Christopher Reeve is dead.
Oct. 11th, 2004 02:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
This has lead to a number of posts on my friends page, causing me to ask two questions:
1. Why is it "so sad" that he died? I mean, yes, it's sad for the people who knew and loved him, but since most of you do *not* fall into that category, why do you actually care? I'm honestly curious.
2. In some communities, his death is leading to people saying that Bush is evil because, of course, Christopher Reeve might've been walking (and possibly still alive) if Bush had allowed more stem cell research.
A. I don't think stem cell research would've led to any cures so early.
B. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. I'm not in a wheelchair or anything, so I might be mistaken... but instead of waiting on the cureall of stem cells, wouldn't it be more effective to, um, have more buildings be accessible? And public transportation (I know that the NYC trains are essentially non-accessible)? And more strictly enforce handicapped parking laws? You know, that sort of thing? I mean, homes are still being built that aren't accessible, aren't they? That seems to be the impression of family friend Mr. Steve, who had a nice lovely debate about the cost of building accessible homes with my mom last time he visited, and how that's why people don't build homes to be accessible. My grandmother's fairly new home has a step in front of it, a completely pointless accoutrement. That's not accessible, right?
Seriously, for Bush to turn around on stem cell research, this would not come close to redeeming him in my eyes. That's nice, but I don't think it's particularily helpful to anybody living right now.
Edit: I think I've identified what's annoying me! It's what several people have said: he deserved to walk again. As one person put it "He might have gotten to walk again. The man deserved it. He worked SO damn hard." I don't know. Mihi, that's a lot like saying "some people don't deserve it. They just didn't work hard enough!"
I'm definitely going to bed. I'm taking this all way too seriously. If I sleep, I'll feel better, and I'll stop reading things wrong like that. Djusk' a.
1. Why is it "so sad" that he died? I mean, yes, it's sad for the people who knew and loved him, but since most of you do *not* fall into that category, why do you actually care? I'm honestly curious.
2. In some communities, his death is leading to people saying that Bush is evil because, of course, Christopher Reeve might've been walking (and possibly still alive) if Bush had allowed more stem cell research.
A. I don't think stem cell research would've led to any cures so early.
B. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong. I'm not in a wheelchair or anything, so I might be mistaken... but instead of waiting on the cureall of stem cells, wouldn't it be more effective to, um, have more buildings be accessible? And public transportation (I know that the NYC trains are essentially non-accessible)? And more strictly enforce handicapped parking laws? You know, that sort of thing? I mean, homes are still being built that aren't accessible, aren't they? That seems to be the impression of family friend Mr. Steve, who had a nice lovely debate about the cost of building accessible homes with my mom last time he visited, and how that's why people don't build homes to be accessible. My grandmother's fairly new home has a step in front of it, a completely pointless accoutrement. That's not accessible, right?
Seriously, for Bush to turn around on stem cell research, this would not come close to redeeming him in my eyes. That's nice, but I don't think it's particularily helpful to anybody living right now.
Edit: I think I've identified what's annoying me! It's what several people have said: he deserved to walk again. As one person put it "He might have gotten to walk again. The man deserved it. He worked SO damn hard." I don't know. Mihi, that's a lot like saying "some people don't deserve it. They just didn't work hard enough!"
I'm definitely going to bed. I'm taking this all way too seriously. If I sleep, I'll feel better, and I'll stop reading things wrong like that. Djusk' a.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-11 11:43 am (UTC)Most disabled people I've met (including me) seem to think (http://www.build-site-traffic.com/_disc4/00000018.htm) that inspiration (http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/0103/0103ft1.html) gets misplaced a lot and is mainly for the benefit of able-bodied people (http://www.ragged-edge-mag.com/1101/1101ft1.htm). Temple Grandin, whatever else positive she does, doesn't inspire me.
I mean, forget being superman, to anyone was paralyzed, he was a pretty awesome source of hope. Can you imagine being paralyzed from the neck down, and then discovering that Christopher Reeves is now able to move various parts of his body? How amazing would that be--to know in the back of your mind, that hey, it can happen.
Actually being able to move very slightly like that is a common thing as far after paralysis as Reeve was. It just got very, very, very overhyped when he did that as opposed to Average-Joe-Gimp-Down-the-Street who generally already knew that was possible.
Plus, it's just plain sad--because it's death, and plus because yeah, he was really young.
THAT PART, I totally agree with, and I can understand why fans of him in the movies and all that would be sad too. But I (and most disabled people I know) didn't find him inspirational as much as slightly annoying when it comes to his actions on the actual disability front (because of comments he made publicly about wheelchair-accessibility activists, acting like it was "just giving up" to want ramps and curb cuts and stuff).