This is so wonderful to see and also such utter crap that we live in a world where this has to be specially accommodated instead of being BAKED IN. Thank you for sharing Stephen!
All the props for this. While I'm not technically disabled, I have arthritis in both knees that makes it extremely painful to stand for more than a half-an-hour at a time. This past summer I've had to skip shows by bands that I love (The Beths, They Might Be Giants, The Decemberists) because within a 200-mile radius there was no way to ascertain that there would be a guaranteed sitting area. Christ knows what people with real disabilities have to jump hoops through (and yes, I used that metaphor deliberately).
Second time trying to write this. The story really kills me. Thanks for sharing so much, Stephen. Great photo of him with mama Knowles. Be went to the performing arts public high school in Houston. My two boys went to one their other magnets. I have a soft spot for H-town. But the worst sidewalks I’ve ever seen, so not great for mobility. (One of those sons works on Houston mobility issues and community organizing.)
I can only share my unvarnished opinion of how I interpret your two sentences.
I believe good and evil are human constructs used to support position. For example, to the Ukrainians, killing Ukrainian’s by Russians is evil but killing Russians by Ukrainians is good. For the Russians it is the reverse.
Do not dig into the weeds which is a form of reductionism. Reductionism always leads to the current state of uncertainty which may be small but exists nevertheless.
I am NOT an expert in philosophy. However, I did read Nietzsche’s “Beyond Good and Evil” and I’m very familiar about how good and evil came into religion with Zorasterism and was further shaped by Manichaeans and Abrahamic influences. It is not important to go there but just letting you know that I have thought about good and evil since I was very young, preteen.
So can humans live without good and evil or until everything is good? Yes. There are many religions without good and evil where humans exist. Atheists—a-theists meaning not a theist—live with their own morality that many have thought about much deeper than those who just accept the cannons of their church, synagogue or mosque.
For me, similar to Camus, I do not believe in good and evil per se and believe the world and life are devoid of any meaning other than what the free individual creates for themselves. I say “free individual” because as Camus philosophized one is only free when one accepts responsibility for themselves including what they believe.
When in high school I decided to get a real education and not rely upon the bullshit I was to memorize and regurgitate. After jumping into the pool of Existentialism I found a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson—most of which was taken from the Hindu Upanishads called Brahma.
If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again.
Far or forgot to me is near;
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear;
And one to me are shame and fame.
They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt;
And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.
The strong gods pine for my abode,
And pine in vain the sacred Seven,
But thou, meek lover of the good!
Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.
I know I risk coming across as a “know it all” in my own mind. However, I’m only sharing a very partial part of my journey. From my journey I believe your question is extremely deep, so deep that it may invite you onto a journey of understanding that only you can walk. Do not rely on others.
One last share: I understand that I “understand” nothing. This is similar to the conclusion of Socrates that after his search for real knowledge he realized he “KNEW” nothing.
I recognized a lot of this. "The Social Theory of Disability" applies. That is that needless barriers define what we can't do as much or more that our physical limitations.
As a guy who can barely walk 100 feet without pain in my knees and back, I am so grateful for stores that not only have doors wide enough to let my mobility scooter pass and are automatic, and the stores that allow me to go down an aisle to shop! So few of them even pretend to accommodate people like this gentleman, or myself not as disabled, they resent even being asked! Hell, Boeing could have looked around and found out what kind of chairs and their sizes and made the dammed doors a bit higher and wider but choose not to even bother!
I usually consider myself pretty tough but this article brings me to tears. Over four decades ago, I assisted a fellow history undergrad who had cerebral palsy. His speech was difficult to understand at times, and occasionally he would abandon his chair to slither more quickly across the floor, which would break my heart. Wasn't the best student, but not the worst either, and I never saw an ounce of self-pity. I wonder what became of him; he deserved so much.
Ta, Stephen; it's usually Doktor Zoom who posts the Nice Times. This one brought tears of joy to my eyes. Why?
Let's begin at the beginning. My brother Mark, my parents' eldest and the only boy in the family who lived at all (another brother miscarried, and one was a stillbirth who would have been my brother Neil) was birth-injured by a nurse at Crown Heights Hospital (Beth El, where the rest of us were born, was quarantined at the time), the Butcher Shop of Brooklyn, and lived his ten and a half years with Cerebral Palsy. Dad went broke paying for medical and surgical bills; he had at least one stroke and was institutionalized around the time of my birth. I never got to know him.
Dad became a double amputee (over the knee) as (1) a complication from diabetes, and (2) a surgeon at St. Francis Hospital who was on a drunk after his wife died. He was able to walk with wooden legs, and was the only driver in the family, but spent most of the rest of his short life in a wheelchair. He did not live to see the ADA in any form.
