I want to join Diane in thanking the organizers of the Disability Pride Parade for all their hard work – and for recognizing the media breakthroughs Not Dead Yet was able to make this year, beginning with “Million Dollar Baby,” followed by our presence in news coverage of the life-and-death struggle over Terri Schiavo.
It’s really hard for the disability community to be heard in the media. As a community, we have been unable to establish ourselves as the experts on issues affecting our lives. This isn't limited to the issues of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Time after time, news related to disability- about us - is dominated by surrogates - bioethicists, service providers, medical professionals, etc. We don't get to be our own experts.
On top of that, the media is entrenched in dealing with disability from a "human interest" or totally medicalized perspective. With few exceptions, the media also favors framing all political controversy – especially life and death issues - as an aspect of the "culture wars." And since neither the right nor the left sees us as part of their cultures, we end up as collateral damage – unnoticed and unmourned.
Yet, in spite of all that, for a few weeks in January and February, disability activists, advocates and scholars dominated the national discussion of the critically-acclaimed “Million Dollar Baby.” It’s not like the press wanted to hear from us – lefty disability activists like us had the wrong politics to be criticizing the promotion of euthanasia. Not only that, Clint Eastwood has the wrong politics associated with promoting euthanasia – he’s a conservative Republican who has fought to weaken the Americans with Dsiabilities Act.
Well, we should have known that couldn’t last long. Chicago’s own Roger Ebert started the backlash that shut us down, marginalizing us and refocusing everyone’s attention on the “so-called” culture wars so everyone would know what side to take.
We fought the same thing with Schiavo coverage. In spite of the fact that 26 national disability groups had been involved for two years in trying to protect Terri Schiavo’s life and her rights, we were mostly ignored until the last two weeks of her life.
But let’s not let this sound like a failure. News shows in Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Illinois all had coverage of disability protests over the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube. Disability protesters who went to Florida made national news and were seen across the country. Before Roger Ebert and his media colleagues wrote us out of the “Million Dollar Baby” coverage, articles featuring disability activists appeared in newspapers in Chicago, London, New York and across the country. This was followed by an almost unprecedented wave of op-eds published by disability activists, advocates and scholars in newspapers across the country.
I believe it won’t always be a struggle to get our voices heard. But I don’t think there will be a single “breakthrough” event that will bring real equity in coverage to our community. Rather, it will be the end result of all our collective local and national protests, over time, making news, that finally get the media used to something other than seeing us as “human interest” stories.
I believe there will be a day when an investigation of abuse happens in a nursing home, reporters will call ADAPT activists to ask about alternatives to nursing homes. When Congress is considering an amendment to the American with Disabilities act, the first call they’ll place will be to the American Association of People with Disabilities. And, of course, when they want to know if it’s really better to be dead than disabled. They’ll call us. Any one of us.
The day is coming.
Thank you.
About Steve Drake (from www.notdeadyet.org)