Disabling prejudice enabling wholeness

The car park in a much-frequented commercial and leisure area was full to overflowing. I stopped by the parker, and asked him if I might leave the car with the key in it. He replied that even that was not on. Then he recognised me, put his head close to my window, and said, "You can park over there, Lin - you have a card, don't you?" He was referring to a space reserved for disabled drivers. Unlike so many similar spaces that are occupied by drivers whose desperation makes them ignore decency, this one was still empty. I replied that, no, I did not have a card, thanked the parker, and drove away, slightly fazed despite my mounting years

My little faze nipped in because, while I am physically different, I do not consider myself disabled, as the parker had classified me. His intention was good and he had shown me personal regard. It has not always been so. In 1957 I joined the RAF as a (local) civilian clerk. I was posted to the Hal Safi station. I spent all of half-an-hour there. Then the officer in charge, a flight lieutenant whose name the years refuse to rub off my memory, though he is long gone from the bad side of my heart, arrived. The senior clerk introduced me, then followed him to his office, whence he came back within seconds.

Practically stammering with embarrassment the senior clerk advised me that I would not be staying at RAF Safi. In reply to the bewilderment on my young face, he mumbled that the officer-in-charge did not feel that I would be able to handle filing cabinets. The gentleman had obviously quickly taken in the fact that my body lacks the left forearm. And just as quickly, he had come to his conclusion.

I was lucky to be so swiftly trust away from that sad man's prejudice. I was luckier still to be posted to another station where the O i/c, another flight lieutenant, rather than by appearance judged me by my work. His name is more deeply embedded in my mind than that of the first flight lieutenant, and deeper still in my heart.

Other people with a physical difference may not have been as lucky as myself. My luck extends to the fact that I was born the way I am, and have known no other condition. I not only had time to accept the ways of creation, though it was difficult in the early years to try to reason it out: I also did not ever become handicapped, in the sense that I grew able to fend for myself in practically everything. Those who become physically handicapped through accident or illness generally adjust too, but that has to come with much trying, aided by therapy. For me Mother Nature and our mysterious God by making me the way I am built any necessary adjustment and therapy into me.

The above is not written to proclaim personal satisfaction. It is a personal offering a day after International Disability Day, and nearing the start of 2003, the European Year of Disabled Persons. The indefatigable National Commission for the Disabled reminded me (and others) that the aim of the Year 2003 is to make the general public aware that people with a disability can and have contributed to society. I do not claim to be a particularly good example in that regard. Of more relevance to this, my offer is the philosophy of the Commission - which is that people are impaired and it is society that disables people.

My early job experience is one such example. It does not in any way prove that is how society deals with those of us who have a physical, sensorial, or mental difference. From detached observation I feel I can state with confidence that society is today more inclusive than I have ever known it to be. That is due in the first instance to wonderful great love given to persons-with-a-difference by those closest to us. Such love has fuelled unwavering insistence that society and the polity too must care and act.

Legislation by various administrations through the years has opened the way towards an inclusive society. We are not there yet, and should never take it for granted that we can ever be there. Generation after generation has to strengthen the legal framework that recognises each one of us as an equal member. Still, legislation is not enough. Laws are not always upheld, and are not fully enforced. Nor can personal attitudes be legislated away. There are many, I would say the great majority, who think and feel positively, who are kind and loving and fair.

Yet there remain those who see the physical, sensorial, or mental difference in others without looking beyond it to see their worth. There are still those who feel uncomfortable if they have to work together with impaired persons.

Understanding that society cannot be whole unless it includes the whole of its members has to last beyond any dedicated particular day, or year. Reminding that now and then helps.