of my class and being offered a job, making
>brooms." went over the other cases of discrimination and the fact there was
>no ADA. went over the fact that i should be 2-3 grades higher with the
>quallity of work i did (even in the government). now this is my wife. she
>has heard most of this before and still does not understand completely.
>
>>Mainstream media doesn't tell our stories the way they should be told.  I
>
>these people think they can spend the night on the street and know what it
>is like to be homeless, but they don't because they know that tomarrow night
>they  will be warm and comfortable. they think they can roll around for a
>day in a wheelchair or blindfolded and understand what it is like to be
>disabled, but they do not, because they know that tomarrow they will be
>walking, or seeing. part of disability is knowing that you'll not every play
>3rd base the way your brother does, that you'll never be on a highschool
>team, you can't even serve your country in the service. you know that 90 %
>of the opposite sex would not even thing about dating you, even those that
>are your friends would not ever consider you in a "dating way."
>part of being disabled is knowing that tomarrow will be the same, the next
>day, the day after that and on and on you are going to be disabled, then you
>get old a find that it gets worse.
>  how can anyone tell our story?