Image Description: The words ‘I am OTHER’ on a black background, the letters in the word ‘other’ are all of different colours.
Being Other:
I can be angry without being bitter.
I can be dissatisfied without being ungrateful.
I can be plainspoken without being rude.
I can be difficult without being unreasonable.
I can be tearful without being ’emotional.’
I can be frank without being disrespectful.
I am a person with a disability who lives in a world that disrepect difference.
I am a person with a disability who faces barriers, daily, to full participation.
I am a person with a disability who experiences prejudice in an uncountable number of ways.
I am a person with a disability who is expected to be an inspiration through a smiling face and a silenced voice.
I am a person with a disability whose existence is turned into a negative metaphor … a blind eye, a deaf ear, a crippled economy, a moronic decision, a limp effort, a crazy dance.
I am a person with a disability who’s body has been outlawed and who’s freedom is never secure.
To make community, I must be angry at injustice.
To keep community, I must express dissatisfaction at lack of options.
To ensure community, I must be plainspoken about my needs.
To continue community, I must be difficult and steadfast in my demands.
To communicate community, I must be tearful in expressing my passon when my very life is devalued.
To mold community, I must be frank and honest about prejudice.
I am Disabled. Say The Word.
But I am not a greedy grasping, bitter, ungrateful, rude, unreasonable, emotional and disrespectful cripple.
I am not that.
What I am …
… is an advocate for my life, for my community and for the community.
And your adjectives are not enough to counter my verbs.
