Re: Speaking valves and life in general
John Prestwich (JohnPrestwich(AT)CompuServe.COM)
Sun, 27 Apr 1997 08:34:41 -0400
Hi!
I feel that I must reply to your post,"it's better to be dead." I can
understand people who have not met severe disability themselves thinking on
those lines. I can only say they are completely wrong and their attitude
is very dangerous.
At this point I must tell you where I'm coming from!. I'm now 58.
Forty-one years ago, on my 17th birthday I had an attack of polio. It left
me completely paralysed from the chin down and having to use a respirator
24 hours a day. I spent 16 years in hospitals but now live in my own home
with my wife Maggie, (who incidentally was an Occupational Therapist before
our marriage). I therefore think I can speak with some authority.
Life can be enjoyable. I have, for instance, absolutely no desire to
change places with the lifestyle of many so-called able bodied people. I'm
not saying that I wouldn't like to be physically OK, it's just that one's
physical condition does not determine the quality of your life. Life is
what you make it.
You must also never forget that it was disabled people who were first
exterminated in the Nazis' "Brave New World".
John
UK