It seems that the world has been taking crazy pills. Firstly we have the story of how the people who are leading this country taunting a fellow MP by pulling faces at him… and why? Because they were laughing at the way he was talking, but why did he talk in such a way that might cause our leaders to feel the need for some piss taking? He had Cerebral Palsy. Yes, our MP’s were laughing at a cripple. Even sadder than that, for me, those laughing were Labour MP’s. Now if the party that is meant to stand for equality for all is laughing at the disabled, then this really shows were this country is at. After the event all concerned cried ignorance, claiming they stopped once they realised he was disabled. Maybe this shines a light on the fact that the House of Commons needs the way it functions to be totally overhauled. Time the people we pay large sums of money to run our country the way we have decided, via the democratic system, started acting the way they would expect the wider community should. If this happened anywhere else all concerned would be in court under the Equality Act, and would be found guilty.
Talking of court, the most crazy story that kicked me in the teeth this morning is that of Alan, who has been stopped from having sex (for ever) by a court ruling. It was for his own good, as he had “moderate” learning difficulties. Now while all the news stories about this claim that the details are sketchy, to me I don’t care. To be part of a society that now feels it has the right to stop someone enjoying a sex life because they are disabled is wrong. The people involved in helping this guy live independently should not have the right to prevent him from enjoying something that they themselves can do freely. Their job is to support him and help him be safe and secure, and assist him in his life choices. Instead they took a court case to prevent him from ever having sex again… and won. So now we will be spending huge sums policing this guy’s sex life. So at a time when those in power are trying to find ways of cutting the money spent on assisting disabled people to live with dignity, others are taking away rights that society surely sees as intrinsic.
Finally we must not forget the strong lobby towards allowing state sponsored murder, in the name of mercy. Euthanasia or assisted suicide is slowly being perceived by the wider society as something we should allow. The Commission on Assisted Suicide is currently examining whether the law should be changed to permit the medical profession, who sear an oath to ” do no harm” before entering the profession, to end the life of people with chronic and terminal conditions, and I am saddened to say that even my own parents are in favour of a change. I know it is because they are getting older and are afraid of how they may die, but it shows that even people who have a personal interest in those who may end up being deeply effected by allowing assisted suicide find it hard to deal with their own fear of illness and death. I know from my own experience, that many of the doctors and surgeons I have met consider the quality of my life to be low enough to merit being ended, as an act of mercy. I have had to fight to make them understand how fantastic my life is. All they see is someone in a chair, paralysed and in chronic pain, that reminds them that sometimes fail.
So we are now in a society where those in power mock the disabled, bar them from the right to enjoy sex, see supporting them financially as no longer fiscally possible and are considering the concept that ending their life would be an act of mercy. Big Brother would be proud. So would Adolf Hitler. Let’s face it this is way that the Nazis started out. It was the disabled that they targeted first, and these steps were all ones taken under that regime. We are so close to going down that road again, without even noticing. Already we have a leader claiming that multiculturalism had failed, and that everyone here has to be more British. How long will it be before groups of thugs roam our streets targeting those who are not British enough? Oh hang on, it happened this weekend in my home town! Next step, camps to imprison enemies of the state and undesirables. Then it’s extermination and the SS.
So wake up everyone. The way we treat those who are different from us holds a mirror up to the true nature of a society. We must rise above our own fears and wants, and try to be the kind of people that we should aspire to be. Then our society will be the kind of place we all want to live in. And where we can live, free in the knowledge that there won’t be a knock in the door from uniformed state police who have come to stop us from having sex because we have been deemed unfit to be allowed to do so.