When the family went on vacations, I carried the tape measure to see if motel room doors were wide enough for the wheelchair. I also hauled him in his wheelchair up the zillions of steps at the Trenton War Memorial so he could accompany me to a ballet performance. This is all very personal for me.
That all these years after the ADA passed, there is still no-to-minimal accommodation for the disabled makes my blood boil. If mobility-impaired people cannot use public transit, it's not really public. The long subway tunnel connecting the 6th Avenue line to the 7th Avenue line at 14th Street is closed while being remodeled to accommodate the disabled, and elevators are going in. Good on the MTA for its efforts, but this is not being replicated nationwide and it's disgraceful. Rant over.
After promising in a 2019 YouTube video to supposedly make the subway system accessible by 2030 (?), the MTA now since last year in court isn't even PROMISING to make it accessible until 2055!!!
I--a brand new wheelchair user--will be 69 years old!!
And as everyone likes to ignore, we are in the middle of the largest mass disabling event in history. So a LOT of nondisabled NYC elementary schoolkids will, bc of my disease (aka ME/CFS and POTS, and long COVID-associated conditions), need to be using a wheelchair at least part time by the time they turn 18--if they want to leave their apartments by more than a 1-2 block radius anyway.
This will underscore all the more your inimitable words:
"If mobility-impaired people cannot use public transit, it's not really public."
I'm not crying. You're crying.
Also, I'm from Houston so I'm pretty sure it's not the water that keeps the women in that family looking so amazing.
That is such a wonderful story!
Nice times!
I've really been struggling lately. LOTS of shit going on.
Seeing 'People Helping People' stories like this literally keeps me going.
I absolutely love this!
This is so wonderful to see and also such utter crap that we live in a world where this has to be specially accommodated instead of being BAKED IN. Thank you for sharing Stephen!
All the props for this. While I'm not technically disabled, I have arthritis in both knees that makes it extremely painful to stand for more than a half-an-hour at a time. This past summer I've had to skip shows by bands that I love (The Beths, They Might Be Giants, The Decemberists) because within a 200-mile radius there was no way to ascertain that there would be a guaranteed sitting area. Christ knows what people with real disabilities have to jump hoops through (and yes, I used that metaphor deliberately).
Second time trying to write this. The story really kills me. Thanks for sharing so much, Stephen. Great photo of him with mama Knowles. Be went to the performing arts public high school in Houston. My two boys went to one their other magnets. I have a soft spot for H-town. But the worst sidewalks I’ve ever seen, so not great for mobility. (One of those sons works on Houston mobility issues and community organizing.)
LOL here in Clovis, CA they are pretty badly maintained as well. I try to drive my scooter in some area and just give up
Yeah, I'm crying. You're crying. We're ALL the crying.
Dusty in here.
I was about to wonder if I was the only weirdo crying.
Not ashamed to say I teared up
Yup, same here.
I can only share my unvarnished opinion of how I interpret your two sentences.
I believe good and evil are human constructs used to support position. For example, to the Ukrainians, killing Ukrainian’s by Russians is evil but killing Russians by Ukrainians is good. For the Russians it is the reverse.
Do not dig into the weeds which is a form of reductionism. Reductionism always leads to the current state of uncertainty which may be small but exists nevertheless.
I am NOT an expert in philosophy. However, I did read Nietzsche’s “Beyond Good and Evil” and I’m very familiar about how good and evil came into religion with Zorasterism and was further shaped by Manichaeans and Abrahamic influences. It is not important to go there but just letting you know that I have thought about good and evil since I was very young, preteen.
So can humans live without good and evil or until everything is good? Yes. There are many religions without good and evil where humans exist. Atheists—a-theists meaning not a theist—live with their own morality that many have thought about much deeper than those who just accept the cannons of their church, synagogue or mosque.
For me, similar to Camus, I do not believe in good and evil per se and believe the world and life are devoid of any meaning other than what the free individual creates for themselves. I say “free individual” because as Camus philosophized one is only free when one accepts responsibility for themselves including what they believe.
When in high school I decided to get a real education and not rely upon the bullshit I was to memorize and regurgitate. After jumping into the pool of Existentialism I found a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson—most of which was taken from the Hindu Upanishads called Brahma.
If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again.
Far or forgot to me is near;
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear;
And one to me are shame and fame.
They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt;
And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.
The strong gods pine for my abode,
And pine in vain the sacred Seven,
But thou, meek lover of the good!
Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.
