I have noticed an increase in the use of "lame" as of late. It seems to have become one of those trendy words like dude or rad. Another one is "retard" which seems to have proliferated like rabbits. And it is used in the pejorative often by young folks who are not connecting it politically but are using it pejoratively.
>People who actually deride or discriminate against disabled
>persons are probably more afraid of them than contemptuous or
>insensitive, not that this is any reason to tolerate their
>behavior; but it may suggest different tactics -- affirmative
>action in preference to hand-wringing and guilt-tripping, for
>instance.
If disabled people were everywhere out there in the community do you think this fear would disappear? One first has to recognize a need for affirmative action. Notice that hasn't happened (legally) for disabled persons in the way it has for people of color and women.
>
>It should be easy, shouldn't it? What seems hard to me is
>the fear, submission, obedience, self-distrust and self-
>loathing which authority attempts to inculcate. Accordingly
>a Left which promotes guilt and sorrow among its own is not
>going to get anywhere. You don't see Marx telling people to
>feel guilty in the _Communist_Manifesto_. No, he tells them
>they have nothing to lose but their chains, and a world to
>win.
Thats great but you can't win that world without searching for what that world needs to look like first and that means confronting the issues that oppress people -- not just workers, but all people.
Marta
-- Marta Russell Los Angeles, CA http://www.disweb.org