Declaring Disabled Freedom
Or: A Proclamation of Our Own
Image Description: Text overlaid on wood paneling that reads: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was “a bold and clear commitment that power would no longer serve as a cover to oppress or injure people.” — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” — U.S. Declaration of Independence, 1776
If we take a solemn vow together to develop a vision for disabled freedom, it stands to reason that we need to write (or re-write) our own Declaration of Disabled Independence. Much like the Declaration of Sentiments signed in 1848 at the first U.S. women’s rights conference, we should honestly describe our aspirations and the current conditions that instigate our efforts to fight for our freedoms as disabled people.
Opening Salvo
When, in the course of human history, a segment of people are forcibly excluded from participating equally in their government and society despite repeated requests for respect, accommodations, and accessibility — it becomes incumbent upon them to declare the causes that impel them to a course for seeking justice.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all people are created equal without qualification or prevarication. They are endowed by the fact of their humanity with certain inalienable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights government is established, deriving their powers from the consent of all of those governed. Whenever any government becomes destructive to these rights and the vitality of the people, it is the right of those suffering to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon a new government to create a foundation that will support their well-being, safety, and happiness.
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be altered for light and transient causes. Experience shows that people (especially disabled people) are highly skilled at enduring great harms and perils, surviving much because they are forced into it with little support and even purposeful abuses repeatedly done against them. However, in this ever-escalating assault on and withdrawal of rights and freedoms perpetrated upon disabled people, they have reached their limit and must now demand the equality to which they are entitled as full and equal humans.
To prove this, let the facts be submitted plainly.
An Incomplete List of Continuing Injustices Against Disabled People
This government regularly and purposefully makes voting impossible or unachievable for many disabled people.
It has compelled them to submit to unfair laws and regulations, for which disabled people have little or no voice.
It has withheld rights, equality, and societal inclusion from which all others are not excluded.
Having deprived disabled people of their vote and public voice, thereby leaving them without equal representation and recognition of their humanity, this government has oppressed them on all sides.
It has made disabled people societally and civilly nonexistent, in education, housing, transportation, employment, health care, marriage, and creating and sustaining family ties and friendships, among many other aspects of a full life.
It has regularly and repeatedly denied the right of disabled people to live equally in society through making this impossible for many to find accessibility of basic publicly-available accommodations and refusing to enforce the laws that would make this possible.
It continues to forcibly jail disabled people in nursing homes, prisons, and other similar institutions despite community support being better for disabled people and for society legally, fiscally, and ethically.
It demands that disabled people dwell in poverty with little hope of escape, and their essential needs often going unmet through scanty government support programs that can be haphazardly and unfairly withdrawn with no justification.
It has so framed the laws and regulations as to make finding equality and justice for disabled people — even when supported by existing long-standing legal precedents — impossible and dependent on a circumstance of personal wealth and enduring lengthy passages of time.
It continues to unfairly tax disabled people without providing equal supports and services to them enjoyed by others; and refuses to enforce existing laws and regulations that require accessibility, accommodation, and inclusion in all aspects of public life.
It perpetuates a fundamental bias against and de-humanization of disabled people through its policies and practices resulting in subordination, fear, and isolation through exclusion.
It has endeavored, in every way possible to destroy the potential and opportunity of disabled people to experience true freedom, create their own lives, and find their own happiness.
In Closing
Throughout many eras of these oppressions, disabled people have petitioned for redress repeatedly and politely. Yet, our pleas have been answered by ignorance, disdain, and injurious actions.
Now, in view of this entire disenfranchisement of a significant population of this nation, their social and economic degradation — in view of the unjust laws, policies, and practices above mentioned, and because disabled people find themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights as free and equal humans, we insist upon immediate admission to and acknowledgment of all the rights and privileges which belong to them as people of these United States.
In entering upon the great work before us to achieve freedom and equality for disabled people, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every aspect within our power to affect our goal. We shall remain undeterred in asserting our inherent humanity and equality.
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Hear, Hear! Kelly, you should submit this to newspapers/online media! Everyone should read this and commit to action! Brilliantly done. And shame on us in the United States for this injustice.
Well done!