Roberts and Rahul

In class last Wednesday we talked about the article we read. It was about a student who had polio and successfully attended University of California-Berkeley. It was an interesting article and it covered an area of our history I have never learned about.

In the article, it talked about the difficulties Roberts faced in going to the university. I can’t imagine a world without the changes in our infrastructure that the Americans with Disabilities Act brought about. As far back as I can remember there have been curb cuts and other amenities for people who have a disability. I never knew that was a time in modern America where people with a disability couldn’t move in our cities in towns as they wished.

Our society definitely is not interested in serving people with disabilities. One quote from class reading for Oct. 25^th really struck me. The reading stated, “we all have disabilities” (or something close to that). I totally agree with this. Nobody is “normal” in our world. Everybody has something broken about him or her, though it may not be physical. But we all want to put on this air that we are perfect and nothing is wrong with us at all. It’s just not true.

I believe everyone knows that something has gone terribly wrong with us. But people don’t want to give up the false impression that everything is ok. So we hide our faults behind a curtain of flawless confidence. And we ignore people with disabilities. We know life wasn’t supposed to be like this. We weren’t supposed to be flawed. But we sinned and creation was cursed.

I’m as guilty as the rest. I haven’t known that many people who have a physical or mental disability. I’m sure I have judged or stared at some in the past. I’m broken and dirty and messed up. So I’ll ask forgiveness from Jesus and press on in life knowing that Jesus deeply loves everyone, including people with disabilities. I don’t think you can read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life without being struck by his tenderness towards the people society didn’t care about. The lepers, people with physical disabilities, and others who didn’t fit in to the Jewish culture of the day were all accepted by Jesus.

So although I am messed up, I will press on and seek to love my neighbor, including those with disabilities who I run across in my life. We are all disabled spiritually before Jesus. And his heart breaks for the disability that sin has wrought in our lives. I will disagree with our American culture that subversively spreads the message that people with disabilities are subhuman. Not true at all. They are just as much made in the image of God as everybody else.

I finally finished my final draft of my English paper. I think it is a pretty good paper over all. It was harder to write this paper than the first writing project because this one had to fit a pattern. I think the first paper was more interesting. This one was still a good introspective paper about how we connect to a global culture.

I had a funny moment last night when Rahul from class spotted me at work. He looked a little surprised which was funny. I now know that he likes Cherry Coke. And spicy chicken sandwiches. Which will be good for future bribes. Not really but it was still good to see him at work. He is a pretty funny guy and I’m sure that he will make a joke about it on Monday. But don’t worry Rahul, I will come prepared.