BADD, BADD, BADD -- Beautiful!

Wouldn't you know. Blogging Against Disablism Day sweeps the blog-ether, and most people (at least here in the Etats-Unis) are obsessing on the day without immigrants -- marches and one-day economic boycott mounted by mainly Mexican and Latin American immigrants, legal and illegal -- in protest of draconian immigration laws being proposed in Congress. Nonetheless, BADD is beautiful. Organized by Diary of a Goldfish, Blogging Against Disablism Day was embraced by more than 100 bloggers. Disablism is more often called Ableism in North America. But the meaning is the same: discrimination against persons with a disability. It is so pervasive as to be unrecognized even by many people with disabilities. It is like the water of the ocean to a fish, or the air we breathe. Many non-disabled people think they are being compassionate and caring, when in fact they are putting us in a box on a less-than shelf. Like most people with a disability, I have stories. Of learning that a supervisor thought I "could never hope" to rise above the entry level position I held out of college. Of learning later on in my career as a newspaperman, that a supervisor "thought I was not interested" in a certain promotion and so never asked me about it. At least I was never sentenced to life in a nursing home by somebody who couldn't see past his or her stereotypes. For more BADD, check out Ragged Edge Online , and the long list at Diary of a Goldfish. Let's not let this exercise be a one-time event. Be BADD everyday. BADD is beautiful.