[tri-med] Re: Request for help, please

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kim Ihlenfeldt" <kimihlenfeldt@xxxxxxxxxxx>

> OK, so how do we change this?

Now THERE'S the 50 million dollar question!

  > So if people feel that it is pointless to spend money on saving kids who 
will not be "productive people", why do they feel it is OK to spend money on 
drug addicts who continuously go back to their addictions, alcoholics who 
have to have a liver transplant because they killed their liver, 
 >pedophiles, rapists, killers, etc?

There are also a lot of people who don't feel that those people are worth 
anything either......even though those people are also someone's child.
Yes, those folks made self-destructive choices.......but some argue that 
it's an illness.
And yet other people feel that if parents CHOSE to bring a child into the 
world knowing that they will require copious amounts of medical and 
financial aid...it's their choice and why does society have to pay for it.

Then one can argue that a civil and moral society would value all life...in 
a perfect world. And like you ask, how do we get there???????? Baby steps to 
be sure, you have to start somewhere.

 >I try to spread the word so it will get more people talking.  This is the 
way they treated people with Down's Syndrome long ago.  People's minds >have 
been changed because so many people spoke out.

SOME people's minds......I know people ('good' people) who don't think that 
a Down's child has a shot at a 'worthwhile' life.

One of the drs offices I worked in there was a young man with Down's who 
reached his 19th birthday before dying. Every time his Mom brought him into 
the office most of the employees, even a few of  the drs, would say "poor 
Mrs. _______" and varying themes of "________ doesn't have a life, he just 
sits".
Even patients in the waiting room would comment on the 'poor woman' and her 
grossly overwieght, uncommunacative son and what a pity it all was.

It doesn't seem as if people are being mean or cruel when they think/say 
these things but they probably have more of a 'better you than me because it 
would stink and be horrid' mentality. And they can't imagine anyone wanting 
or chosing to live that way because that wouldn't be their choice.

This all spreads to the educations system as well. Look at how  many people 
on the list have had to fight for educational opportunities for their 
special needs child! And the substandard educational practices some are 
subjected too.
Again.......if society had a different take on the disabled then the medical 
and educational would follow.

For crying out loud, when stories about abysmal treatment of the disabled 
are brought to light there's not much of an outcry. But boy, get a 
professional football player accused of killing dogs and there's a national 
response of outrage.
Crazy standards!!!!!!!

Yes, things are better than they used to be but society has a long ways to 
go!

Michelle mom to Alex (20, partial trisomy 14 mosaic) and Molly (16)
MichiganUSA 


                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

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