Words

Oh boy! It looks like the legislators are at it again! They’re trying to help out the cripples, whether we like it or not! A couple of state legislators in Massachusetts are trying to push through a bill that’s entitled “An Act amending certain laws relative to individuals with disabilities.” It strikes phrases such as “handicapped persons,” “disabled individuals,” “disabled American veterans,” and “mentally retarded” from state laws and replaces them with phrases such as “persons with disabilities,” “person with an intellectual or developmental disability.” And of course it has received unanimous support so far. And why not? To vote against something like that can get you pegged as a Cripple Scrooge. But voting for it gives you an opportunity to go around pretending that you love cripples while you quietly work against their best interests. Don’t get me wrong. I think language is important because it shows what we really think about certain people. If you call someone a retard because you mean it as an insult, that shows what you and people who find that funny really think of retards and cripples. It shows that you think of them as lesser-than and spewing propaganda like that provides the dehumanizing cover that is needed to justify mistreating or ignoring certain people. But all this reminds me of when the federal government passed a law that was called Rosa’s Law. Its purpose was to change federal law so that “references to mental retardation” were changed to ”references to an intellectual disability” and references to “a mentally retarded individual" were changed to references to “an individual with an intellectual disability.” And this law also passed unanimously and was signed by Barack Obama. Thus, the words mentally retarded were forever stricken from all federal documents. At the time, the feds gave money to states that had an ICF/MR operating within their borders. That stands for intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded. Those places were essentially nursing homes where they locked up cripples who needed a high level of assistance and took away their rights. They still exist in every state and they still get lots of money from the federal government to lock up cripples who need a high level of assistance and take away their rights. Only now, thanks to Rosa’s Law, the federal government calls them ICF/IDs. I bet if some legislator introduced a bill to defund those places and spend the money instead supporting people in real community settings, it wouldn’t pass unanimously. Banishing a word is one way of destigmatizing it. Or those who have been burned the most by the stigma can do the opposite and say it loud and proud as often as they can until it isn’t so dehumanizing anymore. (Please support Smart Ass Cripple and help us keep going. Just click below to contribute.) https://www.paypal.me/smartasscripple?fbclid=IwAR2qrql-UFH19OepgeaCG4WmblyNylb27k2q8eYxXHH