25 February 2009
20:5216160BBC 1
Guest 650- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 542
25 February 2009
21:0216162Thanks
Guest 643- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 1,321
25 February 2009
21:1716167About ten years ago my daughter and grandaughter, who was about 4 at the time, were shopping in the old Co-op. There was a lady in a wheelchair doing her shopping, and she had no legs. Being a friendly little soul my grandaughter went up to the lady and said "Hello, why haven't you got any legs?" My daughter was very embarrassed and tried to apologise to the lady, but the lady put her hand up and stopped her. With a big smile she explained to the little girl how she had had to have an operation to take her legs away because they were sick. Then she looked at my daughter and said "Oh how I wish more adults were like your little girl and would ask me instead of just staring or whispering". She wheeled herself away with a smile on her face and my grandaughter got a big tearful hug from her mum!
I just thought this seemed relevant in this thread.
There's always a little truth behind every "Just kidding", a little emotion behind every "I don't care" and a little pain behind every "I'm ok".
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
25 February 2009
21:2616170Good posting there Jacqui,when is society going to realise that Disabled People are real people,just slightly special in other ways.
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
25 February 2009
22:0616175It was a truly depressing incident. Parents never cease to disappoint me! Do you remember when one Mother, a while back, complained that her daughter, aged 9, was being treated "like a child" by the school because they asked her not to wear a thong..........the Mother was outraged. What the **** is an apt response, frankly.
Guest 656- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 2,262
26 February 2009
11:1216208I am absolutely disgusted with these parents who found it necessary to complain about someones disability. What is the world coming to! It puts a whole new meaning to bad parenting in my book. The BBC shouldn't have given these parents the air time to complain, Cerrie is a competent and able presenter in every sense of the word.
Guest 675- Registered: 30 Jun 2008
- Posts: 1,610
26 February 2009
13:5916227The complaints obviously say more about the narrow-mindedness of those parents than anything else. A better response from the BBC might have to recommend that the complainants recieved some awareness training (or just get an education).
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
Richard Armour
Guest 661- Registered: 16 Mar 2008
- Posts: 241
26 February 2009
22:4916292Just out of curiosity what the hell are we supposed to do with disabled people, are we going to lock them up as in the old day's in case they offend someone, Ive never heard such random spherical objects talked in all my life, what is the world coming to.
A dog is just not for christmas save some for boxing day
Guest 672- Registered: 3 Jun 2008
- Posts: 2,119
26 February 2009
22:5716294I think the word you are looking for H, is.....BO**OCKS.
How Pathetic.
How polite of you to put it that way, I would like to say more but the Boss would not like to ban me.
Ian....
grass grows by the inches but dies by the feet.
Guest 650- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 542
27 February 2009
10:2316321When I was very little, and out in London for the day, I saw a man with no nose, just holes in his face. I was very frightened at the time, and the image haunted my dreams for some time afterwards. It's an image I can still mentally see.
Perhaps it's true that seeing people who aren't the same as we'd expect can be frightening. But fear doesn't have to be the reaction - maybe it stems from lack of knowledge, understanding, and empathy. Maybe also from a lack of appreciation of an essential personhood - as campaigners for those with disabilities say, "see the person, not the disability". There certainly were, historically, religious connotations too. Later I was also taught that disability is a social construction. That doesn't deny that people's bodies work in different ways - but brings home the concept that disability, thereby exclusion, is also created. An example would be not having ramps and access for people who use wheelchairs.
Parents who complained perhaps should look carefully at themselves, and look also at what they are teaching their children and why. I'm with Chris on this - maybe one way, if the parents have difficulties, would have been for the BBC to send in response a couple of books written for children, about differences, to read together, or maybe, if reading doesn't happen in that particular family situation, an AV production.
Having said that, here is a thought. If we are promoting a multicultural or diverse society, to what extent are we prepared to accept as valid a view that disability is frightening or should be concealed?
