2007-11-11 - 10:47 a.m.
The second film we saw (after Alison�s Baby) was Citizen Sam, about quadriplegic city councilman Sam Sullivan�s successful run for mayor of Vancouver, Canada. The big question it raised for me is why someone with a disability like him is relatively conservative (although he does support legalized heroin by prescription, but for all I know this could be a right-wing position in Canada).
I�m not saying all people of a specific kind have to have a certain political slant. I know, for example, that there are black Republicans and gay Republicans. But there are certain lessons you can�t help absorbing as someone with a disability about the vital importance of a society that watches out for each other in a way that just doesn�t jibe with conservative, �pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps� individualism.
I recently read an essay by Paul Longmore, a history professor with a disability at UCSF, which suggested that there were in fact �disability values�. My favorite one of these is emphasizing �interdependence� rather than �independence�. Looking back, this is precisely what Bill Clinton was talking about (although he used the term �interconnectedness�) when I saw him speak a few years ago.
Basically, interdependence means we are not the Grizzly Adams-mountain man anymore. I suppose there�s still a place for that chop-your-own-firewood lifestyle if that�s your thing. But it�s probably not here now in a major American city surrounded by other people. Each of us has our strengths and weaknesses. We all support each other. As much as I rely on Nya, she relies on me. This is a beautiful thing.
Sam Sullivan seemed to downplay this a good deal. It was sort of ironic to see, not just someone with a disability discounting assistance from others, but someone who�s a politician, ringed by a whole host of advisors and consultants. Hell, there were entire scenes of him practicing debating points and being critiqued by speaking coaches. I think if he truly believes he�s a one-man show, beholden to no one� Well, he�s completely missing the point.
Nya pointed out that some of the home movie footage of his boyhood suggested he was born into affluence and this privileged background could go towards helping explain his conservatism. Maybe. But FDR was a politician with a disability who was born into all money and he developed progressive as anything. I don�t think a childhood in wealth can entirely account for later conservatism and certainly can�t trump an acquired disability.
Now, I have to give props to Sam Sullivan anyway for growing up to live with his childhood sweetheart, just like Nya and I. And politicians with disabilities are considered eminently capable (at least on a local level, I suspect a president with a disability like FDR won�t recur); anyone who puts so much consideration into simply doing something as basic as getting dressed in the morning is an excellent choice for handling local affairs.
But the right-wing thing. I just don�t get it.
� 2007 Geoff Gladstone
If you�ve ever enjoyed my writing, please donate to the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis and/or the Montel Williams MS Foundation.
Sign My Guestbook!
powered by SignMyGuestbook.com
�
