Thursday, April 2, 2009

Krauthammer on the Disabled

I just re-discovered this little gem from Charles Krauthammer (SJ Merc, 7C, July 11, 1999):

To be sure, patronizing the disabled is not as offensive as...in-your-face mockery...But its effect is similar: to distance oneself, to give expression to the reflexive mixture of fear and pity that misfortune in others invokes in all of us.

Disability--like exile, the human condition it most resembles--neither ennobles or degrades. It frames experience. It does not define it.

In 1972, Mr. Krauthammer was paralyzed in a serious diving accident.

No comments: