Awareness of Rights

What is the counter to Ableism? Is it Awareness or Rights?

If you Read Bill 59, the word 'rights' appears 6 times, 4 in the Preamble.  'Awareness' appears 4 times, once in the Minister's mandate and once in the Directorate's mandate.  'Rights' and 'awareness' never appear in the same sentence.
 

In today's New York Times there is quite a good article by Andrew Solomon that is a wide-ranging discussion of disability and illustrates a bunch of important ideas, most notably:

Most people with disabilities don’t wish they had never been born; most people with disabilities contribute to the world they inhabit; most people with disabilities both give more to and get more from life than their nondisabled peers may be inclined to guess. Some have rich lives despite their disability, but others would say they have rich lives at least in part because of their disability.

Also in the Times today is another article about philosopher Taylor Swift:

In an interview on Aug. 25 on “CBS Sunday Morning,” Ms. Swift spoke up about our culture’s obsession with forgiveness. “People go on and on about you have to forgive and forget to move past something,” she said. “No, you don’t.”

As Cynthia Bruce explains in her excellent article on Ableism: 

All too often, we decide not to raise these issues of exclusion because we are tired of being portrayed as difficult, demanding, or too expensive and troublesome to include. Yet every once in a while, and arguably more often than we would like, it becomes painfully obvious that a public display of ableism requires an equally public response.

In particular, Cynthia's essay is about a misguided and condescending Human Rights decision, but it goes on to make the general case that unaware and unthinking Ableists are ordinary,  mundane oppressors just like misogynists, racists and homophobes.

The alleged lawyer who wrote the decision anticipates using "awareness" as a defense:

If I am speaking from a position of privilege and am “un-woke”, then so be it.

Which translates as "You forgot to tell me, so it's your fault!"  

That's the heart of it.  People love to plead ignorance, and it's an epidemic in Nova Scotia.

The cure for that is Luke 17:3

Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.

My job is to remind all the Unwoke that it is their fault.  They abuse my rights.  When they ask,  I'll forgive, but I won't accept "awareness" as an excuse.

My list is growing:

• Forgiven
• NS Government
• For Accessible Constituency Offices
• For Bill 59 (warts and all)
• Harbour Hopper
• Stillwell's
• Mickey MacDonald
• Westmount School Playground
• Blue Nose Marathon  (not completely)
• Unforgiven
• For not valuing my health
• The Chief Medical Officer of Health
• The Human Rights Commission
• The Minister of Justice and his Restorative Justice Zealots
• The Minister of the Environment
• The Restaurant Association
• For mindless discrimination
• Jennifer's of Nova Scotia and many, many other employers
• HRM Building Code
• Metro Transit's Access-a-Bus
• Department of Community Services
• For not holding sheltered workshops to account
• no protection
• no education
• slave wages
• For not requiring RDSPs
• Executive Council
• For invoking privacy to defend secrecy
• For lack of diversity

In conclusion, time spent on teaching people with disabilities about their rights is very productive.  Time spent on awareness is wasted.  And dangerous.