If Anybody Asks
(Part Two: Disability and Civil Rights)
[SARN Memo for November 25, 2009]
If anybody asks you what it means to have a disability, try this:
We are regular people: people with civil rights—just like everybody else.
We don’t have a problem. We don’t need to be fixed. Society has a problem: a justice problem. Society needs to be fixed.
And one more thing: We’re like other minority groups. We need to work together to get our rights.
That’s the civil rights view of disability. Spread the word.
Respond to this memo!1. Group Activity: Echo Chorus
Here’s a group speaking performance you can practice and then perform in your community.
Read the above paragraph (“We are regular people” through “get our rights”), using the following call/echo format. Find one member who will be the solo reader. That person will read aloud one sentence at a time. After each sentence, have the whole group repeat it together.
We are regular people. (All: We are regular people.)
People with civil rights. (All: People with civil rights.)
Etc.
Practice the whole thing two or three times. Coach the leader (and group) to speak with enthusiasm. Then find a community event at which you can perform it.
2. Resource
Get On Board This Train to Freedom: Understanding the Civil Rights View of Disability
In this self-led workshop, your group looks at this civil rights view of disability: what it is, where it has come from, and how you can use its power to make change.
Today’s Trivia Question:
Albert Einstein once said: “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to…”
- “A body in good fitness.”
- “A strong religious faith.”
- “A socialist state.”
- “A vegetarian diet.”
(The answer will be published in the next Memo.)
Answer to November 18th Trivia Question: Standing up.
Question was: Fill in the blank: Ogden Nash, an American humorist, once said, “People who work sitting down get paid more than people who work _____________.”
Do you have a trivia item you’d like to submit?
Create a trivia question and we will review your question for possible use.
Your trivia question:
The correct answer:
Would you like your name to appear as the author of the trivia question? If yes, give us your name and where you are from.
Reader Responses
Thank-you ACT, this was a great Memo. ”Back in the Day” everyone would of felt better if there were more organizations like yours...Thanks again, so appreciate these memos and your fine work.
Carla Tice, Project Director of SAS
Great memo! When people come to realize we’re dealing with civil (and human) rights, I believe we’ll finally see system reform!