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Disabled People Are Not Necessarily "Angels"

Norman

Defender of Truth
Yesterday I read a post made by a member of the charity organization I'm in. He said, "When you deal with disabled people, you feel like you are dealing with angels. They are something else."

I found the comment condescending, full of pity, and melodramatic. Putting someone on a pedestal because of any given inherent trait or characteristic that they can't change and is outside their control strikes me as just as offensive as treating them as being inferior. This person's comment uses the same logic that some people use to defend the idea that women should be put on pedestals and treated as "queens" (a common excuse that a lot of people use to justify the idea that men should do everything on behalf of women), that minorities can't be prejudiced, that Black people can't be racist, etc.

Taha Hussein, dubbed the Dean of Arabic literature, became blind during his childhood. The reason he became blind was that he had conjunctivitis, and instead of taking him to a doctor, his family put lamp oil in his eyes so that they would "light up like a lamp." They were that ignorant. As a result, he lost his eyesight, and his parents treated him very differently from his numerous siblings. In the introduction to his autobiography, Al-Ayam (The Days), he said (and I'm paraphrasing his words):



So, no, disabled people are not necessarily "angels." They are also not inferior to anyone else. They are people.

Norman: Myself and my wife had a daughter biologically who was born with "Downs Syndrome." Three years later we adopted my son when he was a day old. My beautiful son was
born with Fragile-X-Syndrome. In my experience I raised two angels, my son wasn't always easy to deal with unlike our daughter because of the severity of his disability. However, I
never looked at him as rude like other kids and teacher's did. We had to deal with this all the time. Other parents abuse their off spring who is born with special needs and it is sickening.
I agree with you that yes, special needs adults and children are indeed people and other's need to look to them as such. In the light that they are not freaks or weird or bizarre. My wife
is the Queen of my home and the love of my life. My wife lost her right leg six years into our marriage, she kept going on being a Mother and never looked back. Your post is not enough
to sway me to agree with you. However, if that is how you feel that is your right.
 
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