We Must Rise Above

As a disability rights advocate I have come to a simple conclusion…we must rise above. What I mean by that is simple…we must rise above the rudeness. We must rise above the personal attacks. We must rise above the mudslinging. Our job is not to act in the scurrilous and often disreputable manner that many people behave like towards us. We must always be better people. The lens of society is always scrutinizing our behavior just looking for any reason to disqualify us from the assumption that we are all capable human beings and we must use that to our advantage.
We must lead by the example we we set. We cannot let those who do not understand or those who do not know or those who fear us get to us with the often mean and degrading things people will say. Our job is to be better and to inform people about our particular conditions in a manner that is polite and we civil. We must rise above the muck and live our lives with both class and dignity. How can we ask for respect if some of is cannot show it? We must rise above the need to bully and treat with scorn people in our own community those who are more severely affected than us. Are they not our brethren? Do they not want the things that we want in life?
We must rise above the ignorance that we face day in and day out and not return people’s ignorant s scornful remarks with equally scornful remarks. We must return fear and hate and ignorance with compassion, love and knowledge. Knowledge is our ally. Knowledge and the ability to spread it is how we can spread our wings and fly.  If we don’t do that all the time we will crash and burn and all our work will be for nothing. We must rise above.