MY WIFE WOULD LIKE TO RIDE HER WHEELCHAIR INTO HEAVEN

OBSERVATIONS ON THE DISABLED AFTERLIFE 

What's wrong with this picture?

A whole F—king lot, that’s what.

You see, my wife has used a wheelchair for mobility for 40+ years.

It’s a liberation device, not some prison-like ball and chain.

Able bodied people don’t get that.

This illustration, of Stephen Hawking walking into heaven. It’s pure BS.

So you say, “maybe the cartoonist was well-meaning, he/she only wanted to show Hawking free of pain and confinement.”

I say, if that’s what you think, your opinion toward people with disabilities is as bigoted and dark ages stupid as thinking a black person would like the be referred to as “a credit to his race” or a Jewish person would feel all warm and fuzzy if they overheard you saying “they are so good with money, they can make a dollar bill scream.”

I hope, even in the backsliding Neanderthal world of POTUS 45, you all cringed at the two examples above and saw them for what they are – intolerable, inappropriate stereotypes…and worse.

Well, when a person with a disability sees that image of Hawking, they see the not so subtle meaning.  Only when you are dead and ridden of your disability, are you a truly whole, complete and heaven-worthy person.

That is disgusting, wretched, wrong-headed.

Still disagree?  Okay, this for every person of color.

Say you are African American. Would you feel all gratified if a cartoon depicted you shedding all your black skin into a pile…because you truly could only be pure enough to enter the vast, joyful afterlife with white skin?

If you are Jewish. Would you rush to forward a cartoon to all your friends – that shows you casting off a star of David and setting fire to the Torah…face beaming with joy as you glance at the Christian cross. Because you must shed your faith to be worthy of the only true heaven?

If you are part of the LGBT community. How happy would you be to see an editorial cartoon of a gay person renouncing who they are…and gleefully running into a wedding scene of one man and one woman – joining a “holy” union so they can finally defeat the evil, ghastly, dirty, filthy horror that it was to be gay or  transgender? Would you not be gravely offended by folks believing the only way you could walk up those sacred steps to the promised land was if you renounced your LGBT ways?

If I haven’t showed you the soul-crushing hatred that ableism visits on people with disabilities each minute of each day, them I give up.

You are beyond hope.

For those of you that now get it. Please go forth in a world made better by diversity and know my wife is part of the rich tapestry of life…wheelchair used for mobility and all.

CELEBRATING MORE THAN 110,000 READERS

THANKS FOR READING AND SHARING MY CONTENT

During the weekend, this blog passed 110,000 total readers.

This blog grew slowly, launching more than six yeas ago.

It has featured more than 1,300 posts.

A few dozen have been guest posts from my wife, Heidi Johnson-Wright, from her award-winning EarthBound TomBoy blog.

In the past year, they have been more political -- because the bigotry and anger in America has made it impossible to not use the written word to come to the defense of women, people with disabilities, Muslims, Hispanics, the LGBT community and others singled out by the frighteningly large amount of America that still views diversity through KKK tinted glasses.

We have shared 250,000 words and more than 2,500 images -- almost all my originals shot with my beloved Nikon -- in this blog.

Stay tuned, we have more great things to share through the years.

By the way, the image is NOT one of our cats.

It's a Kedi that greeted me every morning on the bench at the Beyazit Tram station near the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.

THOUGHTS ON ORLANDO TRAGEDY

LOVE, NOT HATE, HEALS WOUNDS

 

Orlando is an unthinkable tragedy.

 

I do not have words to express the pain I feel for the loss of life and traumatizing injuries to the LGBT community that I respect and embrace.

 

But please, let's not demonize all Muslims because of Orlando.

 

Timothy McVeigh killed 168 and injured more than 600, but we don't expel all white male military vets because one was a monster.

 

There will always be evil doers -- you can find them hiding behind every religion, race and belief system.

 

Their actions are not symbolic of the everyday person who shares their birth region or core beliefs -- that monsters so often pervert to justify their violence.

 

The people I've known who practice the Muslim faith are some of the most kind, welcoming, accommodating human beings I've ever had the pleasure of sharing time with.

 

This includes a Jordanian family in Ohio that has adopted my 79-year-old mom as their own.

 

With me being busy with work and caregiving 1200 miles away in Miami, my mom would not have a good quality of life without the unconditional neighborly love of the upstairs neighbors at my mom's apartment.

 

 They are hosting, loving, caring people who are emblematic of real Muslim and Arabic values.

 

Please let's not let our anger overtake our ability to differentiate between extremists who create hell on earth and the overwhelming majority of people who may practice a faith different than our own -- but are giving, loving, valuable human beings.

 

Diversity. America needs to appreciate it and embrace it.