Saturday, July 16, 2005

If your are sick, get better or get out...

Prejudice against people with a less-than-perfect health status is becoming increasingly common today. Case in point: The hoopla over Judge Rehnquist. There are cries from some quarters that Rehnquist has to resign because he has cancer and is elderly, similar to what was said of Pope John Paul II in the years before his death.

In this culture, if someone is elderly, ill, and especially if they look ill, they are to be put aside. Not seen and not heard. We can't handle it so they have to disappear. Recent legal decisions in Florida will only validate this point of view. The world is to be populated by pretty, healthy looking people who can make and spend money, according to some.

I can't help but wonder if these same people would feel differently if they found themselves in a similar situation. Remember, we are all one car accident away from being disabled.

For more on this point of view, visit Not Dead Yet--the Resistance disability rights group.

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Dymphna's favorite quotes


"Slavery ended in medieval Europe only because the church extended its sacraments to all slaves and then managed to impose a ban on the enslavement of Christians (and of Jews). Within the context of medieval Europe, that prohibition was effectively a rule of universal abolition. "— Rodney Stark

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