I know I risk coming across as a “know it all” in my own mind. However, I’m only sharing a very partial part of my journey. From my journey I believe your question is extremely deep, so deep that it may invite you onto a journey of understanding that only you can walk. Do not rely on others.
One last share: I understand that I “understand” nothing. This is similar to the conclusion of Socrates that after his search for real knowledge he realized he “KNEW” nothing.
Religion doesn't own morality.
I'm not crying. Nuh-uh, not me.
I bet I wasn't crying before you wern't crying
I recognized a lot of this. "The Social Theory of Disability" applies. That is that needless barriers define what we can't do as much or more that our physical limitations.
As a guy who can barely walk 100 feet without pain in my knees and back, I am so grateful for stores that not only have doors wide enough to let my mobility scooter pass and are automatic, and the stores that allow me to go down an aisle to shop! So few of them even pretend to accommodate people like this gentleman, or myself not as disabled, they resent even being asked! Hell, Boeing could have looked around and found out what kind of chairs and their sizes and made the dammed doors a bit higher and wider but choose not to even bother!
Boeing not bothering....with all THEIR engineering prowess. That does kinda sum it up doesn't it?
737 MAX tells their story these days...
Forget it. The Engineering people stopped running the show when they moved their headquarters to Chicago. The finance people run it now.
Happy nice time!
I usually consider myself pretty tough but this article brings me to tears. Over four decades ago, I assisted a fellow history undergrad who had cerebral palsy. His speech was difficult to understand at times, and occasionally he would abandon his chair to slither more quickly across the floor, which would break my heart. Wasn't the best student, but not the worst either, and I never saw an ounce of self-pity. I wonder what became of him; he deserved so much.
Perhaps your college knows?
I can't even recall his last name, I'm sorry to say. :(
Read back issues of the alum magazine and see if memory gets nudged? Sorry, all I got.
you are coming up with good ideas!
*blushes*
Who's cutting onions in here??
ah, THAT's what it is!
Ta, Stephen; it's usually Doktor Zoom who posts the Nice Times. This one brought tears of joy to my eyes. Why?
Let's begin at the beginning. My brother Mark, my parents' eldest and the only boy in the family who lived at all (another brother miscarried, and one was a stillbirth who would have been my brother Neil) was birth-injured by a nurse at Crown Heights Hospital (Beth El, where the rest of us were born, was quarantined at the time), the Butcher Shop of Brooklyn, and lived his ten and a half years with Cerebral Palsy. Dad went broke paying for medical and surgical bills; he had at least one stroke and was institutionalized around the time of my birth. I never got to know him.
Dad became a double amputee (over the knee) as (1) a complication from diabetes, and (2) a surgeon at St. Francis Hospital who was on a drunk after his wife died. He was able to walk with wooden legs, and was the only driver in the family, but spent most of the rest of his short life in a wheelchair. He did not live to see the ADA in any form.
When the family went on vacations, I carried the tape measure to see if motel room doors were wide enough for the wheelchair. I also hauled him in his wheelchair up the zillions of steps at the Trenton War Memorial so he could accompany me to a ballet performance. This is all very personal for me.
That all these years after the ADA passed, there is still no-to-minimal accommodation for the disabled makes my blood boil. If mobility-impaired people cannot use public transit, it's not really public. The long subway tunnel connecting the 6th Avenue line to the 7th Avenue line at 14th Street is closed while being remodeled to accommodate the disabled, and elevators are going in. Good on the MTA for its efforts, but this is not being replicated nationwide and it's disgraceful. Rant over.
After promising in a 2019 YouTube video to supposedly make the subway system accessible by 2030 (?), the MTA now since last year in court isn't even PROMISING to make it accessible until 2055!!!
I--a brand new wheelchair user--will be 69 years old!!
And as everyone likes to ignore, we are in the middle of the largest mass disabling event in history. So a LOT of nondisabled NYC elementary schoolkids will, bc of my disease (aka ME/CFS and POTS, and long COVID-associated conditions), need to be using a wheelchair at least part time by the time they turn 18--if they want to leave their apartments by more than a 1-2 block radius anyway.
This will underscore all the more your inimitable words:
"If mobility-impaired people cannot use public transit, it's not really public."
#FuckTheMTA
#MTAbleist
#2055IsNotOK
#AccessNow
#LetCripplesRide
Thank you for this righteous rant. I'm 69 now, and grateful every day for full mobility.
Oh dear gawd. Just got a Ron DeathSantis ad during the Pats/Jets game. Barking up the wrong geography there Ronnie.
Want to ban some books!
Discriminate against minorities!
Elevate another asshole to the Presidency!
CALL NOW!