Political correctness can be persnickety and autocratic at times. Consequently, I sometimes find myself resisting PC totalitarianism with redneck fervor. On the whole, however, the PC movement has made us a more enlightened and empathetic society. Sadly, PC is one of the few areas in which our culture has become more respectful, and insightful. After all, it is not a bad thing to put yourself into the shoes of somebody else to get a more lucid comprehension of how those shoes might feel on the owner.
Hopefully, there will come a time when we longer pass the "down and out on their luck" souls without seeing them, but rather feel at least some concern about their plight and perhaps real anger that such suffering is avoidable and unconscionable in any civilized society. Some of us may even be compelled to act against such injustice. Homelessness and economic injustices are not the reason for this post, but hopefully illustrate the utility of PC in terms of awareness and personal responsibility. I am not speaking in a social Darwinian context when I speak of responsibility. I am talking about our responsibility for creating a restorative culture that reviles the injustice of blaming victims. Our society is teeming with such toxic notions that only serve to disfigure our collective sensibilities and divide us along all kinds of phony manufactured fault lines.
Disability has become one the more prominent categories of America's social apartheid. Throughout the "greed is good" corporate media, you will increasingly hear calls to reduce the excesses of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). The social safety net in this or any other country is an index of national decency and compassion. The ADA is one of the few tools available to empower the formerly powerless. But those without power can make no demands and will receive little or no funding. By not helping the vulnerable, politicians representing me and you can cut taxes for the wealthy. Calls for smaller government (except for military expenditures -the greedy must be defended) are little more than attempts to further dismantle America's tattered safety net. Less help for those who need it is a predictable response from Washington because in the amoral world of American politics the afflicted are always to blame for the affliction. The result is an America that is more heartless, sociopathic, and indecent. Americans are not very good at nuance. The complexities that make our world so fascinating trigger intellectual anaphylaxis in many Americans who prefer their thinking in convenient, time saving, microwaveable boxes. This is fodder for another essay.
The ADA is an exemplar of America's decency and millions of Americans have benefited from the empowerment it provides. Control over one's life and the means to have that control are enormously important to the disabled or anyone else for that matter. Having legal recourse to injustice strengthens the perception of one's competency and ability to achieve self-reliance. The important word here is perception. It is much like the placebo effect. If we believe we will get better or if we believe we can do something, the more likely a positive outcome will be realized. The medical establishment is all too often driven by attitudes, policies, and perceptions that blame the sick for their medical conditions. Why would we expect otherwise in a nation where aerosolizing the innocent in wars of dubious legality is barely newsworthy, but universal healthcare is creeping socialism that will make our citizens more dependent on government largesse. Money can be spent on cluster bombs, but not on a child's health.
I have a daughter named Caitlin who was diagnosed with type I diabetes when she was 18 months old. Caitlin is now a graduate student majoring in molecular biology. She is one of my heroes. I love Caitlin more than my own life by many times. In all of the years that she has had to cope with diabetes, I have never once heard her complain about the unfairness of living with her illness. Caitlin is a warrior and she has taught me so much about inner strength and resiliency. She copes and battles each and every day. She does not see herself as a victim and neither do I. Self-pity is not in her vocabulary. That doesn't mean I am not angry. I seethe all of the time when I think about the trifling amount of money that my government spends on research for a cure to a disease that affects millions in this country alone and is eminently curable (Check out Denise Faustman’s exciting and unfunded work at Harvard and Mass General). I seethe at the genocidal Bush administration for not supporting stem cell research because it was immoral in the eyes of a mass murderer. I seethe at a government that spent more money to bury the homicidal Ronald Reagan than it allocated that year to the CDC for diabetes research. I seethe at the diabetes establishment which spends most of its money teaching people with diabetes to submissively play the role of victim. They market fear instead of hope and activism. I seethe at the politics of disease in this country that makes some illnesses more deserving of vast and grossly disproportionate amounts of research and treatment dollars while other conditions receive next to nothing. I seethe at the corporate agenda of exploitation of human suffering. I seethe at the FDA and their complicity with big Pharma as drug after drug -most of questionable efficacy and treasonable cost- are touted as the next dramatic step to a promised but always elusive cure. I seethe at the entire medical infrastructure that has adopted the money driven paradigm of treatment over cure and prevention. Finally, I seethe at a nation that worships Mammon above human dignity and compassion. To paraphrase Holden Caufield, if Christ could see the necrotic evil of America's dark soul underlying the vapid platitudes of a nano-thin, once-upon-a-time "can do" veneer (“I pledge allegiance...."), he would throw up.
No comments:
Post a Comment