Disability

Bullying is everywhere.  Being a human being increasing the risk of you being bullied substantially.  But being a disabled human being?  That just guaranteed your fate.  Why are disabled people so frequently bullied?  Because they are different from "normal" people, they are a minority, or maybe they just look weird.  In everyday life people don't typically encounter a disabled person unless it's part of their job, or they are disabled themselves.  In "Disability" by Nancy Mairs, Mairs proposes that disability should be gradually integrated into society.  "Achieving this integration, for disabled and able-bodied people alike, requires that we insert disability into our field of vision: quietly, naturally, in the small and common scenes of our ordinary lives."  By completing this integration, people would encounter disability in their everyday lives and bullying, staring, and mocking would decrease substantially.  People would no longer stare at a mannequin missing a leg, or at least that's the hope.    Of course Bullying itself shows no signs of dissipating completely, but every step taken to reduce it is a step closer to ending bullying. Bullying isn't the only benefit to integrating disabilities into the daily lives of people.  The more people know about disabilities, the more they can understand and empathize with people who have disabilities.  Disabled people can feel more included in society, less isolated and alone in the world.  They can be looked at as just another person, not special, not weird, or odd-looking.  Mairs refers to people without disabilities as TAPs , or Temporarily Abled Persons.  I really enjoy and agree with this term because it's true that anybody could become disabled in an instant.  It puts life into perspective, that you should appreciate others more and seize the day while you can.  Carpe Diem!