I am currently at the FLOTUS event in Cincinnati waiting for Michelle Obama to speak. I am registered on the ADA list because this is a 3 hour long event and since I have fibromyalgia I can't stand for that length of time on concrete. We just stood in line for about an hour and a half and I'm already completely exhausted. While we were in line I was asked by about 6 volunteers if I was in the right place and when I said "yes" they gave me looks like they didn't believe me. When I offered to show them my doctor note they said they didn't need to see it, but they still looked very unsure. When I came in there were volunteers who asked about it and then were completely accommodating when I told them why I was on the ADA list. But there were a lot of the companions of the other people on the ADA list who were telling me, "Well I have fibro but I'm standing up" and "Well my aunt has a cane so you need to let her have your chair." Um...no, not a chance. We all have problems and that's why we're ALL on this list. I happen to have been waiting longer, so that's why I have a good seat. If there was literally no other chair and an old woman with a cane needed my chair, of course I would give it to her. But there were a lot more chairs behind me.
The fact that people are in a pissing contest about disabilities makes me so upset! And that companion who claimed she has fibro ended up taking a person's chair while they were in the bathroom and now has a better seat than I do. I'm glad she does have a chair now because she would have hurt a whole lot if she would have had to stand the whole time, but just because I look healthy and I'm young does NOT mean that you get to tell me what's best for me. That would be like me saying to someone with MS or cancer or something that you can't "see" just by looking at them, "But you look fine, why can't you stand for the whole time?" That would be highly offensive of me to say, and it infuriates me that fibromyalgia is so misunderstood by so many people that they are willing to discount any pain I'm in because I look great so I must feel totally fine.
Please be kind to each other today. There is always something that you can't "see" about someone you're interacting with, so be gentle with each other.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi
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| I am so close to the stage! :) |
