Out of his experience and that of others like him, the concepts of Disabled Student Services and Independent Living Centers developed.
For many younger Crips, he was the only real father figure we ever had. It still moves me toward tears when I remember that we lost him in the 1990s.
Ah, but his spirit lives on as today's disability rights advocates struggle against the movement to roll back so many of our hard-won gains toward inclusion.
So, here's my Dad's Day letter to my spiritual father.
Dear Ed,
Here's my yearly update to you -- sent with the usual heartfelt thought that you are still very much missed.
Some Good News:
The vocal disabled community in Britain just successfully beat back an attempt to legalize the euthanasia of people with disabilities. The vote margin was slim but effective.
But the Bad News:
The appeals courts in the state of Florida just decided that Terri Schindler-Schiavo can legally be starved to death because of her disabilities. Their standard was that she could never be expected to fully recover -- meaning be returned to exactly like she was the moment before she became disabled over a decade ago.
More Good News:
Crips are increasingly moving into professional fields where they were not welcome before.
I myself am training to be a "Special Ed" teacher now. That tickles me in small part because your nickname. I think of you every class.
Really Troubling Bad News:
I am one of only two future teachers with disabilities in my course of study and the going is very hard.
My required text repeatedly lists these methods for "curing" "mental retardation" and significant disabilities:
prenatal testing, genetic counseling, and amniocentesis.
As proof those methods work, the authors state that the prevalence of developmental disabilities has decreased from 1.33 per thousand to 0.92 per thousand in the past thirty years.
At no point in my text does it ever say that eliminating disabilities before birth also eliminates the people with them. Worse yet, no one in the class has noticed yet that such "cures" would have eliminated their Crip classmates.
Yet we still make progress.
But there is so much more to do --
especially in the face of the Draconian and financially senseless budget cuts to programs that keep people with disabilities productive and in their communities.
Can you believe that we're even having to argue now with the City of Sacramento, California (and lots of other municipal entities who signed on with them) that it would be a good idea if we could use the sidewalks too?
However, we have really good legal and organizational "jackhammers" on that one.
We continue to persevere, in part, because of the example you set for me and so many other Crips.
I am almost done here. But like all persistent children, I have one last question.
I am hoping you have a bit of pull from your present location.
So, could you help tweak the hearts and minds of folks about to vote for negative changes to IDEA (the law that brought so many kids with disabilities into the education mainstream)? Would you kick some old-style celestial butt on our behalf?
Thanks -- and Happy Father's Day!
Rus Cooper-Dowda is a minister and freelance writer in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Posted June 13, 2003
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