If you are so inclined, please vote for this "aha moment" video. As Jack, the man who posted the video in a comment, pointed out, the more disability awareness there is, the better!

In accordance with harm

Let's be very frank for a moment with each other, you and I. In discussing on Facebook the ridiculous prospect of parents taking their children to H1N1 parties to infect their kids with the flu, it dawned on me that what people who refuse to vaccinate are doing is asking the rest of us to put their faith or opinions ahead of our lives. That is not an equal trade.

We stopped killing people because they believed something different from us years ago. Or, most of us did, anyway. We still get the Timothy McVeighs and the Eric Rudolphs, but most of us realize that the harm we do others can not be intended and must be mitigated when spotted. Most of us find it abhorent that people would kill others based on nothing more than belief. I know I watched in horror as women were beaten and killed in Afghanistan because they had done some unspeakable thing, like, attempted to get food by themselves because they lacked a male relative to take them to get it and they were starving to death. This sort of thing happened because the men in charge put their beliefs before the lives of others. They took the words of long dead men and used them to not just justify their actions, but to be the very character of the dasein of the act. In the "civilized" world we call people like that deluded, at best, murderers, at worst.

So please tell me: Why should we allow people who erroneously believe that vaccines cause disease or autism not to vaccinate their children and themselves? Why should we allow people who believe it is against their religious beliefs an exemption? After all, in doing this they are putting the rest of us at risk for terrible pain and death. If they were dumping carcinogens into a water supply, we'd go all Erin Brokovich on them and make sure they paid for the damage they inflicted. This is what we do in this country; we protect our society and our people when others wish to do us harm. We allow for people to believe whatever they wish to believe, but we do not allow anyone to use those beliefs to harm others. (Obviously, there is an argument to be made that the death penalty does just that, but that is far more complex argument and one that can effectively be dismissed. I'll allow you to get there on your own.) In fact, if you have a positive syphilis test in this country the facility that ran the test is required by law to report those results to the health department. Why? because syphilis is a terrible disease that is easily spread and will ravage populations if allowed to go unchecked. It doesn't matter if you believe that you have every right to your disease and every right to spread it to others who are foolish enough to sleep with you without protection; what matters is that you pose a significant risk to the public and that risk must be mitigated if society is to prosper.

People will say that the risk posed by the unvaccinated is minimal when the rest of us are vaccinated. This used to be true. After years of successful campaigns against vaccination, however, we are losing our herd immunity. We must have 95% of people vaccinated for herd immunity to be effective for measles, for example. Have you ever had the measles? I had them. 33 years ago. I remember it vividly because it was so terribly painful. But I was also lucky because, as virulent as the strain I had was, I did not die. So I ask again: Why would we allow others to harm us in this way?

I say, we do not allow it. We require immunization as a protection against disease and those who would do us harm by enacting their beliefs. Protecting its citizenry is one of the primary reasons for society to exist; it's time for all of us to be protected from the people who would do us harm.

Picture credit

Oh dear god, why did I do a google image search for syphilis? Why?

We are magnificent

I've been seeing a lot of pink everywhere I turn. Of course, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which explains the explosion of pink. But did you know that October is also Disability Awareness Month? 'tis.

We choose months to bring awareness to our causes and I think we have the Susan G. Komen Foundation to thank for that. I've long been an admirer of Nancy Brinker, the sister of Susan G. Komen and the woman who started the foundation and its tremendous work. If all causes had someone like her I think we'd see a great deal more done for those causes.

My cause doesn't have just one person driving it or one person pushing us to realize it's important. We are too many in number for such a thing and it is so pervasive in humanity. But I ask you, all of you, to stop and consider what it is like to live the life of a disabled person. You can't imagine it if you aren't doing it, I know, but try. Try to imagine that the doors where you work are generally too heavy for you to open IF you have a free hand. And imagine people almost knocking you down as they race through the automatic doors to get to class after violently mashing the button to get them open. That's not that bad, really, but it does wear you down. Now imagine not being able to go to a concert or sporting event because you can't navigate stairs. Or having to get the movie theatre manager to move the able bodied out of the handicap reserved seats so that you can see a movie. I realize these things are only minor annoyances, which makes them all the more galling. Why? because they should be obvious to everyone.

The truth is, however, that there is true joy attached to being disabled. I think I've already written about how lovely it is to have the perspective of fragility. There is never the unconscious living we tend to do when all things are open to us; there is always thought and the slowness of deliberation. There is an amazing freedom that one can gain from continuing on after tragedy or illness that defines things clearly and, mostly, consistently. And there is, simply, life. We continue to live it because there is no other alternative. (I maintain that suicide is not the opposite of choosing to live after disability, or any other tragedy. A topic for another day.) It just Is, for us. Just as your life Is, for you.

So, let me share something beautiful. It's longer than the videos you find on youtube but it is well worth the 20 minutes. Yes, we are magnificent.

Enjoy.