OAKLAND, CA —These days as I hear the news, I wonder how so many people can be filled with so much hate. This MAGA government, working to benefit the corporate billionaires who gave unprecedented amounts of money to elect it, seems to hate all the things that make life useful and fulfilling for people with disabilities, people like me.
I know what it’s like to live with serious disabilities. It’s much the same way you live. I have friends, family, people who love me, people who call me an inspiration because I’m happy, I never give up, and I love just hanging out. I’ve traveled. I’ve had a great life, even though I’ve never walked, can’t use my arms, and am often in pain.
I think all of us need supportive tools and systems to live full lives. I need special tools to move around, to use my iPad, to talk, even to eat. You need special tools too, only you probably take yours for granted. What would happen to your life if suddenly your special tools disappeared. No cell phones, no computers, no Internet, no transportation, no hospitals, not even spoons or forks or chopsticks.
Without special tools we wouldn’t have had Stephen Hawking, the amazing physicist who spent most of his 76 years in a wheelchair, needed a voice synthesizer to speak and greatly expanded our understanding of time and black holes. We wouldn’t have Frida Kahlo’s amazing art, or feminist Helen Keller, or Nick Vujicic, born without arms or legs, who travels the world, inspiring millions by preaching resilience, self-worth, and hope. We wouldn’t have people like me, helping others with a little encouragement when things get tough.
This MAGA government thinks only wealthy people and corporations should have the tools they need – not immigrants, not people of color, certainly not the working poor who have always done so much of the hard work to make us the wealthiest nation in the world. They are cutting the heart out of programs that benefit people they don’t care about. Robert F. Kennedy, MAGA head of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, recently said people with autism “will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go on a date.”
What a monstrous lie! He is getting lots of pushback, as he should, from people on the autism spectrum who have made amazing contributions to the world. And yet Kennedy is making drastic cuts to health care that will leave the federal government stripped of many key experts on medical research, drug approvals and other issues. They say they will not cut Medicaid, which helps me. But they have shown again and again we must not believe their promises.
Wanda is my wonderful caretaker. I love her dearly. She has a son who is autistic. Cuts to Medicaid will keep us from getting the tools we need for empowerment, self-expression, creativity, and love of self and others. We need a change. We can start by coming together to take back what is ours as worthy human beings — not rich but definitely worthy. We can win if we fight together, understanding that this is a fight to keep the ruling class from kicking the working class to the curb. The People’s Tribune is an important part of that fight because it connects us all to what is going on by speaking truth to everyone.
Editor’s note: Readers, please feel free to send the People’s Tribune your story!
