“Our once great western Christian civilization is dying. If this matters to followers of Jesus Christ, then we must set aside our denominational differences and work together to strengthen the things that remain and reclaim what has been lost. Evangelicals and Catholics must stand together to re-establish that former Christian culture and moral consensus. We have the numbers and the organization but the question is this: Do we have the will to win this present spiritual battle for Jesus Christ against secularism? Will we prayerfully and cooperatively work toward a new Christian spiritual revival ― or will we choose to hunker down in our churches and denominationalisms and watch everything sink into the spiritual and moral abyss of a New Dark Age?” - Mark Davis Pickup

Saturday, January 1, 2022

DISABILITY INCLUSION: SO FAR AND YET ... SO FAR!

Throughout my life (even before I was disabled with MS) I promoted disability inclusion. Many people have a hard time seeing people with disabilities (particularly visible disabilities or mental disabilities) as equals within normal society. Even progressives who pride themselves as inclusive have difficulty with this concept. They may say they don't, but they do. They make artificial gestures for token examples of disability inclusivity, but I always have a well-founded suspicion they are tokens and artificial. If it was otherwise, Canada would not fund and support assisted suicide by lethal injections for the disabled & terminally ill, while promoting suicide prevention amongst the healthy population. Canada's workforce would naturally tend to mirror the percentage of qualified and ready disabled workers in the population. But it does not. NOT even close!

I've been disabled almost all of my adult life. My children & grandchildren were brought up with disability in the family. They are comfortable with withered limbs and twisted bodies and tools used by people with disabilities such as wheelchairs, adapted vehicles and adapted homes. 

My wife and I taught them to see the person not their disability, to see abilities more than disabilities. That's genuine inclusion. (I've made many mistakes in my life but this was not one of them.) We did it before "inclusion" was a fashionable buzz-word. And I know we succeeded. Look at the photo below of my two granddaughters and me when they were little. Notice one is using one of my wheelchairs—as she often did—as a normal part of play. The other has a doll in a wheelchair. You see, It was as normal & natural as daylight to include disability in their fantastic world of imagination and play.




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