#crownist

so i would like to address the drama that occurred earlier this evening. first and foremost, and i do truly mean this, i am sorry for hurting drew's feelings. that was absolutely not my intent, and of course i did not post what i did to hurt her or her sister. secondly, i think some background information about my comment is due: my younger brother was born with spina bifida. what that means is that he was born with a spinal cord injury resulting in paralysis from the hips down. some kids with the exact same condition are ambulatory but have weakness in the legs. some are quadriplegics. it all depends. i am now graduated from high school and he's a freshman, but when i was in middle school, i was really insecure, and desperate for attention. i wanted anyone and everyone to talk about me, good or bad. so i would talk about my brother and how it wasn't okay to make cripple jokes pretty much constantly. and while yes, ultimately the result was positive, it was for all the wrong reasons. and in the process of "raising awareness" for my brother, i was disempowering him. and that is incredibly not okay. nowadays, i rarely, if ever, talk about my brother as if he were bambi. he is strong, and independent, and not "living as normal a life as possible". he lives a completely normal life, because he is a completely normal boy. and neither i nor any one of his friends have any right to take away from that just so we can puff up our own egos. and last, i am completely dumbfounded by the amount of responses i have gotten- positive and negative. i truly had no idea that anyone would even read my comment, much less care. so please do not think that i made that comment because i knew how many followers drew has. that honestly had nothing to do with it. what i'm trying to say is, i didn't post that comment simply for the responses or to hurt anybody. i said what i said because i take issue with the culture that social media is nurturing that disempowers those with disabilities of any kind. liking, reblogging, and tweeting pictures or stories of how sweet it is of the prom queen to say yes to some geek in a wheelchair or how groundbreaking it is that someone with autism should actually have a friend is not doing anybody any good. i would love it so much more if i saw people participating in Best Buddies, or being friends with someone who is differently-abled because they're, you know, cool. even just taking the time to read Carly Fleischmann, the 14-year-old girl whose parents never thought she'd be able to communicate with them's blog (http://carlysvoice.com/home/). so much more could be accomplished if we stopped viewing those with disabilities as helpless victims and started treating them as individuals who have rights, needs, feelings, and the ability to be self-sufficient given the right tools and support. because that's what's really important.

just letting ya'll know that tumblr user crownist is sick rn so go message her love and make her feel a lil better <3

if you have time could you please check out my blog xx