WE’VE COME A LONG WAY!
Disabled business leaders, politicians, and yes, athletes appear in the headlines every day. There is still a lot to do, to be sure, but every 2 years, the Paralympics gives us a chance to really sit back and be proud to be who we are. What a glorious feeling!
By Bonnie St. John
I am writing this having just returned from Vancouver, British Columbia, where I had the honor to serve as a member of the official United States Presidential Delegation to the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. The experience was nothing short of spectacular. To witness the opening ceremonies in BC Place Stadium filled with over 60,000 people roaring and cheering as the wheelchairs and crutches of athletes with disabilities from all over the world streamed into the stadium literally brought tears to my eyes.
There was a guy zooming down a half-pipe and doing flip in a wheelchair, a rock star with three amputated limbs riding on a three wheeled motorcycle while belting out a performance that gave us all the chills, and an incredible young man who threw down his crutches and did a break dance that defied gravity. It was one amazing performance after another, all in celebration of not just the athletes (who, by the way, desrve this and more), but for all of us who struggle every day with our challenges, yet who get up, get dressed, and get on with our lives.
I was struck by how far we’ve come since 1984 when I shared a tiny hotel room with two other athletes, and wore mismatched gloves I had scrounged from a ski area’s lost and found box. Now, I’m proud to report, our Paralympians have access to the latest technologies and training techniques, compete in the same venues, and live in the same Olympic Villages as the Olympic athletes we all watched on TV in February. My friend Ralph Green, who lost his leg from a stray bullet on a Brooklyn street corner, runs the slalom on the same slopes as Lindsey Vonn ad gets offers to appear in movies alongside Angela Bassett and Danny Glover!
It is amazing to me to see so many people embrace us like this. For too long, we have been relegated to second class citizenship, just because people didn’t have any mechanism to understand how to deal with us. They were uncomfortable and confused and just ignored us because they couldn’t think of anything else to do. When I was a child, I remember a school wanting to put me into their special education class, even though I was a straight –A student. They told my mother, “She falls down a lot.”
My mother, G-d bless her, replied, “So, she gets up!”
And that’s what we do, don’t we? We get us! Well there were a lot of folks falling down, getting up, and giving the world a look at how strong we are, how capable we are, and how vital we are. We now have so many resources and organizations dedicated to educating the world about disabilities. Disabled business leaders, politicians, and yes, athletes appear in the headlines every day. There is still a lot to do, to be sure, but every 2 years, the Paralympics gives us a chance to really sit back and be proud to be who we are. What a glorious feeling!
As we were sitting in the UBC Thunderbird Arena watching the (mostly amputee) US Sled Hockey team trounce the Czech Republic 3-0, on of my fellow delegates, David Jacobson, the US Ambassador to Canada, told me that coming to the Paralympics, experiencing the competitions, and meeting these extraordinary athletes was one of the most moving and profound experiences he’s ever had in his life. We’ve come a long way, baby…