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<p>An experience I'm all too familiar with myself. Spent most of my
childhood and young adulthood going through the same scenario.
People--including physicians who should know better--assume
illness is just temporary. You either get cured--fixed like a
machine--or you die, but either way there's supposed to be a
simple finality to it. When there is no such finality, then they
start blaming the patient. For physicians, a chronic illness is a
challenge to their competence, and they resent that. It often
breaks up families. People often can't deal with the lifestyle
changes being around a chronically ill person can impose on them,
especially when the physicians aren't validating the reality of
that illness. The rationalization of 'tough love' is popular in
these situations... This subtle able-ism among physicians,
teachers, and indeed 'professionals' of every sort, is rife in the
contemporary culture, paralleling aspects of racism. Just
recently, as I was facing that lawsuit from the publishers, both
their attorneys and the judge accused me of not really being
disabled because--I kid you not--I wrote too well for a disabled
person. The attorneys actually submitted transcripts of things I
wrote online as 'evidence'. This would seem outrageous except
that, long ago, when I first applied for SSI disability income,
the judge overseeing that case denied my application for exactly
the same reason! Have you ever noticed how many people
compulsively speak to those with obvious disabilities with the
sort of tone they use when they speak to children? They do this to
the elderly too. There's a common--almost instinctual--assumption
that the disabled must be mentally disabled as well. If you don't
fit these preconceptions, well, how can you really be disabled? <br>
</p>
<p>Our culture remains rather primitive in many ways. <br>
</p>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/15/18 1:29 AM,
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:p2p-foundation-request@lists.ourproject.org">p2p-foundation-request@lists.ourproject.org</a> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.22188.1516004961.2947.p2p-foundation@lists.ourproject.org">
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<div class="headerdisplayname" style="display:inline;">Subject:
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[P2P-F] Fwd: Learning to Be Sick by Rabbi Elliot Kukla</td>
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<div class="headerdisplayname" style="display:inline;">From:
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Michel Bauwens <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:michelsub2004@gmail.com"><michelsub2004@gmail.com></a></td>
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<div class="headerdisplayname" style="display:inline;">Date:
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1/15/18, 1:28 AM</td>
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<div class="headerdisplayname" style="display:inline;">To:
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p2p-foundation <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:p2p-foundation@lists.ourproject.org"><p2p-foundation@lists.ourproject.org></a></td>
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<div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-unicode">
<div dir="ltr">a beautiful text, well worth reading,
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Michel</div>
<div><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message
----------<br>
From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Tikkun</b> <span
dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:magazine@tikkun.org"
moz-do-not-send="true">magazine@tikkun.org</a>></span><br>
Date: Sun, Jan 14, 2018 at 10:49 PM<br>
Subject: Learning to Be Sick by Rabbi Elliot Kukla<br>
To: <a href="mailto:Michelsub2004@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">Michelsub2004@gmail.com</a></div>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.22188.1516004961.2947.p2p-foundation@lists.ourproject.org">
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<div class="gmail_quote">-- </div>
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<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Eric Hunting
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:erichunting@gmail.com">erichunting@gmail.com</a></pre>
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