I don’t have a great deal of time to write this afternoon, but wanted to weigh in on Obama’s speech last night. A lot of my friends were very pleased he mentioned disability as a difference that, while relevant and important, cannot stop us from uniting as one people. He said, “It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states. We are, and always will be, the United States of America.” Of course, in a world where disability is so often swept under the rug as an issue that is not as “sexy” as the others — it’s sad when the tax code is perceived as more interesting — it was encouraging to hear our next president call out to us with his message of unity and hope. Let’s look at it a bit more carefully.
Obama delivers his victory speech on on November 4, 2008 in Chicago before an estimated 200,000 people
First and foremost, disability was listed among a series of human traits that have historically been separated out and marginalized as the “Other.” That is, Obama’s message of unity is closely bound up with a message of justice. Unity cannot merely be a sweeping under the rug of oppressions and marginalizations. We cannot IGNORE how folks are treated differently in the name of “unity.” Sometimes, unity must be sacrificed in order to deal with injustice (like the civil war or the civil rights movement). However, at the end of the day, true unity CAN be achieved if we address these differences head on and right the wrongs that have divided us. For me, the reason Obama’s mention of my community brought up a swell of emotion has to do with this recognition of injustice and his call to achieve unity through its demolition. Unity should not be achieved by excercizing top down power that ignores or suppresses difference and forces conformity, but through grassroots change that renders such differences as close to harmless as possible.
Closely tied to this recognition of a need for justice to achieve unity was an implicit call to action. He was saying that these marginalized groups have the power to address their own oppression, take back what is rightly theirs as Americans (civil rights), and unify our nation as one people. If the key to unity is to address injustice, we ourselves as marginalized, divided people must take action to do just this. While John McCain enjoyed talking about HIS personal responsibility and HIS record of putting country first, Obama called upon an entire people to, themselves, take responsibility for our nation’s fate. The difference here is key to why Obama was able to win in such a big way. It is the key to his political genius. John McCain talked about “the government” as if it was some hulking, mysterious force that acted upon our lives while Barack Obama called us to be involved in understanding and shaping how this force affected our country. He called us to remember that the government is not some great evil, but rather a creation of the people, for the people, and by the people.
The rhetoric that surrounded disability was no exception. McCain wanted to talk about how his government would help children “with special needs.” Obama, on the other hand, called our entire community to his side, recognizing our collective voice and our power to ourselves create change. As evidenced by his very informed, thoughtful disability policy platform and his recognition of us on his diversity “short list” last night, Obama did not set us apart as an other to be pitied, but asked for our help to change the social landscape of a nation.
At the end of the day, Barack Obama’s electoral college landslide was nothing short of the greatest COMMUNITY ORGANIZING effort ever to be conceived and executed. YES WE CAN!!!!
