You know this story.
But I need to tell it again anyways.
You see I realized something.
We parked at the grocery store and I got out. Joe was gathering bags and lists and stuff and I headed off to the store myself. I got to the curb in front of the store, paused, and began to push up. It’s difficult for the first few seconds because of the steepness of the grade and because of the bumps that need getting over. But I was doing it. He came at me from straight behind me. I didn’t see him. There were lots of people going into the store, lots of people around. Then I felt him. My chair was grabbed, he started pushing. Not a word had been said. I screamed, I don’t usually scream, “Stop.” Now everyone was watching. “LEAVE ME ALONE, DON’T TOUCH ME!!!” He started to stammer about helping, “LEAVE ME ALONE!” People looked at me as if I was rabid, people looked at him with a ‘poor you’ look. I pushed myself into the store.
Joe, who had heard the commotion, came and started to apologize for not being able to stop him. I was left feeling like an asshole, someone who made a scene, primarily because people were glaring at me. Glaring. And then it hit me.
Assaulting disabled people is acceptable.
Disabled people reacting to assault is not.
Now that I’ve calmed down and looked at my reaction. I think any other person who had someone sneak up from behind and grab them would have reacted fairly similarly. The only difference being that no one would dare to do this is broad daylight. I believe that if it had happened to someone else, the police would have been called, and people would have offered some kind of comfort.
Assaulting disabled people is acceptable.
Disabled people reacting to assault is not.
Under the guise of helping we can be grabbed, pushed, forced; we can be stripped, force fed, confined; we can have our bodies touched, we can have our voices put in restraint, we can have our protests met with punishment.
Helping.
Just helping.
Assaulting disable people is acceptable.
Disabled people reacting to assault is not.
