This week we were talking about how war amputees were being idolized as war heroes because they came back disabled. Well I remembered a while back seeing a video by an amputee, named Josh Sundquist, that I felt showed a totally different outlook on that situation. As you saw in the video he did not have a positive experience with being stereotyped as someone who lost there leg in the war. I feel like times have defiantly changed since, World War 2. Some people don't show that respect they once did for people in the military. Also that positive stereotype that amputees got from being labeled a "war veteran" seems to be losing its grip possibly.
Either way, no matter how someone gets disabled, I don't think it gives anyone the right to go up and tell them that "thats what you get...". Unless you are close to that person, you don't know there story or really anything about them, besides the fact that they are disabled or not "normal". Being normal though is something that we as a society made up in order to group people together. Also to be ranked within those groups is even more important to us. We know our worth by comparing ourselves to the people around us.
I can't believe the things that people will say in today's society just based on assumptions. Its sad to hear stories like this and think that people honestly don't think about people as human beings, but rather just individuals that are spectacles to comment on. I am not a huge supporter of war by any means, but I never could imagine telling someone they deserved to lose a limb because of fighting in the war. ESPECIALLY if it was just speculation that the person may have been a war vet. It is sick to see that people are still so disrespectful towards each other and not caring to hear the whole story of somebody's situation.
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ReplyDeleteWe even mentioned in class the respect that war veterans are given because of what they were taught in more traditional times, that that was just the way to address a war veteran, amputee or not. I feel that based on the fact that the individual was a white male, the man who made the comment automatically assumed he was in the war. We assume that most limbs are lost in battle. and don't take into consideration that it could be due to an infection, to an accident, to a disease. Those missing a limb seem to get stares and treated differently and carefully, which can also be a negative response along with blaming the individual. But the video we watched in class about the required 12 steps went to show that an individual who lost his leg learned to be able to function without that original limb and even work with an artificial one.