Seeing no evil, but hearing and feeling it
All alone, unable to see and really hear, with people talking about me but never really to me. Yanked around having food shoved in my mouth and getting it all over my face.
Isolated.
I got a taste of what institution life was like for people with developmental disabilities today. It was part of a sensitivity training, giving us an idea of what some of our individuals have gone through. After the first minute I wanted to cry, thinking about the conditions that people I know and care about went through for years.
I was blindfolded, had ear plugs in my ear and huge head phones over them, so I couldn't see and my hearing was muffled. I was walked around, sometimes left to just stand there for minutes all alone, not sure what was going on or where I was. I had apple sauce with "medicine" pushed into my mouth, smearing applesauce all over my face, not really sure what I was getting. I was led into the bathroom while someone else was still in there. I had my hands thrust under cold water and "washed", but not dried and minutes later was told not to touch my "caretaker" with my dirty hands. Loud music was blasting later and I was given "work" to do, putting clothes pins around a container, just to keep busy. (Of course, first I took the clothes pins off...never having been told what to do with it exactly.) I had my promise ring taken off my finger and not returned, with no reason as to why.
It's hard to believe that people lived like that. And that went on until the seventies. That's not really a long time ago when you think of it. My parents were alive. Heck, my mom saw it at her work but couldn't do much to stop it.
People were left in rooms all day, or hallways, just sitting. Food was ill-prepared and probably spoiled and they had no choice but to eat or starve. Bathrooms had no stalls or partitions whatsoever. Cockroaches crawled over some immobible individuals. Fly tape was hanging in the kitchen, nearly full.
And that's how the Belchertown State School, and other similar institutions were managed for a very long time. It really breaks my heart and makes me glad that things are better than they were, but we still have a long way to go.
We were told of a differently abled girl who was raped by her classmates at school and the principal did NOTHING and had the gall to tell the parents not to call the police. That was just in 2003. It still happens.
No one is disabled. Just the word dis implies that it is an impairment, that they are subpar. People are differently abled. Just because they have certain issues does not mean that their life and their QUALITY of life is any less valuable than mine or yours. It's just another way of being, a different perspective.
I know this is what I am suppossed to be doing. It's really exciting to love something so much and feel like I am doing something that is right, that really makes a difference. It's wonderful. It just reminds me of God's good and perfect timing.
Isolated.
I got a taste of what institution life was like for people with developmental disabilities today. It was part of a sensitivity training, giving us an idea of what some of our individuals have gone through. After the first minute I wanted to cry, thinking about the conditions that people I know and care about went through for years.
I was blindfolded, had ear plugs in my ear and huge head phones over them, so I couldn't see and my hearing was muffled. I was walked around, sometimes left to just stand there for minutes all alone, not sure what was going on or where I was. I had apple sauce with "medicine" pushed into my mouth, smearing applesauce all over my face, not really sure what I was getting. I was led into the bathroom while someone else was still in there. I had my hands thrust under cold water and "washed", but not dried and minutes later was told not to touch my "caretaker" with my dirty hands. Loud music was blasting later and I was given "work" to do, putting clothes pins around a container, just to keep busy. (Of course, first I took the clothes pins off...never having been told what to do with it exactly.) I had my promise ring taken off my finger and not returned, with no reason as to why.
It's hard to believe that people lived like that. And that went on until the seventies. That's not really a long time ago when you think of it. My parents were alive. Heck, my mom saw it at her work but couldn't do much to stop it.
People were left in rooms all day, or hallways, just sitting. Food was ill-prepared and probably spoiled and they had no choice but to eat or starve. Bathrooms had no stalls or partitions whatsoever. Cockroaches crawled over some immobible individuals. Fly tape was hanging in the kitchen, nearly full.
And that's how the Belchertown State School, and other similar institutions were managed for a very long time. It really breaks my heart and makes me glad that things are better than they were, but we still have a long way to go.
We were told of a differently abled girl who was raped by her classmates at school and the principal did NOTHING and had the gall to tell the parents not to call the police. That was just in 2003. It still happens.
No one is disabled. Just the word dis implies that it is an impairment, that they are subpar. People are differently abled. Just because they have certain issues does not mean that their life and their QUALITY of life is any less valuable than mine or yours. It's just another way of being, a different perspective.
I know this is what I am suppossed to be doing. It's really exciting to love something so much and feel like I am doing something that is right, that really makes a difference. It's wonderful. It just reminds me of God's good and perfect timing.