And then there are the stupid questions that people ask. Can she talk, does she understand what people are saying to her? How long has she been that way? How old is she? It's like they are talking right over the disabled persons head, and like the disabled person is not even present. Although I shouldn't feel like an idiot when this happens, I do. I know when a person is just being nosy, and when a person is really interested. If the person is really interested, I don't mind answering some questions. But I really do hate it when the person is just being nosy. After all, disabled people have the same rights to their privacy too. I always feel like I have to prove myself to EVERYBODY. And I wonder how the person would feel themselves if somebody asked the same stupid questions, if they were disabled?

So take the time to listen and know a disabled person, and don't back and shy away from them. There is a part of a song that really sums up this story and it goes like this.

"If you look behind your own soul, the person that you see, just might remind you of me. I laugh, I love, I need, I try, I hope, I hurt, I fear, I cry. And I know you do the same things too, so we're really not that different Me and You. No, we're really not that different Me and You.

© Susan Milburn, October, 1996
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