miketrue.net/disenfranchised-people

We Are a Faceless People

Written by: Michael S. True, M.Ed

This article is copy protected and should only be reproduced by permission of the author. For information contact me at: mstrue1@hotmail.com .

"Disability is part of being human. Almost everyone will temporarily or permanently experience disability at some point in their life. An estimated 1.3 billion people – about 16% of the global population – currently experience significant disability. This number is increasing due in part to population ageing and an increase in the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases." The World Health Organization

I am writing this article on behalf of those who may not be able to write or speak out for themselves. This commentary does not reflect on the dilemma of one or two individuals, but , as noted above, over a billion persons around the globe. These words may not change the future or even stir one cold heart, however, they cannot go unsaid!

We are a faceless people with faces. We wake every morning to an alarm clock's ring or an internet newscast, or simply the silence of yet another long and arduous day. Yes, day after day, week after week, month after month and year after year, we face a significant difference to those around us. We are, and have been, far too often, isolated and forgotten. Not by choice, I can tell you. Yet, most of us have never known it to be any different.

This isolation is not restricted to the inside of our domiciles. We must travel using alternate routes, ramps, elevators, and only have access to parts of an otherwise unrestricted community.

This isolation even extends to our encounters with those living and working in corner of the world. There are those with no patience for us. There are those who see us as sick or weak. There are those who view us as different and immediately throw up unseen barriers.

Some of us are angered by this isolation. Some have accepted its inevitability. Most are frustrated by a belief that things should be better, but aren't.

There are those of us who have been able to push through an overly regulated, label-driven educational system that teaches desk sitting and pencil holding, with a twist of segregation on the side. Some, however, may have sensed the futility inherent in our public schools and "dropped out". Even in these telling actions we have been further negated by the public's intent to "improve the system". Our very existence in many places is now being removed, even as a statistic.

How many more of us have stayed the course, only to find that the criteria for graduation was based solely on the chance that we could survive to the age of twenty-two? We, too, must prove ourselves in this competitive job market. When employers know that the system is weak or flawed does this increase their positive perception of our abilities? More often than not, the boss is someone with a "big heart" that is doing us a favor by hiring us. That's if we're lucky enough to acquire a job. Where statistics are gathered, it is said that eighty percent of us are unemployed to this very day.

Far too many of us have been forced to sit on the sidelines all of our lives. We are further isolated by the stigma of our dependency on our government, while forced to wait for "it" to act on our behalf.

Have you seen our faces lately? We can been seen waiting for hours at community hospitals, begging for money at busy intersections, and lying in urine soaked beds waiting for the inevitable end.

Do we have a voice? Can we be heard through the din of the day-to-day clatter of "business as usual"? How many of you will hear our cries and realize that one day, you too may know the reality of our degradation?

We are not demanding equality in the sense that we must be made whole. We accept who we are and strive to make the best of our conditions. We only ask for some consideration, additional opportunities, fewer obstacles, and the chance to be more than "faceless people".

Through countless generations we have been inspired by the lives of those of us who believed in our own inherent potential, despite our obvious limitations; individuals, young and old, who were no less significant in the greater scheme of things than any other human being. Our only hope is that someone is listening; someone is taking the time to look into our eyes and to understand that our needs, hopes, and dreams are just as real as those who would otherwise never give us a second thought.

Have you seen us? We are the faceless people with faces!