Society must protect the vulnerable
By Letter to the Editor on November 30, 2018.
Dec. 3 is International Day of Persons with Disabilities. This year I am wondering who the disabled really are. I feel more and more comfortable with my peers, the mental health consumers and the autistic spectrum community. I am aghast as the media portray both these groups as to be feared and dangerous. The reality is that both mental health consumers and people on the autistic spectrum are victims of violence in the community and domestic violence more than any other population. They should be more protected than feared. So next week when we are celebrating the accomplishments of our more vulnerable population, the disability population, we should realize that we need to protect them too. Diane MacNaughton Medicine Hat 6-5
Hello Diane,
Thank you very much. Your comment about “They should be more protected than feared” brought tears to my eyes. In an instant, I recalled the ongoing case of a boy locked naked in Sherwood Park school isolation room.
If I had a child in that school, I would be very concerned at just what is being taught there. Are they teaching acceptance and inclusion or are they teaching future generations that people with mental impairments are people we should be fearful of and must be isolated?
I have several issues that cause me to pause and think, What if this child was held in a holding cell because he or she was part of the LGBTQ community? What would the politicians be saying then? What if this was your child that being abused by the adults that are supposed to be caring for him? When is violence towards people in the autistic spectrum acceptable, is it when we send our children to school for education?
Once again, I will say, what are we teaching our future generations? Is it acceptance and inclusion or is it fear and exclusion?
Les
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/sherwood-park-lawsuit-autistic-boy-naked-isolation-room-1.4822688
Right fucking here, asking you a year ago for fucking god damn help with no results, and extreme pain to the point that what I go through is torture. I live in Medicine hat and I feel insulted and trampled to the point I don’t feel like I exist. It is THIS community and Society that I asked for help from, and all I got was knocked down and than kicked when I was down. Our society is about as ruthless and heartless as 6?,000 Donald Trump’s.
So why don’t you fucking put your money where your mouth is and help a person like me. The ONLY thing I have any addiction to is Cigerettes, I use Licorice for my headaches, and i use cannabis for my pain. flip fucking side to this, is I can’t work I have no Money, and last year Alberta works was such a pain in the ass to dealwith that I had to call the minister Irfan Sabir 3 time over the course of being on Alberta Works. I stop it and I won’t use a system that is so degrading that I would rather cut my arm off and sell it than to use the system.
Benham, who did you ask for help?