I would suggest that this just shows how off the mark the concept of "normal" is.
> Should we include the obese, the no to so bright, the unattractive,
>the elderly?
You may be confusing "disabled" with the social security definition and the ADA definition. They are two different things. Anyone who suffers from discrimination because of their physical or mental condition needs to be protected against discrimination.
>One danger is implicit acceptance of the notion of the "ideal human
>being" ingrained in eugenics and pop-culture.
Precisely.
>Another is trivializing the concept of disability, which can lead to
>the abandonment of those in real need. We already saw that with
>mental disorders - first the politically correct crowd fought to
>re-defined them as "alternative life styles" only to make it easier
>for the Repugs to close mental hospitals and cut funding for mental
>health. As a result, people with mental disorders who need
>institutionalization swelled the population of the homeless.
I would not agree that these mentally ill persons necessarily needed insitutionalization. What was left out in your analysis is that community based supports were supposed to replace the institutions. The deinstitutionalization movement was not wrong per se but forces in government which would like to shave budgets did .
Now we have on our hands a president who want a 100% total termination of all federal funding in one year to all technical assistance centers for mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors. Psychiatrist Sally Satel, an american Enterprise Institutue psychiatrist opposes the idea of psychiatric survivors organizing for equality, empowerment and self-determination. She, the professional wants the power to say what happens to people who have "mental illness." She is for involuntary forced institutionalization. I see this as a human rights issue but Sally sure does live in the flesh what we have been fighting for years.
As Justin Dart put it "..disabilities communities unite with all who love justice to lead a revolution of empowerment. .........Empowerment means choices -- individual choices about where we live, how we live, where we work, choices about health care. Colleagues, I love you so much. United in love and passion for the dream, we shall overcome. NO FORCED TREATMENT EVER!"
I suggest that you read some articles from MOUTH the voice of disability rights about what goes on in institutions. http://www.mouthmag.com/ And I suggest that anyone interested stop Bush from defunding the federal funding of the technical assistance cneters.
Marta
-- Marta Russell Los Angeles, CA http://www.disweb.org