Being Heumann
The Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist
Judith Heumann
With
Having read it
★★★★★
What a lived experienced Judith Huemann has had and what a life story to present in her memoir.
The truth is, the status quo loves to say no. It is the easiest thing in the world to say no, especially in the world of business and finance. But for the first time we were discussing civil rights, and no other civil rights issue has ever been questioned because of the cost.
It is inspiring stuff what she and the many alongside her have tackled, campaigned for and achieved.
Change never happens at the pace we think it should. It happens over years of people joining together, strategising, sharing, and pulling all the levers they possibly can. Gradually, excruciatingly slowly, things start to happen, and then suddenly, seemingly out of the blue, something will tip.
A good passage
In a meeting about education for children with disabilities, someone said to me, ‘Let’s just deal with education for non-disabled children first. Then we can worry about the kids with disabilities.’
It was all very familiar. The basic logic goes something like this: People with disabilities won’t benefit as much from x, or y, or z, as people without disabilities, which means, therefore, that x, or y, or z, is not essential. They should accept the idea of going without. The same goes for other issues, like transportation and employment.
But what kind of logic is this?
The underlying assumption is that people with disabilities have less potential to learn, less ability to contribute, are less capable. That we are less equal. Do we really believe this?
Disability is a natural aspect of the human condition. As people live longer, as we fight more wars, as medical care continues to improve – more and more people who might have died in an carlier era will live. Perhaps with a disability. We should accept it. Plan for it. Build our society around it.
A second good passage
If you were to acquire a disability tomorrow it would be a change. But I can tell you this: it wouldn’t have to be a tragedy.
We are all human. Why do we see disability differently from any other aspect of being human?
A third good passage
When whole groups of people become segregated from others in our society, it weakens the fabric of our democracy.
Distance and segregation are breeding grounds for failures of understanding and empathy and ultimately injustice and the denial of others’ rights. If we allow ourselves slowly to become a country where we are simply unable to imagine ourselves in another’s shoes, we can’t understand the complexity of how discrimination occurs and how it feels. Lacking respect for those we don’t know or understand makes it easy to blame inequality and poverty on individuals – rather than on the system. Once we’re caught up in blaming each other, how can we possibly create a society that values equality?