Art and Dignity

I recently watch the movie "Music Within". I'll warn you now that the film is rated R, primarily for language but I chose to overlook that for the true story on which it is based: Richard Pimental and his writing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Just so you know, the first fifteen minutes or so are not great but give some insight into the story and set a background for the rest of the story.

One of my favorite scenes comes fairly late in the film. Richard has completed his writing and gives it to his friend, Art, who was, in large part, the reason he wrote the ADA. Art was a crude yet incredibly intelligent man with debilitating CP (cerebral palsy). Many people failed to understand him when he spoke, many people over-looked him, and those who did see him called him "freak" and other dehumanizing names.

After Richard finishes his writing, he asks Art what he thinks. Art goes on to say these words:
"You know what we cripples want...? To be seen. When they look at me out there now, you know what they see? Nothing. I'm ignored. How can you ignore this? But they ignore me, because I am so disturbing to their definition of human, that I make them feel. I love that. What you've created will help to make them see us."

Unless you have a disability, which forces you to face the challenges of accessibility each and every day, or you spend time with people who have special needs (specifically physical in this case), it is admittedly easy to overlook all the places that lack accessibility. Its difficult to pay attention to something of which you don't even know you're unaware.

So this is my call out.

It is not a call for more ramps, handicapped parking spaces or for the able-bodied people in the world who park there "for just a minute" while they run into a store to stop and think. It is a call out to each of us to pay attention, to notice the "cripples" around us - be they physically, mentally, or socially disabled or inept - at home, work, at the grocery store, or other places out and about. Acknowledge someone's personhood. Say hello, nod your head in their direction, smile. In so doing you not only restore their dignity, their humanness, you also help restore your own.

The film ends with Richard speaking at a dinner event. I'll leave you with a final though from him, "The differences that you make that are the ones of lasting importance, they're the little differences that you make in the life of another person."