Just a thought related to MLK Day and a movie we saw- on topic,though

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

Today is Luther King Day in the US and it got me thinking,

how far have we really come towards the equality of all people?

After the movie I saw last night, I really wonder how far we have

come when it comes to disabilities. The movie is Return to Me. It is

a wonderful romantic comedy made in 2000 with Duchovny and

Minnie Driver as the leads. My husband and I have seen this movie

dozens of times. It is one of his all time favorites. I guess we

must not have seen it since my daughter was born 14 months ago with

bilateral clubfeet because there is this scene which I will briefly

describe to you, which was really rather upsetting....

Minnie Driver plays a woman who had a heart transplant. She is

dating a man played by Duchovny and is afraid to tell him

about the transplant for fear he will consider her damaged and leave

her. They have been dating for some time when she decides it is the

night to tell him. Her grandfather and his buddies are playing poker

in the other room and they are discussing the fact that she is going

to tell him about the transplant. One says " I don't know what the

big deal is...I dated a girl with a clubfoot once and she had the

big shoe and everything. " Another says " Oh, you're a Saint " , still

another says " Oh, you'll be remembered in heaven for that one " .

Needless to say, it just wasn't funny to us now. There is sarcasm in

it and they are picking on the guy for his stupid comment, but to us

it just made us think of our precious daughter and how some boy or

man may some day think that about her. Thanks to Dr. P. no one will

ever know unless she chooses to tell them, but it was still

upsetting.

Now this was just a movie, but some writer somewhere thought that

picking on clubfeet would be funny to people, and I am ashamed to

say that we used to think this was a very funny scene. Not the part

about the girl having a clubfoot, but the sarcasm about him being

remembered in Heaven for it. I consider myself to be pretty

enlightened when it comes to disabilities since I have volunteered

with the New York State Parks Games for the Physically Challenged,

worked for two years at an Easter Seals camp, and volunteered as a

respite care provider for a little boy with Cerebral Palsy, but I

guess I never really understood until my daughter was born. I guess

there is still a large part of the population that thinks it is

funny to pick on disabilities.

I was really upset because I tend to forget that my daughter was

born with a disability, until something like this reminds me that

others might see her as different. We all know that clubfoot is a

disability. Thanks to Dr. Ponseti and all of the wonderful doctors

who are choosing to use his method, it is not a handicapping

condition for our children. But the fact remains that they were born

disabled, and without treatment they would bear the labels that are

so negative still... " crippled " , " handicapped " , " disabled " . Knowing

this just strengthens my desire to get the word out about Dr. P and

his work, to do everything in my power to prevent children with

clubfeet from being disabled.

I urge you on this Luther King Day to think about what you

can do to improve the equality of all people, not just of all races,

but of all abilties too! I know I will be taking the time to thank

's doctor for going to the trouble to research and travel to

Iowa to learn from Dr. Ponseti, thus saving my child from a future

of pain and potential disability. Thanks to my daughter, I now know

better than ever before that people born with disabilities are just

like those who were not. My daughter is just like her brothers. They

are all different, yet they all bear the same family resemblance in

physicality and behavior. They all have value. They are equal.

Donna

mother to (13), (6), Jakob (4), and (14

months, bilateral clubfeet, FAB 12/7)