In the psychologically profound film “Ordinary People” about
a family coping with the death of their oldest son there is a confrontation on
a golf course between the Beth, mother of the dead son and her brother, Ward,
seemingly untouched by family tragedy. It
is the following:
Ward: Beth, we just want you to be
happy.
Beth Jarrett: Happy! Ward, you tell
me the meaning of happy. But first you
better make sure your kids are good and safe, that they haven't fallen off a
horse, been hit by a car, or drown in that swimming pool you're so proud of!
Audrey (Ward’s wife): Oh Beth!
Beth Jarrett: Then, you come and
tell me how to be happy!"
I loved that film because it spoke to me. I know both what the loss of a child can do
to a family and I know disability from my own personal experience. My mother knew both as well since she lost
that child two weeks after giving birth to it.
She knew sadness again when her only surviving child suffered paralysis
from polio. She said to me that she was
not so fearful for my childhood, although children can be cruel, but she
worried about my young adult years when the goal is a body beautiful to snag a
mate.
In reality my childhood did not endure taunts by friends but
my experiences as an adult were more problematic. One “friend” compared me to a pigeon who had
lost its foot saying “Oh look that pigeon looks like you!” A boy with whom I was supposed to blind date
walked away from me as soon as he saw me walk.
There were, of course, more uncomfortable experiences that are both unnecessary
for me to relate and difficult about which to write.
I relate these personal experiences in response to the clear
mocking by Donald Trump of the joint disease disabled reporter he claims he did
not know but whose lies about those claims are exposed by those who know the
truth and say so for all the world to hear.
Clearly, Trump knew him and clearly Trump was mocking him because the
writer caught him in yet another lie one of so many he tells.
No one who has not experienced it can truly understand what
it means to be physically different. No
one who has not experienced it can truly understand what it means to walk out
of the door with a disability which not only makes it harder to navigate but harder
to endure the insensitivities of others who seemingly win life’s lottery.
It is hard to know what to say to this Cretan Trump man with
no heart. If we become intoxicated with
his insensitive evil then WE become truly evil ourselves. I suspect and I surely hope in the end he will
fail and that he will do so in no small part because of his wretched mocking of
a disabled man! Extrapolating Beth of “Ordinary
People” fame: Lucky are you, Donald Trump, that you have had good fortune that your kids are good and safe,
that they haven't fallen off a horse, been hit by a car, or drown despite the
riches of which you are so proud. Quoting
another from the Bible Trump says he loves so much but I suspect he has not
read: “What profit a man if he gain the
whole world but lose his soul?” What
profit a man, Donald Trump, what profit him indeed?!
ARE
TRUMP AND THE OTHER REPUBLICANS JUST LIKE HIM THE AMERICA YOU WANT? I
SUSPECT THEY ARE NOT. GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE FOR SOMEONE WHO CAN
WIN AND THEN IF IT HAPPENS WE DEFEAT THE REPUBLICAN MENACE, BREATHE A
SIGH OF RELIEF FOR YOU WILL HAVE SAVED THIS NATION FROM ITSELF!
