Response to Josh Geller’s column What’s Left in America?
Just read Josh Geller’s column What’s Left in America?
Distortion 101: A Lesson from the New York Times. I have to say, I wasn't particularly impressed.
[Mr. Gellers] aims to discuss a bias in the American mass media -- i.e. one that favors Israel -- but I don't think [he] makes too many points here. I can quite easily find a news article in which Hezbollah strikes are listed prior to an Israeli strike. Does this 'simple analysis of the language' demonstrate the systemic 'bias present in media outlets'? I don't think so.
Secondly, [Mr. Gellers] takes issue with the language used by the NY Times to describe recent strikes. While the difference between "strike" and "pound" is negligible at best -- pound is admittedly a tad more harsh -- as Israeli strikes are infinitely more devastating on a mass scale than the Hezbollah attacks, it's not an entirely outrageous stretch to reflect that in language. [He] calls it "bias", I call it "journalism" and sometimes "the facts."
Thirdly, [Mr.Gellers] calls into question whether or not Israelis have used air strikes to attack all of Lebanon. They of course have, as any cursory examination of human rights reports or a daily newspaper could tell you. As far as the reader "dissociating [Hezbollah] from Lebanon," I believe the Israeli government has as well, so [Mr.Gellers] might want to lump Olmert in with the anti-Semites at the New York Times printing these lies.
[Mr.Gellers] is right, of course, about mass media shaping our worldviews in ways we couldn't even consider. But [Mr. Gellers, you] might want to do some introspection in that respect yourself.
Chris C., Hampton, New Hampshire
Disabled Apathy: I Don’t Need Your Pity. I’d Like Your Respect.
By Dominick Evans
It is ironic how I received a guest spot writing-gig on Cube-Side. My girlfriend, Ashtyn, writes a column on the site. As I was checking out other writers, I came across a relatively disturbing discovery.
At first, I just sat there and re-read the article and then Ashtyn and I discussed the messages presented within it. We were both somewhat shocked and appalled. It, of course, takes quite a bit to get us so worked up. I told Ashtyn I’d be emailing the editor, Kaitlyn, to discuss my thoughts on the article presented.
The article in question is called, The Whole Food Story. It is by Maria Fiori. The story is actually supposed to be about why she eats whole food (I think?!). The true message was kind of lost in a mish-mosh of other, disturbing imagery.
So why would I be so offended by Ms. Fiori’s need to be health conscious? In truth, I’m not. It was the mish-mosh I had quite a bit of trouble digesting.
First, let me tell you a little bit about myself. I am 25 years old. I was born with a progressive muscle disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy type III. Type III is relatively mild so I was able to walk until I was 16 years old unassisted. Now, I am completely wheelchair bound.
In Ms. Fiori’s article, she talks about people with varying disabilities. Her tone ranges from that of a woman who is jealous of a deaf couple for having what she cannot have to pity for a man with one leg in a wheelchair. It was this misguided apathy, which is actually ignorance masking prejudice that bothered me so much about her article.
Do I believe that Ms Fiori thinks she is prejudice? No. I think she has the ignorance much of the world has about those of us who aren’t “normal” due to physical, mental, or emotional ailments. That, of course, doesn’t mean she did not come across as incredibly prejudice, because she did.
While in the supermarket, Ms. Fiori discusses a deaf couple with a child. They are a happy family unit. As she watches them, she feels jealousy because they are a family and she apparently is single. The way she wrote it suggested she couldn’t imagine how a not-so-normal couple could have the happiness she (a normal folk) had been denied.
This was just the start of her post about the disabled. In the supermarket, she meets a man with one leg in a wheelchair. Her reaction to the man is pitiful. She pities him for having one leg. She doesn’t even know him and yet she feels sorry for him because he obviously needs her pity.
One of the quotes from her article that really struck a cord was, “these people are more lost in their world then I am in mine."
She was in a grocery store. What can she hope to gain information-wise about these people without even speaking to them?
Ms. Fiori makes some very broad assumptions about a class of people. It is as though the wheelchair man represents all of us in wheelchairs and I'm definitely not comfortable with that.
Furthermore, she went on to state that she wishes God to bless them as though they need extra blessings. How does she know they are good people? How does she know they deserve such blessings, and how does she know they want them?
Should disabled people be more blessed just because it is perceived that the Christian God made them differently?
It reminds me of an incident that happened when I was going in to surgery a year ago. Ashtyn and I were sitting in the inpatient lobby waiting for me to get processed. As I sat there, waiting in my chair across from Ashtyn, a woman came up to me. She kept blessing me. She kept telling me God made me special. She kept saying I'd get to heaven because I was different. However, when she spoke to me, she didn't really speak to me. She spoke to Ashtyn as though I was mentally incapable of holding a conversation.
Finally, she asked to pray with me to send me to heaven and give me extra blessings since I was so special. I politely declined and when she asked why I told her I was not a Christian. She dismissed such a claim and tried to pray with me anyway.
When I more firmly declined, she shrugged it off as though I were less of a human so I could be forgiven for my transgression. She told me God would forgive me and proceeded to lecture me on why the only true God was the Christian one. Had I not had to stay in the lobby I'd have left, but I knew if I did, they'd call my name.
When they finally did call me back, she asked if she could pray for me. I merely shrugged and told her she could do what she felt was right. However, the message of this woman...the ignorant way she treated "special" me...was the same sort of ignorance I felt when reading Ms Fiori's article.
I have a message for all the Ms. Fiori’s of the world. Open your eyes. Try talking to someone who is disabled before making such broad assumptions. Just like able-bodied individuals, we come in all varieties.
Some of us have higher mental capabilities. In fact, some of us are more intelligent then the vast majority of able-bodied individuals we know. Others are not as mentally-capable but still have feelings, emotions, and their own distinct thoughts. Some disabled people are good and some are bad.
We don’t like to be lumped together. We’re individuals, too. Most of us don’t want your pity, prayers, or apathy. In fact, the best thing you could do for us is ignore the actual impairment and see us for who we are on the inside. In truth, we’re no different then anyone else in the world, and sadly it seems that most able-bodied individuals are oblivious to this fact.