US disability website salutes its former Vice Chairman
I looked into different websites that have other disability news stories on it, like Ouch does, and found the site for America's . As I looked at the front page, I found that they were their former Vice Chairman, Christopher Reeve, on the first anniversary of his passing (an American word!), and saying how their feelings about him are poignant.
The website is quoted as saying: "Christopher was a role model and inspiration not only for America's 54 million men, women and children with disabilities, but also for the 600 million with disabilities worldwide". They also say that he "daily demonstrated to all of us, whether with or without disabilities, that we can all lead meaningful and productive lives, no matter what challenges we are called to confront".
What do you think about what they say in the article? I think it's a great article that salutes a great Vice Chairman of this organisation.
Comments
A lot of people don't like Christopher Reeve at all because it often seemed like the ONLY thing he cared about was curing his spinal injury, which is currently not possible. That means he wasted nearly all of the rest of his life trying to do something he could never do, and encouraging other people (who didn't have as much money or support) to do the same thing. I don't think he's a great person at all, and I know a lot of Ouch people feel the same.
If Christopher Reeve had put half his energy into showing that being a disabled person can be a productive, fulfilling and happy experience instead of going on about a cure and thus, in my opinion, portraying impairment as a bad thing he migt have had some degree of respect from me. As he did not do this I'm afraid he comes very low in my list of disabled icons. I don't believe he "daily demonstrated to all of us, whether with or without disabilities, that we can all lead meaningful and productive lives, no matter what challenges we are called to confront" at all. Quite the opposite in fact. If he wanted to find a cure, then fine that was his absolute right. But as a public figure he seemed to use his celebrity to denegrate what it is like to be a disabled person.